There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually. – Job 1:1-5
Last time we saw that Job is presented in the first verses of the prologue as both a faithful and a fruitful man. He behaves as a king, ruling over his garden very well, exactly like people were created to be. Job is also presented as a priest. He intercedes for his children as he “would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, ‘It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.’ Thus Job did continually.”
One of the most disappointing traditions of English Bible translation is the tendency to use the term “burnt offering.” The more accurate translation would be “ascension” offering. The Hebrew word does not mean “burnt,” rather, it means “to go up.” On a daily basis, early in the morning, Job would rise and offer offerings that go up or ascend. Yes, there was burning, but what went up was the smoke. The priest would cut the animal into particular pieces, arrange them on the altar, and subject them to fire, turning the animal into smoke. Quite literally, the animal ascended in smoke to the Lord. Leviticus tells us repeatedly that the smoke ascending to God is a soothing aroma to the Lord. This is how a worshiper could draw near to YWHW acceptably.
The symbolism of the ascension offering is hardly veiled: you can’t get there; you must have a substitute. The faithful Israelite would take an unblemished animal, lay hands on it saying something like, “This is me,” and then cut it up, place it on the altar, and watch the animal ascend to the presence of God in smoke. Job is doing this as he intercedes for his children. He’s saying something like, “God, I don’t know what my sons have been doing, saying, and entertaining in their hearts, but I’m putting them in line with you again.” Job is a good priest since guarding is a primary function of a priest; he is guarding them from their potential evil.
Satan, of course, seeks to rule the world through derailing our kingliness and priestliness. He did it with Adam, and now he’s doing it with Job. Yes, the situations aren’t exactly the same, but that’s what he’s up to. This is what he did with Jesus. Satan tried to tempt Jesus out of His kingliness and priestliness, but failed. Sonship is closely associated with those who remain allegiant to the Lord in spite of the attacks of Satan. Jesus is the Son of sons as He overcame everything.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually. – Job 1:1-5
The first chapter of Job is idyllic and unstained. It might as well open with a line like, “Once upon a time in a land far away, there was a king who had seven sons and three daughters, and all was right with the world.” This is the feeling you’re supposed to get because the book of Job symbolizes the story of the world from creation to fall all the way through the redemption and restoration. The opening verses are Edenic.
The opening line says of Job, “that man was blameless and upright one who feared God and turned away from evil.” He’s perfect in an Eden garden. Others described as blameless are Noah, Jacob, and David. The same word is used for animals acceptable for sacrifice. Exodus and Leviticus say the animals must be perfect or without blemish, i.e., blameless. When we read the word blameless, we tend to think of sinless perfection. That makes us uncomfortable because we know that nobody but Jesus is like that. But a little study shows that the word isn’t talking about sinless perfection as much as it refers to integrity, honesty, and allegiance to the Lord. Job wasn’t perfect, but he was faithful.
Not only is Job a faithful Adam, but he is a fruitful Adam who multiplied. “There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants.” He has tended his garden very well. God created man in His image and gave a mandate: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Job has done that. He’s a faithful and fruitful Adam ruling over his kingdom.
There is even numerical symbolism to highlight Job’s faithfulness and fruitfulness. The number 10 describes fullness in the bible (10 plagues, 10 donkeys from Joseph, 10’s in the tabernacle construction, 10 Commandments, 10 sons for Hannah, etc.). Job has 7 sons + 3 daughters, 7,000 sheep + 3,000 camels, 500 oxen + 500 donkeys.
This is a good place to start. Job is wisdom literature and opens like Proverbs: fathers and sons living faithfully in the abundance and glory of wisdom. But, this is only the beginning of wisdom. There is a great deal more to come, and that will prepare and train the wise person to increase in glory. Job does that, as we shall see.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually. – Job 1:1-5
I’m beginning a sermon series through the book of Job. This is a daunting task for me partly because the book is very long and would be tough to cover a few lines at a time each week, as we do with most other biblical books. The “action” is found mostly in the first two chapters and the last one (3 of the 42 chapters!). Another reason is that much of it is poetry and should be read and understood in ways that may be foreign to us. Finally, the book deals with enormous matters of emotion that require much wisdom and a high tolerance for ambiguity.
When I was a boy I heard my preacher say from the pulpit, “Every preacher knows he’s matured when he’s ready to preach the book of Job.” That stuck with me some 40 years! Well, I’m not sure I’m ready, but here goes.
The book of Job opens peacefully. You can almost hear Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, “The Pastoral,” playing gently underneath. Job is a priest interceding for his children: “He would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, ‘It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.’” Job is a king ruling his domain marvelously well: “the greatest of all the people of the east.” But Job has not yet matured to prophet status, and that brings on a storm that is frankly terrifying. This “blameless and upright man who feared God and turned away from evil” is struck down again and again with God’s full knowledge and consent.
Shockingly, most of the book of Job is bad advice. Job’s “friends” are wrong, and the record of it comprises the largest part of the book. Why would the Bible spend so much space on advice not to be emulated? There are probably a number of correct answers, but one is so that we can rightly see ourselves in Job’s friends and be like them.
You probably won’t be surprised to hear me say that the book of Job is about the gospel of Jesus Christ. To be clear, the gospel here is not about substitutionary atonement, but about the God who comes to us, not on our terms, not leaving us unchanged in our this-world happiness, but redeeming lives in a world that has been torn apart by the storms, i.e., the whirlwind, of life.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel– not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. – Galatians 1:1-9
We come to our last week in the sermon series through the letter of Galatians. Below is what I wrote the first week. Does it make more sense now?
I lived for a couple of years in Macon, Georgia. I met some fine people there. With a city charter in 1823, it’s nearly 100 years older than Oklahoma. This antebellum town was mostly spared from Sherman’s torch. That preserved many interesting historical things to see. I hadn’t lived there very long when little oddities began to catch my eye, such as a water fountain and another one like it some distance away, or at least evidence that another one formerly had been there. I noticed the same with restrooms, entrances, places to sit in churches(!), and so on. In some cases, these separate-but-not-equal constructions had been preserved, while others had been faintly changed. What had not been erased was the grandiose train station (now an event center), where there was carved in the stone on one side: “Colored Waiting Room.” This “room” was covered, but not enclosed. It had functioned that way until 1960.
Imagine if you had gone to Macon in, say, 1940 and begun construction on a building where everyone, black and white and any other variety, could come and enjoy food, drink, help, conversation, education, singing, prayer, and mutual fellowship all together without respect to race, gender, or social class. With a good number of people behind you on this, it became a movement of good news. A growing number of people were helping get this place built. The mission seemed solid enough that you decided to go do it in another state where they hadn’t yet heard about such a wonderful thing.
After you had spent some time in the next state, you received word that back in Macon, some people had come in and said, “No, no, that guy (you!) brought this crazy concept of unity here, but that’s ridiculous. You know how it’s been from the beginning and what works and keeps the peace. We need to alter construction on this building to separate people again. After all, that guy (you!) acted like he was sent here from God, but, please, it’s not like he was an emissary from Washington or something!” And many people were persuaded by these detractors and abandoned your original vision no longer to divide along the lines of gender, race, and social class. How would you feel?
I think you’d feel like Paul. He establishes that he wasn’t sent to Galatia (central Turkey today) by men, “but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.” And you might be astonished that the good news of deliverance “from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” had been so quickly deserted. His message to them is clear and pointed, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”
Is the illustration here to the point or a little off? I believe we will find in the book of Galatians that it is spot-on. The good news (the gospel) Paul speaks of is not precisely a system of salvation or a new way of living religiously. The gospel that Paul brought to the Galatians that some were distorting was the announcement that Jesus, the crucified Messiah, is exalted as Lord of the whole world; therefore, He calls into existence a single, worldwide family. If you’re preaching something contrary to that, may you be accursed.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. –Galatians 6:11-18
On occasion I get a typed letter that has been duplicated, but the author will add a few handwritten sentences at the bottom of the paper that are just for me. If you’ve had this experience, you probably skipped down to the bottom and read those lines first. There’s something far more compelling about words that are personal and handwritten. While Paul wasn’t typing Galatians in Microsoft Word, he did regularly dictate his letters to an amanuensis (a scribe). But the passionate letter of Galatians required something from his own hand, so he lets them know, “See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.”
Paul is not only writing his name, but a warm and passionate paragraph of his final thoughts. The fire certainly has not gone out of his argument. These sentences masterfully bring together the several parts of the letter into a solemn conclusion. We can see that what he cares about most isn’t all the various things he’s mentioned (though they are vital), but the matter of chief importance is the cross. “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
The cross marks several divisions: between the church and the world; and, also, between those in the church who are prepared to endure the “shame” of the cross and those who would try to remove the offense of the cross for greater relevance to the world. The You-Troublers (the Judaizers) in the Galatian church are the latter. “It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.”
They want to add a mark to the body (circumcision), but Paul declares that the only marks that matter on his body are the wounds he’s suffered from his allegiance to Jesus by not removing the offense. He’s arguing, in effect, “If it’s bodily marks that you what, then go with the signs of the cross rather than the circumciser’s knife!” “From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.”
There’s a good deal in the book about boasting and Paul brings it together in this closing paragraph as well. The You-Troublers want to boast in the “flesh” of their Gentile converts, but Paul says there is some room for boasting—in the cross! “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
He finally ends the letter with a benediction: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.” This good word is not only written to the Galatians but to all who trust in Christ alone, enduring the offense of the cross, and sowing to the Spirit, resisting the flesh. It is for the one true family of Abraham where race, gender, and social class are irrelevant, for all are one in Christ.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday.
One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches.
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. –Galatians 6:6-10
I enjoy learning about early American popular and folk songs. It seems as though we don’t have that shared tradition anymore, with the advent of recorded media. We no longer have to gather around a piano to sing if we want music. There’s a 19th century American song called The Dodger that goes through a number of professions (politician, farmer, lawyer, etc) and warns that each isn’t what he may seem. He’s actually trying to get something else he wants from you as he acts like he’s your friend, helper, or lover. The original context was that he was dodging the draft into the Civil War by getting enough money to pay for it. The song has a stanza that reveals that certain attitudes about preachers aren’t new. It goes like this:
Oh, the preacher, he’s a dodger, yes, a well-known dodger,
Oh, the preacher, he’s a dodger, yes, and I’m a dodger, too.
He’ll preach the gospel and tell you of your crimes,
But look out, boys, he’s dodgin’ for your dimes!
In the Scripture passage copied above, Paul keenly speaks to the subject of money without ever mentioning the word. “One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches.”
Paul has a high view of the church. For him, it is the Kingdom of Christ on Earth, the house and family of God. For Paul, an “unchurched Christian” is an oxymoron. There’s simply no such thing. The church represents the new society of New Creation. As a result, he plants churches, pastors them, writes to them, ensures they have qualified leadership and so on. He’s not a missionary with the goal of getting people merely to believe something privately in their heart. Rather, his goal is to bring them together as a community that worships and bears one another’s burdens, i.e., building churches.
This costs money and Paul expects the people of the church to fund it. It is primarily given from the “One who is taught the word to the one who teaches.” He probably means a bit more by “the word” than the Bible alone. It includes the whole gospel of Jesus, rooted in the Old Testament and worked out through the apostolic teaching.
He supports it with a stern warning: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” The Judaizers have been focused on something very fleshly: circumcision. Paul has repeated the argument that if they accept it, everything about their faith and church will be ruined. Here Paul writes about practical support for the church but ties it in clearly with their current situation.
God won’t have people turning up their noses at Him: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked.” Their behavior functions much like farming. You reap what you sow. Sow nettles and thistles, and that’s what you’ll get. Sow behavior that is fleshly, and that’s what you’ll get (death!). “But the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Eternal life is life in the New Age that has already broken in, in Jesus, and will one day be complete. Let’s sow to that.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday.
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. –Galatians 6:1-5
I must confess that preachers-using-sports-stories is a huge turn off to me. It smacks of pandering to populist sentiments. On the contrary, we preach a King with a Kingdom that cannot fail, where sin is undone and the wrong is made right! That said, Paul does use sports analogies from time to time. While he doesn’t raise one in the passage above, I think the concept is similar. The church is meant to work as a first-rate team. The passage indicates that the Church in Galatia wasn’t such a team, and most of us have been in one like that before.
With the Judaizers wanting to have a superior circumcised class over the uncircumcised class, you’ve got trouble. “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.” Apparently if they saw someone doing something wrong, they would act smugly, looking down on the person. But Paul is clear that “you who are spiritual,” i.e., not fleshly (like the circumcision party!), should be gentle and humbly offer help. After all, Paul has just written that one of the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit is gentleness.
And it comes with a sobering warning: “Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” Pride goes before the fall. Every member should care for all the other members. This is what happens for those who “walk by the Spirit.” “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Here we see a smile in the direction of Paul’s recent major point in chapter 5: “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” The “law of Christ” isn’t some abstract idea; it’s definite. The law of Christ is loving your neighbor as yourself. And loving your neighbor as yourself isn’t some abstract value to make whatever you want out of it. In this instance, at least, it’s bearing one another’s burdens.
Think how superior this is to trying to remove the offense of the cross to gain a boast about how you’re better than other Christians. Just as Jesus Messiah carried the cross for others, so Christians must carry one another’s burdens. It may be one person who is sinning today, but it may well be me tomorrow. We need each other’s help to keep walking in the Spirit. Differ from that and you’re deceiving yourself. The church is Christ’s kingdom on earth, and it looks like the fruit of the Spirit and people loving each other as themselves.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. –Galatians 5:22-26
This week’s passage is on the fruit of the Spirit, but it is obviously connected with last week’s passage on the works of the flesh. Paul sees it as a kind of growth. People are fleshly and that’s how we all start. Remember, Paul’s use of “flesh” does not so much mean “sinful nature” as it does one’s life before and outside of Christ. In that sense, the flesh is the moral and corrupted “outer man” (2 Cor. 4:16). It’s helpful to notice this since his phrase “the desires of the flesh” means not merely physical desires (jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy) but the temptation of body and spirit as the “outer man” is exposed to the outside fallen world. This is an outright battle in Paul’s mind: For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other.
We have a family of origin with ethnic and sometimes tribal identities. As we grow, we discover all kinds of desires, which, if allowed to grow, will produce a life characterized by what Paul’s list identifies: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
He adds: I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. With the coming of Jesus is the coming of the Kingdom of God. It’s not established in all its fullness, but it’s here. When it is completely established, the people living in it will have life and health and peace. It will be a happy and thriving place, which means the things in Paul’s list won’t be there. That’s not the sort of place that is the Kingdom of God.
As the announcement of the gospel comes, God’s Spirit works in some people, and they are renewed. The first sign of renewal is faith in Jesus as the risen Lord. That’s a big move from death to life, and there’s something left behind in that death (“I am crucified with Christ…”). What’s left behind is slavery to the flesh and its desires. Instead, we bear fruit, and Paul says this fruit has 9 characteristics: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
This is, of course, good news! Let’s keep in mind, though, while the Corinthians were called out on specific sins, there is no indication that the Galatians were actually engaged in the “desires of the flesh.” The point Paul is making is not to give them a list of sins not to do. The point is that if the Galatians get circumcised, they are emphasizing “the flesh,” which is putting themselves on a level with the pagan world all around.
Just like a little leaven leavens the whole loaf, that is, just a little giving in on the matter of circumcision is going all in, so giving in to this one fleshly thing will make them like the pagans who do such things who will not inherit the kingdom of God. Please understand that Paul’s point was not to tell the Galatians to improve their behavior at the threat that they wouldn’t inherit the kingdom of God if they don’t. Paul’s point is to say, like a little leaven leavens the whole loaf, and a little cut in the flesh might as well end in castration, so giving in to the Judaizers is tantamount to living as pagans!
In a similar way, he’s not saying that if you’ll try really hard to do these 9 characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit, then you will be worthy of the Kingdom. These are simply what comes from those who walk by the Spirit. Paul’s point is that circumcision and the associated works of the law are fleshly, and you can see the result in the Judaizers who have brought dissension and division in the church. Don’t be like them: walk by the Spirit.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday.
You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! –Galatians 5:7-12
Much like surfing through a variety of channels on television, Paul covers several channels in this little passage: sports program (“running well”), courtroom drama (“persuasion”), cooking show (“leaven”), prayer hour (“I have confidence”), back to another courtroom (“bear the penalty”), biography channel (“Why am I?”), history channel (“the cross”), and finally an uncensored reality show (“I wish those would emasculate themselves!). Paul was certainly in no way boring.
Let’s skip a few channels to the cooking show. Seemingly out of nowhere, Paul throws in a statement that many have found pithy and applied to various circumstances: “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” One commonly held myth is that leaven is yeast. Yeast is one thing, but leaven in biblical times was simply a sourdough starter; it was a piece from yesterday’s bread to get fermentation going in today’s bread. It is small but powerful. If you’re making a loaf of bread, you need leaven so it will rise, but only a few grains of the starter will do for the entire load. If you put in those few grains, the result is not that part of the loaf is leavened and part isn’t. Amazingly, the leaven will work its way swiftly through the whole loaf.
A person who is even mildly biblically literate knows about the Jewish tradition of keeping Passover with unleavened bread. This recalls the Israelite’s swift departure from Egypt. Leaven was banned from Jewish kitchens at Passover time. It was associated with sin and compromise. This was described as “leavening the lump.” Paul’s opponents are saying that circumcision is required of the Gentile believers. Paul is saying that if the Galatians compromise on this one thing (circumcision), they can’t have that isolated part of their lives leavened, but not the other parts. No, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” With one little blemish, it’s all ruined.
And Paul feels so strongly about this that he offers an exasperated conclusion: “I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!” That’s because of an interesting word in the sentence just before. “…the offense of the cross has been removed.” Is the cross supposed to be an “offense”? According to Paul, yes. The Judaizers want to remove the “offense” of the cross. The Greek word translated offense is the word from which we get the English word scandal. In fact, the Greek word even sounds like “scandal.” The Judaizers are scandalized by the cross because it tramples on their boast. The cross means they are not superior to everyone else because of their ancestry. They want to be made much of, but the cross is a stumbling block to that.
For them, Paul has this sharp and shocking word. They say a little leaven is okay. Paul says a little leaven contaminates and forever changes the whole loaf. In the same way, a little circumcision may seem okay, especially as it takes away the offense or scandal of the cross. But you might as well not stop with circumcision but keep cutting until it’s all gone. This also speaks somewhat symbolically of the future. The people troubling the Galatians will lose their power and no longer be able to propagate their ideas.
The cross has a wonderful scandal to it that we must never remove. In Christ there is no race, gender, or social class difference. All are one in Him. And that’s the gospel.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday.
NOTE WELL: Due to the OKC Memorial Marathon, worship will be at 5:00pm, Saturday, April 28.
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. –Galatians 5:1-6
For over a thousand years there was a great teacher who served as the way to God. This teacher taught and enforced rules, punished rule-breakers, and kept the students clean and safe. You could go against the great teacher, but that’s when you found out your life under this teacher wasn’t really voluntary. The consequences could get severe quickly and included death. This teacher was benevolent overall, but nonetheless, a slave master. That was the way to relate well to God; and, there was no other way.
Paul has been teaching the Galatian Christians through his letter that this great slave master/teacher was the Law and was intended for a time of waiting. The slave master/teacher regime would not last. But 1,000+ years is a long time, which allowed the students to get sophisticated with it and become savvy at navigating it. As with most anyone who has been emancipated from slavery, new freedom is sometimes frightening and uncertain. That anxiety has brought many an ex-slave to wonder if the well-known life back in slavery weren’t better.
Paul’s opponents (opponents of the gospel!) were eager to insist that everyone should still defer to the slave master/teacher. One thing that wasn’t optional was circumcision. You were completely out-of-bounds until you were circumcised. It was the chief thing for those starting their journey under the slave master/teacher.
“Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.” Paul’s whole point was that the era under the slave master/teacher was no longer necessary with the coming of Jesus Messiah, and that you couldn’t do both. You can’t be both set free and under the yoke of slavery of the teacher. “I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.” Circumcision isn’t just a minor ritual which can then go comfortably alongside allegiance to the Messiah. This is apparently what the Judaizers were suggesting, but Paul’s Pharisaic training knew that circumcision really means you’re submitting to the entire discipline of the Jewish synagogue.
The alternative is found in two wonderful sentences: “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” In the first sentence, the “hope of righteousness” is about longing for the time when God’s vindication and justification of all His faithful people will be made manifest. This is New Creation in all its fullness. It’s not by the flesh (circumcision) but by the Spirit. The Spirit guarantees us a place in that great time. In the second sentence, it’s not about physical marks of membership, but about faith.
This faith is not merely abstract agreement in one’s heart either. It is a faith that works, except not with the “works of the law.” It is a faith that works in love. Love is precisely the motivating force through which God Himself welcomes all believers into His family.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this SATURDAY.
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. –Galatians 4:21-31
We’ve seen so far that the Apostle Paul and the Judaizers in the Galatian churches have competing stories of what the Bible says. For the Judaizers, the story has the Jewish law on their side. In that story, if people want to become proper children of Abraham, part of God’s true people, then they must follow the law, which includes being circumcised. They make a distinction, especially between races.
Paul has a different story, and his credentials in the law are impressive. He knows that the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible) tells a different story when read properly. In order to convey this, he recalls and explains one of the unhappiest episodes of Genesis. It’s a story of faithlessness and generational conflict.
Abraham had a wife and a concubine. Sarah (the wife) suggested that since she didn’t yet have a child to be the heir, Abraham could simply have a child by Hagar (the concubine). What a disaster! They went through with it: Hagar had Ishmael, and she celebrated her superior position. Sarah, in turn, mistreated Hagar. Sarah did eventually become pregnant with the true heir, Isaac. Ishmael became the father of the Arabs, and Isaac was the father of Jacob and Esau, hence of Israel as a whole.
Much could be said about the details of that mess, but Paul assumes that the reader knows the story, and he interprets it. The Judaizers want to say that there are two families and Paul says there is one. Paul shows what two families would be like. The Ishmael-family, who is “the son of the slave” “born according to the flesh,” is obviously not what you’d want as your side of things! The Isaac-family is the one who “was born through promise.”
Paul has previously shown that the law, given on Sinai, was like a slave-guardian during the time from Moses to Messiah. The reader is to understand that the law, by itself, produces Ishmael-children (slaves) rather than Isaac-children (free). This brings a whole new dimension to these competing stories. Paul further elaborates by comparing promise (freedom) to flesh (slavery), the Jerusalem above (freedom) to the Jerusalem below (slavery), thus the Galatian Christians (persecuted) to the Judaizers (persecutors).
And so Paul shows the truth behind the stories. Those who believe the gospel he has preached cannot be considered the outsiders, second-class citizens, or even an illegitimate family. Instead, those who believe the gospel of Jesus Messiah he preached are, like Isaac, promise-people, the free family of God.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday.
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. –Galatians 4:8-11
As we’ve seen up to this point in Galatians, there was a real danger of the Gentile Christians falling for the false teaching that they had to become Jewish (by circumcision) before they could be full members of God’s family. Paul has pointed out that the promise to Abraham was that he would be “the father of many Gentiles.” Paul has taught how the law was a kind of quarantine or guardian babysitter from Moses to Jesus, which didn’t change God’s promise to Abraham at all. There is an overlapping story of Gentile slavery to the “elementary principles of the world” with the Jewish slavery to the law. They had come from slavery to freedom in Jesus Christ. Who would want to go back?
Well, this isn’t the first occurrence of someone recently emancipated who gets anxious about freedom and starts wanting to go back. The children of Israel faced a similar situation with Moses after leaving slavery in Egypt. When they didn’t know where their next meal was coming from, they thought enslavement in Egypt didn’t sound so bad after all. Sometimes they even plotted to elect a different leader so they could go back! Paul recollects this story when he writes in the passage above, “…how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?”
He goes on, “You observe days and months and seasons and years!” Not only were they considering (or perhaps some had already submitted to) circumcision, but the law’s defunct festivals and holidays were being resurrected as well. It would be a mistake, however, to take this as an indictment against Christians celebrating or marking time by biblical and theological events. Paul says that the first day of the week is special (1 Cor. 16:2). Obviously, the early Christians met on what they called “the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10). You even see that Easter becomes an annual festival, and many in the church (Paul included) date what they are doing by reference to Passover and Pentecost (Acts 20:6, 16; 1 Cor. 16:8). Not all observances of days and times are banned. But, Paul says in Romans 14:5-6 that doing so–or not doing so–is a personal matter of discipleship.
So, what is he talking about? The Galatians were trying to keep Jewish festivals. The problem is that those festivals, by design, looked forward to the great act of redemption that the Father would accomplish in Jesus Messiah. If God’s future has already arrived, what would it mean if they went back to the form of things that anticipated this future? Frighteningly it means that they were saying they weren’t really sure that God had done in Jesus what had been preached. The content of the gospel is that He has! Thus, harsh as it may sound, Paul says in exasperation, “I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.”
Let us remember that the elementary principles and other gods continually whisper sweet invitations to us so that we can fit better socially, be richer, or be happier if we’ll come back. This is a lie, and falling for it enslaves you. It is only when we follow the God revealed in Jesus and the Spirit that we find true freedom, true humanness, and true fellowship with other people. God has acted, and we have tasted the effect of that action. All His promises are “Yes!” in Jesus.
And that’s the gospel. Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday.