“Jan 12, 2024 - Now That Messiah Has Come”

Thursday, January 11, 2024

Now That Messiah Has Come

Reading:  Galatians 3:21-29
    
    If we can receive Abraham’s promise by faith instead of keeping Moses’ law, why did God give the law?  “It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made”(Gal 3:19).  I believe the sense of “because of transgressions” is that the Law identified sin and limited it until God acted to definitively deal with it in Jesus.  But this means that those who lived under Moses’ law had an odd predicament:  “The Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe”(Gal 3:22).  The Law identified sin but could not remove it, leaving all who tried to keep it “imprisoned” and “held captive”(Gal 3:23).  Why would the Galatians want to return to this state?

    But this imprisonment and captivity had an endpoint:  “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian”(Gal 3:24-25).  Now that Messiah has come, sin is dealt with, we are free, and the condemnation of the Law has ended.  Not only that, but “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”(Gal 3:26-27).  Now that Messiah has come, we can be true children of God through faith and can clothe ourselves with Jesus in baptism.  Now that Messiah has come, “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”(Gal 3:28).  We are a unified people; class, gender, and social distinctions lose their divisiveness.  And we can truly inherit the blessing of Abraham (Gal 3:29).    

     Now that Messiah has come, everything has changed.  The Law is set aside, its demands for perfection fulfilled by Jesus.  We have a new status as God’s children, all of whom unite together with one voice to praise him.  While we must respond to his gift by faith and baptism, we are not the ones who have brought this new state into being.  Praise God!  Messiah has come!

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One Thing to Think About:  If I viewed all Christians as “one in Christ Jesus,” how might I treat them differently?

One Thing to Pray For:   The liberation only Jesus can bring

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