This week, we continued in the “Eviction
Notice” series. We spent time in Galatians 4, where the “eviction” of law is
discussed. In Galatians 4:21 Paul asks the question of those who desire to be
under the law, “do you know what the law says?” Of course they do, right? True,
they know all of the rules and laws, but they don’t know the stories behind
them and the symbolism of those stories. They don’t know all of it – only what
they have seen through their law glasses.
Each of us can choose through which
glasses we choose to view God’s Word– law glasses or grace glasses. The glasses
you choose determine the view you have of God and His Word. Those experts in
the law saw God’s Word through law glasses, and Paul’s point is that those law
glasses cause them to miss the bigger picture. Many believers today have been
conditioned to view the Bible through law glasses and seem to zero in and see
everything as a thou shalt or thou shalt not. They are drawn to scriptures that
appear to define how someone could be disqualified from a relationship with
God. In contrast, if we live in the New
Covenant, the covenant of grace, we need to trade in our old law glasses and
get fitted for some grace glasses. Paul gives them a lesson on grace as he
proceeded in Galatians 4.
Throughout this series we have been making
mention of the “Judaizers” who would come in after Paul and convinced the new
believers that they needed to obey the law. To get more insight into who they
were, we went back to Acts 13 and 14, which is Paul’s first trip through the
Galatian region. What we find is that these Judaizers were not just people who
simply disagreed with Paul. They actually tried to kill him for what he was
teaching.
We live in a day and age where persecution
against Christianity is increasing worldwide and even in our own nation, yet
the overwhelming majority of persecution in the early church was not coming
from “the world” or Rome
The importance of knowing how these
events played out is explained further in Galatians 4. In verses 21-29, Paul
tells them what they “did not know” the law said. He lays out the difference
between Abraham’s child born of the slave woman (Hagar) and the one born of the
free woman (Sarah). He says that Hagar represents Mount
Sinai – where the law was given – and Sarah represents the New
Jerusalem. An important observation he
makes is that the one born in the “normal” way, or by law, will always
persecute the one born the supernatural way. Trying to be justified by our own
works is the natural or normal way. Justification by the blood of Jesus and
righteousness apart from our works is the supernatural way. Also, Ishmael will always persecute Isaac.
I don’t know if you have shared the
revelation of grace you have been receiving with other believers, but I would
not be surprised to find out that some other believers may not be so excited
about your new insight. You may be told that you need to get away from that
dangerous teaching that is telling you that sin is OK. Of course, you know that
nothing of the sort is being taught in our church. In fact, I’ve never heard
any of the prominent teachers in the “grace movement” teach that, but that
doesn’t stop those who wear law glasses from asserting they are.
An important thing to remember is that
people are not the enemy. THE enemy, Satan, is your enemy. People may persecute
you when you choose to use grace to overcome your sin instead of law. Don’t get
angry. Don’t argue. Pray. One of the things I find striking about Paul’s story
is that when we know how much the Judaizers persecuted and sought to harm him,
he showed tremendous restraint in attacking them back.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee,
visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
