The Good New Is

Galatians 3:11-14

Yesterday we explored verse 10, that proclaims; “all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.”  We discovered that we are all lawbreakers, we all have sinned and fallen short of God’s requirement to have a personal relationship with Him, much less to enter His heaven.  That should be bad news if your plan was to live better than most an escape the judgment that a righteous and Holy God must give to lawbreakers.  But the good news is found in verse 11; “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”  If you are a member of the Do and Don’t Church and are having a problem with verse 11, please refer back to Galatians 2:16.

In verse 12, we are told that if our goal is to live by the law and not by faith, then it requires us to live under the law and not to break any of them, but to do so would mean that you are without sin, and if that were true then Christ died for nothing.  The Spirit speaking through the lips of Paul the apostle stated; “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith,”  (Romans 3:23-25)

If the Holy Spirit has allowed you to understand this truth of being a lawbreaker, maybe for the first time, up to now you have been as good as most and better than those whom you work and live around, verse 13 has wonderful news.  For in verses 13-14, God has proclaimed your redemption; "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

Religion comes with dos and don’ts and as we examine this story of the leper in Matthew 8:2-3, it seems very similar to most of the encounters Jesus had in the Scripture with people who came to Him with what was considered an unfixable need.  Do you recall this leper was breaking all the laws of man by coming to Jesus, and yes, he needed fixed, and do you recall what he asked of Jesus?  “And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.  Sin is much more severe than being a leper, for sin pays out in death.  You may need to read Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  If you come by an act of faith in what Jesus has done on the Cross and you will come as the leper did, Jesus’ answer will be to you the same as it was to the leper; “I will; be clean.”  Let us close today with this quote from Timothy Keller, “The gospel says you are more sinful and flawed than you ever dared believe, but more accepted and loved than you ever dared hope.” 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice