Sermon 30.06.2019
Focus Scripture: Ps 16,Gal.5:1 +13-26,Luke 9. 51-62
For some weeks now, we have being journeying through Paul’s great letter to the Galatians.
This letter is the second oldest document in the New Testament ; written around 48 AD. The earliest piece of New Testament writing is the letter written by the half-brother of Jesus, James. This was written some 3-4 years before Galatians.
This means that the Galatian letter was in circulation only some 15- 18 years after the ascension of Jesus.. Around 13/14 years after Paul’ encounter with the resurrected Jesus on the Damascus Road…and some 5-7 years before the earliest gospel written by Mark.
Historically Paul’s Galatian letter was…and still is…..a keg of spiritual dynamite. When Luther’s encountered it…and restated its radical truths; he unleased a spiritual revolution which reformed Western Christianity. He sought to restore to proper prominence and without equivocation the letter’s core doctrinal statement that we/sinners are made right with God by faith alone… and not by our mixed bag of questionable good works.
He wrote:
…we are redeemed from sin, death, and the devil, and made partakers of eternal life, not by ourselves( and certainly not our works…) but by the help of another, the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ… we abandon ourselves from all active righteousness (works)…both our own and of God’s laws…and embrace only the passive righteousness of grace, mercy and forgiveness of sins…resting only upon the righteousness of Christ and of the Holy Ghost…which we have not … but receive ////God the Father freely giving it unto us through Jesus Christ.’’
Luther’s regrasping of this doctrine shook Western Christianity which, like the Galatians, had lost its way down the generations, in a pletora of doctrinal add-ons and papal downloads.
For this reason it is always incumbent for every generation of Christians, to search the scriptures and reaffirm the pure simplicity of Christ’s revolutionary love and free gift of salvation.
It is good to always remember that today’s’ inspired insight’, ‘great idea’ and ’best practice’, with the passage of time, and without the continued breath of
For some weeks now, we have being journeying through Paul’s great letter to the Galatians.
This letter is the second oldest document in the New Testament ; written around 48 AD. The earliest piece of New Testament writing is the letter written by the half-brother of Jesus, James. This was written some 3-4 years before Galatians.
This means that the Galatian letter was in circulation only some 15- 18 years after the ascension of Jesus.. Around 13/14 years after Paul’ encounter with the resurrected Jesus on the Damascus Road…and some 5-7 years before the earliest gospel written by Mark.
Historically Paul’s Galatian letter was…and still is…..a keg of spiritual dynamite. When Luther’s encountered it…and restated its radical truths; he unleased a spiritual revolution which reformed Western Christianity. He sought to restore to proper prominence and without equivocation the letter’s core doctrinal statement that we/sinners are made right with God by faith alone… and not by our mixed bag of questionable good works.
He wrote:
…we are redeemed from sin, death, and the devil, and made partakers of eternal life, not by ourselves( and certainly not our works…) but by the help of another, the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ… we abandon ourselves from all active righteousness (works)…both our own and of God’s laws…and embrace only the passive righteousness of grace, mercy and forgiveness of sins…resting only upon the righteousness of Christ and of the Holy Ghost…which we have not … but receive ////God the Father freely giving it unto us through Jesus Christ.’’
Luther’s regrasping of this doctrine shook Western Christianity which, like the Galatians, had lost its way down the generations, in a pletora of doctrinal add-ons and papal downloads.
For this reason it is always incumbent for every generation of Christians, to search the scriptures and reaffirm the pure simplicity of Christ’s revolutionary love and free gift of salvation.
It is good to always remember that today’s’ inspired insight’, ‘great idea’ and ’best practice’, with the passage of time, and without the continued breath of the Holy Spirit, can become tomorrow’s binding, moribund tradition.
Paul here boldly states that we are reckoned right with God through faith in Jesus not good works and observances. We receive this faith and grace through the direct action of God’s Holy Spirit…who interacts with us, developing and cultivating in us, the fruits of faith and the image of the resurrected Christ.
In this morning’s extract, Paul emphasises faith in Christ Jesus contains a chain-breaking radical freedom.
For freedom Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, therefore,
and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
This is no abstract freedom but a spiritual and moral freedom, lived, experienced, and operational every moment we live.
In the context of the Galatian letter, Paul was attacking those who were undermining and attaching conditions to the freedom that is in God’s gift of salvation. For the Galatians the issue was that some Judaising teachers sought to attach add-ons from the Mosiac Law to the simple integrity of the the gospel message of our being reckoned righteous in the eyes of God through faith alone in the achievements of Jesus.
The opening 2 verses of the passage have a telling use, by Paul of the indicative with an imperative forms in language.
The indicative describes God’s gift to us:
For freedom Christ has set us free …….
The imperative expresses our responsibility:
‘’Therefore……Stand firm’’
‘’Therefore……do not submit AGAIN to a yoke of slavery’’
He uses this combination again in verse 13.
Indicative …God’s provision…For you were called to freedom,
Imperative….our consequent responsibility…
do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,[b] but through love become slaves to one another.
In today’s extract Paul uses the imperative to express our responsibility in response to God’s various gifts to us…we are to…..to protect …to use…..to serve…and to keep in step……..
Faith in Christ liberates us from the demands of the law. The demands of measuring up.
The Law was designed to discipline and teach us…
The law highlights our baleful inadequacies…
In one way or another the law roundly condemns us.
The law is a heavy , disheartening burden…leading us in to hypocritical and eye serving behaviours, nastiness, back biting, spitefulness and conflict within the congregation.
For the law states what is expected of us but is never able to helps us attain what it demands.
Fortunately God in love and mercy rescued us through the cross of Christ…
For unlike the impossible demands of the law …..what God demands ….now … His grace, His indwelling Spirit, His Comforter …empowers us …. enables us to attain.
For freedom Christ has set us free …….therefore stand…do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Jesus has set us
*Free from the mental and spiritual bondage of ‘one-up-manship’.
*Free from the ‘How do I Measure Up Syndrome
*Free from the dictatorship of the self-condemnatory mindsets and critical judgementalism ….
*Free from the corrosive petty mindsets of religious legalism whose main victims are freedom and love.
*Free from the tyranny of inward looking moral weakness and scruples. Scruples that squeeze dry our souls of the Holy Spirit’s joy, thanksgiving, praise and heartful worship.
For if we are entangled in these blinkered ways we, in time, become enslaved, arid, sterile, bitter, and brittle in our relationship with our Father-God and with people in our lives.
A relationship in which, for want spiritual understanding of who we are in Christ…. we end up subconsciously resisting the generosities of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives … and unwittingly restrict our ability to serve God…. and one another… in the spirit of genuine love.
For the person who makes ’keeping law’ the guiding principle of their life is really never free. They must always, with uncertainty, look over their shoulders.
Whereas the person who makes grace their life’s directing principle is free from the constraints of the law of performance. They, through the free gift of grace and faith, accept the sufficiency of all that Christ has done on the Cross and this sets them free indeed.
Free to grow and blossom in love, joy, peace and to do great exploits for God’s kingdom.
In today’s passage Paul teaches that life is a battlefield. We contend with opposing forces within us. Between the Spirit and our lower nature …the flesh. In Romans he sketched our dilemma well
‘’For I/we do not do the good I/we want, but the evil I/we do not want is what I/we do.’’
How can we destroy this vicious cycle? Will power and intentionality do not secure permanent and unequivocal victory in this domain.
Paul ,however, shows where we can tap in to the power we need to break this cycle..
It is only through the active involvement of the Spirit of God/of Jesus Himself, co labouring with us.. does a moral transformation become a liberating experiential reality in our life.
It stands to reason….
Our Christian life first begun with the actions of God’s Spirit.
Through the Holy Spirit we are regenerated…born again ….become a new creation and come to a living faith.
The only way we can continue in our Christian life is by the dunamis, the might, the dynamic/transforming power of the God’s indwelling Spirit.
It is the direct activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives that renews our minds, transforms our hearts and enables us to forgive and be forgiven and to serve each other in love.
It is the Holy Spirit who creates and matures our unique Christian identity and becomes the live-in guide to our behaviour….toward friend and foe alike.
It is God’s Spirit who is cultivating in us His fruits…His outworkings of…love, joy, peace, patience, goodness gentleness, faithfulness and self control.
It is the Holy Spirit that witnesses to our heart that we are children of the Most High and as such address Him as Abba.
The freedom in the Spirit culminates in making us so free that we can be used by God. Without this Spirit we are dry, dead bones. God be forever between us and such a condition.
By way of conclusion I make 3 recommendations:
1. The Holy Spirit will produce in us all the qualities that God requires. Through regular private prayer let us invoke Him. Open our Heart’s desire to Him and with intentionality co labour with Him.
2. In Hebrews we read:
How can we escape if we neglect sogreatasalvation?
We are tasked by scripture to work out our salvation…because it is God who is at work in us…. Let us commit ourselves to prayfully searching the Scripture so as to deepen our understanding of so great a salvation
3. The final recommendation is to learn by heart a 7 worded quotation from Augustine that brilliantly sum up today’s reading. I’d like you to memorise it and puzzle out the theology. A word of warning ….where you place the comma is crucial.
‘’Love God, and do what you like.’’
Amen.