So, this year, I have been working on a new project that I hope to publish in some form, probably as a free download e-book sometime next year, but I thought it might be helpful to provide an idea of what's coming, so here's the introductory section by way of an appetizer for later.
Enjoy!
If you were to make
a list of books that Christians everywhere need to read, the one we’re going to
seek to introduce here would certainly warrant being in the top ten.
Most of us have no
doubt read the book of Galatians and are probably familiar with its key themes
about the Gospel and how we apply these words to our church and our lives is
essential. Galatians is one of the lightning rod books of the scriptures
because the issues it examines are so key to what truly defines Christianity.
Martin Luther studied
and wrote his commentary on the book during his great struggle to bring the
church back to the genuine teaching provided by the scriptures themselves, to
encourage Christians to open the rich and living words for themselves and by
doing so, to enliven and deepen their faith.
So, let’s begin
where Luther does – by laying out the key themes and goals of the book and what
these are intending to teach us.
Luther’s
introduction.
St Paul is seeking
to establish the truth concerning forgiveness of sins by a particular type of
righteousness – to allow us to understand the difference between this and, say,
civil justice or political good, or the ceremonial forms of piety that are
found in various religious practices.
Many of these forms
may prove to be good and helpful in their proper place (– at school or in the
home, in a court of law), but they cannot provide any power to satisfy the
problem of our sin or any means whereby we can truly please God or warrant His
mercy towards us. They may address some of our immediate issues and needs, but
they will always fall short of meeting and assisting when it comes to our
deepest need – peace with the everlasting God.
Paul, then, is
seeking to unfold the splendour and value of another righteousness far above
what our daily institutions can provide – this, as he will show, is Christian
righteousness; a most excellent gift which rests not upon what we seek to give
or do, but purely upon what the Almighty has done for us.
Of course, such a
wonder is often hidden.
Our weakness, our
misery and our sin are so great, that honesty jars us to the truth we find no
rest or comfort in our own small efforts before God’s holy and unrelenting
requirements for purity in His inescapable law, which truly shows us the depths
of our corruption, but brings no remedy.
We are then, in
truth, trapped by the horror of our inability to satisfy even our own basic
requirements of doing some good, never mind those required perfectly and
entirely by the law. We long for remedy that is beyond ourselves, found not in
our efforts but only, purely, in God’s mercy through the forgiveness of sins
offered to us in the giving of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The greatest wisdom
for the Christian, then, is to know that we can never attain what is truly
righteous unless God credits or imputes to us a righteousness that is not our
own – not engendered or merited by good deeds or obedience on our part, because
whilst we seek to live well, it is Christ alone that makes us well.
If we teach that we
can be made right before God by any merit of our own, by any deeds we do, then
we deny the truth we know in our bones – the genuine good does not dwell deep
within our corrupt natures. Those who would teach that we are sanctified by our
own doing must be exposed to the full and uncompromising requirements of God’s
holy and unrelenting Law – not to do the harm, but good; for them to come to
comprehend the full magnitude of their personal failure to be righteous. What
of those who understand their true distress, deficiency and guilt before that
same Law? To these poor souls there must come the full wonder of undeserved
mercy and full forgiveness God grants us in the perfect work of the offering of
His Son.
There, as St Paul
has written elsewhere, we find Christ to truly and entirely be the end of the
Law (Romans 10:4).
Whilst we seek to
do good, we understand that regarding the true nature of righteousness, which
brings safety and rest with God, we can do nothing at all. All we can bring is
our sin, our poverty, our resistance to the truth.
We have come to
understand that Christ, whom the Father has so mercifully given to us, has
become our singular wisdom, righteousness, holiness and full redemption.
In His
overshadowing, sin has indeed been expelled as the power that rules, for He has
perfectly kept the Law for us in His flesh, and offered that one sacrifice to
quell sin’s reign over us.
Where Christ is
properly taught and apprehended because of God’s great mercy, the truth will
cause us to say “Although I am a sinner by nature, rightfully judged and
condemned by the law, yet I do not despair, because Christ rose from death
after bearing the penalty for my sin, and He alone is my righteousness and my
life”.
No fear, no guilt,
no condemnation, for the very sting of eternal death – the wages due for my
iniquity – have been expunged and assuaged by the astonishing death of Christ.
This alone is what
will bring me again to life come the day of resurrection, and singly clothe the
glory of my restored body.
So now, life is
lived in the Christian between these two truths – the old nature or flesh,
oppressed with frailty of this present fallen life, continuing in death, vexed
by sin and often held by sorrow in suffering as we are pulled towards the
grave, and the new life in Christ which rejoices in the treasure of what has
been secured and sealed forever in the paradise that approaches from the
Father’s great grace.
St Paul seeks to
instruct us to be comforted by the excellence of Gods certain work of
justifying us by such love, for if this truth is lost, then so would be the
true essence and value of the faith.
In the light of
this true grace, then, we now seek to genuinely teach and lead others to the
precious waters – to speak in such a way that freedom from the tyranny of sin,
self and the rags of false religion will heal us from the miserable error that
we can live morally and therefore godly lives by thinking we can achieve
abiding by the Law.
It has fallen on us
to take very great care to carefully share and explain these crucial things so
that, when we become assailed by times of failure or discouragement, when sin
assails us or death draws close, we may in those moments find the real grace
and single comfort that these treasures can bring – that our safety and our
rest reside not in our failing flesh, but in the surpassing richness of the
marvel that our Saviour has died and returned from that death for us, that we
might be found in the overshadowing of His life alone, which is our only safety
and salvation.
It is here, then,
and only here, that we can move beyond judgement to life, for in Christ only is
to be found a righteousness that pleases the Father for us all.
We are therefore
now called upon to focus upon those sights and sounds which ring out with the
good news and its breaking and sharing with us poor souls, and to feed well
there upon what is made clear – that Christ alone is the end of the Law, of
life without hope, for He is now magnified aright as Sacrifice, Priest, Saviour
and King.
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