Galatians Part 6: The Bondage Of Sin Exposed

Unless you just lived under a rock for the last couple weeks, something significant happened on Tuesday in our country and in our culture. I heard a pastor say something a couple of weeks ago that I want to address. We, as citizens of this country, are responsible for its culture. What tends to happen, especially in conservative Christian circles, is that we kind of separate ourselves from that culture, and we talk about the evil world. You guys ever been a part of that kind of conversation? It's very easy to do.

What I want to do is remind us that we are a part of this culture. We are a significant part of this culture, and we have been mandated by God to have an impact on this culture. The culture that we live in reflects how well we do that as the church. So what I want to present to us this morning, and I’ve heard other pastors over the last week (well, the last five days) do the same thing, and I just think it's so important. Most of us in this room over the last five days have all experienced two things: grieving and celebrating, okay? Grieving and celebrating.

What I want us to do this morning and going forward is to view the results of this election as an opportunity. Okay, this is not an election where we get our way. It's an election where we have been—the freedoms—I think our religious freedoms have been preserved, and that's something to celebrate. There are other things that I think most of us in this room would celebrate happening in this election, but more than that, we have to look at what happened this week as an opportunity for the church to increase its impact on this culture. That is our mandate. That is the mandate not given to us by the Bill of Rights, but the mandate given to us by the Creator of every living thing and the Creator of this universe. He has given us the Great Commission as the mandate for us to have an impact on our culture.

The way our culture has gone is an indictment on us as the church and our refusal to do what we've been called to do. So we have an opportunity before us to increase that influence, and we don't necessarily have to influence it in ways that might be going through your head. We can influence that culture by the way we raise our children, by the way we interact in our community. I'm not saying you have to go march on Washington. I'm saying take more responsibility for how you impact your community, your street, your cul-de-sac, the things that you're involved in in this town or the community that you live in, to that end, to impact a culture for the kingdom of God and for the glory of God. Amen.

So I want us to look through everything that's happening in our culture through that lens. Where we are is our responsibility, not the world's. We've been given a job to do, and a lot of what we see in the culture is our refusal to do so. Let's get in the game, and let's view everything that we do in our community involvement in that and through that lens.

Now I realize, every time we do this, I think, "I'm never doing this again," but I know that we have to. But doing a sermon series like we're doing at a 30,000-foot view—that's what we're doing. So today, I'm going to cover the second half of chapter 3 and all of chapter 4 in 30 minutes or so. Good luck. But in order to do that, I have to stay up here. So I'm just going to make a couple of disclaimers. What I'm going to do is cruise along at 30,000 feet, and every now and then, I'm going to dive bomb, get down, and we're going to dissect some things, and then I'm going to go back up to 30,000 feet because there are things I want to zero in on, but there are also things we have to just get through.

If you're in the ladies' Bible study on Wednesdays, you're going to be like, "He didn't mention this, and he didn't mention that." That's okay. But I also want you to see that’s kind of how it works. Sunday morning is not ever going to be the place where we’re going to cover things as deeply as we want to cover them. So we do the 30,000-foot view on Sunday mornings generally, and then during the week in the studies and in the groups is when you're going to get into the word at a level we just can't on Sunday mornings. Which is another reason to get involved in some of those other groups because the different times we gather have different specific purposes.

Last week, the main thrust of what we talked about was the limitations of the law. The law was limited in its effect and in its intended effect on the people of God, and that's what Paul covered in the verses we were in last week. This week, we are going to talk about the proper function of the law. So Paul's doing all this stuff, and even what Heidi read, some of you are going like, "What is he talking about?" So we're going to make a little bit more sense of it.

We're going to start in verse 19. I'm just going to read a couple of verses at a time, and we're going to make our way through. "Why then the law?" Okay, so if the law couldn’t save—was the limitation of the law—we’ve already covered that. "Why then the law?" It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring (the offspring is Jesus; we learned about that last week) should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Who's the intermediary? Moses is the intermediary. That’s why it’s called the Mosaic Covenant—the law is the Mosaic Covenant, given to us through angels by Moses. He carried it down the mountain on the tablets and then taught it to the nation of Israel.

Now, an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Now we learned last week that the law actually placed a curse on all men, but we have to understand something. The purpose of the law—now we could break this down—but the overarching, broad main purpose of the law was simply to dramatically display the depth of our sin. That is why the law was given. It was never given—and this is a major misunderstanding throughout Christian circles, because we’re constantly being drawn back to the law, and we’re not quite sure what to do with it. So we go like, "Oh, that’s how people were saved in the Old Testament, but now that Jesus has come, we’re saved by grace." The law never saved anybody. Ever.

The major misunderstanding of the Judaizers and many throughout Jewish history was thinking that that is how they gained right standing before God—by keeping the rules. The law was never intended to save, and it couldn’t save. Its purpose was to put on display the depth of our sinful hearts, not just our sinful actions. Now here’s what’s really interesting—I was thinking about this this week because I read it in a couple of different commentaries, and I think it’s important for us to understand. It is not enough that something is free—we talk about the grace of Jesus being given to us freely—it’s not enough that something is free, it also needs to be necessary.

We understand that. How many times have you been offered something free, and you’re like, "I don’t want this, don’t need this, not taking it." It’s not enough just that something is free—it has to be necessary. So the purpose of the law was to show us the absolute necessity and utter importance of the grace of God—to show us just how far we were from holiness and the fact that we could not get any closer to it, no matter how many rules we keep. That is the purpose of the law. Men must first be convinced of their need for salvation, and in order to do that, the law had to define sin—it had to define it for us.

Romans 7 talks about this. Paul writes in Romans chapter 7, starting in verse 7: "What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’" Anybody ever have an experience with one of your kids where they did something really wrong, and through the discipline process, you realized they had no clue that they were doing anything wrong? I have a very distinct childhood memory of this very thing—my first cuss word. Had no clue, and I was just walking around saying whatever it was, and then one of my sisters heard and reported it to my dad, and I figured out very quickly. But there was an innocence in my heart and in my mind, but that didn’t change the fact that what was coming out of my mouth was vile and disgusting. I needed to be shown that it was wrong.

This is what the law was for. The law was given to define sin and to show us the depth of our sinful hearts. Romans 7 continues: "But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive, and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me."

Do you know what he’s describing in his own heart? He’s describing in his own heart what we read taking place in Genesis chapter 3. God said, "Don’t eat of the tree," and all of a sudden, Eve is going, "The tree looks pretty good." God defines sin, and all of a sudden, we see sin everywhere. That’s the law. That’s the purpose of the law, to show us what’s wrong and show us how it’s everywhere, and to show us just how deep it goes in our hearts. It goes much deeper than just breaking rules.

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

Now, in Roman society, this is how it worked: you had the father, and you had the son, who is the heir. Then, you had guardians, who were usually slaves themselves, that were managers of the child until he became of age and became the heir and had access to all the things that then belonged to him. But before that time came, what was he? He was a slave—that’s the distinction. Even though he is an heir, he's held prisoner. I'm not saying they were abusive necessarily, I'm saying that he was under the authority of something that was placed over him, and he could not have access to the authority and the blessing that was rightfully his until he came of age.

And he says, in the same way, we also—the Jewish people, the people of God—when we were children, when we were children before Christ came, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. He’s referring to the law, the elementary principles of the world, immaturity. He’s describing them as children who did not understand the scriptures, the wisdom of God. And because they could not understand the wisdom of God, because they did not have the Holy Spirit, they were required to live under a guardian to show them, “Say thank you,” or “I didn’t hear ‘please’”—do we understand? This is what the law was doing.

And then, the law, through defining the elementary principles of obedience, Paul talks about them as children because they could only understand these elementary principles. They could not fathom the wisdom of God in the scriptures. So, what’s going on in the book of Galatians is the Judaizers are still there. They were like, “Yay, Jesus came! Now we’ve got to say please, make sure you say thank you.” And Paul’s going, “Bro, we’re moving beyond.” The wisdom of God is driving us to maturity.

In the same way, when my son Isaac graduates from college, I am praying he doesn’t move home and play with his Legos on the floor all day. That was okay then, it’s not okay now. This is exactly what Paul’s referring to: we were slaves as children, under a guardian according to the elementary principles of the world. And he’s saying, “We’ve grown up, we’ve been given the Spirit of God, we’ve been given the wisdom of God—now we should live in the freedom that we’ve been given.”

My daughter is 18. She’s living in Colorado now, and the other day she called me and texted me, asking my permission to do something. She’s 18, she’s moving out, and so there’s this push and pull. Shannon and I had to say to her, “Hey, I appreciate you coming to us for wisdom, but you don’t need to ask us for permission. You’re moving beyond that.”

Paul wants the Galatians to move beyond the elementary principles. He wants them to be set free through the wisdom of God brought to us in the person of Jesus.

Verse 23: “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.” He’s going back to chapter three—sorry, I didn’t say that. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. Amen, we are free!

Thinking that they could be saved by keeping the rules and regulations, the Jewish people became enslaved to trying. They were in kindergarten for 1500 years. Like, that’s a crude analogy, but how often do we see the prophets, the different kings, the different people pop up in the Old Testament? We see David living by faith, Isaiah was living by faith, Hosea was living by faith, and some of the kings were real. I mean, they would discover the book of the law, and they would read it, and they would cry, and they would repent, and they would come to faith. We see this happening.

And then we see the nation of Israel again refusing to follow God in faith, going, “No, we’ve got to keep the rules.” And then they never did, because rules can’t save, and rules will not make children mature. We know this, right, parents? It makes them good rule followers; it does not help them mature. There has to be what? There has to be a relationship. If I want my kids to mature beyond keeping rules, there has to be a relationship that shows them the purpose of the rules and why these principles will guard their hearts as they mature. This is where Paul is going.

Chapter 4, verse 4: “But when the fullness of time had come”—Merry Christmas, by the way, amen! I wrote, I drew a little Christmas tree in my notes right there—“but when the fullness of time had come, joy to the stinking world, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” We see that Jesus was born under the law; he was born into slavery under the guardian, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Jesus lived according to the elementary principles of the world, according to the law, and through his perfect obedience, not just in action but in the purity and holiness of his heart, shattered it through his death and his resurrection, paying to redeem all of us who were under the law. We have been given freedom because of Jesus. Merry Christmas!

Which, by the way, some of you knew me years ago and I was like, “December 1st: if I hear, if I see one Christmas light or hear one Christmas song before December 1st, I’m judging you according to the authority vested in me as…” whatever, I don’t know. I have massively changed. I would listen to Christmas music 365 days a year. December, or like the day after Halloween, Shannon and I were running through town, and there’s one particular house that goes all out for decorations for every holiday. They had like 15 or 20 gravestones in their yard for Halloween, and it was—I mean, it was creepy. They had the ghost, everything.

The day after Halloween, it was all torn down, and we’re running by their house, and they’re putting up the Christmas decorations. And I said, “Go for it.” And this is why—this truth is why. Why do we have to limit ourselves to one month to celebrate the greatest truth in the history of mankind? Amen! So, if you come to my house, that’s what you’re going to hear.

Continuing, verse 6: “And because you are sons…” Okay, because you are sons, he’s made that shift now—no longer under a guardian, set free because you are sons. God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father.” Now he’s showing a distinction, he’s showing the growth from “say please, say thank you” to a maturing of the relationship.

He’s showing a difference because the relationship is different. God has not just become the judge, he is now the intimate father. It’s one thing to have the judge of the universe say, “You’re innocent”—that’s a wonderful truth. But how much richer is that truth when that judge is also your father, saying, “I love you, and I’m so glad you’re home.” That’s what is going on here. The relationship of a father and son, or daughter, is maturing because of what Jesus has done for us.

Closeness, affection, and generosity are all at the heart of this relationship because he has adopted us. Paul goes into this—he starts talking about adoption. And adoption, at its core, is a helpless child having the love of a father poured out on that child because the father loves them, period. He has chosen to adopt us.

We have been given life where we deserve death. We’ve been given mercy when we deserve judgment. And we have been invited daily into the embrace of a loving Father because of Jesus. Because of Jesus. So he melts away the old distinctions, and now he gives us some new ones.

A child has a father, where a slave has a master. A child shares the same nature as his father, where a slave does not. A child will call his father “Daddy,” while a slave will call its master “Sir.” A child obeys out of love, where a slave obeys out of fear. A child is the heir; a slave has no inheritance.

We have been made children of God. The legalism of the law takes away our joy because it makes people feel guilty rather than loved. It produces pride rather than humility. It stresses performance instead of relationship, and it will only point you to how short you fall rather than to what he has done.

We have been given freedom. We have been made heirs. Do we understand what that means? Like, do we understand what it means when we say we are heirs of God? The analogy that we used earlier—a father and a child, and the child is kept under a guardian until he’s come of age so that he can receive his inheritance—do we understand that as heirs of God, what our inheritance actually is? It’s everything.

And do we understand that Jesus, as the firstborn—that’s what he’s called—of our faith, because he’s the one that redeemed us, and he is sitting at the right hand of the Father on our behalf as his, listen to this, adopted brothers and sisters. The inheritance that Jesus has is also ours. That’s an unbelievable truth that just gets lost in the mundane of our lives.

We are no longer under the guardian. And this is why I think I wanted to talk about the mandate that he’s given to us in our culture: we are the children of the Most High God. We should act like it.

In any family, when adoption happens, and the child is brought into that family and is loved as a son or a daughter, they are also shown, “This is how this family works.” And the instructions that we’re given—this is what we’ve been talking about. Like this, this apparent contradiction between the book of James, that we just covered earlier in the summer, and the book of Galatians, that seems to be all about grace, where James seems to be all about works—there’s no contradiction there.

James is simply saying to us, “If we have received the grace that Paul’s talking about in Galatians, that will influence the way we live.” If we have been adopted into God’s family, then he is our Father, and we will look to him for how we should live as a part of this new family. Amen.

We are free. We are free. We are adopted. We have been given the grace of God. We’ve been given the freedom of relationship with him. So, let’s live like it. And as we come to know the wisdom of God through the Word of God—which is the Bible—we start to be set free, functionally, in our actions, the way we live, from the elementary principles.

So, let’s talk about church leadership and how that works. The elders of any church are the elders of the church primarily. If you look at Titus and 2nd Timothy, those roles are reserved to men who have achieved this at a certain level. Does that make sense? That’s why Paul says, “Don’t anoint a brand-new believer to that place,” because they’re just learning to step outside the elementary principles. They have not yet understood how those things work and the wisdom of God in all of this. It takes time, it takes years of walking with Jesus to move to that.

It’s not because they’re better Christians. It’s not because they have some innate thing that nobody else has. It’s not because they are closer to God. Here’s one of the other misconceptions about Christianity—that somehow, if somebody has the approval of the pastor, they have the approval of God. Listen, I can be a real jerk. I don’t know why she’s laughing, but this is about, again, the elementary principles of this world. And we, as Christians, have been set free, so let’s learn how to walk in newness of life.

When slaves are set free from POW camps, they have to learn how to eat again. They have to learn how to walk. They have to learn how to function as free citizens. We see this in children, and we see this—I was reading a book with my son about a form of slavery, and there was a story of a woman who was sexually abused as a small child and then was moved into the sex slave trade in young adulthood. That’s all she knew. It’s all she knew.

And then she was describing what it was like to get saved, to find freedom, and then get married, and having to learn how to operate in the freedom of relationship. We have to learn these things, but we are invited as free men to do so. We are invited as free men to follow him, to trip and fall on our faces.

I heard a pastor one time say, “When your kid is learning how to walk and they get up on their feet for the first time, and they take that one step, and then they fall on their faces, how many of you as mothers or fathers went, ‘What an idiot! I mean, what is his problem? Here, take him, I can’t handle it.’” None of us, hopefully.

In the same way, our heavenly Father is not—regardless of how far you think you should be in your faith—your heavenly Father is not standing there going, “I don’t know, the runt, I should have known. Jesus, we better rethink this one.” He’s standing there in front of you with his arms outstretched, going, “Come on, buddy, you can do it. One more step, one more step.” And you fall, and what does he do? He lovingly picks you back up and says, “Keep your eyes on me. Come on, let’s do one more step.”

So whatever it is, whatever it is that you think you’re enslaved to right now—just picture it—whatever that thing is that you think you’re enslaved to—you’re not. You’re not. He has set you free, and you’re learning how to walk. Keep your eyes on him. That’s the problem with the law. That’s the problem with what’s happening in the church in Galatia. They are keeping their eyes on themselves, on their performance. And Paul is pleading with them, “Get your eyes up. Get your eyes up at the goal. He has something better for you. Keep your eyes on the Father because you have freedom—not so that you can get freedom—because you already have it.”