WHERE THERE'S SMOKE

                                                WHERE THERE’S SMOKE 

Introduction

I remember working as a plumber in a house in Toronto, Canada. I’d just finished what I thought was a beautiful repair job on a pipe in an awkward place. I’d had the old blowtorch going as I soldered a pipe to another pipe buried in a wall. I was admiring what I thought was a neat job when I saw smoke! Oh! Oh! You know the old saying: Where there’s smoke there’s fire! I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn’t noticed the smoke. I could have burned down the whole house with everyone in it. Have you ever noticed that the fire-brigade never teaches their men to check and see if the door is open before they break it down?

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When I was at technical college learning how to be a plumber our instructor used to say, “Always make sure that the flame never leaves the end of your torch!” Apparently, the flame had left the end of my torch and had run up the pipe inside the wall. It had set fire to some wood shavings inside the wall of the woman’s house in which I was working. The “firies” managed to put the fire out. But what a mess when it was all over! They had to smash big holes in the bathroom wall to find the fire to put it out.

Adam and Eve started a fire, as it were, in the Garden of Eden. Adam kindled the fiery anger of God as he let sin and evil into God’s beautiful creation. He broke the Covenant of Works that God had placed him under. God’s pouring out fire and brimstone on places like Sodom and Gomorrah, according to Scripture, are examples of how much God hates sin and evil.

But we are thankful that God has provided sinners an escape from His fiery wrath. And we escape through faith in Jesus Christ who rescues us from the wrath to come. However, I want you to know that His rescue plan is not like a bunch of firemen smashing holes in walls. No! Christ’s plan to put the fire out is much more carefully planned. And it was all executed with perfect timing and with surgical precision. This plan we call The Covenant of Grace.

The whole Bible is the revelation of this Covenant. And here in Genesis 15 we see the Lord ratify His covenant with Abram, the father of all believers.

“On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram” Genesis 5:18.

The general gist of what we’re looking at in the following is: The Covenant of Grace is God’s plan to rescue His people from the fire.

First, we’ll put ourselves in Abram’s shoes and consider the covenant from his perspective. Then we’ll put our own shoes back on and consider the covenant as it stands today.

The Little Picture

We need to look at the content of Genesis 15 through the eyes of Abram, because, if we’re to understand anything of this passage, then we need to try to see things the way he saw things So, let’s for the moment observe things as did Abram living around 2000 BC.

Take note that Abram didn’t have a copy of New Testament, not even a KJV! He didn’t even have an Old Testament and any version, including ancient Hebrew. God spoke to him directly in a vision (15:1), and then a dream (15:12). Therefore, take note that everything that transpired in Genesis 15 took place in a vision and a dream.

As the Lord communicated with Abram, and Abram with the Lord, the subject of offspring and land arose again. The Lord had already promised Abram offspring and land for them to dwell in. So, what we see before us is the ratification of this promise. In other words, the Lord in this covenant-cutting ceremony was binding Himself by His Word to Abram. He was confirming, giving Abram confirmation of His promise of offspring and land. But if you look at the way the Lord chose to do it, you’d be excused for thinking there was a whole lot more to it than that. What, with bits of dead animals not to mention the smoking oven and burning torch! Like they say, Where there’s smoke there’s fire!

So, what’s really going on here? Well, in Genesis 15:1 the LORD had told Abram He was his shield and exceedingly great reward. And in 15:6 we see that Abram believed in his shield and exceedingly great reward. For that is who the Lord revealed Himself to be to Abram. Notice in verse 1 that the Lord also said to Abram, “Do not be afraid.” From those words we might anticipate what the Lord was going to do a little later. For in verse 12 we’re told that “horror and great darkness feel upon him,” i.e., Abram.

Let’s make sure we’re all looking at the same thing here. There’s Abram sitting in an armchair or whatever on his own somewhere. Then he starts to have this vision. The closest any of us will ever come to a vision is perhaps a vivid daydream. Remember when you were off fishing or riding a horse when really you were sitting at your desk staring at the blackboard in school? Well, Abram’s vision would be nothing like that. All his senses would have been heightened. He got to converse with the Lord, and the Lord showed him things. The Lord took him outside and showed him the stars in heaven.

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Abram also got to carve up a cow, a ram, a goat, and place them strategically. He placed one half of the other opposite the other. He placed a pigeon on one side and a dove on the other. He even got to chase some vultures away from the carcasses. All of this took place in a vision.

Then a deep sleep fell upon him along with horror and darkness. It was the type of darkness you could plunge a knife into – right up to the hilt! It was a scary darkness. The kind of darkness that gives you the creeps. The kind that makes the hair on the back of your neck bristle with terror. But the Lord has already said to Abram, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

Then we’re told in 15:17 the sun had gone down. It was dark. And behold, “A smoking oven and a burning torch passed between the pieces.” This is what Abram saw. This was the revelation which God burned into his heart. Abram personally witnessed the Lord make a covenant with him. This covenant is the Covenant of Grace which is still in force today.

Just before we move on to our second point, let me quote some words of Louis Berkhof. Louis Berkhof is a well-respected Reformed Theologian. He says,

 

The Bible teaches that there is but a single gospel by which men can be saved. And because the gospel is nothing but the revelation of the covenant of grace, it follows that there is also but one covenant. The gospel was already heard in material promise, Gen. 3:15, was preached unto Abraham, Gal. 3:8, and may not be supplanted by any Judaistic gospel, Gal. 1:8,9.[1]

Let’s all hang onto the line, “The Gospel is nothing but the revelation of the Covenant of Grace.” Therefore, this covenant making ceremony must be full of the Gospel. Abraham has already heard and believed in the Gospel. For in Genesis 15:6 we’re told Abram has received through faith the righteousness he needs to save him from the fires of hell. For he has believed in the Lord who is his shield, his exceedingly great reward. He has been justified, i.e., declared righteous, which is evidenced by his faith in the Lord. He believes in the Lord, the Lord who rescues us by His Gospel. The Lord rescues us as a fireman might rescue someone from a burning building, someone who is about to be engulfed in the flames.

The Big Picture

Now, again, let’s remind ourselves that Abram didn’t have a copy of the New Testament under his arm. He didn’t have a copy of the Apostles’ Creed or the Westminster Confession of Faith. But, by the same token, the Bible tells us that Abram heard the Gospel (Gal. 3:8). So, he wasn’t some Neanderthal. He wasn’t some evolutionist’s caveman.

Abram had a true knowledge of God revealed to him. He had the righteousness of God revealed to him. And he had the holiness of God revealed to him. And all these things were to revealed to him by the Lord Himself. How can I say this? Because Abram heard and believed in the Gospel. And by believing in the Gospel Abram was embracing the true knowledge of God, His righteousness. and His holiness, i.e., the things Adam lost in the Fall.

In short, God was at work in Abram’s heart. God was busy reforming Abram back into the true image and likeness of God. For the Covenant of Grace, i.e., the Gospel, brings with it the true Knowledge of God, His Righteousness, and Holiness. Therefore, Abram would be seeing and understanding much more than todays’ Christian credits him.

So, let’s consider what Abram would be seeing and understanding. What was Abram doing while the Lord was confirming His covenant with him? Well, keep in mind that this was, first off, taking place in a vision. Then the vision intensified into a dream as Abram went into a deep sleep which fell upon him. The deep sleep and the darkness that fell upon him were supernatural.

It was the Lord who came seeking Abram. It was the Lord who had called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans (Gen. 15:7). It was the Lord who had come to him in this vision. He’d come now to confirm the covenant or Gospel He had already revealed to Abram. Abram was already believing in the Gospel. He was trusting in the Lord as his shield, his exceedingly great reward.

So far, Abram, would have had the same basic knowledge of God stated in the Westminster Confession of Faith. WCF 7:1 under the head “God’s Covenant with Man” states,

 

The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as their blessedness and REWARD, but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part, which He has been pleased to express by way of covenant.[2]

God has condescended to reveal Himself in His covenant to Abram. So, Abram would have understood something of the great humility of God. For he saw Almighty God humble Himself to talk to him and show him the covenant. And also, as he waited for the Lord, he would have contemplated the meaning of the carcasses. They were graphic pictures of sin and death! These were the very types of animals that were to be used in the future sacrificial system. These were “clean” animals. Even Noah, years before, knew about clean birds and animals. How did Abram know he was supposed to cut them in half? Well, that’s how you cut a covenant in those days.

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The same ceremony was still going on in Jeremiah the Prophet’s day, “And I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it – the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf – I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies shall be for meat for the birds of the heaven and the beasts of the earth” (Jer. 34:18-19).

Abram had to drive away the vultures from the carcasses. He knew that those dead animals were there instead of him. He could see that God would accept a substitute sacrifice on his behalf. But he knew that that substitute would need to be worth more than a cow, a ram, goat, a dove and a pigeon. He knew that his substitute sin offering would need to be a man – a special man. There was coming a time when the Lord would say to Abram, “Take your son, your ONLY son Isaac, whom you love... and offer him as a burnt offering” (Gen. 22:2).

Abram knew that the blood of goats and heifers and sheep wouldn’t satisfy the justice of God. He knew that these things were just picture symbols of the real thing. Just as in the future Moses would sprinkle the blood of the everlasting covenant on the people. Just as we today sprinkle the blood of the everlasting covenant symbolized in water baptism. But Abram knew his substitute needed to be a man who was righteous in the eyes of God. He knew he needed to be child from heaven, a child from God Himself, a child of promise, even the conditional promise, a child of the covenant.

He knew his substitute needed to be his exceedingly great reward, the blessing of the covenant, the One who would shield him from all his enemies, the One who would cover his sins against the fiery wrath of God, against death itself. And yet what a terrible dilemma the Lord placed Abram in if He had promised him descendants as numerous as the stars only for them to be destined for the fires of hell! But Abram knew, as we shall see as we follow his life, that God’s love is a covenantal love. He knew according to His covenant, God would save him and his whole house. Just as the Lord saved Noah and his whole house, so the Lord would save Abram and his whole house to which you and I today belong. For, as Peter says, “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:39). And the condition of the Covenant is that we believe in the Lord and His Covenant, i.e., the Gospel. Abram, we’re told in Romans 4:11, is the father of all who will believe – in the Gospel.

So Abram sat there contemplating death as he looked at the blood and the carcasses. And as the sun had set and horror and great darkness fell upon him, he would have tasted something of the terrors of hell. For hell is in outer darkness, as the Lord informs us in Matthew 8:12 But hell is more than that. It’s the place where the burning wrath of God abides forever on those who do not believe in the same Lord in whom Abram believed (John 3:36).

However, Abram didn’t have to worry about hell. For he believed in the Lord. The Lord who had already told him he’d be buried at a good old age. He’d been told that he’d go to his fathers in peace, not torment (15:15). But what a terrible and awesome sight it must have been for Abram, to see the Lord appear as a smoking furnace and a burning torch! How he must have sensed the holiness and the righteousness of God in this sight. For Abram saw God reveal Himself as a consuming fire! Hebrews 12:29 says, “Our God is a consuming fire.”

We take it that the sacrificed animals were consumed as the Lord passed between the pieces. Consumed by the same righteous holiness which consumes, burns up, all sin in its path. As the holiness and righteousness of God was manifested to Abram, he would have been acutely aware of his own unholy unrighteousness. But, as the torch and the pitcher meant victory for Gideon’s army over the enemies of the Lord, so the smoking oven and torch meant victory for Abram over sin and the last enemy, death. For here Abram could see clearly that the Lord was rescuing him from his sins, from sin and death. For here he could see that this covenant was completely and utterly a covenant of grace. God had condescended to make, to cut a covenant with him to save him and his faithful house from the consuming justice of God. Abram could see the Gospel, the good news of his salvation as he fixed his eyes upon the Lord.

How is it with you? Is the gospel just some billowing smoke to you? Have you at least noticed the smoke? Remember, where there’s smoke there’s fire. Our God is a consuming fire, but His Covenant of Grace is our shield. For the Gospel reveals the One who is our shield, our exceedingly great reward.

The Covenant is the thing which stops our whole house burning down. For the Gospel deflects the wrath of God from Abram and his whole house to which we belong. Like the blood painted on the lintel protected Israel from the destroying angel at Passover in Egypt, the Covenant the Lord cut with Abram signified what happens to covenant breakers. They are to be consumed by the fiery wrath of God.

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Jesus received the fiery wrath of God as it was poured out upon Him on the cross. But not as a covenant breaker, but for covenant breakers such as us. For He kept perfectly the Covenant by which we are condemned, i.e., the Covenant of Works. He kept the Covenant of Works. Even unto death did He perfectly do the will of the Father. And, since the Covenant of Grace is from everlasting, God’s justice was satisfied by the death of Christ our substitute. Therefore, He was consumed by the fire of God not for His own sin but for the sins of His people a people as numerous as the stars! “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).

Jesus asked for our forgiveness, and He said He was going to prepare a place for us. For in His Father’s house there are many mansions. It’s a land of milk and honey, a place with no sin, pain, crying, sorrow or death (Rev. 21:4). It’s a place in which righteousness dwells.

The Lord kept Abram waiting as Abram sat contemplating the meaning of what he was witnessing. He pondered the dead carcasses, torn in half. He pondered their poured out blood. As Jesus ate the Passover Lamb with His disciples He took bread, gave thanks and broke it. With the cross waiting for Him outside the door, He said, “Take, eat; this is MY body broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same manner He also took the cup after supper saying, ‘This is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:24-25). The Lord says to Christ as recorded by His Prophet Isaiah, “I will preserve You and give You as a covenant to the people, to restore the earth” (Isa. 49:8).

Make no mistake, our covenant is IN Christ. Nay, God’s covenant with Abram and us IS Christ! Christ our covenant hung on a cross between two divided places. He hung between the two places that were torn apart by Adam’s sin, heaven and earth. As He hung there contemplating what it all meant supernatural darkness fell upon Him and over the whole land and the sun was darkened (Luke 23:44-45). Horror and great darkness fell upon Him as, like Abram, God kept Him waiting. He experienced the outer darkness of hell, “My God, My God why have You forsaken Me?” Then the fiery wrath of God consumed Him, “My heart is like wax; it has melted within Me.” Then, when His work was finished, a deep sleep fell upon Him – even the sleep of death!

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        Then, by the Spirit, Christ entered into the Holy of Holies with His own blood (Heb. 9:14). This was signified by the curtain of separation in the Temple, being cut or torn in two (Mark 15:38). The tearing in half of that veil means that we are reconciled to God by Christ’s blood. It means that we are no longer separated from God, that we are now joined together again. The Apostle says, “[He] was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” (Rom. 4:25).

The Gospel declares that you must believe in the Lord to be saved from your sins. Therefore, you must believe in the same Lord in whom Abram believed. Jesus Christ was his shield, his exceedingly great reward. For Jesus is the sum and substance of the Gospel. For in Him and His Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed (Rom. 1:17).

Jesus says that Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and saw it and was glad (John 8:56). Along with Abram Jesus rescues all who by God’s grace call on Him. He delivers us from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10) and believe the Scriptures when they tell us about wrath to come.

Abram shooed the birds of prey away from the carcasses as he waited patiently for the Lord to come. Then the Lord appeared as a smoking oven and a burning torch. The Lord is coming in like manner again. But let us not grow impatient. For “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). And the verses following say, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with a fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

Our God is indeed a consuming fire! And He’s going to purge the whole universe of unrighteousness. He’ll do this as He comes when He comes to confirm His covenant with the world, the cosmos! He’ll separate the sheep from the goats. As the pillar of smoke and fire separated His people from the Egyptians, so the Son of God will stand between His own people and those who belong to the world. A river of fire separate them, even a lake of fire into which the Devil and his followers will be thrown.

Our God is a just God He punishes iniquity. But praise be to His name, He is also merciful. The smoking oven and the burning torch must have been a terrifying sight on a dreadfully dark night. But the Good News is that it was simply the LORD’s way of showing Abram that He was, sometime in the future, going to cauterize the gaping, festering wound of our sin. It was a picture of what He was going to do to His only begotten Son Jesus Christ at Calvary. This is what was being confirmed to Abram, as we see recorded here in Genesis 15.

It was Abram who shed the blood of these animals. God accepted his sacrifice. It was Christ who shed His own blood. God accepted His sacrifice. Therefore, the LORD, Abram’s shield, his exceedingly great reward, kept His covenant He had cut with Abram. He kept it unto death, even His own death upon a cross.

Conclusion

If all you’ve seen is a bit of smoke, then remember – Where there’s smoke there’s fire! Just pray that it’s the fire of the Gospel that’s burning in your heart. But don’t call on the fire brigade to come and put it out. Call on the Lord Jesus Christ to come and set your whole house on fire. Call on Him to come and set your whole street on fire. Call on Him to set the whole nation of Australia on fire. Call on Him to set the whole world ablaze with His glorious Gospel of Grace!

Prayer: Father we give You thanks that You have revealed Your Covenant of Grace to us, Abram’s children. We thank You that You spared His household, to which we belong, from the fires of hell. Kindle in us anew, a fiery zeal for the advancement of Your kingdom, that Your kingdom would come, that Your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. May the Gospel light up the darkness of our hearts and may You make, as the Psalmist says, “Your minister’s a flame of fire.” May each of us be consumed, not by Your justice (for that is hell), but rather may each of us be consumed by Your burning love for sinners such as us. In the Mediator of the Covenant’s name, even Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

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[1] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, reprinted June 1991), 279.

[2] Westminster Confession of Faith, Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the Practical Use of Saving Knowledge, the Directory for the Publick Worship of God, the Form of Church Government, etc., (Free Presbyterian Publications, Glasgow, (First Reprinted 1976), 1985), 41.

CUTTING REMARKS

    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

                                                        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

 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

 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.”