CUTTING REMARKS

                                                                 CUTTING REMARKS

⁷ You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? ⁸ This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. ⁹ A little leaven leavens the whole lump. ¹⁰ I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.

¹¹ And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. ¹² I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!

¹³ For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. ¹⁴ For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵ But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!

Galatians 5:7-15

Introduction

Having told the Galatians and us to stand like statues in the liberty the gospel has brought us, Paul now moves on to address the one that wants to tear the statues down.

During the early 2000s until today, there have been movements of people tearing down statues and monuments in Western nations as a way of expressing that which they hate. The statues and monuments were, of course, erected as reminders and memorials of those who and those things that helped to make the West what it is, with all its freedoms.

My old theological professor, Rev. Dr. Adv. Francis Nigel Lee dedicated his book God’s Ten Commandments: Yesterday, Today, Forever, by saying the following, “Dedication. To Chief Justice Roy S. Moore of Alabama, after the wretched removal by quasi-legal tyranny of his monument of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama State Courts Building’s Rotunda on that “Day of Infamy.” August 27, 2003.”[1]

In the following we are going to see Paul addressing in no uncertain terms those who are trying to tear down the Galatians upon whose hearts God had written His law. The Galatians had been set free from the bondage to the ceremonial law, but more importantly from condemnation of the Ten Commandments. The Judaizers are wanting to place them again in that bondage which leads to condemnation. Hence, Paul’s cutting remarks.

Cutting In

Christians chuckle when they read where Paul says, “I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!” (Gal. 5:12). The NIV spells it out when it renders it, “As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” However, the word “cut” comes from the same New Testament Greek word that Paul has used only five verses earlier. “You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” (5:1). The NIV helps us here where it renders the same verse as, “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?” The word “hindered” in the NKJV means “cut in”, as we see sometimes happen in the Olympics and Commonwealth Games when a runner inadvertently or sometimes intentionally impedes another runner.

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The one impeding is the one who is disqualified, whether they are running a race or telling others to unnecessarily get circumcised. Like those removing statues and memorials, they are the ones breaking the law.

It may not be stretching things too far to suggest that Paul has in mind that he is writing to Celts, which term is derived from the idea that they are from a culture that was fond of chiselling stone, as in being “stonecutters.” “Celt(n.) ‘stone chisel.’” Though some may have been torn down, many remnants of their monuments to this day are still standing all over Europe.

The practice of raising memorials, including those with God’s Law written on them, is Biblical.

 

 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: ‘Keep all these commands that I give you today. When you have crossed the Jordan into the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster. Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. And when you have crossed the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I command you today, and coat them with plaster. Build there an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron tool on them. Build the altar of the Lord your God with stones from the field and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. Sacrifice fellowship offerings there, eating them and rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God. And you shall write very clearly all the words of this law on these stones you have set up.’ (Deut. 27:1-8).

Are we to imagine that Paul was ignorant of these verses of Scripture? Are we to image that the Galatians were unaware of the Old Testament Scriptures, yes, even those Scriptures that speak of God’s Law, moral, judicial, and ceremonial? Are we to believe that all the Galatians had was the truncated gospel that is popular in out own day? How would they understand the liberty that the gospel Paul proclaimed to them, if they did not know what they had been set free from? So, away with any notion that the Galatians were ignorant of those Scriptures, particularly those portions, such as raising monuments, that would be especially applicable to them and their culture.

The trouble in our own day is that there are those who have cut in and have cut off the Old Testament Scriptures from the New. They have severed the connection between the Law of God and the Gospel of God. But Paul brings us back to the law of God and the gospel of God where he says, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Cutting Away

It used to be the popular view that Hebrews was one of Paul’s epistles. That view seems to have fallen out of favour nowadays. However, one gets the impression that there was at least a bit of homework copying going on. Paul says to the Galatians, “You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” The writer to the Hebrews wrote, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1b).

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When running a race, you don’t want to be carrying anything heavier than your own body weight and whatever clothes you’re wearing. You cut away whatever hinders. You want to be as free as you possibly can be. The Judaizers are encumbering the Galatians with unnecessary dead weights. They are slowing them down. They are hobbling them with their additions to the gospel.

The New Testament Book of Hebrews is where the reader cannot fail to miss all the allusions its writer makes to the Old Testament Scriptures. It focusses mainly on the fact that the Old Testament ceremonial laws, with its priesthood and sacrificial system performed at the temple in Jerusalem by the priesthood has ended with that which it all prefigured and pointed to, i.e., Jesus Christ the Great High Priest, the (sacrificed and perfect) Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.

By offering up Himself as the sacrificial Lamb Christ cut away our bondage to the ceremonial law and the condemnation of the moral law, i.e., the Ten Commandments. All of God’s Law has been/is being fulfilled by Jesus “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Matt. 5:17-18). The gospel is about Jesus fulfilling Gods law on behalf of those who believe in Him and His works. Pauls is applying to the Galatians and to us the blessings of the advent of Christ where he says, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (5:13-14).

Thus, the gospel brings liberty. First, in freeing us from our bondage of “giving opportunity to the flesh,” i.e., indulging our sinful nature with its sinful passions.

We use the term “A chip off the old block” to say that someone is very similar to their parent(s). It is the Holy Spirit who gives birth to Christians. The Holy Spirit has used Paul proclaiming the gospel to give birth to these Galatians. They are “chips of the old block” if they “through love serve one another.” For then they would be fulfilling the law.

I remember being told off for says, “In a word,” and then using more than one word to make my statement! But here’s Paul saying that “the law is fulfilled in one word”, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The point is that it is God’s Word that he is referring to. He is quoting from Leviticus 19:18, “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” We can see that Paul is applying this verse to the Galatians and to us because he says, “But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!” (5:15).

Taking vengeance and bearing grudges against the children of your people is very much like biting and devouring one another. And don’t miss the fact that Paul is including himself in this. For he has already said, “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth” (4:16). The Judaizers had been disparaging Paul’s character and undermining his teaching. He is showing love to his children, the Galatians, by telling them the truth.

    The Galatians will know that he is telling them the truth, but only if they are a chip off the old block, only if the Holy Spirit has been cutting away, chipping off, the rough edges of their sinful natures. They will know that the Spirit of Christ is in them if they are behaving like Him, for He is the One who says, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Indeed, He is the LORD.

He is the One who promised to and in time fulfilled the Old Testament promises. Yes, including that one about writing His law, not on whitewashed or plastered rocks as per Moses, but as per the following,

        Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. Hebrews 8:8-13.

The Judaizers are cutting in on the Galatians by trying to restore that which the LORD was cutting away! The Holy Spirit is the One who comes to write God’s laws in the minds and the hearts of those He calls, regenerates and converts, those He saves and whose sins He forgives. And the Promise of the Spirit was made also to those, who like the Galatians, are “afar off”, yes, including you and me! “Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:38-39).

            As we begin to tie it all together, Paul reminds the Galatians, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is” (5:9-10). Just as yeast spreads through the whole batch of dough, so false teaching can grieve and even quench the Spirit if it spreads. However, Paul encourages the Galatians, that now that they have been reminded of the truth, he is confident that they will dust themselves off and get back into their running lanes and run the race to the finish. But the one who cut in, has been disqualified. He has been judged by the rules, i.e., God’s law and found wanting.

Conclusion

            Christ has fulfilled the law. He has now written it in our minds and on our hearts. Let us therefore demonstrate that we have the Spirit by showing our gratitude to God for the wonderful salvation He has gifted us with, by keeping His law. It shouldn’t be difficult. As promised, it is written on our hearts after all.   

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[1] Francis Nigel Lee, God’s Ten Commandments – Yesterday, Today, Forever, (Nordskog Publishing Inc., Ventura, California, 2007), v.

STAND FAST

 Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. ² Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. ³ And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. ⁴ You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. ⁵ For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.

STAND FAST

Introduction

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The gospel brought liberty, freedom, to the Galatians. It brought freedom to the Western world. It is not just liberty for the individual regarding his or her own personal sin. It brought freedom from that which sinful human beings involve themselves in, as per the Cultural or Dominion Mandate (Gen. 1:26-28). Sin affects education, economy, marriage, family, sex, self-government, local, state, and national governments, international relations, conduct in times of war, conduct in times of peace, judicial systems, punishments for crimes, animal welfare, neighbours, worship, etc., i.e., everything to do with human society.

For all that, contemporary Christianity has reduced the gospel to only caring whether a person is saved or not. It’s like every outer skin of the onion has been peeled away and discarded until all we have been left with is a truncated gospel, “Are you saved?” As important as that is, for we would never have been so blessed with all the freedoms we have in the West were it not for converted individuals, Paul here is reminding the Galatians and us what the gospel is about – liberty! He wants us to stand firm like statues in this freedom. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free” (Gal. 5:1a). The word “therefore” in this verse connects it to what has preceded it, i.e., the explanation that the liberty believers have is not the bondage of the earthly Jerusalem of the past or the present, but the freedom we have by belonging to the Jerusalem above, the heavenly Jerusalem of the present and the future.

This freedom is “the liberty by which Christ has made us free.” Though our salvation is of the utmost importance, it is not about you or me. Rather it is about Christ. It is about Him and His claims on you and me, and the society in which we live, i.e., family, church, and state, yes, the whole Galatian nation back then and our nation today.

We’ll get to it later, but up ahead Paul demonstrates that this liberty is more than just about personal salvation. It affects everyone else. For he says in verses 13 and 14 that we are to serve one another. You are to love your neighbour. “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

In the following we will focus on gospel liberty.

Statues

            Earlier we spoke of the Statue of Liberty standing fast at New York harbour. We mentioned some of the words written on her base:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

America opened her borders to the world from 2021-2025. Along with those “yearning to breathe free” came sex and child-traffickers, thieves, rapists, murderers, who robbed, raped, pillaged and murdered their way across the USA. Obviously, these were not exercising the freedom that comes from the gospel but were clearly illustrating by their actions that they were still in bondage to sin.

To be sure, the Galatians under the influence of the gospel corrupting Judaizers, had not rejected the gospel to the point of becoming rapists and murderers, but they were en route to indulge the appetites of the flesh. As Paul says, “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (5:8). To be estranged from Christ is to be devoid of His Spirit. It is to be in bondage to sin. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”

Now, there is, of course, a difference between being in bondage to the Old Testament’s ceremonial law and being in bondage to one’s own sinful nature. Mosaic covenant law, with its moral, judicial and ceremonial aspects were to point Old Testament Israel to the promised Messiah, the One who was coming to save His people from the punishment they deserve because of their sins against God. However, Paul’s point is that to seek to be justified by the Mosaic law is to demonstrate your estrangement from Christ. It is to turn away from Christ. And look where that can lead:

 

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:26-32.

Notice that it “God gave them up to vile passions” and “God gave them over to a debased mind.” The Galatians had been saved out of all the types of things listed here and so have we! This is why Paul is saying, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (5:1). Up ahead, Paul gives a list of the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit so that we can easily identify which is which.

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There was an unforgettable scene at the end of the first Planet of the Apes movie. Charleton Heston (who played Moses in The Ten Commandments) is walking along a sandy beach. He sees the neck and shoulders of a great object jutting out of the sand. It’s the half-submerged Statue of Liberty. Paul is shocked to see the Galatians, who should’ve been standing tall in their Christ-bought freedom, now being buried under the dross piled upon them by the Judaizers.

“Stand fast” urges Paul. We in the West must do likewise in our own generation. To do so we must think Christianly. The Reformation of the Lord’s Church began in earnest in 1517. That Church had been formed, then became deformed, and was reformed. The great creeds and confessions of the reformed Church began stating in clear terms what the Bible taught. When it comes to Presbyterianism, we Presbyterians follow the Westminster Standards as our expression of what we believe the Bible teaches. (In 1689, the Baptists basically took our Confession and made a couple of minor changes to incorporate their baptistic notions.) The Westminster Standards are the documents that were drawn up by the Westminster Assembly in 1643–1649. The Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the Directory of Public Worship, and the Form of Church Government are all included. These Standards were to do with Christian Doctrine and church polity, which formed the basis for uniformity of religion for the United Kingdom of the 1600s, and by extension, the whole of the British Empire from that time forward. In other words, the Westminster Standards are about uniting Christians, not dividing them. The Three Forms of Unity, (the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort, and the Heidelberg Catechism), are so similar to the Westminster Standards.

 Presbyterian churches and Reformed churches share the same Biblical doctrines and forms of church government. The “peeling of the onion” began with the Church of England/Anglican Church breaking away from the Westminster Standards. Then came, as already mentioned, the Baptist Church. And on and on it went until we are left with just the kernel at the middle of the onion, i.e., the truncated gospel that unites us. All the rest, apparently, is up for private interpretation. I suppose we ought to be thankful that at least we still have the middle of the onion!

Now the Western nations are under attack from mass migration, Islam, Hinduism, neo-Marxism, Socialism, theological Liberalism, Feminism, Transgenderism, Wokeism, you name it. Why? All because we did not “stand fast” on the gospel. If only the West would get back to her Westminster Standards and Three Forms of Unity and be done with all its unbiblical deviations.

Those of the Reformed Faith, i.e., those of the Church that was reformed during the Reformation, need to “stand fast” like statues!    

Statutes

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Instead of being statues standing fast in the faith the Galatians are returning to statutes. Paul says, “Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law” (5:3-4). Circumcision here is a shorthand way of referring to the whole of God’s Law handed down by God to Israel at the time of Moses, i.e., the moral, and the judicial or civil, and the ceremonial laws.

We have noted that the ceremonial laws have been abrogated with the life, death, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the promised Messiah. The baptism of all the nations with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit according to the Scriptures testifies to this (Isa. 52:15; Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:1-21, 10:44-45). Only the general equity of the judicial law of Old Testament Israel remains. However, God’s Moral Law, as in His Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, remains forever. Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 19.3-5 says,

 

3. Beside this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel, as a Church under age, ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits; and partly holding forth divers instructions of moral duties. All which ceremonial laws are now abrogated under the New Testament.

4. To them also, as a body politic, He gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the State of that people, not obliging any other, now, further than the general equity thereof may require.

5. The moral law doth forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof; and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator who gave it. Neither doth Christ in the gospel any way dissolve, but much strengthen, this obligation.

The “foolish Galatians,” by wanting to place themselves under the bondage of the ceremonial law are in danger of placing themselves under the curse of the moral law. This is what happens when “Christians” turn their backs on the free grace revealed in the gospel. Paul, as we know, is spitting chips: “As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:9). They and we are bound to obedience to the moral law only, under which Paul says clearly elsewhere, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:1-2). The Galatians are considering subjecting themselves to “the law of sin and death” from which they already had been set free by the gospel. Madness!

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The meaning and mode of baptism is a serious debate among those of the Reformed Faith. However, even more serious is that between the Reformed and those of the Arminian persuasion. The Canons of Dort, on of the Three Forms of Unity mentioned above, were specifically written to counter the views of the followers of Jacobus Arminius, after which Arminianism is named. The Canons of Dort are also know as the Doctrines of Grace or the Five Points of Calvinism or the much more flowery T.U.L.I P.

It has been my experience that the Arminians misidentify the Calvinists as Hyper-Calvinists. Thereby, albeit inadvertently and unintentionally joining the Calvinists in a joint put down of the deterministic Hyper-Calvinistic doctrines! For the record, the Reformed hold that the Bible teaches the following tension that God is 100% sovereign in all things while holding humans 100% responsible for their actions. We ought not to balk at such a paradox since the Bible was 100% written by God and 100% written by humans. Then there’s the Person of Jesus: 100% God and 100% human! The Reformed are happy to leave these mysteries with God. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29).

Doing “the words of this law,” statutes, are where the Judaizers are misleading the Galatians. We have noted that the Galatians and us are free from needing to keep the ceremonial law, which has been abrogated since the coming of Christ to whom it pointed. And we have noted that, though the moral law stands forever, the same freedom that has set us free from any obligation to be circumcised or keep any of the other aspects of the ceremonial law, has also set us free from the condemnation of God’s eternal moral law.

To become circumcised profits nothing for the one who has his foreskin needlessly removed (5:3). Rather, by so doing it obligates the recipient to keep every jot and tittle of the law. The law still stands for those outside of Christ, for Jesus says, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Matt. 5:17-18). Jesus has fulfilled the ceremonial aspects of which the Judaizers want the Galatians to keep. They want to entangle themselves again in a yoke of bondage (5:1).

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As we begin to tie it all together, the Celtic Galatians are under attack from Judaizers who wish to hang their scalps as trophies around their waists. We see the same going on today with Protestants who defect to Roman Catholicism and Calvinists who become Arminians and all the rest. The receiving party then brags about their trophies. However, as Paul says elsewhere, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13). The Arminian looks at these verses, and says, “See! You are to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” while the Calvinist says, “Thank You Lord for Your grace. For You are the “God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” Thus, God is 100% sovereign, and humans are held by God to be 100% responsible for their actions. Perhaps Oliver Cromwell summed this tension up best when he said, “Trust God and keep your powder dry.”

It’s not about statutes. It’s about us being statues. The Celtic people are well known for raising stone pillars all over Europe, Great Britain and Ireland. These are memorial stones, pillars of truth. The Standing Stones of Callanish, for example, have been standing fast for millennia. We, today, are left wondering as we try to figure out their original meaning. They let us know that a people have been here, a people whose memory has been written in stone. The standing stones shock us into wondering what happened to them, and to us. How did they do this and what does it all mean? The half-buried Statue of Liberty in the Planet of the Apes movie had the same effect. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians likewise leaves us wondering what happened to their civilization. Will the present day West just become a hazy memory of which those in the future will be left to speculate about? “I perceive that in all things you are very religious…” (Acts 17:23).

Conclusion

            What are we going to be, followers of statutes or statues of liberty? Let’s get back to the “Doctrines of Grace.” “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”   

REMBRANDT IS IN THE WIND (Review)

Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith by Russ Ramsey is for anyone who like me has felt like a troglodyte when visiting an art museum. The title of the book refers to a stolen Rembrandt masterpiece, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. It is a book with pictures, many of which are in colour.

Ramsey spells out the intent of his book where he says, “The following chapters are part of art history, part biblical study, part philosophy, and part analysis of the human experience. But they are all story.” p. 15.

I love the way Ramsey gives a bit of a biography of each of the ten artists and their works he features. By doing so, he makes each master’s personality come alive when their paintings are studied in detail. Indeed, he also puts the viewer as well as the artist in the picture. Take The Storm on the Sea of Galilee for example. “The sea surges and swells. The little boat has no hope of holding on to the surging foam below. The bow rides up the back of one white breaker, while the stern dips into the valley beneath it. Waves break over the sides. The half dozen men to Rembrandt’s right shout and strain at the sails, struggling to keep the ship from capsizing. The five men to his left plead with Jesus of Nazareth to save them. Rembrandt stands in the middle of the boat, his right hand tightly clutching a rope and his left pinning his hat to his head. His name is scrawled across the useless rudder, as though this is his boat on the sea, and they are all caught in his storm. He and everyone on the ship are doomed to be lost unless their leader intervenes.” p. 69-70.

Though this book from a personal perspective could have been titled Art and Artists for Dummies, it will also be a beneficial and edifying read for those who are in the know. It is a refreshing read that is not lacking in culture.  

THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW

                                                THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW

 Paperback and Kindle versions of Gleanings from Galatians are available at your nearest Amazon. For USA Amazon click here:  Amazon.com: Gleanings from Galatians: 9798249650124: McKinlay, Neil Cullan: Books

Introduction

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The giving of the law does not cancel God’s covenant with Abraham and his Seed. Christ Himself was the promised Seed. And that since it was Him who won our salvation by crushing Satan’s head as promised, it would be conceited for us to think we can somehow contribute to our own salvation. We are simply the prize in the cosmic struggle between Christ and the devil. However, as we shall see, each of us is engaged in a struggle of sorts. This struggle has to do with God’s Law and its use.

The Law was given 430 years after the Lord promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that all the nations would be justified by faith. The promise was made to Abraham (Gen. 22:18). The same promise was made to Isaac (Gen. 26:4). The same promise again was made to Jacob (Gen. 28:14). The promise is, “In you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gal. 3:8b).

The heart and soul of this blessing was that all the nations would be justified through faith in Christ. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

So then, the question necessarily arises: If the saints in the Old Testament were justified by faith the same as us today, then what purpose does the law serve? That’s what we’re trying to discover.

The general gist of the following is that the Law was given to drive us to faith in Christ.

Dungeon

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We’re told in Galatians 3:22 that “The Scripture has confined all under sin...” In other words, all of mankind is in a prison of sorts. This prison doesn’t have Woodford or Wacol written on its heavy iron gate! On the gate of this prison is written the word SIN. SIN is a maximum security prison, and, unlike Alcatraz, there have been no escapes. Not even Clint Eastwood can escape from this prison! Everyone in this prison has been condemned to death. All the prisoners here live by the sweat of their face. They have been given a life of hard labour until it is their turn to die. For death is the penalty the Lord promised Adam in the Garden if he broke God’s covenant with him.

Adam had the Ten Commandments written on his heart (Rom. 2:15). And he broke every last one of them by disobeying God (James 2:10). And since Adam was our representative in that covenant relationship with God, every last one of us has broken God’s Law as a covenant of works (Rom. 5:12). Therefore, every last human being is under the Law of God as a covenant of works. And since we have broken that covenant we are all confined or prisoners of SIN. SIN is the name on the wall of our jail house – not Sir David Longland, nor Barlinnie, nor The Don Jail, but SIN.

Now then, it was while father Abraham was in this prison (the same prison as us), that the Lord came to him and revealed His covenant promise to him. The promise was that all the nations would be saved in the exact same way as was Abraham. All the nations would be saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Of course, Abraham believed in the LORD, he believed in the promise (Gen. 15:6; Gal. 3:6). Abraham believed in the promised righteousness to come.

Abraham had been condemned to death along with the rest of humanity. He was sitting in prison on death row when the LORD arrived. The LORD revealed to Abraham the righteousness he needed, if he was ever to receive a pardon and get out of prison and escape certain death. This revelation is good news. It is the gospel.

Abraham was told that the righteous One would come from his loins. And when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah his wife was 90, they saw in the birth of their son, Isaac, the future coming of Messiah. The One promised was coming to set the prisoners free from the dungeon of SIN. He was coming to smash the gates of Hell and set the prisoners on death row free.

The Promised One was coming to possess the gate of His enemies (Gen. 22:17). Abraham could see all of this because it was all included in the Promise made to him. He knew that the way to escape from death row was to believe in the Promise. He knew then, that to believe in the Promise, was to be declared righteous. For the gospel is the revelation of Christ and His righteousness. The gospel reveals how Christ and His righteousness is received, i.e., through faith alone.

Abraham, then, was brought out of the dungeon by faith in the Promised Seed.

Discipline

In Galatians 3:24 we are told that “The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ.” The purpose of the law, then is to tutor us. The task of the law is to lead us to Christ. The LORD brought His people out of the dungeon and placed them under guardianship, viz. the law. The law then, is our guardian, our instructor, our tutor. And if we looked closely, we’d see that this tutor is a strict disciplinarian!

Now then, the LORD had promised to make Abraham a great nation. And He promised him land in which the nation would dwell (e.g., Gen. 12:1-2). We know that these promises have their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Eg, “For all the promises of God in Him [Christ] are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us” (2 Cor. 1:20).

But meanwhile back at the ranch! God, as promised to Abraham in Genesis 15:14, released, i.e., redeemed, Abraham’s physical descendants from captivity in Egypt. Just as the LORD called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans, so the LORD called Abraham’s descendants out of bondage in Egypt.

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So, the picture is of the LORD taking His people out of prison and putting them to work on a road gang. What would you do if you had a few million ex-convicts out on the road? You’d lay down the law in no uncertain terms, wouldn’t you? You’d spell out the law to the minutest detail so that there would be no misunderstanding! Thus, verse 19, “[The Law] was added because of transgressions.” But the law didn’t add anything to the Promise. We’ve already seen that the law doesn’t change God’s covenant with Abraham and his Seed (3:15). Or to put it another way, the law doesn’t change the way we are saved. For the promise is that all nations will be blessed by justification through faith in Christ. Then why was the law given? It was given to prepare God’s people for the arrival of the One who was Promised.

So then, the LORD brought so many million out of bondage in the land of Egypt. And He’s got the people of Israel wandering around in the wilderness, a motley crew indeed! These were a pack of once condemned sinners, ex-convicts, out on the road. So, the LORD places them under guard as we see in verse 23. They were kept under guard by the law.

You wouldn’t leave bunch of people like this unsupervised, would you? These people were at one time on their way to Hell and here they are out walking around free. The LORD had redeemed them from prison. However, now they needed to learn discipline.

Now then, we know that God deals with humanity covenantally. He doesn’t just sneak up on you and say, “BOO!” If a whole bunch of people starting walking through your lounge room, you’d introduce yourself as the owner of the house, wouldn’t you? You might say, “Take off your muddy boots for the place you walk has been set aside as my living room!” Just as the LORD, the Angel of the LORD said to Moses as he stood before the burning bush, “Take the sandals off your feet, for the place you stand is holy ground” (Ex. 3:5), just as the Angel of the LORD said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place you stand is holy” (Josh. 5:15).

Faithful to His Covenant procedure: First the LORD identifies Himself. Then He reveals His will. Of course, nowadays He does this through the Scriptures. You wouldn’t have to go further than Genesis 1:1 to see what I mean, since, the whole Bible is the revelation of God’s Covenant of Grace to fallen man. Therefore, in the very first verse of the Bible God identifies Himself as the Creator. And the whole rest of the Bible is the revelation of why He created the heavens and the earth. And, as we all know, it has all to do with the everlasting covenant of the Triune God. This, of course has to do with the Son of God becoming a Man and dwelling on the renewed earth with His redeemed people forever...

Anyhow, did the LORD not identify Himself to Abraham in Genesis 15:7, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans...” But the thing we are most interested in tonight is the covenantal language God used when He gave Israel the law in the wilderness. “And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Exod. 20:1-2).

The people of Israel trembled at the bottom of the mountain when Moses went up to receive the law of God. The ground was holy ground for we are told, “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with an arrow” (Heb. 12:20). Apparently there were angels present and the mountain shook and trembled. There was fire and there was thick black smoke and the sound of a trumpet. The LORD gave the law to discipline sinners.

It was the law’s task to remind the inmates who they were. They were sinners whom the LORD had brought out of bondage. They were all sinners from a jailhouse community with a jailhouse mentality. But the law was sent to discipline them. And the law would let them away with nothing.

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The sinners were to live by ten rules written on clay tablets. These ten rules were applied to every facet of their lives. There were rules how to treat God, and there were rules how to treat their neighbour. There were rules for what they could eat, and rules what they could not eat. There were rules for what they could and couldn’t wear. There were rules for who could wear what. There were rules stating who got to do what. There were rules for what to do with those who broke the rules.

The law was Israel’s hard taskmaster. The law was like a loud sergeant-major at bootcamp yelling at the rookies. If something was to be made of these sinners, they needed to learn discipline. They needed to learn who and what they were. They were sinners. The Law teaches us what sin is. The Law is like a magnifying glass. It shows you what sin is.

Could you imagine what it would have been like to have lived in the period from the giving of the Law until the incarnation of Christ? You would have been screaming out for a Savior to come and set you free! You would have been so conscious of your sin that you would be saying along with Paul, “O wretched sinner that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). And if you couldn’t say, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”, then you wouldn’t have a leg to stand on come Judgment Day!

The law was given to them to break the people of God. It was given to discipline them for the coming of the object of our faith. The people of God were brought out of the dungeon in Egypt. They were given the law to discipline them.

Stephen in his address as recorded in Acts 7:38 refers to the people of God at this time as “The congregation, the church in the wilderness.” This was the juvenile church – the church under age. This was the church looking forward to the Christ who was yet to come. Therefore, the law was also given to provide direction.

Direction

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The Law was given to direct sinners to Christ. In among all the rules and regulations of the law was the sacrificial system. This showed that the sins of the sinners needed to be paid for. The law as a strict disciplinarian showed them how much they were sinners. And the law as a director showed them how their sins were to be paid for. There was to be no remission of sins without the shedding of blood. Cattle, sheep, goats, blood poured out here, and blood sprinkled on there.

The shed blood was also a reminder of the broken covenant with Adam. The broken Covenant of Works needed to be paid for. For Adam was promised death as the wages of sin. However, the shed blood also pointed to the blood of the new covenant. It directed sinners to the blood of the Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world. It was a constant reminder of the promise of God.

The keeping of the feast, circumcision, the ceremonial laws, the sacrificial system were all good news to the juvenile church. Every time they saw a lamb sacrificed, they saw the gospel. They had it drummed into them that there is no remission for sins without the shedding of blood. Even the priesthood spoke of the great High Priest to come.

Everything to do with the law was a pointer to the Messiah to come. If you remove the gospel from the law, then you’re as good as saying there was no grace of God during this period. And I don’t have to tell you that many people see law and gospel as complete opposites. And certainly any attempt to keep the Law as a means of attaining salvation is opposite to the gospel. For we are told in verse 21, “For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.” And who more than the Apostle Paul was qualified to make that statement? He said of himself, “Concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Phil. 3:6).

But the Law didn’t function as a means of obtaining righteousness through its keeping. Rather it was designed to reveal your own lack of righteousness. It prepared you for the Gospel in which sinners are justified by faith and not works. If you wrench the gospel away from the law, all you’re left with is the religion of the Pharisees. And this sadly is the way many Christians today view the Lord’s church in the wilderness. They claim that it was the LORD’s intention to give Moses the Law as a Covenant of Works. Look again at verse 21, “For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been given by the law.” Therefore, the Law was never given as a means to earning salvation. But rather, the Law was given to shatter any foolish idea that a man could be saved by his own keeping of the Law as a covenant of works. For isn’t this the very reason why sinners flee to Christ for salvation?

They also forget that the giving of the Law to Moses didn’t change a thing. They forget that God’s covenant with Abraham remained with the church even in the wilderness years. They forget that the gospel was constantly before their eyes. They forget that they too were justified by faith just as we today are. The Apostle Peter even says so in Acts 15:11, “We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”

Many Christians today forget that the law was given to direct us to Christ. For doesn’t verse 24 say, “Therefore the law was or tutor to bring us to Christ”? And why would the LORD give us His law to lead us to Christ? “That we might be justified by faith.” Therefore, I ask all those who hate God’s law: Do you know what sin is? If you answer Yes! then I need to ask you, who taught you what sin is? Would you agree with me that it’s God’s law that teaches us what sin is? If we are in agreement, then, you and I both have the same tutor.

We have the same tutor as the church in the wilderness. The main difference being that the law back then led them to the Christ who was to come. Whereas today the Law leads us to the Christ who has come. But either way, it is the Law which directs us to Christ.

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            However, now that the Promised one has come all the minutiae of the Law has passed. No longer is it do this, don’t do that! Why? Well, the church has come of age. We are no longer treated as juveniles because Christ has come. The church is now a light on the hill and not a shadow in the wilderness. As Paul speaking of the church coming of age says in verse 21, “But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” When a child becomes a man, the rod that was used to discipline him is put away. So, it was when the church came of age and so it is for each of us.

And just so no one misses the point, let me ask the question: When did the church come of age? It came of age when the Seed came to whom the promise was made verse 19. The Tutor had done his job. He had brought the juvenile church to the Teacher, Jesus Christ.

Now we ask what was the promise made to the Seed? It was that God would justify the nations by faith just as it was for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Just as it was for the church in the wilderness. The nations had to wait for Christ to come before they could receive the blessing. Because the Promise was made to Christ. The Promise was that Christ would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. But first He had to go to the cross.

After He completed His work and ascended into heaven, He poured out His Spirit on all the nations. All flesh, all the nations, since Pentecost are being engrafted into the same church. The guy ropes of the tent of Israel have been lengthened to accommodate all the nations. “Go make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them...teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you...”

The church then, is no longer national, but international. And, as you know, the application of the law therefore changes accordingly. Now that Christ has come the Temple worship has gone. The sacrificial system has gone along with the priestly system.

And what was Christ coming to do? He was coming to save sinners from their sins. And what is the task of the law? It was given to reveal God’s righteousness and thereby show us our sins. Much, much more could be said...

So, as we tie things together, let me ask. what is the purpose of the Law for today? We’re talking about the Ten Commandments here, the moral law. Well, the use is threefold:

1.     The law serves the purpose of restraining sin and promoting righteousness.

2.     The law serves the purpose of bringing man under conviction of sin. It makes man conscious of his inability to meet the demands of the law. In other words, the law becomes a tutor to lead man to Christ.

3.     The law is a rule of life for believers. It reminds us of our duties to God and our neighbour and leads us in the way of life and salvation.

            I’m indebted to Louis Berkhof here.

Conclusion

Keep in mind that the LORD has brought you out of the Dungeon. No longer are you on death row. His law has disciplined you to the point of knowing you are a sinner, and knowing that you cannot keep his commandments. His law has led you like a tutor to Christ. No longer are you condemned sinner. Now you are a sinner justified by faith in Christ. And it’s all enough to make you want to obey Jesus where He says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”