Today’s reading: Exodus 25; Galatians 3
In Christ, the Christian's relationship with God is objectively stable and unchanging, but the experience of many Christians tends to be an ebbing and flowing of closeness with God based on their current "spiritual performance." If we want to experience that full stability in our relationship with God, we need the truths in Galatians 3 to take deeper root in our hearts.
As you read the letter to the Galatians, it is clear that they had fallen into a mentality of works or righteousness being what God desired from them and/or how they maintained their relationship with God. This is why, at the beginning of chapter 3, Paul says to them,
This is all I want to learn from you: Was it by the works of the law that you received the Spirit, or through the message of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
I'm not surprised that this was a struggle for the Galatians because, from my own experience and that of many around me over the years, this really seems to be the common Christian experience. Yes, I am in a relationship with God on faith alone. Yes, I started this relationship only by admitting my works earn me nothing but condemnation. Yes, my salvation is found in Christ and not myself. But... I fell back into that old sin habit again, and don't feel like God would want to talk to me right now. But... I haven't made the time to be at church in a while, and I don't think God would want to use me until I get back to it. But... I yelled at my kids out of frustration this morning and I know God is displeased with me about that...
So I would ask you the same thing. If you started a relationship with God on the basis of faith in Jesus as your sufficiency and worthiness to be in that relationship, when did that change? Where in Scripture do we find that we start our relationship with God by faith, but then it is on us to maintain that relationship by our righteousness? You won’t find that in the Scriptures. No matter how long we have been walking with God, no matter how much we have or haven’t grown in personal righteousness, our worthiness to be in that relationship will only ever be found in Christ.
And the amazing, unbelievable truth that underlies that reality, the reason that your relationship with God is objectively stable, is that it is not your relationship at all...
This gets obscured by a lot of English translations, but Paul says in verse 16, “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant. It does not say, ‘And to descendants,’ referring to many, but rather, ‘And to your descendant,’ referring to one, that is, Christ.” The promises God made to Abraham were not made to us, they were made to Abraham and his promised descendant, who is Christ. God knew, from the moment he disinherited the nations at Babel and instead took Abram as his chosen inheritance, that He would bring His Messiah through Abram’s line. This is why He could tell Abram from the beginning that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him; through his singular descendant.
At the end of Galatians 3 then, this is why Paul says, “and if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendant, heirs according to promise.” This doesn’t really have the force in English that I think Paul intended because “you” can be both plural and singular in English, but it’s important to his argument to know that “you” here is plural. So what Paul is saying is that, “you all, together, are Abraham’s singular descendant.” It doesn’t work grammatically in Greek, so it’s jarring, but that’s exactly what makes it so noticeable and impactful.
When we come to faith in Christ and are brought into God’s family, we do not individually become one of God’s people. When we come to Christ in faith, we are put into Christ, and it is Christ who is the singular worthy descendant of Abraham. My status as a child of God has nothing to do with my spiritual performance because it is Christ who is the son of God, not me. I become a child of God through faith in Christ, but that position and status is not intrinsic to me. This is why how well I am (or aren’t) doing spiritually at any given moment doesn’t impact the objective closeness of my relationship with God. It is Jesus’ relationship with God, I am just brought into it, and Jesus’ relationship with God is always infinitely close.
So since my righteousness does not earn my relationship with Christ, and my sin does not sever my relationship with Christ, and since my closeness to God is based on how close Jesus is to God, I have full assurance that every day, regardless of my personal performance or righteousness, my relationship with God is objectively perfect and unchanging, even if my experience of that relationship fluctuates.
To me, this is the most comforting truth in all of Scripture, that my relationship with God is not my own. My faith is in Christ, and so I have full assurance that I have been placed into Christ, and therefore inherit His position and standing before my heavenly Father. If it was my relationship, I would be worried because I am terribly fickle and sinful, but it's not, and so I can approach the throne of grace with confidence, knowing that I have a sure and steadfast anchor in Christ.
God, this is a truth that will never sink deeply enough into our hearts on this side of eternity. Open the eyes of our hearts more and more every day to recognize the incredible reality of our unchanging position before you and relationship with you in Christ, and teach us to draw closer to you every day knowing that that relationship is secure in Him.
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