Can I pray for you in any way?
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Dear brothers and sisters, here’s an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or amend an irrevocable agreement, so it is in this case.
God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice that the Scripture doesn’t say “to his children,” as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says “to his child”—and that, of course, means Christ.
This is what I am trying to say: The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking His promise. For if the inheritance could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise.
Galatians 3:15-18
This ends this
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Promises are made to be broken.
Maybe you’ve heard this saying before.
Its origin goes back to 1681 when Thomas Flatman published “Heraclitus ridens: or, a discourse between jest and earnest; where many a true word is pleasantly spoken, in opposition to all libellers against the government.” Within this collection of jests, riddles, and satire on government and politics, one can find the following quote:
“He makes no more of breaking Acts of Parliaments, than if they were like Promises and Pie-crust made to be broken.”
Later, Jonathan Swift, an Irish playwright and satirist, would use this saying in a discourse between a Lord and a Lady in his 1738 book titled Polite Conversation. When the Lord says to the Lady, “Why, Madam, you know promises are either broken or kept”, she replies, “I beg your pardon, my Lord, promises and pie-crust are made to be broken.”
Of course, this speaks to the untrustworthiness of promises, the implication that there is no integrity found in them as the person making the vow has no intention of making good on it.
Maybe as we have lived life, we have come to agree with the Lady in the fictional exchange. For time after time after time, we either directly experience or come to know of people who have purposely made assurances and then violated those declarations. I know I have had it happen to me on more than one occasion. I also know I have perpetrated a few unkept promises myself. I thing we all have.
Why is there such a problem with doing what we say we will do?
Because it’s nearly impossible to perfectly keep your word in life when you are hopelessly imperfect.
Thanks be to God that He has given us promises that can always be counted on, promises that are unbreakable because He is perfectly trustworthy and true.
Need an example?
You don’t need to look all over the Bible. Just go to Romans, Chapter 8.
It begins with this amazing pledge...
“...there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Verse 1)
...and ends with this:
“...neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Verses 38-39)
Believe in Jesus and you won’t be condemned for eternal damnation and, as you live this thing called life, nothing will ever be able to separate you from the love of God that is in the Savior Jesus you placed your faith in.
That’s the good news of the Gospel right there, in bookend verses from one of the most powerful chapters in the New Testament.
In between, we find these additional guarantees:
“...if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.” (Verse 11)
and
“...those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God...” (Verse 14)
and finally
“...in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (Verse 28)
In these three verses, we are assured that through our belief in Jesus, a belief that brings us the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), we become children of God and are empowered with the same power that rose Jesus from the grave. We are also guaranteed that God is interceding for Christian believers and working for their good, those who He called for His purposes.
Again, amazing words of hope that should bring us peace and encouragement from our Lord.
These words found in Romans were penned by none other than the Apostle Paul who we find writing to the Christians in Galatia in today’s passage. There, we find him reminding the Galatian believers of the unbreakable nature of the promises of God. Look again at His words here:
Dear brothers and sisters, here’s an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or amend an irrevocable agreement, so it is in this case.
God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice that the Scripture doesn’t say “to his children,” as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says “to his child”—and that, of course, means Christ.
This is what I am trying to say: The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking His promise. For if the inheritance could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise. Galatians 3:15-18
You’ll remember from the previous messages from Galatians that there was a problem brewing within the newly formed Christian churches in Galatia. Jewish influencers were working hard to convince believers that they needed to comply with the Law God gave to Moses as an additional condition for salvation, a perversion of the true Gospel that deeply angered and concerned Paul. It was the main reason why he wrote this letter.
In chapter 3, we have seen Paul invoke Abraham, the one considered to be the father of the Jewish nation, to make his point that the Law was not a God-given requirement for salvation under the new covenant He established through Jesus, a new covenant that only required belief in His Son as a requirement for being saved and gaining eternal life (John 3:16).
God had made promises to Abraham and this was well before the Law was given to Moses, 430 years later to be exact. Here’s one such promise found in the 12th chapter of Genesis, verse 7:
And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, “Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.” KJV
Here we find God making an assurance to Abraham that He would bless him and his seed with the land. This pledge wasn’t made to Abraham and all his descendants but rather to him and one of his seed. Given that Jesus was the greatest of those considered Abraham’s children, Paul makes sure his readers know that God was bringing Jesus into His covenant promise before the Law came. It could not possibly be nullified.
So Jesus was the heir to what God promised Abraham. He gained the inheritance which was not gained by complying with a Mosaic Law that had not even been given. Rather, the promise was given because of faith and faith alone, just as one gains God’s salvation promise through Christ Jesus.
Paul’s argument was intended to discredit the attempts of the Jews to mislead the Galatian Christians but his words also bring us a wonderful reminder today that God has made many promises to us through His holy word, promises of hope that we need to anchor to, promises that can and will not ever be broken.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a
comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment