“Meet Three VIPs” (Gal 3:1-14) - Galatians: Be Free IV -

“Meet Three VIPs” (Gal 3:1-14)

- Galatians: Be Free IV -

Question of the Day

Who is the most influential person in your life? You may have one or several people who influence you most. For me personally, I would say the most influential person in my life is my maternal grandfather. He is a North Korean defector. He defected from North Korea alone just before the Korean civil war broke out. Since he knew no one and had no family in South Korea, he suffered a lot from the hardships of life. He ended up considering committing suicide. Around that time one Christian friend invited him to an early morning prayer meeting at his church. On the first morning nothing happened. My grandfather said to himself, “I will try one more time, and if nothing happens, I will die.” But by the grace of God, on the second morning he dramatically encountered God in the midst of distress. That morning the pastor preached on repentance. After that, he called a time of corporate prayer. While my grandfather was confessing his sins, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire. And he became a different person. Years later, he was called to ministry and served Christ’s church for life. He touched so many souls and led them to Christ. My uncle and my father were also deeply influenced by his transformed life, and they also became pastors. When I was in Korea, every time I spiritually wondered, I used to stop by my grandfather’s house. Sometimes we watched TV together. Sometime we ate a meal together. Sometimes he shared his life story with me. Sometimes he was busy with preparing a sermon, so I had to spend time by myself there. But every time I was with him, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. My grandfather is a man of faith. In fact, I talked to him on the phone the day before yesterday. That encouraged me a lot. I think you too may have the people who influence you and shape you most. Today’s scripture tells us that we need to meet at least three VIPs on our pilgrim journey. So, who are they?

Meet Abraham: Grace

The first person we must meet is “Abraham.” In verse 6 the Apostle Paul says, “Consider Abraham: “He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Who is Abraham? He was a man of faith. But at the same time, he was still actually unrighteous and sinful in his heart and behavior. Abraham lied twice and said that his wife, Sarah, was his sister in order to save his life (cf. Gen 12, 20). As a result, he put his wife in danger. He also got impatient about God’s promise that he would have a son. He took Sarah’s maidservant Hagar and slept with her and had a son Ishmael with his own efforts. But God counted Abraham as righteous because of his faith. In Genesis 15 God makes a covenant with Abraham that all nations will be blessed through Abraham and his seed. God tells him to get a cow, a goat, a ram, a dove and a pigeon. Abraham cuts them in two and arranges the halves opposite each other. This seems strange to us, but in Abraham’s day this was the way a covenant was signed. Each covenant-maker would pass between the halves of the animals. It was a vivid graphic way of those entering a covenant saying: “If I break this agreement, may I be cut up and cut off: I will deserve to die just like these animals did.” What’s astonishing in the covenant between God and Abraham is that Abraham never walks between the halves! The only thing that passes through is “a smoking firepot with a blazing torch,” that is God Himself (vv.17-18). It is a covenant that relies in no way on Abraham, but only on God. Here God is saying to Abraham, “See, I will make this happen for my name!” Indeed, in order to offer blessing to all nations, in the end one particular Abraham’s seed, the man Jesus Christ, did die on a cross (cf. Gal 3:16).

God treated Abraham as righteous, even though he was still sinful and imperfect. All other religions tell us that if we live righteously, then we are pleasing and acceptable to God. If we live unrighteously, we are alienated from God. But Christianity is counter-intuitive. It says that it is possible to be loved and accepted by God while we are ourselves wicked and unrighteous. This is grace! We are accepted by God not because we have reached a certain level of submission and righteousness. No! We are accepted by God simply because we believed him. We have to meet this God, the God of love, the God of grace. I still remember how He delivered me out of the valley of death when I was suffering from an endemic disease in East Timor. I still remember how He sustained me with his righteous right hand when I cried out to him in times of trouble in the army. I still remember how He saved me out of temptations, depression, and spiritual bankruptcy. And I am sure that you have many more powerful stories how God saved you, how He healed you, and how He did hover and deliver you up to this day. So every time you feel unworthy or self-righteous, go back again and again to those moments. And remember who He is and who you are in him.

  

Meet Moses: Law

The second person we must meet in our pilgrim journey is “Moses.” Moses is a representative of God’s law. Some of you may ask, “If we are free from the law by God’s grace, why do we need the law?” “What is then the purpose of the law?” (v.19) In verse 24 Paul answers this question: “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith” (NIV). The law shows us how sinful and rebellious we are. It shows us how much we fall short of the glory of God. I used to have a white winter jacket. One day I went for a walk the snowfield. I just realized that my white jacket didn’t look like a white color at all compared to pure white snow. Our righteousness is like a dirty rag compared to God’s righteousness. In 2008 revival came to my seminary. At first, God placed spiritual hunger and burden upon five Korean students. We began to get together and have a prayer meeting every night. We sang hymns, read the Scriptures and had a time of corporate prayer. About a week later, more students started joining us. The meeting grew in number. Every night about 30 seminarians cried out to God and sought his face. One night on the way to the prayer meeting one of my friends said to me, “Victor, until now, I thought I was a good man. But now I know how sinful I am and how much I fall short of the glory of God.” I was shocked because at that moment I felt the exact same way. God brought deep conviction of sin and a holy hear of God and genuine repentance among us. Every night we mourned over our sin. We also mourned over other’s sin.

When we encounter God’s law, the God of justice, we see how helpless and profoundly sinful we are. In 2 Kings 22 King Josiah found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD. When he heard the words of the law, he tore his robes. And he cried out, “Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book.” In Nehemiah 8, when the wall was completed, the Israelites asked Ezra to bring the Book of the Law of Moses. As Ezra opened the book, the people all stood up. As the people listened to the words of the law, they wept! The law brutally shows us who we really are and then leads us to Christ. John Stott says, “We must never bypass the law and come straight to the gospel… No man has ever appreciated the gospel until the law has first revealed him to himself. It is only against the inky blackness of the night sky that the stars begin to appear, and it is only against the dark background of sin and judgment that the gospel shines forth.” Many people want a sense of joy and acceptance, but they don’t want to hear about the seriousness of their sin. But unless we see how helpless and sinful we are, the message of salvation will be not heart-throbbing and liberating. Unless we encounter Moses, we will think that we are not all that bad and good people will be saved by their good deeds. Only after we meet Moses, we will see Christ clearly.

Meet Christ

Through Abraham we learn that God counts us as righteous no matter who we are if we put our trust in him. Through Moses we see who we really are – how sinful and helpless we are, how easily bewildered and bewitched we are, and now we are guided to see who Christ really is. Christ is the last but not least VIP. In fact, he is the most important person we must meet. Who is Jesus? There are many ways to describe him. But most of all, we have to meet Jesus Christ “crucified.” In verse 1 Paul says, “Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.” Yes, he is our Savior, the One who obeyed the law on our behalf and then was crucified in our place so that we might have real and eternal life in his name. When God seems silent in our life, we often say, “God, show me your love!” Then, God takes us to Calvary and says, “I love you this much!” It is important to remember when he showed this love. He showed this great love while we were still sinners (Rom 5:8). A Christian is not someone who knows about Jesus and his words, but one who has seen Him on the cross. Our hearts are moved and melt when we see not just that He died, but that He died for us. Fanny J. Crosby wrote many of the hymns what we know so well today. When she was six weeks old, she became blind by the mistake of her doctor. Reflecting on this incident, Crosby said, “I have not, for a moment, in more than eighty-five years, felt a spark of resentment against him.” How is it possible? We can find out the secret of this in her hymn, “I’m thine, O Lord”:

I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice, and it told thy love to me;

But I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to thee.

Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou has died.

Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord, to thy precious, bleeding side.

Every time darkness throws a shadow over her outer vision, she ran to Calvary and remembered how she had been blessed. Are you anxious? Are you afraid? Are you depressed? Are you lost? Go back again and again to Calvary and look to Jesus Christ crucified, and there your hearts will be renewed and you will soar on wings like eagle again. Amen.