The wonder of God's amazing grace doesn't really grip us until we realize the depth of our sin. And today on Truth for Life weekend, we'll look afresh at our desperate predicament. All that Jesus has accomplished for us, and why. Alastair Begg is teaching from Galatians chapter 4. We're focusing on verses 4 through 7.
Yeah. Verse 5 here of chapter 4 needs to be read in light of what Paul has already said in chapter 3 and verse 5. 13, actually, the whole paragraph that begins in chapter 3 and verse 10. Because his argument there is fairly tight. He says that those who are relying on observing the law Who are seeking by the law to be justified and accepted by God are actually under a curse.
In verse 11, it is clear, he says, that no one is justified before God by the law, and the reason is that the just will live by faith. And he then goes on to say in verse 13 that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. And he did so by becoming a curse for us.
So the wonderful news in our sentence is this. that Jesus has done for us on the cross what we could never do for ourselves. This is at the very heart of the Christian story. That when we look upon the cross and we see Jesus hanging there, He is doing something for us that is necessary. and that is voluntary.
And he takes his place where we ought to be. In order that we might enjoy the benefits that He in His curse-bearing provides.
Now, when he talks, Paul that is, of being disobedient. He is referring not only to those who were his initial readers, but he is referring to all of us. Because all of us have not kept the law. We have not done everything that the law requires. And there is a curse in 10B.
Which is Resting upon those who do not continue to do everything written in the book. of the law.
Now, the question is: how then can the Lord Jesus? liberate us from our predicament. How then can the Lord Jesus alleviate the curse that is upon us because of our rebellion against Him? And the answer is given very clearly there in verse 13. How has God accomplished this?
Well, he says, Christ redeemed us. From the curse of the law. By becoming A curse. For us. In other words, what should have come to us Went to him.
This is a cross-reference in many ways to one of the verses that I hope to spend the rest of my life wrestling with and trying to understand in its fullness, namely 2 Corinthians 5.21. God made him Who had no sin. to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of the world. of God.
Now of course the wonder of that will never grip us. until we have been brought face to face with the fact that we deserve to die. Until you and I have come face to face with the fact of where we stand before God. And that, of course, is the abiding purpose of the law. It shows us that we haven't loved God with all of our heart.
We haven't kept His commandments. We haven't obeyed Him. We haven't loved as we should. We haven't loved our neighbors as ourselves. We haven't always told the truth.
We've been guilty of coveting and so on. Oh, all of a sudden, things are different. And when the Spirit of God brings that message home and tells us that all who live in that disobedient posture are under the curse of God, are under the judgment and the wrath of God, and we move in our experience from simply the cerebral appropriation of the idea as a concept to the dawning awareness in our hearts of the fact that this is about me and who I am, then of course a divine transaction. Is in the process of taking place. This can never be achieved as a result of a pastor or a preacher trying to bring a person to that point.
No, the pastor, the preacher is responsible to say what the Scriptures say, and then it is the work of the Spirit of God to convict people of their sins and to convince them of all of the wonder of what God does in Jesus.
So that begs the question: have you ever been convicted of your sins? And if you haven't Then why do you believe that Jesus is your Savior? And why would you ever need a Saviour? If you've never been convicted of your sins. Jesus Voluntarily, says Paul, takes upon himself the curse that we deserve in order that we might be delivered from it.
There is no other pathway of deliverance.
Now, this little quote at the end of verse 13, which is a quote from the Old Testament, that we need to understand. What is this? It is written: Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. Does that mean that if you get hanged on a tree, you are inevitably cursed? No, what it means is that being hanged on a tree In the Old Testament, was the obvious Symbol of divine rejection.
So when someone was stoned and then hanged out on a tree. The people walking down the road said, The curse of God is on that person. for their posture hanging in ignominy there. was representative in Israel of the fact that they had been judged on account of their disobedience and their predicament was a symbol of divine rejection.
Now hold that thought as best you can. And you will quickly realize Why, when Paul writes to the Corinthians, he says, We preach Christ crucified. Which is Number one. a stumbling block to the Jews And foolish. to the Gentiles.
Now you understand why it would be a stumbling block to the Jew. Because the Jew understood that anyone that was hanging on a tree. was cursed of God.
So Paul stands up and preaches Christ crucified, and the Jew shouts out from the crowd, I don't know what you're talking about, Paul. Jesus is cursed by God. Otherwise he wouldn't be hanging on the tree. They couldn't understand how Jesus could possibly be the anointed of God, how he could possibly be the Messiah hanging on a tree, shouldn't he be sitting on a throne?
Well, the answer is yes. But all in good time. And Jewish people were converted. When they realized that Christ was hanging there. not on account of his own sin.
But on account of his becoming a curse. For us. That's what Peter writes in 1 Peter 1. Remember where he says, He himself bore our sins. on the tree.
So, the work of redemption that is described here in verse 14, we're still in chapter 3. The work of redemption results, says Paul, in the blessing that was given to Abraham coming to the Gentiles. The promise of God to Abraham. Through his seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. You can see that back up there in verse 8.
God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announce the gospel in advance to Abraham. And how does this blessing come to the Gentiles? Notice through Christ Jesus. And how? By faith receiving the promise of the Spirit.
Now, this is central to Paul's argument in this particular book. What he is saying is the way that the Gentiles are included in the promise to Abram is not by becoming Jews. It is by doing what Abram did, namely believe in God. And in chapter five and in verse two, he says, Mark my words. I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.
In other words, if you're going to go ahead and go through all the Judaistic rites, you do not understand what Jesus has done in dying on the cross and bearing your curse.
So that then is the first and gracious purpose of God In sending his son, born of a woman, born under the law, why?
Well, number one, to redeem those under the law.
So that they might be. adopted as sons.
So that they might receive the full rights of sons. Jeff Wilson, in his wonderfully helpful little commentary, says. He who was the Son by nature. willingly took the form of a servant.
So that we who were by nature the servants of sin might become sons by the adoption of grace. That's one of the reasons that the message of the gospel is unappealing to people. We actually don't like grace. We like deeds. We like doing.
We like achievement. They like being able to look around and say, and I want you to know that I did this myself. And I want you to know that I accomplished this. And I want you to know that I'm a much better person than I once was ever since I started going to that church. I've cleaned up my act.
I'm no longer going down the pub three times a week, only once. And I'm a much better father. And there are a number of things also that I can point to. I really have done a wonderful job.
Well, I'm delighted to hear all of that. But have you faced the fact that that in itself is of no use to you and no value before God? Because all that you can achieve on your own renders null and void all that Jesus has accomplished on the cross. And if we, by our own endeavors, were able to put ourselves in rights with God. If we were able somehow or another to inveigle our way into his family by our own endeavors.
then of course there would be no wonder in redemption. and there would be no beauty in this prospect of adoption.
Now, it's in this little phrase here, in the same verb that we noted this morning, that we have the sending of his Son in verse 4. God sent his Son. To accomplish our redemption. But not only did he do that, he sent the Spirit of His Son. You will see that in verse 6.
So that the benefits of redemption may be experienced. in our lives.
So he sends his son. In order that he might redeem us. And then he sends the Spirit of His Son. It's a very interesting phrase. It's indicative of the fact that we should never wrest the work of the Spirit of God from the work of the Son of God.
Father, Son, and Spirit are interwoven in this great work of redemption. The reality of justification. Whereby we are declared righteous in God's sight. is not separated From the gift of God's Spirit. who is immediately at work in us Sanctifying us.
The analogy that I've always used with young people is that in the United Kingdom you come upon buildings that have the crest HRH over them. Her Royal Highness. And when a property is taken over by the crown, A legal transaction takes place in private somewhere, in an office somewhere. Once that legal transaction has been conducted, Then a sign is placed. over the entryway to the building.
And simultaneously, A whole crew of individuals almost inevitably descend upon the building. In order to refurbish it in such a way that it will be a fit residence for Her Royal Highness.
So that the legal transaction creating a change of ownership. Is accompanied by the indwelling presence of those who will create a change of environment.
Now listen carefully. Especially if you come from a Roman Catholic background. I remember witnessing to a Roman Catholic in a taxi in Chicago and saying to him, But wouldn't you like, wouldn't you like to know that your sins had all been paid for, past, present, and future? Oh no, said the man, I wouldn't like to know that. I said, why not?
He said, because then I would just go out and sin like crazy. And I said, no, but there's a second part to this. Not only are your sins forgiven and you are declared righteous in God's sight, but you are simultaneously indwelled by the Spirit of God Himself, who begins the sanctifying process of conforming you to the image of His Son.
So that the hymn writer again helps us out. Be of sin the double cure. Cleanse me from its guilt, justification, and power, sanctification. And every so often you'll come across somebody who tells you that they know Jesus in element number one, but they're not really too interested in stage two. They're really just a stage one Christian.
No, they're not. They're not a Christian at all. Because the legal transaction does not take place absent. the sanctifying work. of the spirit.
Now, some of you know adoption firsthand because you have lived as adopted children.
Some of you know it because you have adopted children. And you know That the moment a child is adopted, that child's whole status changes.
Now the same thing is true in our spiritual adoption. Because when we are adopted into the family of God, that confers upon us a status. Our adoption does not change our character. It changes our status. Our adoption does not necessarily and immediately change our experience.
And the same experience of the child in terms of physical adoption. Will be concurrent with the experience of many of us who have been spiritually adopted. I know all this only by observation. I remember one of my good friends telling of a missionary couple who adopted a little girl. Lovely girl.
They took her to They're home. They gave her her bedroom. They fed her her meals. She began to learn obedience. And that's how it went.
And then one day Quite out of the blue. The father heard her say, Daddy. I need a new shoelace. And that was her first Acknowledgement. of her adoptive Status.
When she said, Daddy, I need a new shoelace. The Father knew that what had been legally transacted was now experientially absorbed. And this adoption meant something. Our Father is not content To walk around, as it were, with papers in his inside pocket that have our names on them. He is committed.
To those of us who have been justified by grace through faith, those of us who have been adopted into his family, he is committed. To our entering into the existential experiential wonder of what it means to say. Daddy, I need a new shoelace. Father, I need your help. And that's why He sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.
so that we might have a subjective sense of our relationship with God the Father. This Christian thing is not some legal cerebral transaction. If that's all it is in your life, my dear friend, I'm sorry for you. If that's what you have, some kind of framework, some kind of non-experiential grasp of dogma or doctrine, whereby you've said, was a curse, I'm a curse, he's a curse, whatever it is, and on the strength of that, you proceed through your days. But you have no sense of, and he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own.
If you can simply go through the motions, then my dear friends, you better ask severely before scripture whether you know God at all. Because he is not in the business of adopting people into his family in some way that is all outside of ourselves. Our justification, Luther said, is all outside of us. But that which is transacted on the basis of what Jesus has done out there is made real to us on the strength of what the Spirit of God has done in here.
So we have every right. To anticipate. That there will be devotion. That there will be passion. That there will be tears, that there will be enlightenment, that there will be involvement, that there will be praise.
Listen. I have to take myself in hand when I'm singing these songs. I don't let them run on. I'm saying the words to myself. Jesus, you are my prophet.
You are my king. You are my savior. You are my friend. You are my Lord. You are my life.
You are my way. You are my end. And I want you to send your spirit into my heart this morning so that when I sing this hymn, it may be sung in such a way that it assures me of who I am. And if someone was to see me, they would say, Well, I think he must know God. I think he must know Jesus.
People can come in and out of Parkside without any notion at all that this is a congregation engaged by the Spirit of God. in love with the Son of God. in awe of the fatherhood of God. But this is cross-reference in Romans 8, isn't it? You didn't receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear.
But you receive the Spirit of Sonship, and by Him we cry, Abba, Father. It's not an assurance, incidentally, this crying out. I've heard this taught in such a way that, you know, when you finally reach a certain level of maturity, then this will be your experience when you receive the Spirit of Sonship and you learn to cry, Abba, Father. I don't think it's that at all. Rather when I'm downhearted.
Rather, when I haven't done as I wanted to do, when I have Failed when I would like to have been successful, when I find myself in the middle of a week. bruised and broken and disheartened and discouraged. I find myself crying out. Oh Father. Father.
Could you please help me? And when I find myself calling out in that way, I'm reminded again. of the wonder of what Jesus has done. in redeeming me. and sending His Spirit to live in my life.
Because otherwise I would have no occasion. to call God Father.
So The way in which God assures us of our sonship. is not then by some Unusual gift.
Some peculiar sign. But he assures us of our sonship by the quiet, persuasive witness of his spirit. As we talk to him. And as we walk with him. And so you have this wonderful finale to the lovely little section.
So he says: the fact is, we're not slaves. But we're sons. And if we're sons, we're actually heirs, joint heirs with Christ actually, in Romans 8.
So how then is this been brought about, that we who were by nature slaves have been made sons And made heirs.
Well, it's all because of God's amazing grace. Because In verse 4, He sent His Son to die for us. And in verse 6, He sent His Spirit to live in us. And that's who a Christian is.
Someone who says, I know now that God has sent his Son to die for me. Died in my place. And I know that God has sent His Spirit to live in me.
So that my understanding of who God is and what He's done. It's something that is real to me, it is experiential. It is life-changing. And it is reassuring. You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend?
That's Alistair Begg reminding us there is no pathway of salvation and deliverance except through the finished work of Jesus.
Now here at Truth for Life we teach from the Bible because God works through His Word to convert unbelievers and to strengthen those who already believe. And not only does He work through the preaching and reading of His Word, but also through our praises. That's why music is an important part of our worship. And when you visit our website today, you can learn about a newly released book of worship music from our good friends songwriters Keith and Kristen Getty. This is a comprehensive hymnal titled The Sing Hymnal.
Keith and Kristen have with great care compiled an extensive collection of more than five hundred worship songs, including both classic hymns, along with many modern hymns that the Gettys have written themselves or have co-authored with others. This is a beautifully crafted hard cover book that you'll enjoy for years to come, and using a hymnal is a great way to introduce the younger members of your family to powerful words written by writers like Isaac Watts and John Newton, Charles Wesley, Fanny Crosbie. Find out more about the Sing Hymnal when you visit our website truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for spending a part of your holiday weekend with us.
When people visit your church, do they leave feeling like they just had a tiny glimpse of heaven?
Next weekend, we'll learn why they should. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
