Ron Dunn Podcast - This Is Your Life

Episode Date: October 14, 2020

Ron Dunn continues in his series from Galatians

Chapter 3, and I want to read verses 23 through 29. Galatians, the third chapter, verses 23 through 29. Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Now that the faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male. The NIV has made a mistake here. It's not male nor female. It's a striking difference. He says, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, but he says, and in the Greek text, male and female. Not male nor female. And we'll get to that later.

For you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Now, I want you to underscore two phrases, one in verse 23 at the beginning of the verse, before faith came, or rather before this kind of faith came. And here, when he is talking about faith, he's not talking about general faith, but he's talking about the faith. It has the definite article with it, talking about a particular faith. It is the faith that was revealed in Christ Jesus. It is faith in Christ Jesus. Before this faith came, underline that, and then in verse 25, now that the faith has come, underline that. When I was a child, kid, teenager, one of my favorite programs on television was Ralph Edwards' This Is Your Life. Many of you remember that.

And the theme of that program would be that they would pick some celebrity, a movie star, athlete, somebody who was a celebrity. Oh, my. Thank you, dear. I didn't know if she was coming down here to carry me out or whatever. Thank you very much. Oh, goodness. Anybody keep my place? Know where I am?

Ah, yes. Anyway, they would pick some celebrity like a movie star or an athlete or something like that. And unbeknownst to him, they would surprise him someplace, wherever he was, at work or at home. And suddenly Ralph Edwards would burst in and they would say, so-and-so, this is your life. And for the next 30 minutes, they would unroll this person's life, tell about his beginnings. And then there would be people coming in, giving witness to what this person had meant to them. And it was always a tearjerker type of thing. But I enjoyed watching it anyway because it was interesting, but I've never forgotten it. This is your life. Now, Paul is playing this game, in a sense, with the Galatians. This is your life, what you were before and what you are now. What you were before this faith came, this faith

in Jesus Christ came, and what you are now that that faith has come. And so I want us to divide this passage this morning into these simple two statements, before and after. What you were before this faith came, and what you are now that the faith has come. He says in verse 23, before this faith came, and he's referring back to verse 22, where it speaks about faith in Jesus Christ. Before this faith came, he says, there were two things about us.

Number one, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. So before you and I came to Christ, before that faith in Christ became personal, there were two things that Paul says were true of us. Number one, we were imprisoned by the law. The law held us as prisoners. The law stood guard over us. And we were locked up, he says, until, there's a time limit, until faith should be revealed. So this is the way I want to put it. That before we came to Christ, the law imprisoned us that we might be saved. Now, when he says the law held us prisoner. It's the idea of some guard that has put us in prison and keeps us there,

holds us in prison. And then he says we have been locked up, locked up. And an interesting word there, at the end of that Greek word, there's a little preposition added that has the meaning of being surrounded. And so the picture is this, that the law put us in prison, and they set up synodals standing all around us so the cordon was complete. And so that if we tried to escape, there was always somebody there to stop us. It was impossible to escape. We were prisoners and we were constantly surrounded by guards to keep us from escaping. Now, very important. Why was the law doing this? Until faith should be revealed. You see, it was to be a temporary condition. Now, when we think about, you know, and use that terminology as the law being a prisoner and locking us up and surrounding us so that we could not make any escape. It sounds like the law is an enemy, but

what we discover is the law was really our friend because it kept us from escaping into a futile and elusive kind of freedom. You see, if you didn't have the law completely surrounding you, blocking you at every point, you might think, I can, you know, I'm going to get out of this, and I'll find freedom in my own way. I'll find salvation in my own way. I'll find liberty in my own way. But the law was imprisoning us to keep us in so that we would not escape into some futile freedom or some elusive type of religion. But it just kept us there until this faith in Jesus Christ was revealed. I remember several years ago, before the breakup of the Soviet bloc and before the reunification of Germany, we took a visit to East Germany. I went once, and I said, God, if you ever get me out, I'll never go back. But we went on a busload with people,

and we thought they'd been there before. And we discovered after we got there, they'd never been there before either. Well, they stopped us and held us for five hours at the border, checking every passport and everything. And then we started on, and we were running about five hours late. And finally, we got at the hotel in Leipzig. Fanchest hotel I've ever been in. Of course, East Germans couldn't stay there. That was for the visiting, you know, dignitaries and tourists and such as that. They wouldn't even take East German money in that hotel because it was so

worthless. And so anyway, but they kept us out there for an hour. They wouldn't let us in. Finally, we got in, and so the next day we began to take a tour of East Germany. Wolfgang was our tour guide. And back in those days, there was only one kind of tour company, and that was the state. And so a communist would always be our tour guide. So we were riding along the bus. Weren't you with us that time? No, you weren't there.

We were riding along the bus, and Wolfgang would be standing at the front and telling of the wonders of East Germany, the wonders of East Germany, the wonders of living under communism. And we had a couple old boys back here from Sulphur Springs, Texas. I won't call them bubba's, but you know, and they would kind of make little remarks, you know, from time to time, and they'd ask questions. Wolfgang said, there is no unemployment in East Germany. Well, of course not. I mean, everybody had to work. They made them. And he said, there's no unemployment like there

is in your country. And so one of these fellows said, why does it take five years for a person to get an automobile? You know, if you want to get a new automobile, you have to sign up, and it takes you five years. If you're married, if you're single, it takes you 10 years. And he said, why does it take so many years to get an automobile? And Wolfgang said, well, our people are so wealthy and so prosperous, and they're buying cars at such a high rate that the manufacturers can't keep up with the demand. I just, oh, no, no.

And finally, this guy back in the back says, oh, now I know why you have the fence, the barbed wire fence around East Germany. It's not to keep people in. It's to keep people out. Everybody's wanting to come into this country because it's so prosperous. And that's when our tour host went back and told the fellow to kind of cool it a little bit. Why do they have that fence? Wasn't to keep people out, keep people in. Well, the law was given to imprison us and it set sentinels, guards

all around us so that the cordon was complete. No matter which way you turned, you couldn't escape. Well, that sounds like East Germany. That sounds like an enemy. But notice, he said there was just this. He did this until the faith, the definite article there in the Greek, until the faith should be revealed. In other words, you see, the law was really not

an enemy here, but it turned out to be our friend. Why? Because it held us and kept us from escaping from the law into some illusionary kind of religion and some kind of false freedom, and it kept us there, but not forever. It was just holding us there until the faith in Christ should be revealed. And then when that faith in Christ was revealed, then it released us, you see. The law was keeping us for Christ. The law was keeping us, protecting us in a sense, so that we would not fall into other things and it's only when the true faith and the true freedom in Christ came then it let us go you see but not only were we imprisoned by the law but we were under the discipline of the law. He says, so the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ. Unfortunately, the King James Version translates this, the law was a schoolmaster,

and other translations will read tutor or teacher. And that's unfortunate because the Greek word is pedagogue. And he was not a prisoner. He was not a teacher, not at all. Here's a wealthy family. Here's the way this works. Here is a wealthy family. And they have a son. Now, from the time of his birth, he's,

first of all, he's given to a wet nurse, and then he's turned over to a nanny. And then about the age of six or seven, this son was given over to the care of a pedagogue, a supervisor. Now, the image of that supervisor, of the pedagogue in the ancient world was one of harshness because he was a strict disciplinarian. And he would even revert to violence to get the son under his charge to do what he was supposed to do. But he was in charge of everything about growing up.

He taught him manners. He taught him, you know, how to eat and how to dress. He accompanied him everywhere he went. One writer says that one of the functions of the pedagogue was to accompany this young man in the streets of Rome and of the cities of Greece to ward off any homosexual advances made upon a young boy like that, especially when they went into the public baths. And he was a very harsh man. The picture of a pedagogue in the ancient world was not that of a kindly school teacher. Paul is not saying that the law was teaching us to become Christians. He's not saying the law was a teacher

to make us better informed so that we eventually would just grow in knowledge so much that we would accept Christ. No, he's saying the law was a disciplinarian to keep us out of trouble and to guide us and to supervise us everywhere we went until, until so that we might be justified by faith. We might be justified by faith. I ran across an interesting conversation between Socrates and one of his students called Lysus. And Socrates says to this young man, do they, talking about his parents, let you control yourself? And Lysus said, of course they do not. Socrates said, but somebody controls you. And the young man said, yes, my pedagogue is here. Socrates said, but somebody controls you. And the young man said, yes, my pedagogue is here.

Socrates said, is he a slave? Why, certainly, he belongs to me. Socrates said, what a strange thing, a free man controlled by a slave. But how does the pedagogue exert his control over you? And the answer was by taking me to the teacher. You see, he escorted him to the teacher, made certain he got to school. Now, what is the teacher? Well, some say the teacher is Christ.

Others say it is that faith. I think the context here implies that it's that revealed faith, you see. So here is the picture, the law, which purports and appears to be our enemy, and it does condemn us. It is our enemy in that sense, in that it makes us conscious of our sin as well as magnifies and manifests the character of God. But it locks us up. Why has it imprisoned us? It's keeping you safe from false religions. It's keeping you safe from false teaching. You're surrounded. You say, I want to get out of this, but there's no way of escape.

And you say, this is terrible. No, it's for your protection. It's there so that you will not escape into some false security and false religion. And it's not a lifetime deal. It's going to hold you there only until this faith in Christ is revealed, until you find the true faith, the true gospel. And the law is a disciplinarian, and sometimes he uses force,

and sometimes he whips us, and what's he trying to do? He's making sure we get to the teacher. The law makes sure we get to the teacher. Law makes sure we get to the teacher. He's not the teacher. He just makes sure we get there. And he protects us along the way and teaches us along the way. And so, in fact, until Christ is revealed, until this faith came,

we were under the law as in prison and under a supervisor. Now, when this young man became about 17 years of age, he was under no longer the supervision of that pedagogue. So he says in verse 25, no longer the supervision of that pedagogue. So he says in verse 25, Now that the faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. So first of all is the before picture.

What you were before you came to Christ. Now, the after picture. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ, who were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ. And there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So let me just say three things about this faith that has come to us. First of all, it is a revealed faith. You'll notice he says that we

were locked up until this kind of faith should be revealed. Now it's a special kind of faith. There was faith before. Abraham had faith. The Old Testament believers had faith. But he's not referring to that. He's referring to that new covenant, that new faith that should come. And faith in Christ. And it will be revealed. It'll be revealed. You see, one of the characteristic marks of the Christian religion, it is a revealed religion.

God has revealed himself to us in Christ Jesus. And Paul said in this same letter of Galatians that God revealed Christ in him. And he didn't pick up his message from Peter or any of the apostles. And I kind of like what he says over there. He says in verse 6 of chapter 2, As for those who seem to be important, whatever they were makes no difference to me. God does not judge by external appearances. Those men added nothing to my message. But God was pleased to reveal His truth in me, to reveal Christ in me.

It is a revealed faith. I want to tell you something. You don't discover this on your own. It's beyond reason. You don't sit down and figure out the pros and cons of believing or not believing. Not that at all. You've got two lost people, they come to church, they come to church, they come to church, and one day, one of the men, God, the Holy Spirit, reveals Christ to him, reveals what saving faith is all about. And that man knows something that he did not know before. He didn't figure it out. He didn't discover it out. He didn't

discover it on his own. God in his mercy, God in his grace just opened that person's eyes and revealed that to him. Folks, the Christian faith is a revealed faith. But it is also a redemptive faith. Now notice what Paul says in verse 26. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. The redemptive aspect, what does it do? He says, you are the sons of God. Now, you go back to the

to the pedagogue. When that young man became an adult at about the age of 17, then he no longer needed the supervisor. He became then in fact, well, he was already in fact a son, but he became in effect, in practice, a son and was on his own and could control his own life. And so Paul says, you no longer need the supervision of the law. You don't need that. Why? Because you are sons of God. You've reached the maturity because that faith has been revealed to you, and you have embraced that faith in Christ Jesus, and now you are the sons of God. But he is not talking about the universal fatherhood of God, which is beginning to make a new headway in a lot of evangelical circles. He says, you are all, you are all, and notice the repetition of the word all.

You are all sons of God through faith, through faith. You don't earn it in Christ Jesus. It's not just faith in general, but it is faith in a person in Christ Jesus. We're all children of God. We're all sons of God. That means we have reached a status where we stand alone and we no longer need the supervision of the law. And then he says, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ

the only place in Galatians where the word baptized is mentioned but evidently Paul thinks baptism is a very important thing he says those of you who are baptized into Christ were clothed in Christ or put on Christ. Baptism is as much a part of what God does for us in salvation as discipleship. Matter of fact, you'll never find an unbaptized,

without the exception of the thief on the cross, you'll never find an unbaptized believer in the New Testament. They were all baptized. Now, I'm not going to get, you know, this is not the time nor the place to say what is the proper mode of baptism, you know, whether it's immersion or whether it's sprinkling or whatever it is. I'm just saying that for the early church, baptism was the true confession of faith. You know, we Baptists, we have a way, you know, of people walking down the aisle at an invitation and we say they're making their profession of faith. No, they're not. They don't really make their profession of faith until they're baptized.

Now, that baptism, that water baptism, doesn't do anything to save them. It is simply the outward expression of their union with Christ. They have died with Christ and been raised again with Christ to walk in newness of life. But also baptized not only was for a personal commitment where he committed himself to Christ, but it was also a commitment to a community. It identified him as a member of the church, as a follower of Christ, and he was joined to a community of believers and then he says as many as were baptized into Christ were clothed in Christ now this is very

interesting and it has there are two or three possibilities here. One, when a pagan was baptized into his faith, he took off the robe that he was wearing, whatever robe it was, went down into the waters, was baptized, and then they put on a robe that had a symbol of his pagan God there. And so he wore that, you see, so everybody could see that he was a member of that pagan religion. Another thing is that in the early church, the early Christians

always baptized in the nude. And the women would go in and they would disrobe, but put off, they'd put off the old clothes and they'd go in. All the men, of course, would avert their eyes and the women would go into water that was up to the neck. They'd loosen their hair because every part of the body had to be, you know, baptized. And then, as they came up out of the water, then they put on new clothes, you see. Now, one interesting Bible scholar makes, or one Bible scholar makes an interesting connection. He says there was a word, the Greek word is baptizo, which means to dip.

But he says there was another word associated with it, which was bapto, which meant to dip and to dye. To dye something. Not to dye, but to change the color of something. And so this particular scholar, he said, he said, it's a good picture of a person

who goes into Christ, he's dipped and dyed, and he comes out of that baptism experience the color of Christ, wearing the clothes of Christ, the likeness of Christ, putting on Christ. We don't make enough of baptism in our churches, but the scripture makes a great deal of it. Now, number three, he says, well, no, that's all. Number three of my message, I mean, is that it's not only a revealed faith and not only a redemptive faith, but it is a revolutionary faith. He says in verse 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female. Now, why do you suppose he chose those three designations? He says, you're all one in Christ. There's neither Jew nor Gentile,

slave or free, male or female. Why do you suppose he chose those three? Nationality, social order, and sex. And that is the triumphant by which our society is organized, isn't it? Nationalism has been corrupted by pride. Materialism has been corrupted by greed. And sex has been corrupted by lust. Those are the things that divide our society. Our economics is based upon largely upon those things. And so Paul is striking at the three most prominent divisions in their society and lo and behold in our society too. He says, now there is neither Jew nor Greek. Oh, that must have really upset these Judaizers. You know, the Jews, the Jewish man would rise each morning and raise his arms to God and pray a threefold prayer.

Do you know what that prayer would be? He said, blessed, thank you, O Lord, our King, God, and Savior, that thou hast not created me a Gentile. Thank thee, O Lord, King and Creator, that thou hast not created me a slave. Thank thee, O God, our King and Creator, that thou hast not created me a woman. That was the Jewish male prayer. Every morning he would thank God that he was not a Gentile. He'd thank God he wasn't a slave. He'd thank God he wasn't a woman. So you can imagine how revolutionary this was because you see to the Galatians, these guys were saying, you

need to adopt the Jewish doctrines. You need in in fact, to become Jews. And Paul is saying, listen, listen, since this faith has come, we're all one in Christ Jesus. There are no artificial distinctions. There is neither Jew nor Gentile. Both are equal in the sight of God. God doesn't look down upon you and examine your heart and notice whether you're a Jew or a Gentile or a black or Hispanic or Chinese or anything. He said those distinctions don't, they have nothing to do with our spiritual standing before God. And he said the same is true in the social classes. There is neither free nor slave. Oh, this was hard.

This was hard. What if you were a freeman who owned slaves? Now, I want you to notice something here. Paul did not try to abolish slavery. Neither did Jesus. Jesus never once attacked slavery. Paul was not trying to reform the Roman Empire. Not once.

Alexander McLaren said there are two ways to kill a tree. One, you can do it suddenly and immediately by chopping it down. The other way is to strip it of its bark and it will die a slow death. He said that's what Jesus did. His teachings stripped the bark from the tree of slavery until eventually it died. But I think we ought to remember, I think it is significant that Paul didn't try to reform the Roman Empire, nor did Jesus. Their mission was to save men and women from sin and hell. And so he says, there's no distinction. And so here is a man who at home has this slave and he tells this slave what to do,

but that slave may be his pastor. And so when he gets to church, he sets under the authority of that slave. Now Paul says, that's the way it is. And if you say, well, I'm not going to have

a slave as a pastor, well, then you don't understand the unity of the faith. You don't understand real salvation. And then he says, there is neither male, and as I pointed out, the Greek text says, and female. In other words, God is still holding distinction between male and female. This is not a verse for feminists, by the way. And a lot of feminists have taken this verse and have trumpeted it. But this is not a verse for this. He's not talking about political action or social action. He's talking about spiritual standing before God. I want to tell you something.

The only places in the world where women have achieved any measure of equality are Christian nations. Now, I wouldn't call America any longer a Christian nation, but we are predominantly Christian in our influence. And women, while they're not satisfied, never are, but they have gained respect and they're treated with respect. Same thing is in the United Kingdom. And wherever the gospel has been embraced, where the Christianity has been embraced and taught, the women are treated with respect and treated differently. But you go to China, Japan,

you go to the East, you go to the Mideast, the Muslims, Islamic religion, Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, the woman is still held in bondage. You see. And it is Christ who has said, listen. He said, when it comes to our standing before God, a man is no better than a woman. Now, you see, what I want you to notice is that they were still Jews and

they were still Gentiles. They were still slaves and they were still free people. They were still males and they were still females. But he's saying when you come to Jesus Christ and in your spiritual standing before Christ being justified by the law, he said that those things, the distinctions are no longer there. In Christ those distinctions don't belong and we're not to judge somebody because of that. Now the only thing that does this is faith in Jesus Christ. Oh, I'm past time. That's the first time I've ever done this in all my life

one of the greatest problems in America we're being told is racist playing the is racism. Playing the race card. I sometimes think if we'd quit talking about it so much, I mean, racism is worse now than in the 1954 Supreme Court decision. And everybody's playing the race card. President Clinton has announced that he has a plan that will overcome racism in America. That's a noble enterprise, but it's doomed to fail.

The only thing that can erase racial pride, I'm better than you because I'm white, or I'm better than you because I'm black, or I'm better than you because I'm this or that, the only thing that can do that, friends, is when we all come to Christ, and we're made one in Christ. I, you know, I'm for all the efforts that can be made, you know, to solve the problems, but

I have news for you. You're not going to solve the racial problem. You're not going to solve the nationality pride problem. You can distribute all the wealth, but the con man will come away tomorrow and take all you got. You can just redistribute the wealth and everybody has the same thing, all of that. But I tell you what, nothing's going to change all of that until we become one in Christ Jesus. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search

Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.