Your Declaration of Independence [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. This is an incredible gospel.

And when you talk about grace like that, it's just so exciting, but somebody is always going to say, well, why then the law? That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Galatians as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina.

You're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program. I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month made to Alan Wright Ministries.

So as you listen to today's message, you can go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news?

You're free in Jesus Christ. Ben Franklin was known for many things, not least of which his wit. He wrote in the days leading up to the Revolutionary War, he said, we have an old mother that peevish is grown. She snubs us like children that scarce walk alone.

She forgets we're grown up and have sense of our own. The old mother, of course, England. King George III and all his governmental ministers didn't believe that the colonists were grown up and capable of ruling themselves. That's what it boiled down to.

Even William Pitt, who was a friend of America, wrote of England's relationship to the colony saying this is the mother country. They are the children. They must obey and we prescribe. There's something inside every child's heart as he's growing up or she's growing up that recognizes that I need parental government in my life and we need to learn to obey parents and we don't know enough. And yet while you're growing up, there's also something in your heart that is yearning for the freedom of some sort of independence. You were made for something more than just being mothered your whole life long.

You're to be mothered but so you could be released as a free human being to love, to live, and to leave a legacy in this world. Every single one of us is yearning for freedom. And this is what we're celebrating in America this Fourth of July week and we remember the process by which this happened. I love this quote from Thomas Jefferson. He said, believe me, dear sir, there is not in the British Empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament proposed. And in this I think I speak the sentiments of America.

That's in November of 1775. And what he's saying is that there is something that is so important that is demanding within the soul of a man or a woman and demanding in the soul of a people or a nation that while we long for there to be unity and cooperation even as it was with Jefferson and his understanding of the British Empire, not to the point that you serve over me in any tyrannical way or any way that limits and does not release me into my full freedom and the fruition of my life because we were made for freedom. We weren't made to come into this world and be prisoners. We weren't made to come into this world and always be under a guardian. We were made to be free, mature human beings. And so it was that we celebrate this week, this magnificent document that begins when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When this declaration comes to the end we realize that it is exactly as we call it a declaration. We therefore the representatives of the United States of America in general congress assembled appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions do in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved and that as free and independent states they have full power to levy war conclude peace contract alliances establish commerce and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do and for the support of this declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence we mutually pledge to each other our lives our fortunes and our sacred honor the declaration of independence because there is not only a yearning in the human breast for freedom but even when you know that you are made to be free that you ought to be free and you're ready to behave as a free person there is something that is essential about declaring such freedom I want to invite you today into sort of your spiritual declaration of independence for Paul's letter to the Galatians which some have called the Magna Carta of the Christian gospel could also be thought of as our sort of declaration of independence an announcement of freedom for the good news that Paul is sharing is that we are not under the law we are in Christ and he is articulating what that means and today we're going to pick up at Galatians chapter 3 and verse 15 we are in an unhurried study going all the way through Galatians and today I want to simply go through this text and begin to try to explain what Paul is saying about the role of the law about the nature of our freedom in Christ and then invite you into a a declaration of what it means for you to have your freedom in Christ and to literally say that together there's power in it now we've been learning in Galatians that Paul will not budge on this point that we are saved by grace through faith by no works or merit of our own at all and most Christians that I know just like these Christians in the Galatian provinces in the first century it's not that they are rejecting Christ it is that we tend to have our faith contaminated by a little bit of legalism and what Paul is essentially saying it to the Galatians who were being taught that in addition to Christ that to be fully in a full Christian you also needed to practice Jewish ceremonial laws like circumcision what Paul is saying is no if you add even if it's like one percent of legalism into our gospel you not only dilute it you poison it you turn it into something not only that is not powerful to affect change in the way God has has designed the gospel of Jesus Christ to do but you introduce an unlimited potential for fear because as soon as you add to the cross and resurrection of the Lord Jesus your own righteousness in any measure even it'll only be one part of a hundred even it'll be one part of a thousand you will never know when you've done enough and the accuser satan himself will use this point to taunt to to to tyrannize to condemn and so what Paul is saying is that your freedom in Christ is not only an announcement of some good news hey you're free and you're forgiven but this is the power of God unto salvation the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and we've been learning about this and in recent weeks what we've been seeing is that Paul ingeniously begins to speak to these Jewish readers by appealing to their love of being sons of Abraham they are the Jewish people the sons of Abraham because God called Abraham and gave him a promise and said you'll be a father and a father of a nation in fact your descendants will be more numerous than the stars of the sky if you could count them and so genealogically the Jewish people would see themselves we descended from Abraham and therefore we're set apart and we're special and we're sons of Abraham and and what what has happened in the Galatian provinces is that the laws of Moses ceremonial laws like circumcision had been taught and so people were now taking mosaic law as if it superseded the promises that were given to Abraham so very ingeniously Paul under the unction of the Holy Spirit here begins to speak to them at this point of connection about being sons of Abraham and he begins to describe that what really it is to be a son of Abraham is something that far transcends a bloodline that when God made a promise to Abraham that his seed would be blessed what Paul is going to show us today is that he was ultimately referring to Jesus Christ so that whoever accepts Christ by faith is in Christ and therefore if you're in Christ you are figuratively in Abraham and he's redefining what it means therefore to be a son of Abraham we pick up reading here at Galatians chapter 3 verse 15 for a text that is of critical importance in understanding the role of the law and the supremacy of grace that's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series imagine for 99 days in a row someone tells you I love you I'll never forsake you wouldn't you feel cherished but what would happen if on the hundredth day that same person said I'm not sure you're good enough for me if you don't measure up I don't think I'll love you anymore wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days wouldn't one percent of conditional love poison the other 99 percent well just one percent of law is enough to spoil grace the text of the the tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear what if I don't measure up when might I be rejected when the Judaizers infiltrated the Galatian church the apostle Paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law Alan Wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace it's called Galatians and that's the gospel discover the purity and power of the grace of God when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org today's teaching now continues here once again is Alan Wright verse 15 of Galatians chapter 3 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 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 this is what I mean the law which came 430 years afterwards does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void for if the inheritance comes by the law it no longer comes by promise but God gave it to Abraham by a promise why then the law it was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary now an intermediary implies more than one but God is one is the law then contrary to the promises of God certainly not for if a law had been given that could give life then righteousness would indeed be by the law but the scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe now before faith came we were held captive under the law imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed so then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith but now that faith has come we are no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith Abraham about 2,000 years before Christ and then Moses about 1,500 years before Christ the promise that was given to Abraham what Paul is saying came way before the Mosaic law so however you understand this Paul seems to be saying you must put it into the big sweep of redemptive history I cannot overemphasize this that when you read your Bible when you listen to a message when you establish your theological framework in life however important it may be to memorize individual portions of scripture and look at certain promises and claim them so however important that may be the the whole of scripture is one big story and the most important thing you can know about reading your Bible and understanding all of it is it it's all one big story it is what theologians call a meta narrative and what this means is that Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus are absolutely related to the Psalms which are also absolutely related to the Gospels which are absolutely related to the epistles and right it's all part of an unfolding story in fact the uncanny thing about the Bible is that there were so many different people writing it so many different eras of time all under the unction of one spirit and it comes together as one big story that's almost the most amazing thing about the Bible and so what Paul is doing is he's putting this into this framework of Abraham and Moses and Christ and he's demonstrating this promise and Abraham came 500 years before the Mosaic law came so whatever you want to say about the law start with this Paul is saying the law which came after the promise cannot nullify the promise because God's promises will never be nullified and this is where he compares it he's saying at verse 15 to give a human example I mean another way of putting this he might just say let me just give you an everyday example brothers and he says like with a man-made covenant and the word here really is for like a will or testament so that's the image I think that's here now like with a like any man's will no one annuls or adds to it once it has been ratified and what he's saying is that God made a covenant with Abraham and spoke to him as we see in Genesis 12 and Genesis 15 that I'm gonna bless you you're gonna be blessed and you're gonna be a blessing and all the world's gonna be blessed through you and I'm gonna make your name great and he spoke this this unilateral unequivocal powerful promise to Abram it was like issuing a statement of a will of what your inheritance is and what Paul is saying to the Galatians is that when someone has written out their will and it is ratified and we know that of course you could change your will if you have a will while you're still living but once the testator dies and the will is executed no matter how much somebody might wish that you would have changed it nobody can change it at that point so when you fill out your will and you leave at least 10% to Renold a church and after you go to be with Jesus and we're celebrating that 10% and then somebody in your family come this is not 10% shouldn't have gone to the church we say well we can't change it now the will has already been ratified it's already been executed so he's just using an everyday example and he's saying even in human contractual or covenantal arrangements like a will once it's executed and ratified you can't go back and change it he's saying how much more so with God God spoke a covenantal like a will and testament to Abraham so whatever you want to understand about the law you must understand this the promise of God's grace came first and it stands nothing will undo this so the law that came through Moses however you're going to understand it Paul's saying you must see it not as standing in contradiction to superseding diminishing or diluting any of the promise that was given to Abraham it must be something different you must be misunderstanding it Galatian Christians if you think you need to go back and somehow let this supersede the promise came first God's always been a God of grace and his redemptive plan has always been one of mercy and has always been through the seed Jesus Christ so establishing that this is the beginning point of it then he moves on here to say at verse 19 why then the law and this is what everybody wants to ask if soon as you start talking about grace and we're saved by God's grace and we're justified by God's grace through faith and to be justified means it's just as if I'd never sinned and it means more than that it means it's just as if I had lived a meritorious life like Jesus it means that I am forgiven not by my merit but by Jesus's and it means that I am rewarded not by my merit but by Jesus Christ this is an incredible gospel and when you talk about grace like that it's just so exciting but somebody is always going to say well why then the law that's Paul's question to answer and he answers it here as explicitly as any place in the New Testament why then the law verse 19 it was added because of transgressions until the offspring that's that singular seed should come to whom the promise had been made the law was added because of transgressions he says elsewhere and Romans the law essentially serves this initial important function it lets you know what sin is it lets you know about the problem it's a good thing if you got a problem and you discover that it's a problem it's a bad thing if there's something that is destroying you and you don't even know it Alan Wright and today's teaching your Declaration of Independence Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and our final word today stick with us unlock the power of blessing your life discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing if you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement get Alan Wright's daily blessing it's free and just a click away at pastor Alan org wouldn't 1% of conditional love poison the other 99% well just 1% of law is enough to spoil grace the tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear what if I don't measure up when might I be rejected when the Judaizers infiltrated the Galatian Church the Apostle Paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law Alan Wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace it's called Galatians and that's the gospel discover the purity and power of the grace of God when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor Alan org Alan as we continue in our series on Galatians and as teaching that we're putting a bookmark right here for it's your declaration of independence is there a realization that we come to and we we put some focus on it we say you know what I am blessed I am here and there's a declaration being made when when you really see the gospel deeply you realize it offers you a life of grace and promise and faith not of law and curse and works and I think what Paul is saying to the Galatians and and the reason for this the title of this message is that we are called to declare the freedom that is yours this is my declaration of independence in Christ I am free I'm not under law I'm no longer a guilty prisoner under guard I'm free I'm no longer a foolish child under a guardian I'm free I'm free to live to love and to leave a legacy I'm free to enjoy God follow God obey God and be filled with God I think it's a good thing Daniel to sometimes just even if you don't feel it yet to say it and sometimes if you say it and think on it enough then eventually your feelings will match but this is who we are in Christ we're free today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.