Loving Concern

I am Facebook friends with many people who were part of my student ministry in the past. I find that, as I read their posts on Facebook, I have begun to pray for them again. It was not something I planned. It was almost spontaneous. What I found was that I still had a great connection with their lives even though it had been years since I have been a part of their daily lives. I still loved them and was concerned for them.

Paul had that kind of love and concern for the believers in Galatia.

Galatians 4:8

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

These Galatian believers at one time had worshiped other gods.

Notice how Paul describes these god that they are worshiped: They “are not gods”.

When we worship anything other than Jesus, we are in reality worshiping nothing. There is only one God. We don’t have the biggest or most powerful or best god. We have the only God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is acknowledging and worshiping Jesus as the only God.

So, the fact that these Galatians had been transformed from worshiping false gods to worshiping the one true God was great.

Galatians 4:9

But now that you know God – or rather are known by God – how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

Paul asks a question in this verse. Paul wants to know, since they now have a relationship with God (know God and are known by God), why do they want to go back to worshiping false gods?

He describes worshiping these false gods as weak and miserable.

He describes the state a person is in as he worships these false gods as enslaved.

When we worship false gods, we find out that:

They are weak

We are miserable

We are enslaved by the lies associated with the false gods

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is worshiping the one true God and rejecting the false gods and their lies.

Galatians 4:10-11

You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow, I have wasted my efforts on you.

These Galatian believers were rejecting the grace of God and reverting to trying to please God by rules, rituals, and traditions.

Paul was fearful for these Galatian believers. He also was broken hearted that what he had shared with these believers was not being believed and effectively applied in their lives.

Paul was fearful and broken hearted because he knew that only by grace would these believers really experience the fullness of God’s presence, power, and love.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on grace, not works.

Galatians 4:12a

Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to live as I do in freedom from these things, for I have become like you Gentiles – free from those laws.

Paul pleads with the Galatian believers to live in the freedom of God’s grace as he does.

Living based on rules, rituals, and traditions brings enslavement.

Living based on God’s grace brings freedom.

Paul wanted these believers to live in freedom.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing freedom through God’s grace.

Galatians 4:12b-14

You did not mistreat me when I first preached to you. Surely you remember that I was sick when I first brought you the Good News. But even through my condition tempted you to reject me, you did not despise me or turn me away. No, you took me in and cared for me as though I were an angel from God or even Christ Jesus Himself.

Paul reminds the Galatian believers of the attitude they had toward him and their actions toward him when he first came and preached to them. He was ill, but that didn’t affect how they viewed him. They cared for him and treated him just as they would have treated Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving others like Jesus loves them.

Galatians 4:15-16

Where is that joyful and grateful spirit you felt then? I am sure you would have taken out your own eyes and given them to me if it had been possible. Have I now become your enemy because I am telling the truth?

Paul asked two questions.

#1: Where is that joyful and grateful spirit?

#2: How has he become their enemy by telling the truth?

Fear can move us from joy to anger.

Fear can make friends into enemies.

The enemy wants to cause us to be fearful.

According to 2 Timothy 1:7, God has not given us a spirit of timidity or fear, but a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living in faith and hope, not fear.

Paul contrasts his feelings for the Galatian believers and how the false teachers feel about them.

Galatians 4:17-18

Those false teachers are so eager to win your favor, but their intentions are not good. They are trying to shut you off from me so that you will pay attention only to them. If anyone is eager to do good things for you, that’s all right; but let them do it all the time, not just when I’m with you.

Paul makes the point that if anyone wants to do good for others, he is to do it all the time and with the right motives.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is doing good with a clear conscience and doing it on a consistent basis.

Paul then shares his heart about how he feels toward the Galatian believers.

Galatians 4:19-20

Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives. I wish I were with you right now so I could change my tone. But at this distance, I don’t know how else to help you.

Paul sees these believers as his dear children.

Paul hurts for these believers to experience the fullness of Jesus.

Paul wants Jesus fully developed in their lives.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving and even hurting with other believers as they grow to fullness in Jesus.

Loving and Walking with Other Believers as We Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls,

                                                    Joe      

Slave or Son

There were times when I was growing up that I felt like a slave. I was required to do what I considered a lot of chores. I was also required to work on any “family” projects that my parents came up with. That feeling of being a slave diminished when my parents provide me with things that I was given because I was their son. It was only after my parents died and I received an inheritance that it was very clear I was a son, not a slave.

In Galatians 4:1-7 Paul makes it clear that we are sons of God, not slaves of God.

Galatians 4:1

What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.

Paul points out that when a child is under age he is much like a slave in that others make decisions for them, tell them what to do, when to do it, and generally control their lives.

It can feel much like they are slaves. Feelings and perceptions can be very wrong.

The reality is that the child owns the whole estate.

Galatians 4:2

He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.

The child will have others in his life to guide him, protect him, and hold him accountable.

The child has ultimate ownership of the estate.

Why does the ultimate owner of the estate have to be under the guidance and control of others? Because he is a child.

He is not mature enough.

He is not experienced enough.

He is not knowledgeable enough.

The child needs the time to gain the maturity, the experience, and the knowledge to direct his own life.

When will that happen?

It happens when the time set by the father arrives.

God the Father has created us.

God the Father has redeemed us.

God the Father has made us His children.

God desires us as His children to grow to adulthood. He will give us what we need to reach that level. There are things that we will not receive until we have matured and reached the point of being able to use it for God’s honor.

Galatians 4:3

So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.

When we were children, the laws and traditions of the culture kept us in submission also. Children are not allowed to do certain things because the culture recognizes the need for children to grow up before they are capable of handling certain situations.

When we look at these truths from a spiritual viewpoint, it means that we have to grow up as children of God so that the world can see the truth of who our Father is.

When immature children of God try to represent Him to the world, they show an incomplete picture of God. The result is that the world rejects God because they see Him as trivial or unnecessary.

God wants mature children to show the truth of His love, grace, and righteousness to the world.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is growing up and showing the truth of who God is to the world.

God did something so that we could become fully mature.

Galatians 4:4-5

But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those born under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

What did God the Father do to enable us to receive the full rights of being His sons and daughters?

He sent His Son, Jesus!

In John 3:16 it says that God loved the world (people) so much that He sent His Son and that whoever puts their trust in Jesus will not perish but have eternal life. John continues in John 3:17, saying that God sent Jesus into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world.

God does not want to condemn or punish people but to save them. Saving us means, for one thing, growing us into mature children of God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the saving power of God that turns us into mature children of God.

Paul then shares with us four things that happen when we allow God to grow us into mature children.

Galatians 4:6-7

Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So, you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

First, we have been given God’s Spirit.

Romans 8:14 says that all who are led by the Spirit are children of God. If we have God’s Spirit in us, we are God’s children.

Second, we can know and experience God as our Abba.

Abba is a term that is a personal and intimate term for our father. It equates to Dad or Daddy or Pop. It is that special name that you have for your father that reflects a special relationship.

Third, we are no longer slaves, but God’s children.

In John 15:15 Jesus says that He no longer calls us servants but He calls us friends.

When we submit ourselves to Jesus as Lord and commit to be His servants, He makes us His friends and children of God.

Fourth, we are now heirs.

Romans 8:17 says we are God’s children or heirs and we are fellow heirs with Jesus. You and I share the inheritance of Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the fullness of being God’s mature children.

As Mature Children of God Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls

                                             Joe

The Law and Faith

God is smarter than me. Now, before you start feeling smug, God is smarter than you also. God knows how to bring together and balance things that should not go together based on human logic and understanding.

Things like:

Grace and Justice

God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Free Will

Love and Judgment

And in Galatians 3:23-29 Paul shares the purpose of law and faith and how they relate to each other.

Galatians 3:23

Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.

The law was narrow and restrictive. The law gave little or no wiggle room. The “you shall not” of the law is direct and clear. The law recognizes the sinfulness of humans and the inability of humans to naturally obey God and follow His standards.

Law is based on obedience.

Faith is based on grace.

Faith is revealed through Jesus.

In John 1:14 we are told that when Jesus came, He was full of grace and truth. Then in John 1:17 we are told that the law came from Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus.

Faith being based on grace means that when I place my faith in Jesus, His grace gives me the gift of Jesus’ obedience to the law. I have not measured up to God’s standard in obeying the law. Grace allows God to see not my disobedience to the law but Jesus’ obedience to the law, and He applies that obedience to me.   

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living based on faith, not the law.

Galatians 3:24

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

The purpose of the law was not salvation. The only way for the law to save us was for us to perfectly obey the law 100% of the time. In other words, we have to be perfect.

The purpose of the law was to lead us to Christ so that, by faith in Him, we would be justified by faith.

Justification by the law could only come about based on our ability to obey all the law.

Justification by faith comes about through the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

Justification by the law is impossible.

Justification by faith is available to all.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is justification by grace through faith.

Galatians 3:25

Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

Before the modern system of education came to be the norm, many occupations were learned through apprenticeship. The person entered a certain trade and worked under the supervision of someone who was a master at that particular trade.

Paul says that the law was given to us to supervise or guide us into faith in Jesus. The law gave us the standards of God and helped us to see the reality that we cannot keep the law. The truth reveals to us that we cannot keep the law but must depend on Jesus’ fulfilment of the law.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on Jesus’ complete sufficiency.

Galatians 3:26-27

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Three things are true of followers of Jesus:

We are sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus.

We have been baptized in and buried with Jesus.

We are clothed with Jesus.

As followers of Jesus, we have died and been resurrected by God, which makes us His sons and daughters who now have Jesus with us all the time. 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is dying to self and resurrecting in Jesus to be God’s children.

Galatians 3:28

There is neither Jew or Greek, slave nor free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Faith in Jesus means that salvation is available to people regardless of:

Nationality

Social Standing

Gender

The world judges people by all of those distinctions but according to 1 Samuel 16:7 God judges by what our heart is like. God does not care where you are from, what you look like, what kind of education you have, or how much wealth you have. God cares if you have a desire to know Him.

When you surrender your life to Jesus, He makes you one with the others who are following Him.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is putting aside worldly distinctions and seeing yourself as being in God’s family with a lot of brothers and sisters.

Galatians 3:29

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Faith makes you a faith-descant of Abraham. According to Genesis 15:6, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham believed what God promised him and God declared him righteous based on his faith in God and His promises.

Faith in Jesus makes me righteous.

Faith makes me an heir according to the promise.

Faith means that the promises of God now apply to me.

We have a choice: law or faith.

Depending on the law leads us to lostness and restrictions and supervision.

Depending on faith leads to salvation and freedom.

In and By Faith Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

   

The Law and The Promise

In Galatians 3:15-22 Paul discusses the Law and God’s promises. Paul discusses what the law was for and what the promises of God are for.

Galatians 3:15

Dear brothers and sisters, here’s an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or amend an irrevocable agreement, so it is in this case.

Paul begins by using an everyday, real life example. The example is that of a contract between two human beings not being able to be set aside or changed.

He says that this is also true of the promises of God.

We should be able to readily understand this example. We live in a culture that is dominated by contracts, courts, and lawsuits.

When a contract is properly written, it cannot simply be ignored or changed.

Paul reminds us that the same is true when God makes a promise. God’s promises will not be forgotten or ignored and He will not change them.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting the promises of God completely.

Galatians 3:16-17

God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice that the Scripture doesn’t say “to his children,” as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says “to his child” – and that, of course, means Christ. This is what I am trying to say: The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking His promise.

God gave the promise to Abraham and his child. The child here is referring to the Messiah – Jesus.

The Law that God gave through Moses was fulfilled completely in Jesus. Jesus did not come to set aside or change the law. He came and fulfilled every part of the Law.

This promise made to Abraham and fulfilled in Jesus was given 430 years before the Law was given to Moses. The promise superseded the Law.

The giving of the Law did not change the promise.

That is very important to us because, by Jesus fulfilling the Law, it means I don’t have to. It means that I surrender my life to Jesus, the Messiah, and His fulfilling of the law becomes my fulfilling of the Law.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on Jesus’ fulfillment of the Law.

Galatians 3:18

For if the inheritance could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise.

If the inheritance could be attained by keeping the Law, then it would not be through the promise. It would not be based in grace. It would not be about Jesus, it would be about us and our efforts to keep the law.

Salvation is based on the gracious promise of God that if we have faith in God, and that is shown by the surrendering of our lives to Jesus, then we will receive salvation.

Galatians 3:19-20

Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave the law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people. Now a mediator is helpful if more than one party must reach an agreement. But God, who is one, did not use a mediator when He gave His promise to Abraham.

Why was the Law given? To show people their sins. Sin is made known when there is a standard to measure it against. If there is no measurement, then we don’t know we have violated or not measured up to the standard.

When the Law was given to Moses, there was a mediator because the law required God to do something and for the people to do something.

When the promise was given by God to Abraham, there was no mediator needed because the promise was unconditionally based on God.

The Law says God will do certain things if the people will obey.

The promise says this is what God will do and there are no conditions.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living based on the unconditional promise of God in Jesus.

Galatians 3:21-22

Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.

There is no conflict between the Law and the promise.

The Law was never meant by God to give us new life. The Law has to be obeyed perfectly all the time and no one but Jesus has done that. The Law was never intended to be a way to salvation. It was intended to show our need for Jesus.

We are prisoners of sin and the only way to true freedom from sin is by believing in Jesus.

It works like this:

I become aware of what the Law requires.

I realize I cannot live up to the standard that the Law requires.

I believe that Jesus is the Son of God and has totally fulfilled the Law.

I confess my failure to live up to the standard of the Law and stop trying and turn to depend on what Jesus did and His death as my perfect sacrifice.

I surrender my life to accept His fulfillment of the Law and thus receive the result of the promise.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing in Jesus and His sacrifice for our sin.

Trusting in God’s Promise Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                             Joe