November 8, 2020
Morning Service

A couple of weeks ago at the beginning of chapter 6, Paul again reaffirmed to us that we are “Better together!”  God has designed His church to do life together, holding one another accountable, bearing each other’s burdens, and loving each other as we have been loved.  Paul encouraged us to “not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”  Our walk with Jesus is a lifetime commitment that only ends with your promotion into the next life.  There is no place to quit or even slow down. Today we will wrap up our study in the letter Paul wrote to the Galatian church pointing them away from the false teaching of a “works” gospel and steering them back to where they began with the “true gospel of faith.”  These false teachers, Judaizers, were placing the burden of keeping Moses’ law onto the newly converted Christians.  That made serving our Savior more about following rules and regulations which quickly becomes a burdensome journey of guilt and regret.  The true gospel message changes us from the inside as we commit our heart, mind, and soul to our Lord and Savior whom we love and adore.  We are no longer slaves to God, but His beloved children and heirs to all He has.  We begin today with Paul addressing circumcision.

 Gal 6:11-13 See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!  (12)  As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.  (13)  For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

          Here is another point where commentators believe Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was indeed that he was losing his eyesight.  Many of his letters were dictated by him, but written by someone helping him.  Here it shows the importance he was placing on the content of this letter that he wrote it with his own hand to remove any doubt that it was from him.  These false teachers were over emphasizing the importance of circumcision even to the point of referring to the act as a proof of holiness.  The decision to be circumcised was the marking of the beginning of entering into the Jewish faith, much like baptism is to a Christian now.  It is intended to be an outward action that revealed an inward change.  The act of circumcision, nor the act of baptism gain you any influence with God without the inward change.  For it to mean anything, you must inwardly also believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God and confess that with your mouth to give it the intended impact and spiritual meaning (Rom 10:9).  The Judaizers were using the simple fact of being circumcised to prove you were living a righteous life; which is in no way true.  It was only a point that they could boast on themselves of how religious they were.  Paul refocuses their vision on this point now.

Gal 6:14 God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

          Salvation is offered to us as a free gift and we have nothing in our own actions to boast upon for receiving it.  Jesus paid the full cost upon Calvary’s cross and Paul testifies that is in fact all that really matters to him.  He had a resume as the strictest of the strict from the sect of the Pharisees following each and every rule to the letter and watching over others to do the same.  He even persecuted the young church holding the coats of those who stoned Stephen.  If anyone could boast holiness or righteous according to the law it was Saul of Tarsus.  But in all that Paul knew there was more to his spiritual journey than carrying the burden of following the rules for righteousness and he soon found it.  When he met Jesus on the Road to Damascus, his life was changed from the inside out.  He learned that God is not a task master to be obeyed as a slave, but a loving Father who wants only what is best for His children.  Saul was changed into Paul the apostle becoming a new man from the inside out.  It was not his actions that changed him, but it was Jesus and that he met on the road that day and the receiving of the Holy Spirit that made things all different.  All things became new from that day forward.

Gal 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.

2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

          It is easy to get caught up in the external actions of the lists of “dos and don’ts.”  What is vital, however, in your walk with the Lord is the inward change that occurs.  We become “a new creation; old things passed away; behold all things have become new.”  Trying simply to “go through the motions” and live a “good” life is not what walking with Jesus is about.  It is a surrendering of all that you are to God and then allowing Him to change you from the inside out.  We must surrender to gain victory.  We must first die to really live.  Remember how Paul stated that to us so powerfully in chapter 2?

Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

          Our boasting only comes through our surrender.  We have spiritually died upon that cross with Christ and “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me!”  Christianity, following Jesus, is not a religion of rules and regulations but it is a relationship with our Creator and Savior.  God knows me, the real me with all my baggage, and loves me anyway.  He also allows me to know Him and to love Him in return.  God is not far away, but right here among us.  It is that relationship that we are created for.  When Jesus is in our heart, we are complete, fulfilled and content knowing He is there and He holds our future in His hand.  God is our Father and we are His children as Paul told us in chapter 4.

Gal 4:6-7 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"  (7)  Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

          This morning this is the relationship God desires to have with you.  One in which you look to Him as your loving “Daddy” and He looks to you as His adored child.  We are not designed to walk as if we are enslaved to God, but we should walk as we are endeared to God.  This is the purpose Paul wrote this letter that the church would realize the difference.

          How about you this morning; do you understand the difference?  Is your walk with Lord more about following the rules, doing the “right” things, and you find yourself just going through the motions?  A life of always trying but failing, feeling guilty, and never measuring up to a higher standard?  Do you feel like there is something missing in your spiritual life?   Or is your walk all about cultivating a relationship with Jesus desiring and seeking to know Him and love Him deeper?  A life of full surrender to the point of dying upon the cross with Christ.  Decide today to make your relationship with Jesus the most important relationship in your life. Choose to allow yourself to be identified as a child of God one who is loved, desired, and adored.  Loved so much that He sent His Only Son to die for the chance of you accepting this gift of salvation and choosing to have a relationship with Him.  An overwhelming never-ending reckless love of God pursuing you, chasing you until you accept the invitation to follow.  The funny thing is that while He is pursuing us, we are unknowingly pursuing Him.  Once we die to ourselves and choose to live to God it is then that you find the true meaning of life. It is then that God can use you to fulfill the purpose in which you were created.  Your destiny fulfilled and completed through a relationship with the God who created you.  There is a hole in your soul that only God can fill.  Maybe you felt that closeness at one time and now feel you have lost it, but it is not too late.  You can enjoy again that close relationship of your loving Father as He waits on the porch longing for you to return.  Surrender to Him today accept that you are His and acknowledge that He is yours.  “Boast only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.”

 

Heavenly Father open the eyes of our hearts to see you, know You, love You, and desire to serve You.