Friends, let me give you an example from everyday affairs of the free life I am talking about. Once a person’s will has been signed, no one else can annul it or add to it. Now, the promises were made to Abraham and to his descendant. You will observe that Scripture, in the careful language of a legal document, does not say “to descendants,” referring to everybody in general, but “to your descendant” (the noun, note, is singular), referring to Christ. This is how I interpret this: A will, earlier signed by God, is not annulled by an addendum attached 430 years later, thereby negating the promise of the will. No, this addendum, with its instructions and regulations, has nothing to do with the promised inheritance in the will.
What is the point, then, of the law, that attached addendum? It was a thoughtful addition to the original covenant promises made to Abraham. The purpose of the law was to keep a sinful people in the way of salvation until Christ (the descendant) came, inheriting the promises and distributing them to us. Obviously this law was not a firsthand encounter with God. It was arranged by angelic messengers through a middleman, Moses. But if there is a middleman as there was at Sinai, then the people are not dealing directly with God, are they? But the original promise is the direct blessing of God, received by faith.
If such is the case, is the law, then, an anti-promise, a negation of God’s will for us? Not at all. Its purpose was to make obvious to everyone that we are, in ourselves, out of right relationship with God, and therefore to show us the futility of desiring some religious system for getting by our own efforts what we can only get by waiting in faith for God to complete his promise. For if any kind of rule-keeping had power to create life in us, we would certainly have gotten it by this time.
Until the time when we were mature enough to respond freely in faith to the living God, we were carefully surrounded and protected by the Mosaic law. The law was like those Greek tutors, with which you are familiar, who escort children to school and protect them from danger or distraction, making sure the children will really get to the place they set out for.
But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in adult faith wardrobe—-Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise.
Galatians 3:15-27
Failure
Failure. Sweet sisters, that word haunts me. Especially along our journey of freedom. Can we fail? Personally, I worry about failure. I would like to live a securely protected and guided life. When I live cautiously and timidly, I cannot fail. If all my tasks are well within my ability, I will never meet failure. However, that life inhibits my freedom. Sisters, we are free to fail.
Faith ventures us into the unknown. This life of faith (we now live on our journey up the hill) encourages risk-taking that frequently results in failure. These failures are how we realize new depths of our humanity and vistas of divine grace. Amid our humanity and divine grace, free life is shaped.
Paul takes this insight and puts it in relation to the law. Back in the day, the law was a means for achieving success. Paul turned it upside down and showed that the law made it impossible for anyone to be a success. He preached a mindset shift. The law exposes us all as failures when taken seriously and used according to its intent.
Paul’s earlier teaching (back in his pharisee days) put Moses and the law as the focal point and Abraham and his life of faith as a preface. “Switch this,” Paul said, “Abraham and his belief in God through faith came many years before Moses the middleman and the law.” The law, intended to guide, became a means to eliminate risk, venture, and growth. They used it to ensure a perfect performance approved by God and admired by society.
Faith ventures us into the unknown.
Shifting our mindset is often a challenge. Imagine shifting the philosophy that people had held for centuries. It’s the life of faith that came first. For nearly 430 years, it was Abraham and God as God called him. He left home. Abraham had no road map, no plan, no itinerary, just Abraham and God. On faith, he headed west. He left his religion, his home, his culture, and all his security. Why? Because God was more important—-more important than culture, custom, country, and security. Abraham obeyed God. Why? Because Abraham believed God.
The first response of our lives to God is the act of faith. Paul makes the point that before we can use the law skillfully and freely, we must have a life of faith on which to use it! We must be thoroughly involved in a life of faith. Until we abandon ourselves to that, nothing will make sense.
The first response of our lives to God is the act of faith.
God offers himself in a personal relationship with us; we respond with our lives. Everything about us is coordinated and arranged in that foundational relationship with God. We live by what God says, not by what we can discover. We move in accordance with God’s promise, not by my ambition. We venture boldly into a life where we are directed instead of cowering in imprisoning security in which we are afraid to make a move lest we offend God or a neighbor.
There is life in Abraham’s wind-blown desert—a land of faith filled with promises of God, empty of human achievement. Sisters, Abraham had it right; the invisible was way more important than the visible could ever be. What God said to him was more important than what the people said about him. He chose to live recklessly by promise rather than in the security of the known. He chose the free life. On our way uphill, faced with the unknown, let us press on boldly into the unseen! God calls us to live the free life.