How’s that Working for You? part 3 (by Dr. Bill Senyard on 02/03/13)

How’s That Working for You? part 3

Gal 3:10-14 (gal13)

 

Responsive Reading:

Gal 3:6-14  6 Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. 8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” 9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 10 All who rely on observing the law [i.e., working harder to earn God’s favor and blesings] are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law [in order to keep God’s favor].” 11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law [getting the top grade in your class], because, “The righteous will live by faith.” 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law [that is needing to be perfect day in and day out by keeping the law perfectly or else] by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham [which we did not earn by our hard work and law keeping] might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. (NIV)

 

Two Christian Worldviews-

1-      I work real hard to improve my % score of righteousness

2-      I admit that I am far from perfect and run to the cross to get blessings due perfectly faithful son.

 

“That dog don’t hunt!” The famous phrase comes from the Bill Clinton campaign for President.  The idea is that a hunting dog that doesn’t hunt is absolutely worthless.  It doesn’t live up to expectations or promises.  Applying it to our text, our normal expectations of law and righteousness don’t hunt. The debate in Galatia is over what do you and I do to get the blessings of God back.  This is a debate among believers now…. God seems distant…. you struggle with your prayer life…. depression… despair….. God appears heavy on you….. no joy…. BUT you are a believer…. how can you experience that joy again?  It is a very relevant question.   ‘Blessings’ then are present experience of your once purchased salvation.  ‘Curses’ are the removal of that experience.

 

The opponents said, “How can God bless you unless you do good works.. obey Torah… do the food laws, do religion.”  “Surely if you do these things, God will meet you and shower you with blessings promised to Abraham.”  It sounds so evangelical.  Paul argues the opposite.  v. 10- All who rely on works for righteousness (i.e., if you do religious stuff expecting to earn God’s favor), you are actually under the curses.  Let me say it in all of its strength…. As long as you continue to try to please God with religious stuff, there is no reason to expect that He will bless you at all.  That dog just don’t hunt!

 

Remember, ‘righteousness’ is not only a legal standing….. holy… right… it is a relational term.  I defined righteousness as being right with God and feeling right with God.  And being right with others and feeling right with others.  We spend our entire lives trying to please people.  Though we object at all of the polling done now… at its fundamental roots it demonstrates that we are people pleasers.  So in our day to day lives, relationships are earned.  I do things for you and you are pleased with me and respond accordingly.  If I do not respond to your requirements, or if I slip, you begin to doubt my interest and favor with you.  You respond by ignoring me, complaining to me or others….. I need to apologize and do penance merely to make up lost ground.

 

Is this how God treats us?  Is this the basis of my successful relationship with Him….. well it is and it isn’t. 

In vs. 10, Paul quotes Dt 27:26, “Cursed is the man who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.”

DT. 28:1- If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord will set you high above all the nations on earth… all these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God…..15 However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you….

 

So there is an overarching Biblical formula.  There is a gold standard for earning a relationship with God.  If you are 100% holy you earn all blessings in all the celestials  If you slip to 99% (over your lifetime, you earn all the curses.  You may not like it—but that’s the deal.  That is how God works.  So, there is no curve here at all!!!  God told Abraham in Gen 17 to ‘walk before me and be blameless.” Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount said it succinctly—“Be perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt. 5:48).  Remember Adam and Eve were banished from ‘righteousness’ by one sin!!!  Paul agrees, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”   In relational terms, “None of us deserve anything but curses from God!”  None of us deserve his love, mercy, tenderness, pleasure…. none of us.  Struggle all you will, do all of the good things, donate land and wealth to whatever church or ministry you want, do the right social things–still you fall short of the minimal requirement.  In fact, you are not even close.

 

Q: How do you interpret Psalm 24:3?

In Psalms,

“Who may ascend the hill of the Lord?  Who may stand in his holy place?  He who has clean hands and a pure heart…. (Ps 24.3).”

 

Here’s a quiz.  How have you interpreted this?  <DISCUSS>   Have you thought to yourself, “Boy if I only could wash my dirty hands really clean (remember Lady Macbeth?), well then I would really feel at home in God’s presence?  Then my spiritual life would just take off.”  If so, then you fell into the folly of worldview #1.  Only Jesus had clean hands and a pure heart.  You have never had clean hands and a pure heart.  But, in Jesus, you have been imputed with both—and so—by faith in Christ, you can boldly go into the Holy presence of God without guilt and shame.  He can’t draw any nearer –whether you feel his presence or not—He is there.  The Psalmist is talking about Jesus ultimately.

 

But that’s not fair

But this is unfair.  I can’t do this.  The Bible begs to differ.  Look at these verses from Dt 30.

Deut. 30:11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach…19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.  Dt. 30:11-19 NIV

 

–You and I can do these things—but we will not. We have not.

–We are treated as moral agents and based upon our failure, it is said that we have not chosen life but chosen death.  Don’t blame anything else.  You needed a savior who could take your penalty in your place and give you His record of perfection.  Done!

 

What is the nature of the curse?  Same as that of Eden.  It is a deep palpable experience of separation from relationship with God…. no sufficient source of wholeness… no source of unconditional love…. only toil, endless fruitlessness, pain, struggle, loneliness, isolation, emptiness, wandering.  Out there (ex-Eden) one must struggle for identity…. must struggle to keep it sound amidst shifting wilderness sand and terrain….. Presence of unabated shame and guilt…. fear of intimacy…. unfulfilled longings… that earth cannot satisfy!!!!!  This is ‘living death’.

 

But v. 13, ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us….’  You see here is the good news.  While I was flopping around in ignorance and willful sin (i.e., looking for identity, worth, value, intimacy and glory anywhere but from God), Jesus Christ unilaterally looked down and pre-loved me.  He conspired with the Father to take all of the curse due me…. all of the DT 28 wrath of God toward my sin… all of the shame, guilt, sorrow, alienation, loneliness… all due me came upon him.  He bore my curse!!  He put on my unrighteousness (i.e., my broken relationship with God).  In return, his DT -28-perfection, his life of perfect law keeping is accounted to my account.  All blessings are already mine.

 

Good News!!!! It is not the law but the promises that are at the center of the Bible (View 1 View 2).  Here is the ongoing mystery.  The Bible says that on this basis, Dt 28-30 proclaims that I would now be given all of the blessings!   I am totally and permanently in the dance.  I have been given the Spirit at the beginning of my adoption.  So now I have two ongoing choices?

 

Experience Curses/Blessings

1) Experiential Curse- I can choose to go back to doing ‘works of Law’ in order to stay in God’s favor.  But how crazy would that be.  But that is just what you and I do?  Am I wrong?  I’m processing God will love me more if_________ Or God will love me less if I don’t stop _______________.  Is God more pleased with us if we worship Him according to a specific order?  Is God more pleased with us if we dress this way or not…. Is God more pleased with me if I pray using old English?…. modern English?  Reformed… not-reformed.  My brain screams yes…. my faith proclaims no.

 

He is perfectly pleased with me solely on the basis of Jesus’ perfect work. My success at any laws—pick one any one—will not add to God’s pleasure in me.   If I give up on this one iota, the next step is easier.  If I give one degree, the rest is a slippery slope.  This slide can happen in a moment, in a conversation even.  If I think that my righteousness now is based upon something I do or do not do, then that becomes a source of guilt and shame for me when I fail…. a source of pride and self-righteousness when I succeed… both of these enslave me.  My experience of Christian Freedom will be been replaced with an experience of slavery.  My sonship has been replaced with servitude…. not to God…. but to rules that have been rendered ineffective thought Jesus’ life death and resurrection.

 

2)      Experiential Blessing- Walking in the Spirit.  By faith remembering Christ, His ongoing love for me…. my solid unbreakable relationship with Him….. I merely now do what is absolutely natural— I respond to His love.  I access his love for others.  I access His DNA of submission and then actually want to serve others as He served…I worship in Spirit and Truth…. all of this because now I actually want to.  The standard has always been to love God and love neighbor… when I walk in faith, in the Spirit, I actually want to do this!

 

INJAM

So remember from last week—now that I embrace or am embraced by this relevant gospel, I want to love others.  I am now not constrained /beat up by guilt to do so… I want to.  I want to do things that are indeed pleasing to the Father, even though (and as a basis for motivation) I am already perfectly pleasing to the Father.  I now walk in power, in humility, in love.  I—as I am—am a provocative poster-child for His redemption—His promise over His law.  I am not a great poster-child for the success of law keeping (unless you mean Jesus’ lawkeeping). We are all rescue dogs.

 

Buck– Our rescue dog.  After living with abusive owners, he was willing to obey us, but cringing in fear the whole while. After months of actual love, he began to respond in a different manner.  He no longer feared making mistakes…. he made lots of them.  He even learned to take discipline without falling to pieces.  He was transformed into a fun dog.  His personality blossomed.  That dog hunts—and we are all rescue animals.

 

two worldviews

The Christian walk is a wild ride swinging between these two worldviews.  One brings guilt, a feeling of separation from God…. a critical unfulfilling moralistic, legalistic religion.  The other is powerful, a present sense of Christ and His sufferings.  One is guilt ridden and abusive… the other is proactive and loving.  One is the path of freedom — the other slavery.  In heaven, we will all know perfect freedom (we who are his children).  But here?  We can know a taste, more and more as we actually choose to rest (present tense ) in His work on our behalf.  The righteous man shall live by faith….. it is an ongoing walk, and struggle….. it is well worth the effort.

 

Child of God—here is a test that you can take.  A question that you can ask yourself.  Is your love for God lukewarm?  <Silence>  If yes, then, you have shifted to the religion of the opponents of Paul!

 

You will most likely ask, “Where does the law come in?  Where do good works come in?”  Look here is the punchline to that celestial joke: it is only His children, those who are actively walking in His power and love who actually do law!!!!  What you and I have been doing for the most part, in the name of law— is merely unbelief, self-righteousness and self-serving….. only Band-Aids to cover our own sense of guilt and shame… a form of penance… not really good works!!!  Or to earn God’s or someone else’s favor?  Unrecognizable to God as ‘good’.  These are what Isaiah realized were filthy rags!

 

Which is really in the spirit of the law?  That I have to do these things?  Or that I would want to do them.  Of course, the last.  Making sense?  For the most part, we have taught and lived worldview #1.  But honestly, how’s that working for you?  Instead, let us all:

 

Come as you are into the presence of God

 

Be filled with His Spirit (power, fullness, fruit, gifts)

 

Then…Go and love others (new other-oriented motivation)

 

As we move out to engage with our neighbors and family and co-workers, here is a couple of great engaging conversation starters.

 

Q (for Christians):  Why do you do Christian things?  Do you do them, go to church, Sunday school, small group—do you tithe, or volunteer—do you struggle to not do destrucgtive things—so that God would like you more?  So that He would be more apt to bless you?

This is a different gospel.  Technically speaking, all you should expect are curses.  Just saying.  Certainly you most likely will not feel God’s pleasure and favor anytime soon.  This is serious.  If they are friends or family, this is very serious.  I would think that you would care.

 

Q: For non Christians: Let’s assume for just a moment, just for the sake of argument that you really wanted to go to heaven, to be with Jesus for all eternity—just saying—what is your understanding of how to accomplish that?  What do you need to do before you can get Jesus to want you in heaven?  What do you need to do for him to bless you with Heaven?

 

Most answers are tragically off-base—and I would suggest that this is on us!