free and full living from Galatians

1
free and full livingfrom Galatians
2
where weve been

• Last week, we began by seeing how were cursed
  in our culture.
• Our culture curses us by putting before us a
  better-than-you-can-imagine life, and then
  selling us a too-good-to-be-true way of attaining
  it.

3
where weve been

• Unfortunately, the ideal life that our culture
  puts before us is often just skin deep.
• And when our culture attempts to diagnose whats
  going on beneath the surface of our lives, the
  problem always ends up being something that is up
  to us to fix.
• In short, nothing about us is beyond our capacity
  or ability to get under our control.

4
(No Transcript)
5
where we ended

• the Bible, believe it or not, also curses us.
• however, it does not curse us like our culture
  curses us.
• whereas culture says that we have within us the
  tools necessary to live fully, the Bible says
  that the thing we need to live fully is beyond
  us, and outside of us.
• so, in and of ourselves, were cursed.

6
where we ended

• the curse of Galatians 310
• All who rely on observing the law 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.
• what is required of us is to obey Gods right and
  good laws all of the time, which spell out how
  God has created us to live.
• we do not do what is required of us at least,
  not all of the time.

7
the curse of Galatians 310

• so, under Gods laws, we have two things that are
  always before us
• 1) A voice telling us how we ought to always
  live and
• 2) A voice screaming at us that we do not always
  live how we ought.
• these voices are always sounding off in our minds
  and hearts.
• in fact, later on in Galatians 322-23, Paul
  describes this ongoing state is described as
  prison.

8
Galatians 322-23

• 22 But the Scripture declares that the whole
  world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was
  promised, being given through faith in Jesus
  Christ, might be given to those who believe.
• 23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners
  by the law, locked up until faith should be
  revealed.

9
the useful curse

• but, lest we slip into some sort of endless and
  boundless depression at our cursedness, we must
  realize that this curse has a purpose
• the purpose of the law is not only meant to tell
  us how we ought to live, but also meant to cause
  us to be aware of our own futility, and to be
  looking for something outside of our will and
  ability.
• the law was meant to point us to our need for
  Jesus.
• this continues to be the purpose of the law, even
  to this day.

10
Galatians 324

• 24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to
  Christ that we might be justified by faith.

11
faith in what?

• Justified by faith is, for many of us, such a
  common phrase that we may have forgotten what
  energizes it.
• For others of us, though, its merely
  Christian-ese a phrase that that we dont
  even understand.
• well, lets back up in Galatians so that some of
  us can be reminded and others of us can discover
  maybe for the first time.

12
faith in what?

• Galatians 313
• Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by
  becoming a curse for us, for it is written
  Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.
• lets attack this verse in reversefrom what it
  says at the end, to what it says at the beginning.

13
faith in what?

• Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.
• this is an allusion to Deut. 2122-23
• in the Jewish law, someone who is convicted of a
  capital offense and sentenced to hanging must be
  buried the same day.
• the reason for this is that the person that was
  hung is cursed by God, and the continuing
  presence of his body would only desecrate the
  land.

14
faith in what?

• Christ became a curse for us.
• at the crossthe tree on which Jesus
  hungChrist bore our curse.
• in other words, God lifted off of us the curse of
  death and separation he had pronounced on us for
  not following his law, and put it on his Son
  Jesus at the cross.
• and Jesus perfection has eaten up the curse.

15
faith in what?

• Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.
• if what we were in was a prison, then Christ
  served our sentence for us, buying us out of the
  slavery we were in, and ushering us into a life
  of freedom where the penalty of not following
  Gods law no longer hangs over our head.

16
faith in Christ

• Our faithour belief and trust that Christ died
  on our behalfunlocks the key to our
  self-contained prison, and helps us to live a
  life that comes from outside of us.

17
next week

• ok but how do I stay there?