God of My Proclamation

“Jesus said, ‘Did I not say that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’” (John 11:40 [NASB])

We say we believe in Jesus and have faith that God will take care of us. We spend times in quiet on the mountain communing with and listening to God. Then, the day arrives when we must go back down to the valley, the world in which we live, and do just that, live our earthly life. Oh, it would be phenomenal to live on the mountain with God all our earthly days, but what good would that do? What glory would that bring to God? Our praise of God would be the only voice heard by Him if we did not leave the mountain.

When we return to the valley and proclaim the Lord, Jesus Christ, the Savior who died to save us from sin, then others can hear and will come to know Him as their own Savior. More voices will be raise praise to God and glorify Him. Our mountaintop experiences are wonderful and sought. We should spend time with God there to rejuvenate our spirits and body and reconnect on a deeper level with the Lord. That doesn’t mean we can only spend time with God on the mountain.

Still, while in the valley proclaiming the Lord, answering people’s questions about Him and His salvation, we will also experience difficulties-trials, persecutions, and hatred. Will our time on the mountain sustain us through these difficulties? Will the growth we had while on the mountain keep us trusting God? Or, will the faith we proclaim not remain strong and our testimony of His faithfulness, love, and mercy falter as we wade and gasp in the raging waters of the storm?

What we learn with God on the mountain will be made stronger through the fires of trials. Or it could if we maintain our trust in Him.

Our situations are not beyond God’s ability to handle. God’s abilities are beyond our understanding.

Situations do not define God. God defines situations. 

He is all-powerful.

Don’t let your limited perspective keep you from trusting in the limitless strength and power of faithful God.

Had it not been the LORD who was on our side, let Israel now say,

‘Had it not been the LORD who was on our side when men rose up against us,

then they would have swallowed us alive, when their anger was kindled against us;

then the waters would have engulfed us, the stream would have swept over our soul;

then the raging waters would have swept over our soul.’

Blessed be the LORD, Who has not given us to be torn by their teeth.

Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trapper;

the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

Our help is in the name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 124 [NASB])

Lord, I love spending time with You. I don’t want to leave, but eventually You push me like a chick from a nest to return to the world and work. Fires and storms arise while I am in the valley and at times seem to overwhelm me. I feel like I am barely standing against the onslaught. Lord, help me remember You are my refuge and strength. Just because I am not on the mountaintop with You does not mean You aren’t in the valley with me. Help me seek You. Use me to proclaim Your greatness and fame so others will come to know You. Keep me strong for Your glory so others can see You and will seek to follow You, too. Keep my mind from small things and instead stay focused on You, great God of unfathomable power, love, and grace. You will never let me fall. I can rest in You. I love You, Lord. Amen.

Ask in My Name

 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:12-15 [NASB])

So often, we come to God and ask for things and wonder when He will give that for which we ask or why hasn’t He given what I asked. You claim John 14:13 saying, “I asked in Jesus name and prayed a prayer like this. ‘Lord God, You know my needs and You know I need this now. I cannot go on. I ask this request in Jesus’ name.’” We must consider our prayers and four things Jesus set before His disciples in verse thirteen.

We need to consider what kind of prayer Jesus spoke of here. Is that need or desire something for which we need so intensely we would humble ourselves and beg? Do we crave this answer to prayer like we crave the relationship with God the prayer supposes? Do we require the relationship with God that prayer implies? When Jesus taught the disciples about prayer in this passage, He began with verse two showing the depth of relationship He has with the Father. He said in verse two, “I go to prepare a place for you in My Father’s house.” To make ready a place for someone in one’s house means a very close relationship exists. Understanding this, we must realize what Jesus said in the first part of verse thirteen. The asking comes with the understanding a close, intimate relationship exists between the Father and the disciple. When that is the case, the craving the person does is likely for what God wills. One’s asking is in line with the will of the Father.

The second thing needing understanding in this verse is Jesus said, “Ask in My name.” Asking in Jesus’ name is not a magic phrase to make all one’s dreams come true. It is a power statement. When Jesus told His disciples to ask in His name, He said to ask realizing and knowing personally everything which His name includes. Remember His stature, His rank, and everything which His name involves, recalling the power He has over demons, life, death, sin, resurrection, sickness, health, provisions, hope, love, etc. Jesus meant each disciple must be in a close personal relationship that craves communion with God. This supposes a relationship that desires His will and asks based on Jesus’ authority on earth and in heaven, knowing He has the power to do what you ask.

For the third point in this verse, Jesus said when His disciples ask craving for continued communion with God so what is asked for is God’s will, and knowing well Jesus has the power to cause that for which one asks, He will do it. This “do” is not just an everyday doing like working in the yard, but comes with divine appointment and ordination. That for which you crave in the Father’s will and ask of Him in the power of Jesus, the Savior will appoint and ordain it to be done according to the Father’s will. He has power over heaven and earth and gives divine promise that whatever is in accordance to God’s will eventually will come to happen. “Doing” understands power resides in the person to effect the action.

The final point of this verse says these types of requests to the Father and their resultant answers will glorify the Father. The Son will not do anything that doesn’t bring glory to Him. What is this glory? Is it glorifying to God just say off the cuff, “Hey, God gave it to me,” then not live a life that supports the statement, but which blatantly shows continual, intentional disobedience to the Father’s will and commandments? No. Verse fifteen speaks about this. If one does not keep Jesus’ commandments, one does not love Him. Therefore, one is not in a close relationship with God and the cravings for which he or she begs is not necessarily in God’s will. Jesus said, for Him to answer any prayer, if must glorify the Father. Glorifying means raising up the name of God so people can be in awe and wonder. To glorify God means to praise Him for who He is and what He’s done. It means to celebrate and honor the Lord and proclaim His excellences. When a person glorifies the Father, he or she recognizes all good things received came not of his or her own doing, but from the Father and so testifies to His great mercy and grace.  

The person who glorifies the Father loves the Son and obeys His commandments. This person who obeys His commandments loves Him. A person who loves Jesus and obeys the Lord’s commands is the one in a close, intimate relationship with God, and recognizes the power of the Lord to cause that for which he or she asks in prayer. Finally, Jesus said this person who craves what God craves and will glorify the Father is the one for whom He will ordain to happen what a person prays for and upon what the Father and believer agree.

Ask having a deep relationship with God. God desires to have a deep relationship with you.

Dear Lord above, help me see where I have not grasped the depth of a relationship with You. Help me seek this relationship. Forgive me for my selfish intentions that have been in the way of what You want to do in me and through me. Make me useful for Your service for your glory. Amen.

The Person Who Prays – Approach of God

Introduction

In an earlier Bible study called Prayer part 1: What, Why, and How, we learned from the Bible we are to approach God recognizing His existence, mercy, power, faithfulness, and righteousness. Because of these, we are to approach Him with reverence, pray to Him only, and ensure our prayers give testimony of God. The question this current part of our study considers concerns the physical/spiritual action required. Yet approaching God cannot easily be separated as just physical and spiritual. Each facet of a person’s approach of God involves more than one part of the person’s self. How do we approach God and be with Him? Eleven verses in the New Testament teach about this.

Prayer – Communing with God through the His Spirit

Before His death and resurrection, Jesus told His disciples what was to come. He explained He would be arrested and crucified. When the disciples expressed fear and unbelief, He comforted them. Jesus told them He would ask the Father and the Father would give them another helper to be with them forever (John 14:16-17). This Helper, He said, would be the Spirit of truth that only believers can receive because they know God and He abides in them just as God abides in the Son.

 “Helper” comes from the Greek word parakletos and means one who pleads another person’s case, who is an advocate and intercessor for, and who leads the person to a deeper knowledge of God and the gospel. This Helper is the Spirit of God who abides continually in the heart of the believer and intercedes for the believer with the Father in heaven, just as Jesus did for His disciples while he lived on earth. The Spirit, Jesus stated in verse twenty-six, will teach believers all things and bring to remembrance all Jesus said. He will encourage, remind, and make strong believers as they live on earth after Jesus’ resurrection and before His return.

Paul spoke of the Spirit of God regarding prayer. In Romans 8:26, Paul said, “In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” He stated the Spirit is our intercessor to God. Earlier Jesus said the Spirit would be our teacher, encourager, and would abide as the presence of God within us. Now Paul teaches that the Spirit can speak for us to our Father when we are communing with Him and do not know how to put into words our heart, mind, and spirit. God’s Spirit joins with our spirit and conveys to the Father the depth of our appeal and emotion. This joining of our spirit with the Father through the Holy Spirit is the ultimate expression of communing with God. Truth, pure love for God and humankind, adoration and worship, and petition combine to flow between the Father and His child, the believer, through Holy Spirit.

Paul taught the Ephesians in his writing of Ephesians 6:18 that prayer and petition at all times should occur in the Spirit. As we commune with God, prayer should occur through the Holy Spirit that abides with each believer when he or she becomes a child of God. In this passage that Paul wrote the Ephesian believers, he expressly taught as they put on each piece of the armor of God, they  should pray in the Spirit for God’s guidance, protection, and glory, not only to protect one’s self. The fight for each armor bearer is not for life and death – flesh and blood, but for eternal salvation for all people and righteousness. It was a fight to stand firm against the schemes of the devil…against “the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly place.” (Ephesians 6:11-12) Victory requires God’s full strength which requires continual prayer/communing with God that comes through the Spirit, our intercessor.

Prayer – Communing with God with Your Mind and Spirit

That section title sounds like an elementary and trite statement. It sounds so fundamental that one wonders why it needs consideration. Yet, Paul spoke on it and the writer of Daniel regarded it in Daniel’s life. What is necessary beyond bended knee, bowed head, and folded hands like children are taught by their parents and Sunday School teachers?

Paul wrote to the Corinthians speaking to them concerning spiritual gifts and speaking in tongues. His basic point was if a person’s speaking in tongues is not followed with an interpretation of what was said, then it is not of the Spirit since it does not edify a person in the church. This word spoken in a strange tongue does not enlighten or improve anyone’s understanding of God and His truth when no interpretation is given. Since the Holy Spirit is given to each believer to teach, instruct, admonish, and encourage, then the word spoken in a strange tongue could not be said to have come from the Spirit. Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 14:14-15 when he said, “If I pray in a tongue my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.”

Paul brought this lesson to a personal level. He did not intend it only to teach the whole church body. Paul recognized for a person to pray to God that person must connect with Him in both body and spirit. Because God is spirit, we speak with and worship Him in spirit. Yet we must remember we are more than spirit. God made us with minds, hearts, and bodies. For a person to be taught that person’s mind must be engaged. When Moses spent the forty years in the desert with the Israelites, he continued to teach them who God was and what He was doing so the Israelites would see, perceive, recognize, know, and relate to Him. In the same way, when a person prays to God, the spirit of the person should be one part of the person to commune with God.

Paul said if his spirit spoke in tongues to God and his mind did not, what he said to God did not edify his mind. He did not grow in his relationship with God because more than his spirit is involved in his relationship with God. That was what Paul meant with his rhetorical question in verse fifteen. Paul realized praying to God involved more than the spirit for him to know God better and grow his relationship with Him. That is why he stated after this question, “I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also. I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.” Praying to and communing with God requires more than one part of our being. Here Paul taught our mind and our spirit must join in communion with God. A person who wants to commune with God must approach Him with his or her whole being – heart, mind, body, and soul.

The life of Daniel teaches this same lesson. The messenger from God who spoke to Daniel expressed Daniel set his heart on understanding God and His vision. He humbled himself before God and sought understanding. In Daniel 10:12, the writer records the messenger saying, “Then he said to me, ‘Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.’”

The messenger spoke of a “heart understanding” by Daniel. Daniel sought knowledge for his mind that would affect his heart and the way he lived. He desired to know God’s mind and understanding on what was happening to him and the Israelites of the time. His earnest desire to know God’s will and understanding shows how the heart and mind often cannot be separated when considering a person and what is important to him or her. Daniel communed with God through prayer seeking His knowledge. He humbled himself before God. His communing with God involved his head, heart, and spirit. With the messenger’s next words, we realize Daniel’s commune with God involved him physically, through his mouth. Daniel spoke to God, and the messenger arrived to speak to him because of his words to God.

Daniel’s prayers to God, his communing and seeking God, involved his whole being. He sought God and His understanding while approaching him with humility and genuine care. Daniel approached God with his physical being by speaking his heart to God with his mouth. Most probably, in his humility, he bowed before God in his seeking for heart understanding and God’s wisdom. Daniel was an effective prayer. He communed with God, and God heard and answered him.

Prayer – Communing with God with Your Body

Communing with God involves all parts of a person’s being – heart, soul, mind, and strength (physical body). Just as Daniel did not pray with some of the parts of his being, most people, when truly communing with God, commune with Him through their whole being. Daniel used each part of his being when praying with God in Daniel 10. David recognized the need to commune with God in multiple ways, too.

In Psalm 19:14, David said, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.” This verse shows us David recognized his commune/prayer time with God came not just from his heart, but form his mouth. He recognized praying involved his body – his mouth to speak – and his mind and spirit through meditation. David recognized a physical side to communing with God. From one’s mouth most often comes what is in the heart; however, that is not always the case. Sometimes the mouth speaks from the mind only to flatter the hearer and gain something for self. This type of prayer is self-motivated and not motivated on wanting to commune with and know God more. Self-motivated prayer comes from a person’s desire to get something out of the prayer he or she says.

Jesus recognized these types of prayer when he explained a parable to Peter and the other disciples. He said what comes from the heart that determines if a person’s actions, words, and attitudes are God-glorifying. If a person’s heart is not right and truly seeking God, then the words the person utters do not bring them to a closer relationship with God.  Jesus expressed this in Matthew 15:18 when He said, “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and those defile the man.” (Consider also Mark 7:20 and Matthew 12:34). The heart (intentions and motivations) matters and the words reflect the heart’s condition.

What does this say concerning the rote prayers we learned as children or “baby” Christians? Are they deficient or self-serving? The rote prayers we learned as children and seekers or new believers in Jesus Christ are good prayers. They teach us how to pray to God. Yet, if those prayers are said as an appeasement to us that we have said our prayers today so we are okay with God, then

·         We have not grown in our relationship with Him since we were children or baby Christians,

·         We are not truly communing with our Father,

·         We are not becoming more Christlike, and

·         We are stagnating.

 Jesus told His disciples not to be like the Gentiles who use meaningless repetition (Matthew 6:7-8). Jesus said,

“But when you pray, go to your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentile do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.”

Some of the rote prayers we learned that you may still use and that could be “meaningless repetition” could be these –

Ø  “Now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”

Ø  “Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts which we have received from Thy bounty through Christ, our Lord. Amen.” or

Ø  “God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food.”

Each of these prayers is a worthy prayer. They teach us to seek God for protection and to realize God is the protector of our souls. These prayers teach us to recognize the blessings we have come from God and to thank Him. These are good prayers. Yet if all you say to God is this and you pray only when you awake, lie down, or eat, you must ask yourself if you are truly praying/communing with God? Are you growing in your relationship with God? Have you truly asked Christ to be your Lord and Savior?

Prayer – Communing with God as Jesus Taught

In the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus calls God Father. He teaches believers to recognize God as Creator and the Provider of all things. Jesus helps believers understand and address God as the Father of our selves who are born again through the atoning death of Jesus Christ. Giving God the title of Father was an honor reserved for those who taught and led the Israelites from their wisdom and experience. This title applied to God means approaching Him with the understanding and acknowledgement of His superior wisdom and understanding.

Within the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught His disciples to recognize God’s greatness. He is greater than them and anything they can see or imagine. He created all they see. God lives and reigns in heaven. Recognizing this requires a heart acknowledgement of one’s smallness and God’s greatness.

Jesus taught His disciples to recognize God the Father is their Provider. He gives everything people need for sustenance and survival. His children can go to Him with their physical needs. They can know His power reaches to all nature to provide food for His children. People can approach Him physically with their words and their physical needs.

Jesus further taught God is greater than our spiritual selves. He is holy and almighty. God has power over sin and death and can forgive sin. He will forgive the sins of the people who confess and seek His forgiveness. We approach God with our spiritual selves and are taught to practice the mercy God gives us by forgiving people who have harmed us.

We further recognize and approach God with our spiritual selves when we recognize because God is holy, He has the power to keep us from sinning, from falling to temptation. He can deliver us from evil. God wants us to seek Him to avoid temptation and sin. By doing this we do not sin and can be in His presence. This means approaching God with our heart, soul, and mind. We must choose to let God be our Lord so we walk in His ways.

Prayer – Loving God with Our Whole Being

When we are in a growing and loving relationship with God, we learn to love Him with all our being – our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Jesus taught this in Luke 10:27 and God taught this to the Israelites through Moses in Deuteronomy 6:5. Communing with God – praying to God, reading His Word, listening to Him from His Word and from His shepherds, and meditating on what He is saying – requires the desire a love relationship gives. Just as our love for our spouse, children, or parents makes us want to listen to, speak with, and help them, our love for God should lead us to do the same with Him. Active communing with someone involves our heart, mind, and strength. Active communing with God requires these, too, as well as involving our spirit. Our spirit is joined with His Spirit, our intercessor, when we become His children upon our profession of faith in Jesus Christ and our confession and repentance of sins. Communing/praying to Him without our spirit would be like have hot cocoa without the cocoa powder. It’s just not communing.

Relevance and Conclusion

John 4:24 tells us, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” To truly love God and be in a growing relationship with Him, we must love Him as Jesus taught, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. To approach God as a person of effective prayer requires we approach Him with our whole being – with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

v  We must pray in the Spirit, the Helper, who came from Jesus when He ascended into heaven – our spirit speaking through His Spirit.

v  We must pray with our minds, recognizing God for who He is – Father, Creator, Provider, Savior, and Redeemer.

v  We must pray with our hearts recognizing God’s greatness and our smallness, bowing ourselves in humility before Him.

v  We must pray with our physical beings speaking with our lips and bowing with our knees and heads recognizing almighty God.

Loving the Lord God with all of who we are is communing/praying with God. Without love of God, we would have no desire to truly, genuinely commune with God. Communing with God is praying. It is speaking and listening to and for Him.

When did you last seek to be with God?

When did you last pray to Him, genuinely pray to Him?

It’s not too late to seek Him now, to reach out to Him with your whole self. God promises He will forgive you. Yes, anything you put in your life above God means you have sinned against God. Yet John said in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Come to God.

Seek Him.

“When you seek Him, you will find Him when you search for Him with all your heart, soul, and mind.” (Jeremiah 29:13)

Receive Forgiveness.

Commune with God.

Your Solitary Place

Five times in Matthew and Luke, Jesus’ disciples recorded He went to a solitary place to pray. He modeled taking time to be with the Father, communing with Him by speaking and listening. Often time Jesus was on the mountain or in the wilderness for 9-12 hours. These times of solitary prayer gave Him re-connection with the Father and rest for the body after a tiring bout of ministry and before the next round of ministry. Possibly Jesus slept during some of this time to allow His human body to recover and prepare. When Jesus took these times for solitary prayer, most often He went by Himself, but His disciples knew where He was and what He was doing. Two times Jesus took three disciples when He went to His lonely place. He modeled solitary prayer for them.

In Mark 6:30-32, Jesus did not just model solitary prayer, He led the disciples to do it. He told them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” Mark noted they were so busy they had little time to eat. When the disciples returned, they drew near to Jesus. After they communed with Him, He led them to rest. This is what “drawing near” in the Bible means – continually coming to be with God, speaking to, and receiving from Him. The secluded place of Mark 6:31 is a “lonely, desolate place.” Jesus’ times of solitary prayer were in the mountains and desert - secluded places. Jesus sent the disciples in a boat away from people – to rest. He led the disciples to solitariness so they could rest and rejuvenate.

Jesus taught about solitary prayer in Matthew 6:6. He modeled it in the Matthew 14:23 and Luke 5:16, 6:12, & 9:28. Jesus led the disciples and commanded them to get away to a lonely place in Mark 6:31. Solitary prayer is “drawing near” to God, communing with Him, and receiving rest.

Jesus was an excellent teacher. If He is our Lord, then we need to learn from Him, too. Have you taken time to get away, commune with the Father, and receive rest and rejuvenation for your body? Solitariness affects your whole being – body, mind, and spirit.

Jesus, lead us to take time each day to receive revival and rejuvenation from You, the source of our strength.

What Holds You Back? Paidagogos?

Paidagogos

Galatians 3:15-29

I find myself getting into a routine. I read my Bible. I pray. I am kind and do good things for people. I go to church. All this I do because I am a forgiven child of God, a Christian. What can be wrong with that? As I was doing these things this week, God sent one person and then another to wake me up. I had read the Bible and was studying this week’s passages for the Bible study. One person asked me, “Do you pray?” Of course, I pray. I thought my prayers were more breath prayers; I pray throughout the day as things arise. Then today, a young woman taught about prayer again and it reminded me what God taught me a year ago. I wrote an article about it called “Prayer is…becoming.” What I have come to realize is that I forgot about the main purpose of prayer – to get each of us into a deeper relationship with God so that His thoughts and ways become our ways. This made the passage He had me study more poignant and I think it will be particularly poignant for many Christians.

A Greek word that comes up in this week’s passage is paidagogos. A paidagogos was a servant or slave whose job for their Greek master was to ensure the son of the master studied and that the teacher hired by the master actually taught. The paidagogos was accountable to the master regarding the son and teacher. There are only three places in the Bible where this Greek term is used, 1 Corinthians 4:15 and Galatians 3:24 & 25. I thought this was such an interesting term. I wondered why I had never noticed it before. Why would Paul use such a term when writing a letter and what does it have to do with us today? These were my questions as I began to dig deeper and it is through this digging that God brought to light a few things about myself.

The epistle of Galatians is a letter written to the churches in Galatia. Galatia is an area that encompasses churches Paul established on his first and second missionary journeys. There are two theories as to the date of its writing. The South Galatian thought follows that Paul wrote to the Galatian churches he established on his first missionary journey. These would be in the towns and cities of Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe in Galatia of Asia Minor. The theologians who follow this thought think the letter was written in Syrian Antioch or Corinth around 51 or 53 AD. Most theologians follow this line of line of thinking. The North Galatian theory holds that the letter was to the churches in Ancyra, Pessinus, and Tavium of northern Galatia. If this is the case, the theologians think the Paul wrote the letter between 53 and 57 AD in Ephesus or Macedonia. There are educated reasonings as to why each group of theologians holds to their thoughts, which are not important for this study. What is important is who the Galatians are and why Paul wrote to them? The Galatians were the descendants of the Galli-Graeci people. They were the people taken over by the Galls a few hundred years prior to Paul’s travels there. Caesar noted in his Commentaries on the Gallic War, 4, 5 that the Gallic people were “fickle in their resolves and fond of change.” Another historian described the Gallic people as frank, impetuous, extremely changeable, fond of show, perpetually quarrelling, and vain.

This gives us a good idea to whom Paul was writing, but we must ask what the occasion was for his writing. In the book of Galatians, if you will read it, Paul spoke strongly with the people of Galatia. Galatians is dissimilar from Philippians in its wording and emotion, for example. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul combatted the false teaching, which tried to convince the Galatian Christians that they must do more to be Christians. Paul, in 1:6-7 spoke about the Galatians following a different gospel and confused by other teachings. By the time Paul wrote chapter 3, He appeared incensed. He said, “You foolish¹ Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.” Paul dove straight to the point. “Did you receive the Spirit through the Law or through believing what you heard?” Paul asked. Paul addressed their new belief that they must work for God’s acceptance, to be called Christians. False teachers went through their region of Asia Minor and told them they must do more to be Christians. Is this not the same legalism the Pharisees taught to the children of Israel? It is and it is the same legalism that kept most of the Pharisees from believing Jesus is the Messiah. In verse 5 Paul continued, “Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?” These people of Gallo-Graeci were being just as they were seen by others, fickle, impetuous, and extremely changeable. The false teachers led them easily to believe in a legalistic Christianity. Paul told them all Gentiles who believe by faith are descendants of Abraham whose faith God counted as righteousness (Galatians 3:6, Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3, 22). The Law, which came after Abraham, does not justify people (vs. 11). The law is not based on faith. Jesus Christ came to redeem humankind from the curse of sin the Law made humans realize they have. Paul said, “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit” (vs.14). The Law leads us closer to God, but it cannot save us from our sin. It makes us see our sinfulness. The Law cannot make us righteous or just. It reveals our sinfulness and our inability to be sufficiently good enough to get to heaven.

Paul made a very important point here. The Law teaches us about God and reveals our sinfulness to us. The Law cannot save us from our sin. The Law, in its teachings, curses us. We can no longer say we are pure from sin. This teaching by false teachers is why Paul wrote to the Galatians. Paul, the student and teacher of Jewish Law, told them the Law was written 430 years after Abraham received the promise from God for his descendants, of being the children of God (vs. 17; see also Genesis 17). The promise made to Abraham was not based on any law God required of him. When a person believes by faith the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he or she becomes a child of God through the promise God gave Abraham. We do not have to keep rules or laws to be right with God. These cannot make us right with God, but serves to show us our sinfulness. Our inheritance to be children of God through the line of Abraham’s seed comes through God’s promise to Abraham, not through the Law. “Do not consider that the Law is opposed to God; it is not,” said Paul (vs.21). If the Law could have brought life, then righteousness would have come by the Law. The Law cannot bring righteousness, only the recognition of sinfulness. God had a plan from the beginning of creation to bring us humans back to our place with Him. God gave the Law was to us to make us aware of Him and teach us about our sinfulness and need of Him. The prophets foretold of the plan God had. His plan has always been to redeem us from the curse sin places on us, the curse of death. God’s plan is not to make us see our futility and leave us, but to provide the cleansing each of us needs from our sins so we are made righteous through Jesus’ death and can be in God’s presence. God loved us from the creation of the world and made this plan. God gave the Law to lead us to recognize Him and our sinfulness. In the fullness of God’s timing, He had  a plan to redeem us through the death of His only Son. Not only that, since Jesus beat death and returned to life, beating death and proving His deity, we know we believers in Him will also beat death and live with Him for eternity. To get back to the point of Paul’s writing, the Scriptures (the Old Testament Law and Prophets) locked everyone in sin, “so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (vs. 22).

Paul compared the Law to belief in Jesus Christ in verses 24 and 25. He said, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” This is where paidagogos enters. The Law was our tutor to lead us to Christ. Remember, the paidagogos was a hired servant or slave who ensured the master’s son did his schoolwork and the teacher actually taught. The Law is like the paidagogos in that it leads us to God, but it cannot make us righteous and clean from our sin. A servant took a master’s son to his lessons, but he was not able to make him learn. The master’s task was to make a child learn or a teacher teach. The Law cannot clean us of our sins, but it can lead us to the Master who can. Paul said to the Galatians, why do you lean toward legalism, which cannot save you, when you have received faith in Jesus Christ, which has cleaned you from all your sin and has given you a new life through the Holy Spirit. A person can have many tutors, paidagogos (the Laws), but they will never give righteousness. Paul expressed this in 1 Corinthians 4:15, “For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.” Previously, they were only taught by teachers and led by servants, but now they are children of God, their heavenly Father, and led by their earthly father, Paul. Previously the Law led them to recognize their sinfulness and inability to be righteous. Now God shows them His love and gives them righteousness. Once servants led them, since then Paul led them to their Father. Paul reiterated for them in verse 26, “Now you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” As sons and daughters of God, you are no longer to be considered Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. We believers are all one in Christ Jesus. There is no earthly distinguishing of persons and no need for laws mandating roles for each other. Since we are in Jesus Christ, we are Abraham’s descendants and heirs of the promise of God to him.

The point Paul made and which we must consider for ourselves today is that we are not under a code of laws or legalism. We are free from legalism because Jesus fulfilled all the Law and the prophecies. The Galatians, fickle and extremely changeable though they were, were not much different from each of us today. Many people believe they must keep to a code and follow rules to be acceptable to God and go to heaven. Those of us who are Christians also find ourselves falling into this trap at times as well. We know what a Christian should be like and what they should do and we tick those tasks off our list each day as we do them. Pray, tick. Read the Bible, tick. Help someone, tick. We easily are caught in this trap of legalism. We have lost something and that something is freshness with God. Our doing of tasks is not what saves or saved (current Christians) us. There is nothing we can do to convince God to save us. We are sinful. God saves us because of His love and mercy for us. He seeks to do what is best for us and the ultimate thing we need is eternal life with Him, which only comes through the salvation Jesus’ death gives. We cannot do anything to earn salvation and forgiveness. God saves us because He wants a restored relationship with each of us. The same is true if we are already Christians. We cannot do anything for God to make ourselves more acceptable to Him. He has done it all. What He wants with us is a relationship, the thing for which He saved us when we believed in Christ Jesus. He does not want us to tick off a list of “must do’s” each day. He wants a relationship with us each day. That prayer we each do, He wants to commune with us so that we know His heart, love Him more, and desire to do His will. That Bible study we do, He wants us to know who He is and see how He has acted in history so that we can share His love and salvation to others and so we can radically rely upon Him when trying times come. (The Bible is used by the Holy Spirit to encourage us and teach us each day.) Those good tasks we do, He wants us to do them because He has prompted us and put His love within us to show and share with other humans so they will be helped and so they will know of His love for them, too. What we do each day for God - pray, read our Bibles, do good works - are not a to-do list we must clear. These things we do because we are in a deep communing with God each day. We do them because we love Him and His other created beings, other people.

The questions comes back to this: Are you allowing the Law and legalism to drive you each day and realizing nothing is enough to redeem you and save you? Are you willing to allow God to show you His plan of salvation, the one that will save you? If you are a Christian, have you been caught up in the to-do list for Christians  so that you have lost sight of God? Will you realize that God is waiting for you to return to a close commune with Him? Tonight, a second person brought my attention to my prayer life. I pray. I breathe prayers for many people each day. God made me realize I had lost touch with Him and commune with Him. Join with me and return to communing with God, the Creator of the universe and the Savior of each of us from our sins. He calls to each of us, but we each must choose to respond to Him.