Monday, January 16, 2017, 9:42 p.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “My Very Best Friend.” Speak, Lord, your
words to my heart. I read Galatians
3:26-4:7 (NASB).
Through Faith
(3:26-27)
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ
Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves
with Christ.
No one has ever been saved by
keeping the law, because not one of us can keep the law perfectly. The law was
put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith, but no
one is saved by observance of the law – not under the Old Covenant or under the
New Covenant. Only through faith in God and in his Son Jesus (God the Son) can
anyone be saved from their sins and have the hope of eternal life with God in heaven.
We can do nothing to earn or
to deserve our own salvation. Our good works will never outweigh our bad. We
can go to an institutional church every week, serve in various areas of
ministry, give to the poor, help the weak, and even teach the word of God or
even be a preacher/pastor, and still be lost in our sins, without God, and
without the hope of heaven when we die.
All throughout scripture God
chided those who professed faith in him for giving sacrifice to him while
having hearts which were far from him. God has always made a distinction
between just “doing” for God and obeying him, i.e. submitting to him and to his
will for our lives, which is faith. Faith is not just some words we repeat
after others, nor is it just an emotional experience at a church altar, nor is
it a mere confession of Christ as Savior of our lives. Faith is obedience. It
is submission. It is surrender. Through faith we give our lives to Christ to
follow him in obedience, and we leave our lives of sin behind us (See: Ro.
6:1-23; 8:1-14; Eph. 4:17-24; Gal. 2:20).
Yet, faith does not equate sinless
perfection. We don’t immediately become perfect just because we believe in
Jesus, but we are transformed of the Spirit of God in heart and mind away from
living for sin and self to walking in obedience and surrender to God – all in
the power and working of the Spirit of God who now lives within us. Faith in
Jesus Christ does mean that we die with Christ to sin and we live with Christ
to righteousness, but it is only by the Spirit that daily we are able to put to
death the deeds of the flesh and surrender our lives to God. If we do sin, we
are still saved, because we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, yet if we
continue living in sin after we profess to have fellowship with God, the Bible
says we are liars, and it also says we will die in our sins (1 Jn. 1:6; Lu.
9:23-25; Ro. 8:1-14).
You see, being baptized into
Christ is a spiritual baptism, and it involves dying with Christ to sin and
being resurrected with Christ to newness of life, “created to be like God in
true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24). And, putting on Christ, or being
clothed with Christ is not a mere formality, but it is life changing; life
altering. We were once dead in our sins, but now we are alive in Christ Jesus.
The old has gone. The new has come. We no longer live to please ourselves, but
we live to please God. We no longer conduct our lives according to the flesh,
but we now live our lives according to the Spirit, and in the power and working
of the Spirit within us (Ro. 8:1-14).
“For we know that our old self was crucified with him
so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be
slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin” (Ro.
6:6-7).
Children of Promise (3:28-29)
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave
nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ
Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs
according to promise.
There are many Christians
today who try to separate Jew from Gentile, and who still hold to the Jews (as
a nation) being God’s chosen people and the children of promise, because those
who believe this are following the Old Testament teaching and not the New
Testament teaching. When Jesus Christ died on a cross for our sins, he
destroyed the barrier that stood between Jew and Gentile and he made us one through
faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:14-18). It is “not the children by physical
descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded
as Abraham’s offspring” (Ro. 9:6b-8). And, “The promises were spoken to Abraham
and to his seed. Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds,’ meaning many people,
but ‘and to your seed,’ MEANING ONE PERSON, who is Christ” (Gal. 3:16). If we
belong to Christ, by faith, then we are Abraham’s offspring and heirs according
to the promise, i.e. only those who believe in Jesus are the children of
promise.
“Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and
corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with
her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother… Now
you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time
the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the
Spirit. IT IS THE SAME NOW. But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave
woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the
inheritance with the free woman’s son.” Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are
not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman” (Gal. 4:25-26, 28-31).
What this is saying is that
anyone who does not believe in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of his or her
life is of the slave woman, Hagar, because they are still in slavery to sin –
whether Jew or Gentile by birth. So, basically, all Jews who reject Jesus
Christ as Savior are no different than Arabs who don’t believe in Jesus. They
are both of Hagar. The city of Jerusalem is NOT the Holy City. The Holy City is
now the body of Christ, his church, the Jerusalem from above (heavenly
Jerusalem). We are of the free woman! The physical city of Jerusalem is of
Hagar, the slave woman.
We who believe in Jesus are
the children of promise, not those who were born Jews, unless they, too, believe
in Jesus Christ. So, when this speaks of the son born in the ordinary way
persecuting the son born by the power of the Spirit, this is NOT referring to
the persecution of the Jews today by the Arabs, but it is referring to
non-Christians (including Jews) persecuting Christians, i.e. the children of
promise. And, this was said because there were Jews who were trying to persuade
Christians that they had to follow Jewish laws, traditions, ceremonies and
celebrations in order to be saved. So, this was written to urge the Christians
to not come back under slavery, i.e. to reject what the Judaizers were trying
to tell them, because we are only saved by faith in Jesus Christ. We only are
the heirs of the promise.
Adoption as Children (4:1-7)
Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not
differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under
guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we
were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a
woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the
Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir
through God.
When we are born into this
world, we are born into sin, in the image of Adam (Ro. 5:12-19; 1 Co. 15:21-22,
42-49). We come up short of attaining God’s divine approval (Ro. 3:23). So, God
sent his Son Jesus Christ (God the Son) to die on a cross for our sins. He who
knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God (2
Co. 5:21). When he died he put our sins to death, so that when we believe in
him, we die with him to sin, and we are resurrected with him to newness of
life, to be lived to his righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24; Ro. 6:1-23). Through Jesus’
blood shed on a cross for our sins we were bought back for God (redeemed), so
that we can now live to his righteousness. He died that we might no longer live
for ourselves, but for him who gave his life up for us (2 Co. 5:15). He also
died that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who
walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Ro. 8:1-14).
Before Jesus Christ was
crucified on a cross for our sins, and resurrected back to life from the dead,
victorious over sin, hell, Satan and death, God’s people were under slavery to
the law, not that keeping the law ever saved them, but they were required to
follow a long list of rules and regulations which were very strict, most of
which we don’t have to follow today. We still have to obey Christ’s
commandments, though, because faith in Jesus Christ, and in what he did for us
on a cross, by its very nature transforms our hearts away from living in sin to
walking in obedience to our Lord Jesus. But, we aren’t just following a set of
rules, but we are living in Christ and we are walking in his Spirit, so that we
no longer live to gratify the sinful desires of our flesh. We now walk in
freedom from slavery to sin because of God’s grace to us and Jesus’ sacrifice
on a cross for our sins. Amen!
When we trust in Jesus Christ
to be Lord and Savior of our lives, we are not only delivered from slavery to
sin, and not only do we become servants of his righteousness (Ro. 6:1-23), but
we now become God’s children and heirs of the promise – “heirs of God and
co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may
also share in his glory” (Ro. 8:17). His Spirit comes to live within us, and he
comforts, leads, encourages, convicts, inspires, counsels, and teaches us the
way in which we should go. He is always there with us, giving us hope and
courage, listening to our prayers, and speaking his words tenderly to our
hearts. Jesus Christ is not only our Lord and Savior, but he is our brother,
and he is our very best friend.
My Very Best Friend
Ron Hamilton – Patch the Pirate
Jesus is closer than a brother.
Every moment he is near.
I know he never will forsake me.
He has conquered all my fear.
Jesus is closer than a brother.
On his love I can depend.
King of kings, Lord of lords,
Conquering Son, oh, all of these,
He’s my very best friend.
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