Promise          Gen 22:1-19; Ps 105:1-11; Gal 3:15-18;John 8:39-59St Mark’s 22.5.16

https://vimeo.com/163252033    4 minute video precedes sermon   (Questions below followed by…? allow the congregation to verbally respond.)

Introduction

Throughout our series on Galatians we have seen Paul engaging in one long argument against false teachers who were insisting that to really be a Christian you needed to keep the Jewish Law. Repeatedly he tells his readers that all religious efforts are fruitless and we can be saved by God’s grace alone. Today’s passage (Gal 3:15-18) continues this theme and is based on the trustworthiness on God’s character; totally dependent on our estimation of the character of God, but first a counter example.

What is going to happen on July 2^nd and do you expect it will make any real difference to your life…? (Australian federal election and most Australians don’t think it makes any real difference which party you vote for. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-11/poll-data-reveals-waning-interest-in-politics/5662568). In the realm of politics it is for most of us a case of “Promises, promises..” You can go online and confirm your scepticism about politics by looking at the ABC’s “Promise Tracker”. I heard someone burst out the other day with the comment, “They’re all in it for themselves.” Do we ever think or act as if God is in it for himself…? Our mouths might say “Never” but our lives often say “Yes”.

We live in a very cynical time. The old culture of “My word is my bond.” is dead and with tragic frequency the solemn vows of marriage are broken. We are all promise breakers; we break promises made about being on time, about not overeating, about doing things for the church.  Have you ever made a promise to God you haven’t kept…? Who here has ever been angry at God….? People only ever get angry at God because they think he has broken his promises to be loving and just.

The whole story line of the Bible is about God making and keeping promises in the dynamic reality of covenant. Today’s passage challenges each of us about whether our spirituality is based on God’s promises or our performance. Like the churches in Galatia the average Australian Christian is so messed up about the difference between promise and performance that I think it will help to say a few words about the difference between contract and covenant.  

Covenant or Contract

I needed some electrical work done recently so I called up an electrician and we entered into a contract; if he would instal security lights then I would pay him. All contracts are like that, “If you do this…then I will do that.” Contracts are by their very nature conditional and limited. The covenants of the Bible are not contractual. The example used in this passage from Galatians is the Abrahamic covenant; back in Genesis without any background God suddenly makes unconditional promises to Abraham.  “I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you.” (Gen 12:2). These promises are made to Abraham while he is still a pagan idolater; it is the power of the promises which call him, give him faith and change his life forever. He has done nothing to deserve God’s grace. (This is the point of the video we saw before the sermon.) God says, “I will do this…just trust me to do it.” Contract happens in the realm of Law, covenant is all about God’s unconditional love realised through promises. If you grasp the difference between contract and covenant you will understand Paul’s message today, if you don’t, you will be become more confused than ever.

Exposition

v.15 “To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.”

Who here has written a last will and testament….? Once it’s written and you sign it, can anyone but you change it…? Paul’s point is that God’s covenants are even more unalterable. When God makes a covenant it is not like an agreement between two equal parties; his covenants are one-sided, unequal, asymmetrical and promise based. No Law could add to or alter the supernatural character of God’s promises and he never breaks a covenant.  

v. 16 “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.”

God’s promises are central to his relationships with people; his promises to Abraham created his special relationship with the father of the Jewish people.  God’s promises constitute the content of his covenants (Rom 9:4 cf. Eph 2:12. The Judaisers who had come up from Jerusalem were telling the Christians in Galatia that God’s promises were made to the descendants (plural) of Abraham, the Jewish people. “No” says Paul, if you go back to what God originally said to Abraham the promises were not to “offsprings” (plural) but to “offspring” (singular). Paul understands God’s covenant promise to Abraham in a prophetic way, Jesus is the descendant of Abraham in whom all God’s promises are fulfilled.

Christ as the fulfiller of every promise is very clear when we consider our Old Testament reading today about the sacrifice of Isaac. Isaac was the one and only beloved son of promise through whom all the promises made to Abraham were meant to come true (Gen 22:2). Then God told Abraham to offer him as a sacrifice. In a way that any parent would find incomprehensible, this father of faith took his son up the mountain and was about to slay him when the Lord intervened. Through Abraham’s obedient faith God intensified his promise; “in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”” (Gen 22:18). This side of the cross we know that the power of God’s promises come to their climax in the death and resurrection of Jesus the ultimate offspring of Abraham. As Paul says in Romans, “Since he (God) did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” (Rom 8:32). If you find it hard to accept the things God promises, if circumstances seem to make God a liar, get a renewed vision of the cross. The cross was the hardest thing God ever had to endure; if he sacrificed so much for you then surely he will keep every one of his promises!

As it says about Jesus in 2 Corinthians, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.” (1:20 cf. Heb 1:2). Christ is the concentration point of every promise God has ever made. If we are in Christ we are heirs of God’s promises. Everything God has ever pledged converges in Jesus.

v. 17 “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.”

God’s covenant promises made to Abraham cannot be invalidated by the Law of Moses which came 430 years later. The primacy of grace that radiates so powerfully in the Abrahamic covenant cannot be set aside by Law. The Judaisers in Galatia were seriously sinning by placing Law above promise. To place people under Law, as the Church so often does, is a cruel thing; Law means demand, obligation and performance. I saw a cross on someone’s neck the other day and quietly asked them, “Are you religious?” They replied directly, “No, I’m not religious but I am a Christian.” I knew immediately what they were saying.  To speak in broad terms, religion focuses on the performance of the receiver, the gospel focuses on the grace of God’s promises, and promise and performance are in direct opposition and so utterly incompatible that they cannot be mixed

When a preacher, like the younger John Yates, preaches forcefully on God’s grace in Christ then ends a sermon with ends with “You only have/need to believe.” faith is turned into a work that completes what God has done in Christ. We must let go of every effort to gain acceptance by God.  Our efforts lead either to spiritual pride, like the Pharisees of Jesus time, or to spiritual despair, like the “sinners” of his day. The Church looking, speaking and acting “religiously” has been killing the Church in Australia for a long time. It’s time to return to the gospel.

The false teachers in Galatia wanted to draw the Christians back under the tyranny of law-keeping. The character of Old Testament Law is summed up in this scripture; “Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”” (Ex 24:3). You do the Law but you believe God’s promise. Praise God Law cannot take away the power of his promises. This is really important as far as our relationship with the Lord is concerned.

The covenant with Abraham operated for 430 years before God gave his Law. What sort of characters were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Abraham passed off his wife as his sister, as did Isaac, Abraham tried to make God’s promise come true by having a son through Hagar, and Jacob was a liar and cheat. Nevertheless, God kept blessing them just as he had…just as he had…PROMISED. Why did he do this?  Because his promises are unconditional; as are all he has promises us in Christ[1].

v. 18 “For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.”

Promises are received by faith not by keeping law. In a contract you are paid for what you do, through promises we receive gifts. Think of it like this. You get an email from your rich Uncle Jack. “I want to give you $x, please send me your bank details.” Or, you might get an email from Uncle Jack saying, “If you come and live with me and take care of me until I die I will give you $x.” The difference is obvious; a law-wage must be worked for to be received a promised gift needs only to be believed to be received.

Conclusion

The fundamental spiritual problem that was threatening to destroy the churches in Galatia has so invaded traditional Western Christianity that the Church must undergo a radical transformation if it is to survive. When people in the secular/non-Christian world look at Christians they often see us as people working at being good. Fifty years ago most Australians were interested in being morally “good” but today they just want to have a “good time, a happy life”. Non-Christians will turn to Christ when they see the Church as a faith-filled community living out the promises of God in a way that their cynicism about the faithfulness of promise makers cannot comprehend. We worship a “Yes” God of wonderful promises who loves to give. In Christ all this is true but living by faith in God’s promises is very difficult thing indeed.

 I was at a meeting last week and I started to chat with someone about their priest. This experienced lay leader started to tell me his rector was suffering from anxiety and depression because he will be retiring in a few years time and doesn’t own his own house. We agreed that there was no way this clergyman could lead the people of God to live by faith in God’s promises. That man’s parish is headed for death! Let me explain why it is so hard to live by promise rather than by Law.

The central problem of the real spiritual struggle that motivates men and women to choose Law over promise, contract over covenant and personal effort over total reliance on Jesus is that no one likes to be totally reliant on someone else. We don’t like it that we are wholly under the power of the promise giver, we want to be able to do something in the relationship to maintain some measure of control and personal pride. Since you can measure any law, “Do this, don’t do that.” the response a law demands is limited. But the unconditional promises of God fashioned through the unconditional love of Christ crucified call us to an unlimited life of faith-obedience (Rom 1:5). The religious people in the churches and irreligious people outside of the Church are exactly the same in resisting this sort of life. (Except the heathen can spot the hypocrisy in ways we can’t.)

What are you most tempted to look to in your own efforts to make yourself acceptable to God? Regular church attendance, involvement in a group like….giving to the needy…. praying and reading the Bible daily, being a “good person” etc. ? None of these things counts for anything in the End. cf. Irish Catholic that Donna taught with, “When I get to heaven God will certainly reward me for … for all the work I have done for the church.” This woman and all like her are in immortal danger; as Jesus said to the religious people of his day, “the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.” (Matt 21:31 cf. Alabaster’s work with prostitutes).

There is but one way to absolutely know that God is a promise keeping God – it is not the state of my health, my marriage, my family life, my finances, or any worldly success. I know that God is a Promise Keeper because Jesus died for me and the Father kept his promise to his Son by raising him from the dead.  The exclusive centre of Christian faith is trusting the message, “Jesus has been raised from the dead.” Hallelujah! God’s promises are our only way to living a godly life in this world and our sole ground of appeal in getting to heaven.  

To turn to Jesus and Jesus alone, is to turn to him who through whom all the promises of God have already become true (2 Cor 1:20). The crisis in the churches of Galatia and the source of the spiritual impotence of the modern Church is our failure to dependent on Christ alone. (What I have previously called the “Jesus plus” problem.)

We need a unusual honesty today to confess that wherever we have any anxietyabout anything we are not trusting in the Father’s promises for us in Christ (Heb 13:8). To be healed of this we need to ask for special spiritual help (Acts 1:4). As the Lord spoke to Abraham so long ago transforming him from idolatry into a life of faith by the power of his promises each of us need to hear from heaven today. We need not a correction, or even an instruction, but a promise which will empower us to follow Jesus. We need this personally and corporately as a church. The Father loves to give positive promises to us in Christ, so let’s ask him now.