17 Jun There’s Jesus For YOU! (Galatians 3:15-29)
Sermon Summary:
Are you tired of guilt-ridden burden-giving joy-sucking religion? If so, then you need Jesus! If Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, and even Moses needed Jesus, we all need Jesus.
Adam and Eve Needed Jesus
Genesis 3:15 “I [God] will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman [Eve], and between your offspring and her offspring; he [male descendent] shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
- Singular “offspring” – male son to defeat Devil – Son of God Jesus Christ
- God told Adam and Eve “you need Jesus”
Abraham and Sarah Needed Jesus
Genesis 17:7 And I [God] will establish my covenant between me and you [Abraham] and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
- Singular “offspring” – Jesus Christ
- “Everlasting Covenant” – eternal life
- God told Abraham “you need Jesus”
Galatians 3:15-16 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.
Prototype – 1.0 to be copied
Covenant – once agreement is reached, you cannot edit it
- 100’s X Bible
- Loving agreement that binds together (God & people, people & people)
- Christianity = New Covenant
- Marriage is covenant (Prov. 2:17, Malachi 2:14)
Hesed –
- covenant love, loving kindness, mercy, steadfast love, loyal love, devotion, commitment, loyalty, or reliability.
- Jesus SB “Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.”
Abraham’s Covenant with God is Everyone’s Prototype for Covenant with God
- Abraham – pagan gentile old & barren
- God showed up by grace to reveal Himself & invite Abraham into relationship (faith)
- Covenant Head is God
- All of God’s promises will come through Abraham’s “offspring” – singular not plural
- God told Abraham “you need Jesus” & says the same thing to everyone
Moses Needed Jesus
Galatians 3:17-22 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. 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.
- Moses is the “intermediary”
- “through angels” – 300X Bible, 90% of Bible books
- Divine Family – levels leadership, Sons of God (ruler) vs Angel (messenger)
- Moses wrote the law 430 years later and it does not replace Jesus Christ
Law of Moses proves Everyone Needs Jesus
- Revealed God’s perfect holiness
- Revealed our sinfulness
- Revealed God’s patience (generations & nations)
- Kept God’s people distinct for Jesus to come
You Need Jesus
Galatians 3:23-29 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, tin 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. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
What this Scripture does not mean
- Some don’t like the male language of the Bible (God Father, God son, sons of God)
- So they use this text to eradicate gender for a spectrum
- Your race, social status, and gender are not eradicated
- Male & Female – part of creation not culture (like gravity) – Moses Gen 1:27;
- Jesus Matt 19:4 Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female
- Jesus Mk 10:6 from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’
- Bible repeatedly speaks to men/husbands/fathers & women/wives/mothers
What this Scripture does mean
- That day: child had guardian until father decided they’re adults & did not need guardian
- Law – guardian until Christ Rom. 10:4 “…Christ is the end of the law…”
- Jews – you need Jesus
- Greeks – you need Jesus
- Slaves (1/3 Romans) – you need Jesus
- Free – you need Jesus
- Male – you need Jesus
- Female – you need Jesus
In Christ – one new group with Jesus
- “in Christ” & “in him” “in the beloved” – 216X Paul’s 13 letters
- You are in Christ, Christ is in you (HS)
- “Christian” only 3X in NT
- Not found prior to Paul, rare outside of Paul
- Catholic Peter Williamson “Union with Christ gives human beings a radically new identity. We have put off the old self, the old humanity, and have put on the new…”
- Social sciences identity is from 1). Me individually or 2). My group – race, status, gender
- Christians identity begins & ends with Christ – NEW group
- For you in you through you
- Positionally – we are in Christ
- Practically – Christ is in us through the Holy Spirit
