God is not a Shady Car Salesman

Sept. 25

Read: Galatians 3:22-4:20

God is not a Shady Car Salesman

The redemption and blessing from God has always come as a fulfillment of a promise that God made long ago. In fact, from “before the foundation of the world” God made a commitment to those who would become his children. We see this in Ephesians:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will…” ( Eph. 1:3-5)

God revealed this truth to Abraham, and made Abraham a promise that his offspring would be blessed and belong to God. (v. 3:16, cf. Gen) The offspring of Abraham would be those who walk in FAITH the same way that Abraham did… they would be God’s people. This is a COSMIC truth more than any sort of genetic truth:

“Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” (v. 3:7-9)

This blessing, promise, and identity was a promise from God and had nothing to do with “the Law”. The bible has a series of illustrations to show is the distinction between these two ideas… these two realities. (The role of the Law vs. The promise of faith through God) let’s take a look:

1.) God is not amending his previous contract

God is not changing his promise to Abraham by bringing the law in 430 years later… he is not “adding to” his agreement with Abraham. Pastor Andrew Farley compares it to a car dealer who calls you up 430 days after buying your car and then said you owe more money because he has added a clause into the contract you already signed ! What a great example! God is not showing up 430 years later and adding to the agreement he made. “This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.” (3:17,18) When we try to “add the law” to God’s “faith promise that comes through Christ”… we are trying to add to a contract God already ratified.

2.) God gives us our inheritance when HE is ready to

Once we see that the Law is a guardian over us, then it makes sense why it is over us until God choses to bring us Christ. Paul says that there is very little difference between a slave and the child of the king who will inherit everything. When the child is young, he is kept under a guardian the exact same way that a slave is kept under the guidance of a master:

“I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (4:1-5) God has called us through Christ to be SET FREE from these “elementary principles of the world”. God brought Jesus to us when he was ready to take us out from under the guardians and give us our adoption as sons and daughters. To put the people of God back under the law is like social services coming and taking back a child who has been adopted into a home! How traumatic to take a child from their family!

3.) You are known by God

To be known by God is to be set free from slavery to the law… from slavery to the “elemental principles”… from slavery to “those that by nature are not gods.” (cf v. 4:8) So the scriptures pose this question to us: “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?” (v. 4:9) Why would you want to run back to this? There is an interesting twist in this verse at the beginning. We have looked at this before, but look at how the word points us to our “beginnings”. We are so tempted to think that WE started this process by our “knowing God”… the truth is clear - it all started with GOD KNOWING US. You are “known by God” and you are LOVED by him. Known and loved. This is the way out of slavery to this world… it is being known by God and loved by him. This is what God is asking us to be “hopeful for in confident assurance”… to have FAITH in. It is not about what or who you know; it is about who knows you.

The scriptures give us so many examples and images for us to understand how the law and faith interact with each other. What is abundantly clear is that in Christ, the law is no longer for us and any way that we try to drag the law back into our lives we end up simply enslaving us to things we have been set free from and distracting from our walk of faith in the promise that is Christ. God is not coming back and adding requirements to his “contract”… but are you? Imagine how outraged you would be if someone came back 430 days or even weeks later and tried to add to a contract you had already paid for and signed !?! No wonder Paul gets so passionate in his rebuke of the Galatians! You are part of a promise God made before the world began. He has known you and called you… even before you knew yourself. You are children of the promise… set to received an inheritance from the Lord. Coming under the law will never bring these things about… it is not part of the agreement! Rest in knowing that you are “known and loved”. Love you guys. - JDP