The Christ Suicide: Galatians 2:11-21

I can’t get over this passage. It’s been a week since my last post and I’ve been struggling with this portion of scripture continually since then. There are times when the Word of God absolutely arrests you. You can be going along, minding your own business and you read a passage and it just smacks you upside the head. It knocks you over and makes you come face to face with a message so gut-wrenching, so intense that you cannot get up and continue down your previous path. You get up a changed man. You are changed by the Gospel.

That is why I love the Word of God. That is why I love this passage.

[Gal 2:11-14, 19-21 ESV]

[11] But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. [12] For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. [13] And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. [14] But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?" ... [19] For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. [20] I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. [21] I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

(read the whole passage here)

Paul talks about his encounter with Peter (Cephas) in Antioch. Peter, a Jew, was living hypocritically. When other Jews weren’t around, he would live as a Gentile, but when Jews were present, he would live as Jew (and separated himself from the Gentiles that he had previously been hanging out with). Paul calls him out and asks him how he can mandate Gentiles to follow Jewish law when he, as a Jew, doesn’t even follow it.

How often do we hold others to a higher standard than we have for ourselves? How often are we so quick to ostracize someone because of their visible flaw when we ourselves are a jumble of invisible flaws?

NO ONE is justified by the works of the law—and yet we so easily find ourselves recounting the good things we have done and the righteous ways we have lived as if they make us more holy than simple justification by faith in Jesus Christ. It is here where we have some of our biggest hang-ups with the Gospel. We must acknowledge that we are only justified through faith in Jesus Christ, but yet we cannot loosen our grip on the importance we have placed on our works of the law.

Paul does a pretty good job of explaining this. When we are justified by Jesus Christ, we no longer rule our bodies, but it is Christ who lives within us. And we no longer live for the flesh, but we live our lives as unto God. It is because of Christ (and his love) dwelling inside of us and it is because we are living to God that we do good things.

We live uprightly because of Christ living inside of us, NOT Christ lives in us because we live uprightly.

That is the HUGE misunderstanding of justification by faith in Jesus Christ. I know a lot of people who are scared to death to think that we are saved by “faith”—and sometimes I think it’s a bit of a shakey ground to walk on. But when we truly have the faith in God—it will drive us to live as He desires us to live.

And when we sin, does that make Christ a sinner? NO! It merely reaffirms that we are human. I think God was pretty smart when he made the desires of the flesh. It is so easy to give into our flesh, to make a mistake, to sin. But that’s what reminds us of the beauty of Christ, the purity of Christ and the grace of Christ.

How much more wonderful is it to be justified by faith in Jesus Christ, than to try to be justified by following a code of conduct? When we misplace our emphasis from the grace of God to the works of the law we are robbing Christ of his Redemptive Act.

Why would Jesus come to earth, knowing that he would be beaten and stripped and hung on a cross, when we could just follow the law and be fine? Why would Jesus offer himself up as a sacrifice, if he was sacrificing for nothing?

Are we so bold as to allow for the culmination of Christ’s work to be degraded to an unnecessary suicide because of our pride for what we have accomplished?

Humbling.

Oh God, let me live in your grace and your justification. As you live through me, and as I live to You, let my actions be done out of love and out of proclamation of your sacrifice. Let me never become so full of myself that I would think that what I do can earn me a place in your Kingdom. But let me remember that what I do is a direct result of the redemptive work that you have done in me. That your death would constantly be heavy in my heart and at the forefront of my mind. That the new life you have given me be lived in the fullness of your grace and in the wonder of your love. You are my Savior, my only Savior.

So what about you? Have you struggled between the balance of faith and works? Have you struggled with accepting/rejecting someone because of who you perceive them to be?

Just trying to get it right,

Hermeneutical Dan

The Risk of Running in Vain: Galatians 2:1-10

At the beginning of chapter two, we see the continuation of Paul's history. Except there is a 14-year gap. Paul had been ministering in Syria and Cilicia and doesn't really record much about it here except that he didn't go back to Jerusalem during that time. So he finally makes his way to Jerusalem because of a revelation that he had--in order to weigh it against the counsil of a few influentials to insure that he was not wandering into LaLa Land.

And that's where we pick up:

[Gal 2:1-5 ESV]

[1] Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. [2] I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. [3] But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. [4] Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in--who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery-- [5] to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

(Read the rest of this passage here, because once again, I don't want to bog the blog.)

You know, Paul is a pretty smart cookie. He receives this revelation and instead of immediately proclaiming it to He Who Hath Ears, he decides to weigh it against godly counsil. I think a pit fall of many preachers is that sometimes the first time they audibly hear something "from God" is when it's coming out of their mouth when they're standing in the pulpit. Now, I'm not above thinking that God can cause spiritual epiphanies, because I know that he does that. But the majority of the time those epiphanies need to be studied out and weighed against the Word of God and spiritual authority. They need to be thought over and prayed over and considered very carefully before they are preached as "gospel."

But Paul's not like that. He knows better than that. So, he takes this revelation to the Headquarters of the First Church, Jerusalem. There, he meets privately with a few influential people, explaining this revelation (which was the proclaiming of the Gospel to Gentiles). Paul was geniunely desiring to do the work of God and he just checking himself to make sure that he was not "running in vain." How great would the impact have been if he had just ran a marathon in the wrong direction? How much damage would have been done to the Church? How often does that happen today? (Wow, let's insert Altar Call here.)

So the influential people heard Paul out. But, there were some others who had slipped their way in. Their sole purpose was "to spy out [the] freedom that we have in Christ." And they were doing this so that they could attempt to bring Paul back into slavery--or the law that the Jewish Christians were still following.

Paul is borderline superhero. He immediately sniffs these people out and realizes their, shall I say, demonic intent and does not yeild in submission to them AT ALL. Why? Because he wanted to make sure that the Gospel was being preserved in it's purest form. He wanted an untainted Gospel to spread around the world.

I won't lie. I was going to use verses 4 and 5 as the bulk of this blog because, I'll be honest, I love to rip on those who try to distort the Gospel by mandating unnecessary submission to laws from which Jesus brought us freedom. But something else completely grabbed my attention while I was studying this passage--and I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to rip on those Accursed People (Paul's words, not mine) later.

Do you see how important the aspect of good Christian counsil is to Paul? He weighs the validity of his revelation on the examination and opinion of a few influential men. He trusts them with task of confirming this sacred conversation between him and God.

Luckily, as we read through the rest of this passage to verse 10, we see that these influential men (and James, Cephas and John) saw the sincerity of Paul and his adherence to the Gospel of Christ and the fact that he had been entrusted with the Gospel for the Gentiles--and they accepted him. They extended the right hand of fellowship to him. They granted him the power to preach his revelation--this Gospel of Christ, to the Gentiles and to the poor.

We could all learn from the wisdom of Paul. We could all benefit from having someone (or multiple someones) in our life who are a spiritual sounding board for our "divine" epiphanies. I am very lucky to have multiple people in my life like this. My mentor has always been willing to give me a reality check when I come up with some crazy, earth-shattering revelation (not that I'm a crazy person, I just have a wild imagination, ok?!). He is also there to encourage me when I have a thought that is worth something. He provokes study and thought, causing my ideas to grow and develop far past anything they would have blossomed into without proper care. I have friends and peers who walk largely down the same spiritual path as me and we are constantly bouncing ideas and thoughts off of each other. We are each other's worst critics and each others biggest fans. I am so thankful to have people that I can trust with the voice of my innermost being.

Now, I must continually strive to keep these checks and balances in place. It is very easy for me to hear something from God and immediately want to act on it. But I would rather map my course out before I run too far in vain.

So what about you? Have you ever caught yourself running with an idea only to realize that you were running in vain? Do you have people in your life that you can trust with the ideas that no one else will ever hear? Are you that person to someone else, if so, how do you handle that responsibility?

Just trying to get it right,

Hermeneutical Dan

The Wrong Road Home: Galatians 1:6-9

Seven years ago, I had just graduated from high school and I was feeling all adult-ish. And what do adults do? They take road trips with their friends. Duh. So me and three of my friends piled into my mother's (yes, my mother's) car to drive downstate for a Friday Night Youth Camp service. I know, some road trip. But we were adults and that's what adults do. None of us had ever driven down to camp before--we'd only ever been along for the ride. So as we were pulling out, we got directions. I'm not sure about the others in the vehicle, but all I heard was the name of the first highway and then it all went fuzzy and weird from there. So off we went.

Well, we made it down to camp fine. We only got lost for about half an hour (which, when you read the rest of this story, you will realize was pretty much perfect), but we made it. We enjoyed our friends and our fellowship and our flaunting of our adultness. And then we were ready to go home. (Once again, some road trip, huh?!)

As the Driver-Elect, I tried to piece together the bits of directions from the other three before leaving town so that I could at least attempt to get us home in a timely manner. Once again, after the first highway it all went a bit fuzzy. So off we went.

Well, we drove and we drove. And we drove and we drove. And C complained that she needed to use the restroom. But I said, "Hold it. We're not stopping." And we drove and drove. And C complained that she needed to use the restroom. But I said, "Hold it. We're not stopping." And we drove and drove. And finally, C said that if we didn't stop at the next rest stop, then we would be having a mess to clean up in the backseat. So we stopped. We all clamored out of the car and into the rest stop. C went to the ladies' room while I consulted (for the first time, I might add) the map.

My face went pale. I know it did. I may have even wet myself a little bit. Something was wrong. The little "You Are Here" sticker on the map was NOT where we were--some little teenager must have wanted to play a trick and moved the sticker. We WERE NOT lost, we were right on track. How could the map be so wrong?! Well, soon all four of us were gathered around the huge map on the wall, staring in disbelief at our present location. You see, we were in the outskirts of Chicago. We do not live in Chicago. We do not live in the outskirts of Chicago. We do not live near Chicago. Somehow (although, it doesn't take much thought to figure out just how), we had driven about 3 hours out of our way.

All kindred spirits were left lingering around the the map as we piled back into mother's car. Everyone was verbally blaming/abusing everyone else. And guess who got the bulk of the blame? Me, the Driver-Elect. Yes, me. The thing was, I had never claimed to know where I was going in the first place. I was just trying to follow the "directions" that someone else had gotten from someone else. From the rest stop on, we didn't get lost once. After consulting the map, I knew exactly how to get home. And the map didn't fail me. We pulled into town as the sun was just peeking over the horizon.

We were all tired, livid, worn-out and we never wanted to see each other again. I'd say it was a pretty successful road trip.

If only we would have looked at the map instead of half-listening to someone give us sketchy directions. It would have saved us about 4 hours of driving and a 1/2 tank of gas. And a lot of apologies.

Gal 1:6-9 ESV

[6] I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- [7] not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. [8] But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. [9] As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Paul has the same reaction that my dad had. "Why didn't you look at the map? Why were you so quick to accept the "directions" when you hadn't even looked at the map. You could have at least asked me, I've driven that route hundreds of times. I could have given you step by step directions, straight from the map. Why didn't you make sure you had the right directions?"

Remember how yesterday, we looked at how Paul was asking blessings upon the churches of Galatia? Well, this is why. He immediately goes into challenging their actions/decisions. And not just challenging them, but he's all-out pulling the drama card. He says, "I am astonished..." I can just imagine him getting all excited and his neck turning red (basically, I'm just picturing my dad's ranting when I've done something incongruent with common sense). I AM ASTONISHED!

Now, we'll get into all the ins-and-outs of his astonishment later, but lets look at what he is basically upset about: the churches of Galatia have so quickly turned from the Gospel of Christ (which he notes is founded on grace) to another gospel--as if there was even such a thing.

They weren't guilty of completely abandoning the Gospel of Christ; they weren't guilty of anything blatantly, blaringly wrong. They were guilty of practicing and following a distorted gospel. They were guilty of building a house of straw on a firm foundation. And that's just as faulty as a strong, well-crafted house built on sand.

In fact, Paul is extremely harsh towards those who distorted the Gospel in the first place. It doesn't need much explaining--if any angel in heaven or any human on earth should preach something that doesn't line up with the Gospel of Christ, LET HIM BE ACCURSED. And he doesn't just say it once, but he immediately repeats it again: LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Obviously, this Gospel of Christ is not something to be tampered with.

And this is what he's really getting at: check your directions. Weigh your instructions against the Word of God. If at any time something does not line up with the Gospel of Christ, then DO NOT follow it! By following it, you will end up in quite a different place than you had intended.

Trust me--I never want to see Chicago again.

So, what about you? Have you ever been in a situation where you are being told something that you know (or discover) goes against the Gospel of Christ? What did you do? How would you handle a situation where a spiritual leader presented you with something that "wasn't quite aligned" with the Gospel of Christ?

Just trying to get it right,

Hermeneutical Dan

A Blessing Before the Beating: Galatians 1:1-5

So, I've decided to start with one of the Pauline Epistles. And instead of starting with a task so GIGANTIC as Romans or First or Second Corinthians, I've skipped to Galatians. I like the idea of working my way through an individual letter in order to understand fully the message that Paul was trying to convey. Now, I LOVE the writings of Paul (he's not my favorite biblical author--that would be Isaiah, but I wasn't about to try to conquer the whole of Isaiah right off the bat...I'm sure there will be some one-hit wonders from Isaiah dispersed throughout, we'll just have to wait and see...). I love that Paul is blunt, I love that he speaks with the authority of the Old Testament prophets, I love his absolute dedication to Truth and to Jesus Christ.

But this post isn't about Paul, so I'll move on.

Gal 1:1-5 ESV

[1] Paul, an apostle--not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead-- [2] and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: [3] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, [4] who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, [5] to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Paul introduces himself. Check. Paul comments on Jesus Christ and God the Father. Check. Paul greets the churches. Check.

So we have ourselves the opening of a Pauline Epistle.

Let's look more closely. I love that Paul specifies that he is an apostle through Jesus Christ--not from men. In fact, as we will see throughout the rest of the chapter, Paul is deeply concerned about differentiating between man's gospel and God's gospel, man's approval and God's approval, so it makes sense that he acknowledges that his calling is not man's calling but God's calling. He knows how men and their man-made messages have been leading the churches of Galatia astray (more on that later) and so he wants to set himself apart from them by establishing himself as one who proclaims unadulterated truth. But he doesn't dwell on this for now, he states it and moves on--and so will I.

Paul then addresses the churches of Galatia with a prayer of blessing. Grace and peace to you from God. Amen. He prays that God will extend grace and peace to them. Paul knows that he is about to chatise them for a good six chapters, but first he stops to pray a blessing on them. He knows the way that this fragile humanity works. He knows that when beating is not accompanied by blessing then it only serves to destroy. And he isn't interested in pure demolition--even though he may have to tear the building down to it's foundation, he's really interested in building. He's trying to do it with the same tenderness that Jesus displayed on many an occasion.

Remember when the Pharisees brought the woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus demanding that she be stoned? Jesus told them that whoever was without sin could cast the first stone. And then he doodled in the dirt. When everyone had wandered their own ways (in disgust, no doubt), Jesus looked up and blessed her--He said "Neither do I condemn you." Great! She's good to go! WooHoo! What a blessing! Not quite. Because He then says, "Go and sin no more." In that one sentence, He says so much. He acknowledges her wrongdoing. He sets her free from her past. And He commands her to sin no more. But the blessing made the beating bearable. Because she wasn't condemned to death, she had the opportunity to change her life. Can you imagine the weight of what Jesus said? I mean, He gave her grace and truth in the same breath. He wiped her past away and yet made her come face-to-face with it at the same time.

And that's kind of what Paul is doing at the beginning of Galatians. He is praying a blessing over them before he begins to make them confront their humanity. (Interesting note: he sandwiches the "negative" between two "positives"--one blessing in the greeting and one in the closing. I had a professor in college who taught that this was the way that, if we should have to say something "negative" to someone, we should give critique: sandwiched between two positive comments.) It is far easier to take criticism/chatisement from someone who you know cares for you than from someone who merely claims that they do. Paul is so deeply attached to the churches to whom he writes that it affects him physically (see Gal. 6:17) and this is his attempt to let them see that--he just wants them to know the passion with which he is writing this letter.

I've had two different types of leaders in my life. Both have, on occasion, needed to reprimand me. I am only going to dwell on one and let you imagine the other. This leader is my mentor. He has never asked to mentor me, and I have never asked to be his mentor. It just happened. I have never felt so cared for by a spiritual leader than I have by my Mentor. Whenever we talk, regardless of what complaining I do, or what frustrations I cause him, he always takes time to bless me. I had never thought about blessing others before he began blessing me. But it was so perpendicular to what I was used to that I immediately took notice of it when he prayed a blessing over me. Now, there have been many times when he needed to reprimand me--he even came close to yelling at me once. But I am constantly so aware of how much he cares about me that I don't mind the chastising. You see, when he was growing up, he was never blessed. In fact, it was quite near the opposite. And he had a hard time growing spiritually because of this. He never wanted that to be the case for anyone else--if he could help it. And I must say, he's doing a pretty swell job. He's grasped the godliness in tearing down and in building up. Because of that I have been affected in ways that I cannot fully understand--and for that, I am grateful.

So what about you? When you need to be corrected, is it accompanied with a blessing? Do you salt your critiques with blessings?

Just trying to get it right,

Hermeneutical Dan