Grace is the Key

Scripture Text:

15 Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.16 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. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.

21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

Sermon Notes:

Astronomers kept a close eye on Asteroid 86666, It passed by Earth yesterday, they say. It’s one of the biggest to pass close to our planet in recent times. It may be as wide as 1.5 miles. It is traveling 40,000 mph. It came within 15 million miles of our planet. But that’s a near-miss, apparently, in astronomical terms.

Paul calls them “brothers and sisters,” or “brothers” in the original, including men and women. This term is not reserved for Jewish brothers but for Gentiles and Jews who have placed their faith in Christ. According to Paul, all believers in Jesus are the children of Abraham, and we should refer to each other as family.

Paul uses this familial term despite the criticism he is receiving from Galatia. He refers to them as family even though some of them are questioning whether he is really an apostle. He calls them family despite their struggle with salvation by grace alone.

This is the nature of living in community. We are in fellowship with one another through the work of the Holy Spirit. We are joined together in the covenant of grace even though we struggle to fully understand it.

Living in community means that we are honest about our weaknesses, our questions, and our failures. We love each other despite these difficulties. We don’t drop the family talk just because we disagree with one another about something, even something important.

Life itself is such a marvelous gift! Life in community makes it exponentially more wonderful!

The Covenant Has Been Locked Down:

“Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case” (Galatians 3:15).

 

• This “example from everyday life” involves human contracts. We know about those.

• We know about marriage covenants. No one can come in from the outside and change the covenant Janet and I promised and signed so many years ago. That covenant is in force until one of us dies unless one of us two decides to challenge it. If you opt for a Covenant Marriage in the state of Louisiana, it will take longer for you to get married and longer for you to get divorced. But if both parties sign the Covenant Marriage contract, then you will abide by those stipulations both on the front end and, God forbid, on the back end of your covenant.

• The same with a contract to buy homes or contracts for work relations or contracts for the succession of our possessions upon death.

• The early Christians knew about these contracts as well.

• When we read about the scroll with seven seals in the Book of Revelation, that was a legal document, and no one could break the seals except Jesus. He was found worthy to open that legal document and unseal its contents.

• Humans do break contracts and violate commitments. But legally, they cannot “set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established.” That is Paul’s point.

• You cannot simply say, “We are going to nullify the McGraw’s contract to buy their new home.” We cannot set it aside now that the contract has been duly established.

• We cannot add to that contract and say, “The McGraws can only buy that home if they pay me $20,000.” That would be to add to the covenant that has already been established.

• The Jews continually rehearsed the covenant God made with Abraham. They knew it like we know the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution.

• Here is that covenant (Genesis 12:1-3):

• “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. ‘I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; ‘I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ‘I will bless those you bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

• The promise to Abraham preceded the law. The covenant with Abraham could not be changed by Moses or anyone else. The covenant still stood even though the law was instituted.

• If the inheritance—the blessing of the seed—depends on the law of Moses, then it cannot depend on the promise. But “God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.” (v18).

• Making the law the avenue for the blessing of God is an effort to set aside and add to a duly established covenant—the one God made with Abraham.

• So why was the law when Moses came 430 years later?

• Because of transgressions.

• Until the Seed had come.

 

 

Jesus Has Been Locked In (as the Seed of Abraham):

“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).

 

• God was planning to send Jesus all along.

• The biblical story of redemption covers thousands of years. It is largely the account of God’s interaction with a particular people group in the Middle East, the Hebrews or Jews.

• From the very first introduction of the Hebrews with Abraham in Genesis 12, what God is doing is in order to bless “all nations.” The Bible never loses sight of this truth although the biblical characters and the Hebrews themselves sometimes seem to lose sight of it.

• Just because something has been around a long time doesn’t make it true. But it does make it interesting, even intriguing. A man who lived 4,000 years ago believed he heard God speaking to him. He moved his family because of that voice in his head and his heart. He went across the River Euphrates. He heard God say to him that “in you all families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).

• Abraham believed that God wanted to befriend him. He responded in faith, trusting in God and obeying him.

• The Kings and Prophets of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, were looking intently throughout their history for the Promised One who would come.

• The search for the Messiah was at a high pitch in the First Century after Rome conquered the world. You will remember that “It came to pass in those days that there went out a decree fro Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed” (Luke 2:1).

• The Covenant People lived under the rule of Rome, and they hated it. They all wanted the Deliverer to come.

• Jesus of Nazareth was born in this context of intense expectation of the Messiah. Paul claims that Jesus is “the Seed to whom the promise referred.”

• The Old Testament and the New Testament are connected in Christ Jesus.

• The promise made to Abraham is fulfilled in Christ.

Everything Is Locked Up:

“But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe” (Galatians 3:22).

 

• I saw the word “Toronto” spelled out with thousands of locks. This is a close-up. A city of 6 million people spelled out in locks. That’s the human race.

• Scripture locks up everything under the control of sin. This is the teaching of the Bible. People are born into a world full of sin. And all of us become sinners. We are locked up.

• This means that everything needs rescue and redemption—the whole creation of God. The Law cannot help us because it is the law that has locked us up under the control of sin.

• We need deliverance, and it only comes through the promise. And this promise is claimed, as it was by Abraham, only “through faith.” Our faith is now in the Promised One. Abraham looked forward in faith to the Seed that would come. We look back to his coming and in faith believe that Jesus is God’s Son and the Savior of the world, that he died on the cross for our sin and was raised again from the dead.

 

Conclusion

Ray told me some of his story this week. I asked him if I could share it. He said that he tells his story everywhere because he wants people to know about God’s amazing grace.

Eleven years ago Ray and his wife split up after many years of being together. It happened in large part because Ray was locked up in sin—drugs and alcohol. He tried for five subsequent years to get out of those chains, and he couldn’t do it.

He told me this week that one day six years ago a pastor prayed for him. God in his grace delivered Ray from the things that kept him in bondage. He told me there was nothing he could do. God had to do it all. And it was all grace.

Grace is the truth about you and the universe. Grace is the key for your deliverance. Grace is how God relates to us in our sinfulness. He loves to forgive.