PARADIGMS

PARADIGMS

                What shall we talk about today? Our church family is on a 40 day fast leading up to resurrection day and our pastor has encouraged us to read the book of Galatians during this time. This is important, since in my way of thinking one cannot fully understand the Gospel unless they can fully understand the book of Galatians.

                In the book of Galatians Paul talks about a change in paradigms. It is a change of priesthood. It is a change from Law to Promise. It is a change from life framed by tables of stone, to one empowered by the Very Spirit of Christ. In the book of Galatians we learn the proper function of the Law, not as an end in itself, but as a means of bringing us to Christ to enter into His death and then to be raised up by the power of His resurrection, to live by His Spirit.

                It is about being crucified with Christ and then living by faith in the Son of God rather than in our own ability to keep the Law. The true function of the Law then is to bring us to our death in Christ, so that being freed from the Law; we can now live by His Spirit

                In Galatians Paul introduces us to the absolute seriousness, the life and death importance of changing paradigms. We die to the Old Covenant in order to live in the New Covenant. We can’t have it both ways. He says, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh? Does HE then who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law or by hearing with faith?

                If we don’t fully understand this change in paradigms we will end up strung out between two covenants and living in weakness rather than in His strength.

                To balance this out, I have often pointed out the importance of the Old Covenant as a foundation for the New Covenant. It provides a positive ID of Jesus as the promised Messiah and divine Son of God. It authenticates the Message of the Gospel as being that which fulfills all that was pre-figured by the Old types and shadows. It authenticates Jesus as the true Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world.

                So the Law, or Torah, is not done away. It has these above functions to perform and to bring us to Christ… to death and to resurrection… to a new life in the Spirit in which true and genuine love fulfills the Law as seen in the fruit of the Spirit. Gal. 5:22 But we must now use the Law as it is intended in the New Covenant. It is the instrument for bringing sinners to their death in Christ… and if they refuse that death which Christ has offered for our sins, then they will have to die for our own sins and from that death there is no resurrection of life.

                Like Paul, I sometimes feel like I am in the pains of childbirth waiting for my fellow countrymen to fully grasp this paradigm shift, so that they can come into the freedom of sons and daughters rather than slaves like Hagar.

                In Galatians Paul shows us a mystery. The promises and prophecies of the Bible were not written to us. All promises were written to the one Seed.  WHEN WE HAVE THAT SEED WE HAVE IT ALL. In other words, we many times may get a little book of promises which we use in our daily lives, as if these promises were written to us, for our own personal use. But they don’t work apart from Christ. If we have Jesus we have the promises, but if we don’t have Him, then we don’t have the promises.

                Paul explains this saying: ”Now the promises were spoken to Abraham.” (This is how God got His promises into the world, through the man Abraham) and to his seed.” This is blurred in English because the word “seed” can represent one seed or many seeds, but here Paul explains that the promises were not written to many seeds, even though Israel was of the seed of Abraham. But in this case the promises were written to one Seed and that is Christ.” Gal. 3:16

                Now Paul goes on to say that if the inheritance was based upon the Law, which came 430 years later then it is no longer based upon a promise, but God granted it to Abraham on the basis of a promise. So the promises were all written to Jesus Christ the true Messiah and Savior of the world. When we receive Jesus, we receive all that was promised to Abraham.

                So then Paul goes on to show us the proper function of the Law. It is to become a tutor to lead us to Christ. Once we have entered into Christ through His cross, we have died to that Law and received the very Spirit of Christ so that we no longer need a tutor. (Gal. 3:25) So if you belong to Christ then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise. Gal. 3:29

                It is this major change of paradigms that many throughout church history have not fully understood. They keep preaching the Law as if keeping it will save us and yet Paul says that isn’t so. We must come fully into Christ.

                Now, on the other hand I also fight against the false grace that some are teaching that claims we no longer need to obey the Word or to live holy and sanctified lives. But grace is not tolerance as they are presenting it, but power to live righteous and holy lives and to love with the love of Christ.

                The truth is the genuine love of God (Not just emotional feelings) changes every aspect of our lives, from self-centered people to Christ-centered people. And that love governs and shapes every action and attitude of our lives. Jesus describes the judgment as being based upon how we treated the hungry, the poor, the naked, the lost, and the lonely and how we treat each other in the Body of Christ.

                People can think they are fulfilling the Law by observing this day and that feast, or eating this and not that and wearing this rather than that, and yet they are living in an old paradigm. They think nothing of bickering and backbiting and gossiping about others… or living in unforgiveness and they think they are okay as long as they don’t kill someone… but in truth they are breaking the Royal Law. They are living in a paradigm over which Jesus no longer presides. They are living in vessels that are empty of oil and when the Bridegroom comes He will have to say, “I never knew you.”

                We would all do well to read the book of Galatians and to ask the Lord to reveal its true meaning to us. How do we apply it in real life? To Paul it is exceedingly important to change paradigms. We must move fully into the New Covenant. We must move from living by Law to living by the Holy Spirit. We must be transformed by that treasure that we hold in earthen vessels. We must come under the Melchizedek Priesthood and where there is a change of priesthood there is a change of law also. Heb. 7:12.

               

                Jesus is the mediator of a New Covenant. If we try to relate to Him on the basis of the Old Covenant He will not be our Mediator for He mediates over a covenant that has been signed in His own blood… made possible by His own death. Clinging to the old when He has offered a New and living way by means of his own Person, His own shed blood and broken body insults the Spirit of grace. It grieves the Holy Spirit who has been given to us as the power and life of the New Covenant.

                But there is life and power and forgiveness and cleansing in the New Covenant. There is power and grace to follow in the footsteps of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

                This is the good news of the Gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe. Romans 1:16, 17