Thursday, May 31, 2012

Galatians 3:1-5



Review

Review Galatians 2:11-21

1. What does Peter do in verses 11-14 and why?


2. There are many cause/effect relationships in these verses.  Let’s review a couple of them.

Vs. 19:  If we die to the law, we:

Vs. 16:  By works of the law:

Vs. 17:  If we say we are in Christ and still need works to be justified, then we are saying:


Explore the Passage

Read the Passage.  


There are 5 questions in these 5 verses.  Paul starts by asking questions from the Galatian’s perspective and experience, and then transitions to asking questions from God’s perspective.  This passage has been described as an “interrogation” of the Galatians, and it’s sandwiched in between an explanation of why we don’t need the law for salvation historically (Ch. 1 and 2) and why we don’t need the law theologically (Ch. 3 and 4).

3. What is the main contrast in this passage?



4. Verse 1
a. Why is the crucifixion essential to the Christian message?



b. Why is the crucifixion offensive to non-believers?  (c.f. 1 Cor. 1:23-25)



5. Verse 2
a. Salvation comes through ________________ and _____________. (c.f. Rom. 10:13-17)

b. The Holy Spirit serves to _____________________ a person’s salvation.  (c.f. Eph. 1:13)

6. Verse 3-5
a. Who is the source of our growth? (c.f. Phil. 1:6)


b. Read and Discuss excerpt on “Transformation Discipleship.”  What stood out to you?


c. If there is time, see chart on the Old Self/New Self.  What stood out to you?


d. Summarize how the gospel is necessary for a believer’s growth.



7. What do you think is the big idea or main point of this passage?  Write it out below.





Application

8. What truth about growth and the gospel challenges you the most?



9. What will it look like for you to continue to seek God and pursue growth?



10.  Take some time to praise God by singing "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus."





During the next 2 weeks:
Be working on your memory verse(s) from Chs. 1 and 2
Practice inductive Bible study on Galatians 3:6-14


Old Self/New Self Chart


If you live as the Old Self
If you live as the New Self
Relationship with God
Living as
·         an Orphan
·         Guilty Under the Law
·         Punished by God
Living
·         as a Child
·         Free from the law and guilt
·         Disciplined by God
Starting point of Growth
·         Strength, abilities, self-effort
·         Focuses on me and personal choices
·         Weaknesses or inabilities, brokeness
·         Focuses on relationship with God and others
Definition of Spiritual Maturity
·         Performance:  activities, achievements, victories
·         Results either sense of failure or self-righteousness
·         Love for God and others
·         Results in connection and intimacy
Goal of growth
·         To appease God and feel good about me
·         To trust God
Dependence
·         Independence- not needing God or others
·         Dependence:  knowing it can’t be done without God and others
Approach to Daily Living
·         Hide sin and difficulty “no one knows I struggle”
·         Expect victory now, deal with reality later
·         Deal with external behaviors and actions
·         Sin management
·         Expose sin and difficulty “no one thinks I’ve arrived”
·         Focus on reality now; long for victory later
·         Deals with the internal life- motivations
·         Authentic living- appropriate vulnerability
Correction
·         Leads to shame
·         Anger/frustration over getting caught
·         Alienation
·         Causes guilt
·         Leads to godly sorrow
·         Greater intimacy and transparency
·         Leads to a righteous lifestyle
Confession and repentance
·         Handled privately to keep up appearances
·         For myself
·         Legal process:  sin+confession=restored status
·         Done with appropriate people
·         Focuses on others
·         Relational process:  sin+confession=restored fellowship
Character qualities
·         Character qualities are the goal
·         Self-control is the power for growth and the start of the process
·         Character qualities are the product, the result from walking in dependency
·         Self-control is the product, the fruit of the growth process

'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus



’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, “Thus saith the Lord!”

Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
And in simple faith to plunge me
’Neath the healing, cleansing flood!

Yes, ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just from sin and self to cease;
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest, and joy and peace.

I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.

Chorus
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er;
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
Oh, for grace to trust Him more!

Transformation Discipleship, The Gospel as Fuel for Discipleship


Excerpt from: Postcards from Corinth, Chapter 8

PROVISION AND POWER FOR A GROWING HEART
John Owen realized that the essence of sanctification is “nothing but the implanting, writing, and realizing of the gospel in our souls.” As followers of Christ we must discover the gospel’s power each day. Perhaps the familiar has become unfamiliar to you. The gospel is for the lost and the found. It offers salvation not only from sin’s penalty (past), but sin’s power (present) and sin’s presence (future). The goal of the gospel is not merely to forgive repentant sinners, but to change them into true worshipers of God and authentic lovers of people.
Tim Keller coined this definition of the gospel: “The gospel is that you are more sinful and flawed than you ever dared believe yet can be more accepted and loved than you ever dared hope at the same time because Jesus Christ lived and died in your place.”
PRACTICES OF A GROWING HEART
Jonathan Edwards declared, “The secret of the Christian life is to allow the gospel to filter into your life both rationally and experientially.”
Let’s look at the words of Paul to see how the gospel gets filtered down into our lives. “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live (walk) in Him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6-7).
First, the heart that grows believes and walks in the gospel. The gospel is not just a gate I walk through once but a path I should walk each day. Remember the timeless blessings of the gospel.
I AM FORGIVEN!
God canceled my debt I am not in jail. I am released (Colossians 1:13).
I AM ACCEPTED!
God is for me. To be accepted means all of who you are, good and bad, is received by another without condemnation. “There is now no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Christ’s perfect righteousness has been credited to my account through Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). God is truthful with me. He reveals my sin to me but He is not angry with me. As a result, I can be honest with God without fear of rejection. I can rest in Him and trust Him.
I AM UNITED!
Because we are united to Jesus through faith, God accepts us each day as whole and complete, even though our lives may still be full of inconsistencies.
I AM ADOPTED!
I am a child of God with all the rights and privileges of a son (1 John 3:1-2). I do not have to control life, trying to make it work. I have access to the Creator and the source of life. I have entrée to the lap of my father, His provision and His discipline for my growth.
I AM FREE!
I have a new master and the gospel has the power to change me. There is hope for change. I am free from the bondage to the law. I do not need to prove myself worthy. The law tutors me to Christ and replaces bondage with an appeal to living on the basis of relationship rather than performance and good works.
I AM NOT ALONE!
I have His presence through the Holy Spirit. He is able to counsel, comfort, and empower me to live the life God designed for me (John 16:5-15). As I live by and depend on the Spirit, I will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature (Galatians 5:16).
The gospel is the fuel of a redeemed life. The gospel moves me to God, life, and back to his His divine design. We fill our tanks with that fuel by believing and walking in it. As believers, when we “rehearse and delight in the many privileges that are ours in Christ,” we are in effect preaching the gospel to ourselves.
In the daily grind of life, I remind myself of the gospel. When I am feeling like a failure and hearing words of condemnation, I remind myself that I am accepted by Christ’s perfect obedience. When I feel fearful that my financial needs will not be met or that God wants to punish me, I cling to my adoption, recognizing I am a son, not an orphan. When I feel like I am held in bondage to lust, I embrace my redemption. I have been delivered, am not alone and have others to run to with my needs.
As the gospel filters into our lives, it will expose sin and idolatry, which leads us to a second practice of a growing heart. The heart that grows repents and believes the gospel. Jesus announced, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15). Martin Luther notes that when Jesus said to repent, “He willed that the whole life of believers should be one of repentance” (first of Martin Luther’s ninety-five Theses nailed to the Wittenberg Door in 1517).
What are we to repent of? One of the greatest threats to a cohesive heart is idolatry. Idolatry can be defined as seeking something other than God as the source of life and depending on something other than God and His provision for life. Paul believed a primary reason hearts are not transformed is that the affections of people’s hearts have been captured by idols. These grip them and steal their heart’s affection away from God (cf. Ephesians 5:3-5).
How are we to deal with idols? Jesus says we are to apply the practice of repenting and believing. Paul sees repentance and faith as two sides of the same coin (Ephesians 4:22-24). Repentance is a change in direction, moving away from the destructive path back toward God’s ways of life. Paul does not tell people to do the right thing because it is right, but so they will live (Romans 8:13; Deuteronomy 6:20-25). Repentance is always a move away from death to life.
To drain its power, one must recognize that the idol’s path is one of death, hunger, and emptiness. Idolatry is driven and perpetuated by being cut off from the life of God (Ephesians 4:18-19). When separated from the life of God, we seek to fill the vacuum in idolatrous ways. The life of God includes: support, connection, honesty, healing, confession, repentance, correction, discipline. So when people are hurting (and stuck in idolatry) they need to find healing through God and His people.
I am learning to ask myself: In what ways am I disconnected from the life of God and His people? In what ways can I rest in Him to fill my emptiness? The bottom line is that “the just shall live by faith.” By faith we believe God is the source and rest in Him.
Yet, the practice of repenting and believing the gospel is not just an individual practice. Sanctification always happens in a family setting—the body of Christ (Hebrews 10:24-25). It has been said, “If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together!”
I recall an incident where during a special family time I said some hurtful words to my wife. Though I confessed my sin to Jesus and to my wife, I still felt bad as a dad and husband. My youngest daughter, sensing my need for grace, quickly reminded me: “Dad it’s okay. You are forgiven and Jesus really loves you anyway!” That simple act freed me up to say thanks to her and truthfully acknowledge my need to grow in my speech and love. When you have grace, it allows you to bring the real you into the light without being rejected. God is not put out by our sin, nor is He surprised. In fact, He yearns for honesty and for us to bring it into the light.
God designed us for relationship with Him and others. God wants to minister His grace to us from others. Those who only study the facts of the grace of God and do not experience other people loving and forgiving them will fall short in their realization of grace. James 5:16 and 1 John 1:9 show the importance of confessing our sins to both God and others to experience healing. Hiding only hinders the healing process. 
The body of Christ is critical in the healing of addictions and idolatry. Often alienation drives addictive behavior. Paul calls it the “continual lust for more” caused by being “separated from the life of God” (Ephesians 4:18-19). Henry Cloud notes,
“As people are cut off from others and their souls are starved for connectedness, the need for love turns into an insatiable hunger for something (idolatry). It can be a substance, sex, food, shopping, or gambling, but these never satisfy, because the real need is for connectedness to God and others, and to God through others. When people receive that, the power of addiction is broken.”
The practices for discipleship are clear: Preach the gospel; emphasize repenting and believing; stay connected to one another; don’t hide but face the truth and confess sin; give and receive grace and forgiveness; tell and celebrate how God is redeeming and restoring you.
CONCLUSION
Keep the gospel the main thing in your discipleship. It is easy to forget that the gospel is not just for the lost but for the laborer as well. The gospel is simple and yet powerfully promotes growth and spiritual formation. Perhaps our familiarity has bred unfamiliarity. Isn’t it time to taste again and delight in the Lord and the gospel? 
The Christian life is nothing more than grabbing hold of the gospel every day and finding that it is not only true, but also it works. We never outgrow our need for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Cloud adds, “There are no new ways of dealing with sin, for God gave us the Way a long time ago. There is no rocket science, only the gospel. But what a gospel it is! It is the medicine for the sickness we all possess, and that really is good news.”
Disciples of Jesus should be the most repentant people of all and the freest. Why?  Because we know the gospel.   
John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress penned a simple poem for himself that captures what I have sought to write about:
Run John Run. The law commands.
But gives neither feet nor hands.
Better news the gospel brings:
It bids me fly and gives me wings.
Let’s fly and help others fly with a renewed emphasis on the gospel in our discipleship.