Galatians #7 - Galatians 3:15-29 - The great cresendo

 

What a great graphic to explain a word.  Knowing how to read music I loved to see the cres. signature between the staffs or to see the "less than" sign (<) in mathematics because is the just the opposite in music.  Usually you would also see the f or ff or better yet fff with the crescendo sign.  This was what every trumpet player was looking for.  I'm sure it was true also for those in the percussion section.  It is time to get loud about something.

Paul builds to the great crescendo in our passage today.  He has taken the Gentile Galatian Christians through the personal and Scriptural arguments of their assurance of their God provided salvation through Christ alone.  Now he adds the logical argument, if that, then this.

I love how Paul doesn't throw out the law, he just puts it back into perspective and gives us its purpose and limitations.  It is inferior to the promise.  It needs a mediator where the promise does not.  It is in place because of our sins; to give a regular right and wrong to all of the world; and to do its greatest task of declaring and pointing us to the Savior.  Now that we are children of the promise and not merely children of the law, we live the remainder of our days here in light of our relationship with God rather than by the curse of law that we can never perfectly keep.  The law is not opposed to the promise but it can't do what the promise can do.  The promise can bring righteousness to the sinner through faith in Jesus Christ. 

I liken this to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and His giving of the spirit of the law rather than just the letter of the law.  "You have heard it said...but I say to you..."  We are not to murder (an external action of the hands) but Jesus says we are not to hate (an internal condition of the heart).  If I don't hate my brother or even my enemies in my heart because my heart has been changed then I am not going to murder with my hands another.  I am following my heart that has been changed by Jesus rather than following an external rule made because of a continuous rebellion against God.  The once rebellious heart is now a repentant heart.

There are times I wish I could be in the room when some of these words are said by Paul or read to that first audience.  "You are all...for you are all...for you are all..."  "There is neither Jew nor Greek (nationality), slave or free (social standing), male nor female (sex), for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  (Galatians 3:28 NIV 1978, parenthesis mine) Gentile Galatian Christian you are in Christ!  You can sing, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine..." with a great crescendo!  There is nothing more because anything added to promise nullifies the absolute necessity of the promise of God for a rescue from this present evil age and gift of His grace and peace to you.  

Last point.  Paul in Galatians 2:20 speaks very declaratively of his own salvation, "I have been crucified with Christ."  Now in Galatians 3:29 he speaks very declaratively of their salvation, "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (NIV, 1978).  There are times for us to testify of our salvation and there are times for us to edify others in their salvation.  It was great to be a part of a Sunday School class that follows our morning worship service that uses the Scripture of the sermon to foster more conversation and application of the passage.  It was so great to hear the participants doing just this.  They were declaring their salvation from their God of the promise and also speaking to others of the assurance we can have that what God has said and what God has done through His given Son, Jesus Christ, is what we have our eternal hope in.  And I love it when this comes from the senior saints to those who just grasping the extend of God's grace!

Adam