Foolish
Galatians! Who has cast a spell over you? In our own day and time and before
your very eyes, Jesus was crucified. Tell me just one thing. Did you receive
the Holy Spirit by following every “jot and tittle” of the Law, or by simply
believing the Gospel message? I cannot imagine how you have been so foolish.
After having begun so well, are you now attempting to complete your salvation
by the works of the flesh? Have you endured what you have for nothing?
Let me ask
you again. Has God blessed you with an abundance of His Spirit and worked
miracles and wonders among you because you followed the precepts of the Law, or
because you invested your faith in the marvelous Gospel? I suggest you reflect
on this a while. We have only to consider the amazing faith of our father
Abraham. Haven’t you read the scripture?
“So, Abraham
believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness.”
Don’t you
comprehend that those who invest their faith in God are the true sons of the patriarch
Abraham? The scripture prophesied that God would justify the Gentiles as the
result of their faith, and this was the Gospel message spoken in the presence
of Abraham. “All the nations will be blessed as the result of you.” Everyone
who ever relied on faith in the Messiah has been blessed along with Abraham; a
man who believed God.
However,
anyone who attempts to fulfill the demands of the Law, apart from the Gospel, finds
himself under a curse. Haven’t you read the following admonition?
“A curse is on
anyone and everyone who fails to fulfill each and every stipulation in the Book
of the Law.”
Clearly, no
one who relies on the Old Law has any possibility of being justified by God
since, “The just will live by faith.” The Law, however, is not based a man’s
faith in anything. On the contrary, it exhorts us that,
“The one who
accomplishes these things will live by them.”
Our Lord
Jesus Christ saved us from the condemnation of the Law, as the result of
becoming a curse for us; when He so nobly sacrificed His life on the cross.
What does the scripture say?
“Anyone who
is hung on a tree is cursed by God.”
God’s
wonderful agenda is obvious. The amazing blessing which God promised to Abraham
has at last become assessible to the Gentiles through the finished work of
Jesus Christ. It is by faith that we receive the blessed promise of the Holy
Spirit.
Allow me to
give you a practical example. When two parties have drafted and signed a
contract, it is respected by everyone involved, and cannot be changed in the
least by another party. Notice what the scripture has to say about it. “The
promises were given to Abraham and to his seed, after him.”
This scripture
does not speak in the plural. It is not “seeds” (implying numerous people), but
rather, “and to his seed,” which infers the presence of only one person, and
that seed is Christ!
My
implication is this. The Law which was introduced to mankind four hundred and
thirty years after the foregoing promise has no power to nullify the contract
which God had established with Abraham, nor does it subtract anything from
God’s promise. If our spiritual legacy depends on the Law, then it no longer
depends on the promise. However, God presented the dispensation of faith to
Abraham by the use of an unalterable promise.
Why then,
you ask, was the Law given at all? It was temporary inclusion added to
highlight the reality and depth of sin until the coming of the Seed, Jesus
Christ. The Law was accompanied by the angels and written by the hand of a
mortal intermediary. However, the notion of an intermediary comes with a
particular implication; that the promise has yet to be fulfilled. It is
important to realize that the great and wonderful promise which God gave to our
father Abraham had absolutely no need of angels, nor mortal intermediaries, but
rather, was and is, and will always be dependent on Christ, alone.
Is the Law,
then, opposed to the promise which God has bequeathed to us? Absolutely not!
But if a law had ever been written which had the wherewithal to impart
spiritual life, then it would have also imparted righteousness; which would have been in
complete accord with the original promise. However, scripture is very clear. We
were all under the control of sin because of the existence of the Law, and
until the Promised One made His advent on the earth. (And it is through faith
in Him that we are saved).
Prior to the
dispensation of faith, we were shackled by the Law; bound until that faith which
supersedes and overcomes works should arise on the earth. The Law was very much
like a harsh schoolmaster until the dispensation when Christ made His
appearance, and we were justified by faith in the risen Lord. Now that faith is
part and parcel of our daily lives, the schoolmaster has retired from the
scene.
Therefore,
now that you have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and invested your
faith in Him, you have become the very sons of God. Everyone who have been
baptized, as it were, into Christ have been clothed in the royal garments of
grace.
As a result
of our Lord’s sacrificial work on the cross, there is neither Jew, nor Gentile,
nor slave, nor free, nor male, nor female. You have all become one in our Lord
Jesus Christ. And if you are sons of the Father, and brothers of the Son, you
are also descendants of Abraham, and heirs of His magnificent promise!
by William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from The McDonald Paraphrase of the New Testament. Copyright 2018
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