Sat AM Gal. 5:16-26 – Tullian
The idea that grace produces lawlessness is ludicrous. It doesn’t even happen in our human relationships. When your wife is kind to you when you’re a jerk is more of a motivation to repent than the law motivates. Gal 5:1 is a summary of what Paul is saying in this letter. What follows v1 is a description of freedom. Faith working itself out in love. V6 because he loved us we are freed to love others. Law turns your attention to you. Freedom turns you to others. Way too much spiritual narcissism in church today. The more I obsess about getting better the worse I get. I get more focused on me (ex of Peter walking on water). We sink when we obsess with how we’re doing. And we think this is godly. It is never honoring to God to take our eyes off of Christ. The Godpel frees me from getting (I have all I’ll ever need in Christ) and frees me to give. People are so afraid of Rom 8:1. They want to qualify it. We really believe God’s love has to end. His forgiveness is based in what Jesus has done for us, so it is inexhaustible. The law produces works of flesh. The Gospel produces fruit of the Spirit. Sim to what he said in Rom 7. We struggle flesh vs spirit. Luther said we are justified and sinful. Before God we are sons, not slaves. Justified. But in our experience is this battle. JI Packer said everytime we sin we have an identity crisis. Every temptation to sin is temptation to not believe the Gospel. We think increased independence equals freedom instead of more dependence on Christ equals freedom. We are desperately searching for something we already possess in Christ. In the moment of temptation we are looking for something that in Christ we already have. We give in because we want something that we don’t believe we actually already possess in Christ. The sin underneath all sins is that we can’t trust Jesus and we have to take matters in our own hands. – Luther. vv 18-19 the law turns us inward and leads to lawbreaking. If we want to live by that rule we will indulge the flesh. The contrast is life led by the Spirit. As you see all you need you have in Christ the spirit produces fruit and these things grow. The Fruit of the Spirit is not produced by Law but by the Gospel. Law is active, something we do. Fruit is passive, something done in us. Paul is not being prescriptive, the fruit is done for us not something we do (descriptive). Real freedom happens only when the resources of the Gospel smash any sense of need to secure for myself what Christ has already secured for me.

Notes from this AM

We were made for loving the triune God with all our heart. The Gospel answers the ques – how is that possible? It happens through the story line of just, sanc, and glorif. Justification does what we can’t do for ourselves. I fail to love God with my heart, let alone my neighbor. God’s mercies are more than a match for our hearts. Sanctification is not a to do list. It is becoming as lovable and as loving as Jesus, which won’t happen fully until glorification. Jesus is our judgment day. Perfect love drives out all fear of God as our judge. Ps 73 Asaph’s wonder: cultivating a grace saturated heart. God is working in Asaph in the context of community. vv 25-26 this is not girly poetry. It is masculinity. 1. Own your weakness in community as Asaph did. Who knows your first half of Ps 73? Pain, struggles, burdens, ques, temptations? I don’t just have bad habits. I have a broken, needy heart. 2. Preach the gospel to yourself (and one another) every day. Get to know the lyric (theology) music (doxology) and dance (missiology) of the gospel. It is an enormous treasure house – search the immeasurable riches – the language Paul uses. Grasped – our past. Guided- our present. Glorified – our future. If you are focused on overcoming instead of the Overcomer, you will be so preoccupied with self. Jesus is your active and constant Good Shepherd. The means of grace are not tools by which we earn things. They are gifts to enjoy freedom. We don’t need more than we already have, we just need to see what we have. Samuel Rutherford – God is more willing to give us grace than we are willing to confess our sins. The more you are convinced Jesus is your righteousness the more willing you are to surrender and do dangerous and difficult things. 3. Celebrate God and his story in corporate worship. Continue to make the sovereign Lord your refuge and “tell of his deeds.”

Isaiah 53 is kind of a big deal to us. I’ve never heard it set to music before today when my sister sent this to me. Really enjoyed this group. Check out this song by them also.

It’s nights like tonight, while fixing dinner, that I think things like, “I’m going to miss this stuff.” Yeah, it’s just stuff. It shouldn’t be a big deal. But it does seem to be the simple things that cause me to struggle. It’s not like we won’t have knives and cutting boards, or measuring cups and mixers. But I like ours. And I struggle when I see family or get a cup of coffee or run into friends at the grocery store. I will miss these things. I’m okay with that. I’m okay giving them up. But I can’t say I’ll like it.