Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Galatians 4,21-31. Laetare

Thursday, March 31, 2022

Galatians 4,21-31. Laetare

Galatians 4,21-31 1922

Laetare 28

Rupert Founder of Salzburg, Apostle to the Bavarians in Regensburg ✠ 710

27. März 2022

1. ℣ Rejoice ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her:

℟ All ye who love her (Isaiah 66,10).

O Yahweh, the God of our salvation; as the grain seed sinks into the earth to death, so You sent Sent Your Son to die for our redemption; by this love shown to us, empower in us so that love springs forth from our faith for the benefit and good of our neighbors. Amen. (Korn, das in die Erde 133).

2. »Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband [Isaiah 54,1]. Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman [Genesis 21,10]. So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.«

3. The Apostle Paul says there are only 2 options: 1. you can be under the law, or 2. you can be under the gospel. Paul then says that Christians are free, through the promise and under the gospel. The fallen nature of our sinful flesh, however, always seeks to resubmit itself under the law. Paul calls this for what it is: slavery to the law. This is what the Pharisees called for: full submission and obedience to the law so as to merit one’s righteousness before God. This meant both the Sinai covenant and every tradition of the elders that interpreted that covenant. Any violation of even the most minute aspect of the law was not to be tolerated.

4. Jesus’ most heated dialogues and harshest criticism occurred with these very Pharisees and their zealous enforcement of even the traditions of the elders as the law. In Luke 11, He even chastised them for concerning more about tithing herbs than justice or love. This same spirit was at work in the hearts of the Galatian Christians: they thought getting circumcised and following the kosher dietary code was more important than the gospel of Christ crucified. Pauls’s entire argument in his epistle to them is that this devotion to the law is detrimental, and even opposed, to the gospel.

5. Paul is not telling the to abandon the 10 Commandments. In every epistle he encourages Christians to live a God-pleasing life, and to be loving to each other as the Commandments teach us. Paul doesn’t have an issue with the moral law; his concern is the religious law of Judaism that is centered upon circumcision and the kosher diet. Many in Galatia believed that a Christian was obligated to get circumcised and eat kosher meals, or else their faith and salvation were questionable. They were connecting the law with the promise, and if the law was put aside then the promise would also be null and void.

6. Paul’s response is that the promise predated the law. Abraham is Paul’s premiere example. He asks: did Abraham’s inheritance come by the law or by the promise? Paul then answers: Abraham’s inheritance comes by the promise. There was no law for Abraham; that doesn’t even arrive until 430 years after Abraham! (Galatians 3,17-18). And why did God give the law? A: because of sin, and the law was to be in place until the Messiah arrived, for He would fulfill the law (Galatians 3,19). Paul says the law was a guardian and teacher to prepare us for the arrival of the Messiah (Galatians 3,24). Now that Christ has arrived, we are no longer under the law and there is no need for circumcision and a kosher diet, for in Christ we are justified by faith; circumcision and the kosher diet cannot add to the righteousness we already have through Christ.

7. We are sons and daughters of Abraham for we receive the inheritance as he did — by faith. Since we are baptized into Christ, we are Christ’s, and we are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise — just like Abraham (Galatians 3,29). This promise makes us are children of the promise. Paul’s gospel message is this: we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but is justified through faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 2,16).

8. This calls for rejoicing! For freedom Christ has set us free (Galatians 5,1). Free to gather on Sunday and worship Him. Free to receive from His His gifts of grace, forgiveness and strength that He gives us in the Word and Sacraments. Free to love our neighbor as ourself (Galatians 5,14).

9. Send us Thy Spirit, teach us truth;

Thou Son, O set us free

From fancied wisdom, self-sought ways,

To make us one in Thee. (In Adam We Have All Been One lsb 569,5 Martin H. Franzmann 1907-76).

This is most certainly true.

10. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.

11. Let us pray. O Lord God, Father of all mercy, graciously look on Your poor flock for whom Your dear Son Jesus Christ did not refuse to be betrayed into the hands of sinners, and endured the shameful death of the cross. Give us Your grace so that we may follow the example of Your dear Son and bear all suffering with patience, so that You, with Your beloved Son and the Holy Spirit may be glorified always. Amen. (Die pommersche Kirchen-Ordnung und Agenda 288.3; Stratman 35-36).

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Thursday, March 31, 2022

Galatians 4,21-31. Laetare

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