God gives righteousness and life by a promise.

 

Sermon for Trinity 13, August 29, 2021

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever.  Amen. 

Galatians 3:15–22  ¹⁵Brothers, I am speaking in human terms.  When someone has established a last will and testament, no one nullifies it or adds to it.  ¹⁶The promises God spoke referred to Abraham and to his seed.  It doesn’t say, “And to seeds,” as if it were referring to many, but, as referring to one, “And to your seed,” who is Christ.  ¹⁷What I am saying is this: The law, which came into being 430 years after the covenant established earlier by God in Christ, does not annul that covenant, with the result that it invalidates the promise.  ¹⁸In fact, if the inheritance is by the law, it is no longer by the promise.  But God graciously gave it to Abraham by a promise.  ¹⁹Then what about the law?  It was added for the purpose of revealing transgressions, until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.  It was transmitted through angels by the hand of a mediator.  ²⁰Now a mediator is not needed for one party, but God is one.  ²¹Then is the law against the promises of God?  Certainly not!  For if there had been a law given that could give life, certainly righteousness would have been derived from the law.  ²²But Scripture imprisoned all things under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ would be given to those who believe. (EHV)

God gives righteousness and life by a promise.

Dear beneficiaries of God’s promise,

            I believe it is still true that most people hope to go to heaven someday.  However, for many of them, it goes something like, “I hope I go to heaven.”  Or, “I hope I have been good enough to get there.”  Or even, “I hope that when I die, God will let me in.”  Unfortunately, for far too many people, that hope is actually just wishful thinking based on how well they perceive their own behavior in this life, for they assume that the law can be kept well enough to earn God’s reward.

This questionable attitude comes to us naturally, for even as children, we were focused on law; our parents taught us what we should do, and if we obeyed, we were usually rewarded, but if we didn’t obey, we soon learned that punishment was coming.  We didn’t always like the punishment, but we learned to expect it.  Even if our parents failed to teach us everything about right and wrong, natural law written in our hearts leads us to believe that evil will be punished and good should be rewarded.

Unsurprisingly then, law became a problem in Galatia.  Not that the law was bad or that people were generally breaking the laws of the land, but the Galatians were being tormented with the idea that receiving God’s forgiveness and salvation depended upon their submission to the laws of Moses.  Therefore, much of Paul’s letter to the Galatians refutes that idea.  Our sermon text testifies that, completely apart from the law, God gives righteousness and life by a promise.

In our text, Paul compared the gift of salvation to that of an inheritance.  No law-abiding society would ever allow someone to change a properly written and executed last will and testament after the owner’s death.  Surely, out of greed, or anger, or whatever, many people have tried, but the rule of law strictly forbids denying or changing a properly executed will to go against the owner’s wishes.  We rely on that concept, still today, when we hire a lawyer to draw up our wills.

This concept is universally accepted, so Paul relates it with an example from Jewish history; he wrote, “The promises God spoke referred to Abraham and to his seed.  It doesn’t say, ‘And to seeds’ as if it were referring to many, but, as referring to one, ‘And to your seed,’ who is Christ.”  God gave Abraham several promises: first, possession of a good land and a great many descendants, but most importantly, the unconditional promise of One descendant through whom “All of the families of the earth will be blessed." (Genesis 12:3)  Abraham would have uncountable descendants, but especially, this one “‘Seed,’ who is Christ.”  The promise came without any contribution from Abraham, but “Abram believed in the Lord, and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6)

Now, our human nature automatically assumes that Abraham must have done something good for God to make such great promises to him.  We are conditioned by the opinion of the law to expect that each party contributes to the transaction, but the truth is, Abraham did nothing.  God chose Abraham out of a nation of idolaters and made these promises to him simply because God, in His mercy, had chosen Abraham and his descendants to be the family through whom God would carry out His promise of a Savior from sin and death made to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Paul continued, “What I am saying is this: The law, which came into being 430 years after the covenant established earlier by God in Christ, does not annul that covenant, with the result that it invalidates the promise.”  Moses’ law added nothing to God’s promise.  It didn’t even exist until four hundred and thirty years later.  It’s the same way with a will; even though our human nature likes to tempt us into thinking we can influence the gift giver if we do nice things for him before he dies, but the gifts given through a will, by definition, have nothing to do with any works that preceded the will.  If the will-writer is expected to reward some effort, it becomes a debt that must be paid, having nothing to do with the last will and testament.  Paul rightly argued, “If the inheritance is by the law, it is no longer by the promise.  But God graciously gave it to Abraham by a promise.”

There is a bigger problem, however, for anyone expecting God to reward him based on obedience.  Because of sin, we never merit a reward based on the law.  In this letter to the Galatians, Paul had already written that “In fact, those who rely on the works of the law are under a curse.  For it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.’” (Galatians 3:10)  In order for anyone to be saved by his own obedience, every aspect of the law must be obeyed perfectly for that person’s whole life from conception until death.  Since, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23) any connection with the law makes salvation impossible.  If we must obey any command in order to be saved, we cannot be saved, because “whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of breaking all of it,” (James 2:10) and would thus be cursed.  Therefore, forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life can only be ours through the gift of God.

 “Then what about the law?  It was added for the purpose of revealing transgressions, until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.  It was transmitted through angels by the hand of a mediator.”  The Mosaic law was put over God’s people because of our universal disobedience.  The law was to be a mark of separation from the world.  In Israel’s case, the mediator was Moses, who serves as a foreshadow of Christ who is our Mediator with God the Father.  But the point, here, is that the law stands apart from God’s promise.  Law, and any obedience of it, contribute nothing to our salvation. 

Paul continued, “Now a mediator is not needed for one party, but God is one.  Then is the law against the promises of God?  Certainly not!”  God gives us law for our good in this world, especially to show us our need for God’s promised mercy.  Our catechism explains that the law serves three purposes: as curb, mirror, and guide.  Law does somewhat curb gross sin in this world which benefits God’s people.  Law also guides us in knowing how God wants us to live as believers in this world.  But most importantly, the law shows us our sin so that we know we need God’s intervention lest we be lost for eternity.  So, the law doesn’t oppose God’s grace but rather is another facet of the providence of our loving God. 

Rhetorically, Paul asks, “Then is the law against the promises of God?  Certainly not!  For if there had been a law given that could give life, certainly righteousness would have been derived from the law.  But Scripture imprisoned all things under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ would be given to those who believe.”  If even one human could have obeyed God’s law, there would have been no need for a Savior, but as Paul had already shown, the law only condemns us, because we have no ability to obey it perfectly.  We all were confined—imprisoned—by sin, and the law gives no escape.

There is good news, though, forgiveness and salvation have no connection with what we do.  Instead, God gives righteousness and life by a promise.  The forgiveness and holiness sinners need to stand before God is given to us as a free gift through faith in God’s promised, anointed One—the Messiah, the Christ.  Because Jesus died for us, the promised salvation is our inheritance by God’s grace.

Rather than eternally condemn every sinner, God provided salvation for all who believe by giving His own dear Son into condemnation and death in the place of us all.  Jesus Christ came into this world for that purpose, to make good His Father’s promise.  We couldn’t win our release from death’s prison.  The law was no help.  Only God’s Son had the perfect ability to obey His Father’s will to earn our release, which Jesus did throughout His earthly life for our benefit.  Furthermore, being true God as well as true Man, Jesus could take up His life again after suffering our punishment and death. 

Because it pleased our Creator to save us from the rebellion that brought us death, God promised a Savior for all.  Because God gives righteousness and life by a promise, true righteousness has nothing to do with our imperfect obedience, but everything to do with Christ’s willing obedience and complete faithfulness to His Father on our behalf.  Jesus’ obedience to His Father’s will is complete, and perfect for all time.  It is now credited to us through faith in Christ Jesus.

At the death of every rich person, there is interest in what the last will and testament will reveal.  Who will get the great wealth?  Might someone go from rags to riches?  A death is also involved in God’s last will and testament—Jesus’ death on the cross.  The last will and testament of our Savior declares that “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)  God put no conditions in His will that would keep us from the gift He wants to give, and the will was put into effect when Jesus said, "It is finished," (John 19:30) and gave up His life.

Dear friends, all the good works you and I could do would not gain us God’s favor, but by the death of His Son, we have inherited a treasure that far exceeds all the gold in the world.  Based on what Jesus has done for you and me, the riches of God’s grace are never ending, because we have the perfect righteousness of Jesus, God’s own dear Son, and the LORD wants every sinner to believe His promise and enjoy eternal life, the same promise that gave Abraham eternal life in heaven.

If you should ever find yourself in the predicament those Galatians experienced, in which someone tries to convince you that salvation is conditional upon something you must do, then flee from that uncertainty of trying to earn status before God, for already right now, Jesus’ righteousness is credited to you and to all.  “That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

Likewise, God was so determined to have you believe in Jesus that He had you baptized into the Christian faith, thereby washing away your sins and anointing you personally with Christ’s perfect holiness.  God is likewise so determined that you and many others believe and be saved that even to this day He sends preachers around the world proclaiming the message of His last will and testament, so that as many people as possible will hear the Good News of forgiveness, life, and salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, because God gives righteousness and life by a promise—a promise to you. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, forevermore.  Amen.