Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Weekly message: Christ the seed of Abraham by God’s promise not by Moses’ law by Rev. Katherine Liu Bruce

Weekly message: Christ the seed of Abraham by God’s promise not by Moses’ law                                        

By Rev. Katherine Liu Bruce

Christian Arts Ministries: Biblical precepts & Gospel music; Pastoral ministry & Counseling  

Date: 12/62023

Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians reveals that Christ is versus religion with its law. God make Paul an apostle not by the law according to his natural man in the old creation but through the resurrection of Christ according to his regenerated man in the new creation. Therefore Apostle Paul didn’t say “God the Father, who gave the law through Moses,” but “God the Father, who raised Him (Christ) from the dead.” God’s New Testament economy is not with men in the old creation but with men in the new creation through the resurrection of Christ. Paul came to his subject because the churches in Galatia were deserting the grace of Christ and backsliding to the observance of the law, Paul was burdened to write this Epistle. And emphasized that the purpose of Christ’s giving Himself for our sins was to rescue us, to pluck us, out of the Jewish religion, the present evil age. This is to release God’s chosen people from the custody of the law to bring them out of the sheepfold (John10:1; 3) according to the will of God.

Apostle Paul wanted to rescue the churches, which were distracted by Judaism with its law, and bring them back to the grace of the gospel. The grace of Christ is the Triune God- the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This grace is versus the law of Moses (John1:17). The observance of the law could never be a gospel that could set sinners free from the bondage of the law and bring them into the enjoyment of God; it could only keep them as slaves under the bondage of the law, entangling them with the yoke of slavery of the law (Gal.5:1). The Judaizers troubled the churches by perverting distorting, the gospel of Christ, thus misleading the believers into going back to the law of Moses.  

Judaism was built upon the God-given law with its three pillars: circumcision, the Sabbath, and the holy dietary regulations. All three were ordained by God (Gen.17:9-14; Exo.20:8-11;Lev.11) as shadows of things to come (Col.2:16-17). Circumcision was a shadow of the crucifixion of Christ in its putting off of the flesh, as signified in baptism (Col.2:11-12). The Sabbath was a type of Christ as the rest for His people (Matt.11:28-30). The holy diet symbolized persons who are clean and persons who are unclean, those whom God’s holy people should contact and those they should not contact (Acts 10:11-16,34-35). Once Christ had come, all these shadows should have been terminated. Hence, the observance of the Sabbath was abolished by the Lord Jesus in His ministry (Matt.12:1-12), the holy dietary regulations were annulled by the Spirit in Peter’s ministry (Acts10:9-20), and circumcision was counted as nothing in the revelation received by Paul in his ministry (Gal.5:6; 6:15). Furthermore, the law, the base of Judaism, has been terminated and replaced by Christ (Rom.10:4; Gal.2:16).  

When Christ took away our sin on the cross, He redeemed us out of the curse of the law. Christ not only bore the curse for us but also became a curse for us. The curse of the law issued from the sin of man.(Gen.3:17). In drifting back to the law, the bewitched Galatians clung to Moses, through whom the law was given; but Paul referred them to Abraham, who was the father of faith. Faith was of God’s original economy; the law was added later because of the transgressions. After Christ fulfilled the law through His death, God wanted His people to return to His original economy. With Abraham it was not a matter of keeping the law but of believing God. Works of law make people disciples of Moses (John9:28), a relationship that has nothing whatever to do with life. Faith in Christ makes the New Testament believers sons of God, a relationship altogether of life. We the New Testament believers, were born sons of the fallen Adam, and in Adam, because of transgressions, we were under the law of Moses. But we have been reborn sons of Abraham and have been freed from the law of Moses by faith in Christ.  

 The promise God gave to Abraham, “In you shall all the nations be blessed,” was the gospel. It was preached to Abraham not only before the accomplishing of redemption by Christ but also before the giving of the law through Moses. What God promised to Abraham corresponds with what God accomplished through Christ, which is the fulfillment of His promise to Abraham. The New Testament economy is a continuation of God’s dealing with Abraham, having nothing to do with the law of Moses. “In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal.3:14). The blessing promised by God to Abraham (Gen.12:3) for all the nations of the earth. The promise was fulfilled, and the blessing has come to the nations in Christ through His redemption by the cross. In the gospel we have received not only the blessing of forgiveness, washing, and cleansing; even more, we have received the greatest blessing which is the Triune God –the Father, Son, and Spirit –as the processed all inclusive life-giving Spirit dwelling in us in a most subjective way for our enjoyment.

“But to Abraham were the promises spoken and to his seed. He does not say, and to the seeds, as concerning many, but as concerning one: And to your seed, who is Christ. And I say this : A covenant previously ratified by God, the law, having come four hundred and thirty years after, does not annul so as to make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance is of law, it is no longer of promise; but to Abraham God has graciously given it through promise.” (Galatians 3:16-18)

 Christ is seed and the seed is the heir who inherits the promises. Actually is God Himself processed in His Trinity through incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and dissension that we may receive Him as our life and our everything!  God’s promise to Abraham was given first. The law came 430 years later. The promise was permanent, but the law was temporary. The law, which came later and was temporary, cannot annul the promise, which was given first and was permanent. The Galatians left the first and permanent promise and went back to the later and temporary law.  Counted from the time God gave Abraham the promise in Gen.12 to the time He gave the law through Moses in Exo.20. This period was considered by God as the time of the children of Israel’s dwelling in Egypt (Exo.12:40-41). The four hundred years mentioned in Gen. 15:13 and Acts 7:6 is counted from the time Ishmael mocked Isaac in Gen.21 to the time the children of Israel came out of the Egyptian tyranny in Exo.12 This is the period during which Abraham’s descendants suffered persecution from the Gentiles.

 Inheritance is not of law but promise. Hence, the inheritance was graciously given to Abraham through promise.  The law was able only to demand and condemn; it could not give life (Rom.7:10). There is no life in the law; there are only commandments. Life is in Christ (John1:4). He is the life-giving Spirit (1Cor.15:45), the only One who is able to give life. The giving of life is the focal point of the apostle’s revelation. We should take only the One who gives life. With the law there is a mediator between two parties, God and the children of Israel. With the promise there is only God, who is directly related to the one who receives the promise, without a go-between. The responsibility with respect to the law depends not on one party but on two, whereas the responsibility with regard to the promise depends only on the giver, God. Hence, the law is inferior to the promise. The Galatians gave up the superior and went back to the inferior.

There must be righteousness in order for life to be given. (Gal.3:21) Righteousness, however, is not of law but in Christ (Rom.5:17-18). Hence, the law is not able to give life. Furthermore, since the law cannot give life, it has no power to fulfill its requirements so that righteousness may be produced. Therefore, in this sense also, righteousness is not of law. “But the Scripture has shut up all under sin in order that the promise out of faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came we were guarded under law, being shut up unto the faith which was to be revealed. So then the law has become our child-conductor unto Christ that we might be justified out of faith. But since faith has come, we are no longer under a child-conductor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There cannot be Jew nor Greek, there cannot be salve nor free man, there cannot be male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are of Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” (Gal.3:22-29)

               The believers are one in Christ by His resurrection life, and His divine nature to be the one new man, as mentioned in Eph.2:15. This one new man is absolutely in Christ. There is no room for our natural being, our natural disposition, and our natural character; in this one new man Christ is all and in all (Col.3:10-11). This oneness in Christ is achieved through baptism, which terminates all the divisive distinctions and ushers the believers into the divine organic union with the processed Triune God, resulting in the believers’ subjective assurance that they are one with one another.

 Abraham has only one seed, Christ (Gal.3:16). Hence, to be Abraham’s seed we must be of Christ, be a part of Christ, we too are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise, inheriting God’s promised blessing, which is the all-inclusive Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed God, who is our portion. Under the New Testament, the believers as God’s chosen people, being sons of full age, are such heirs, not under law but in Christ.

Like Ishmael (4:23), the Judaizers, who remained under law and kept themselves apart from Christ, were Abraham’s descendants according to the flesh; they were not like Isaac (Gal.4:28), who was Abraham’s heir according to promise. But the believers in Christ are such heirs, inheriting the promised blessing. Therefore, we should remain in Christ and not turn to the law.  Since the law is unable to give us life (Gal. 3:21), it cannot produce the sons of God; but the Spirit, who is received out of faith (Gal.3:2) and who gives us life (2Cor.3:6), can.  The law kept God’s chosen people under its custody until faith came (Gal.3:23). Faith in Christ, who is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, makes God’s chosen people Abraham’s seed as “the stars of the heavens” (Gen.22:17) according to God’s promise.

Ø  Grace came with Christ and with the fulfillment of the promise.

God gave the promise to Abraham according to His eternal purpose. Before this promise was fulfilled, the law was given to serve as the custodian of God’s chosen people. Then, at the appointed time Christ, the promised seed, came to fulfill the promise and brought in the promised blessing. This is grace. Therefore, grace came with Christ and with the fulfillment of the promise. All this is on God’s side. On our side, we need a way to apprehend, realize, and enjoy all that Christ, the seed, is and has accomplished. Therefore, there is grace on God’s side, and there is faith on our side. Now, since we have grace, faith, and the seed that has fulfilled the promise, we no longer need the law to serve as our custodian. Hence, we must set aside the law and turn from the custodian to stay with Christ that we may enjoy the promised blessing by remaining in grace and faith. This blessing is nothing less than the processed Triune God as the all inclusive life-giving Spirit.

             “But when time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba," Father. So, you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. (Galatians 4: 4-7)

Christ’s redemption brings s us into the sonship of God that we may enjoy the divine life. God’s economy is not to make us keepers of the law, obeying the commandments and ordinances of the law, which was given only for a temporary purpose. God’s economy is to make us sons of God, who inherit the blessing of God’s promise, which was given for His eternal purpose. God’s eternal purpose is to have many sons for His corporate expression (Heb.2:10; Rom.8:29).  

Therefore, He predestinated us unto sonship (Eph.1:5) and regenerated us to be His sons (John1:12-13). God’s Son is the embodiment of the divine life (1John5:12). The Spirit of God’s Son is the Spirit of life (Rom.8:2). God gives us His Spirit of life not because we are law keepers but because we are His sons.

 Abba is an Aramaic word, and Father is the translation of the Greek word Pater. Such a term was used first by the Lord Jesus in Gethsemane while He was praying to the Father (Mark 14:36). The combining of the Aramaic title with the Greek title expresses a stronger affection in crying to the Father. Such an affectionate cry implies an intimate relationship in life between a genuine son and a begetting father.

             The New Testament believers become heirs of God not through the law nor through their fleshly father but through God, even the Triune God- the Father, who sent forth the Son and the Spirit; (Gal.4:4,6); the Son, who accomplished redemption for sonship (Gal.4:5); and the Spirit, who carries out the sonship with us (Gal.4:6).  You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29).

 Therefore, Apostle Paul emphasized that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. (Galatians 3:13-14)  But when time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba," Father. So, you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. (Galatians 4: 4-7). The one who sows to please the Spirit from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8).

Bibliography,

            

             Bauer, Walter. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd Chicago: The University of Chicago press, 2000.

Brown, Robert, Philip W. Comfort and J.D. Douglas, ed. The New Greek English Interlinear New Testament. Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.1990.

Friberg, Timothy, Barbara Friberg, and Neva F. Miller et al., eds. Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament.1st ed. Victoria BC: Trafford Publishing, 2005.

           Lee, Witness. The New Testament (R.V.) Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.

Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie study Bible (NIV). Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986. 

 Strong, James. Strong’s: the expanded exhaustive concordance of the Bible. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2010. 

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