Galatians 3:23-4:11
How do we find freedom?
An important influence on the way Western culture thinks was the great philosopher Nietzsche. He claimed that Christianity was weak, and enslaved people, entrapping those who should be free, by imposing morality on them. Not many people read Nietzsche, but his thought has influenced us in creating a culture that is individualist, self-seeking, and hedonistic.
In contrast to Nietzsche, the gospel says: You are slaves – and the way to freedom is through Christ. The gospel claims that the only way to real freedom is to receive it, not take it. Our culture claims that freedom comes by taking (be more assertive, demand your rights), but this too often leaves us in a position of trying to win, over and against someone else.
In the end, taking is what thieves do.
Real freedom happens when we are given our freedom. For example, the teenager staying out two hours after their curfew isn’t free, but in rebellion, and in trouble! But the teenager trusted to come home when they should, and given the keys to the car, is free!
Paul’s point to the Galatians is that we are slaves, and we need freedom. Before Christ came, at the best, people were like children with no real freedom. Paul illustrates this by describing true freedom as receiving an inheritance. Under the law, says Paul, you don’t get the inheritance, and so are not free. Living under the law is like being a son, who can’t get their hands on anything!
For Israel, the Law of Moses was a guardian, and the imagery Paul uses is that of a pedagogue. The pedagogue was a guardian, or manager, who escorted and controlled his masters children. The irony was that the pedagogue was himself a slave, so the child of the master (who would one day own all that was the masters) was captive to a slave!
Paul claims that this is the natural state of us all.
For Israel the guardian was the law, while for 21st century man the guardian is the “elementary principles” of the world (4:3,9). These are things like our own ethical standard, our worldview, our lifestyle. You should be the master, but in fact these things end up in control of you.
It is faith in Christ that frees you! Faith in Christ brings you into the full rights of sonship – as an heir – as we receive adoption as sons (4:5).
All this is stated by Paul objectively – as a fact; it is then proved by us experientially. You might believe Paul, or you might prefer Nietzsche, but believing Paul – and (more importantly!) Jesus – has profound implications…
Receiving freedom frees us to enter God’s story
Paul describes followers of Jesus as offspring of Abraham (3:29). This is not something we tend to think of much, but it is important!
It was important in the Galatian context because there were people coming into the church saying to Christians, “Be Jews.” Paul’s point is that Abraham was justified by faith, and received his inheritance by faith and the way we get into this is by faith too.
Because of what Christ has done ethnicity is no longer the issue. We become children of Abraham by the DNA of faith, not natural DNA. This is important because it means all Christians have equal standing as sons before God.
Receiving freedom frees us to get baptized
Baptism is the sign of entering this new status.
The Galatians were getting hung up on circumcision, but circumcision was something that only happened to Jews, and male Jews at that. But baptism is something that all heirs of God now do. Some commentators believe that “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (3:27-28) was pronounced at baptisms in the early church. If so, it must have had incredible power, as people who were Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, men and women, all got plunged in the same pool of water.
Receiving freedom frees us from inferiority
Pretty much everyone carries the secret fear, “Someone’s going to rumble me… What am I worth? Would anyone notice if I weren’t here?”
In contrast the gospel tells us we are redeemed (4:4-5). We have been purchased from the slave market and adopted as sons. We have been given the Spirit, so we cry, “Abba, Father.”
Children of the King are not inferior!
Receiving freedom frees us to celebrate diversity
The contemporary emphasis on diversity is a recent and shallow imitation of what is ours in Christ!
We recognize God’s creative genius in making the world diverse. We applaud a creator who has made some 6-10 million species of insect, including 5 million plus species of beetle! We celebrate a God who has so ordered the world that a single oak tree can host 500 species of insect. We look into the sky and see a galaxy with 100 billion stars: Blue stragglers, Bright giants, Carbon stars, Giant stasr, High-velocity stars, Hypergiants, Hypervelocity stars, Main sequence stars, Red dwarfs, Red giants, Runaway stars, Supergiants, Wolf-Rayet stars…
Slavery leads to uniformity, and fear (playing it safe) means always doing things the same. Free sons enjoy their inheritance in all its diversity! We don’t all have to become Jews – God’s people are multicoloured.
Receiving freedom frees us for relationship
Free people don’t view others as a threat or as rivals but are freed to enjoy life with others. We are brought into relationship with the Father and into relationship with our brothers.
In fact, we can only be free in relationship. Being sent into exile, or put in solitary confinement, are fierce punishments, because we are made for relationships, and need relationships.
God is free, and God is in relationship. God is one, but God is three – wonderful diversity and perfect unity in the most harmonious and complete relationship. We are meant to reflect God, and be in relationships of diversity and unity.
Receiving freedom frees us from going back to slavery
The Galatians were like cleaned up junkies going back to their addiction, and this makes Paul mad!
They kept going back to religion and moralism (4:8-11), rather than living by grace. Paul’s response to this is always, “No! The way to freedom is as sons!” As children of God we are free to receive all he has for us and live in a day-by-day childlike delight in all our heavenly Father’s good gifts. We don’t need to struggle and strive for his favour, but freely lay hold of all that he has for us in Christ!
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Cry Freedom, Part 3: Free to Resist
Galatians 2:1-10
The apostle Paul was a fighter! He was quick to recognize attacks on his freedom and to resist them.
Today is Remembrance Sunday – a day on which we remember those who have died fighting against tyranny – who have resisted threats to our freedom. Of course, this is now somewhat muddied by the widespread ambivalence (and for many people, outright opposition) towards the current military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But while there is increased questioning about the purpose and value of these military operations, there seems to be also an increased desire to express solidarity with those who serve in the armed forces.
At the same time, there has been increasing controversy about the wearing or not wearing of poppies, with a particular debate about whether people on TV should all be wearing them. The irony is that a poppy – which represents the sacrifice made to gain our freedom – can itself become a form of legalism. Paul is making a similar observation in his letter to the Galatians.
Tomorrow is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of Berlin Wall. This was one of the better moments of our recent history, when resistance to tyranny led to the collapse of an oppressive political system. Paul writes to the Galatians 20 years after the cross, and freedom was the issue, just as it still is for us. Paul’s message is that anything that compromises freedom needs to be resisted – the wall needs to be demolished!
Christian Freedom
Sadly, the all too typical impression people have of the ‘Christian’ is someone who is stiff, cold, boring and drab. This stands in stark contrast with the Biblical view of who a Christian is – someone who is free! Who lives a hi-def life of adventure, purity and compassion.
Why the difference?
The sad truth is that too often the Church has allowed Christian freedom to be robbed from the people of God, and Christians have indeed become stiff, cold, boring and drab!
This is weird, because Christianity is a story of freedom. We grow up on freedom stories: of Moses, David and Esther. And we sing in church each week about being set free by Jesus. Moreover the gospel promises us freedom: from the tyranny of emotions, the opinion of others, and our bad memories. But then we end up living in a strait-jacket.
Why?
Because freedom is dangerous! If we give people freedom, they might do things they shouldn’t! So freedom is suppressed for the best of motives – to preserve morality. The cart is put in front of the horse, and rather than purity resulting from a life changed by Jesus, morality tries to win the acceptance of God by being obedient.
We need to be acutely sensitive to these threats to our freedom. And we need to really believe the gospel. The problem for all of us is sin and suffering – the bad stuff we have done, and the bad stuff other people have done to us. The solution to both these problems is found at the cross. At the cross Jesus paid for our sin, and at the cross he carried our suffering. Only by the cross can we be truly free.
Threats that Paul faced: 1, Circumcise Titus
Titus was a Greek, and it was controversial to bring a Greek to Jerusalem. But Paul always worked in a team, and he always chose to travel with his team mates. Barnabas had been his first mentor, and was now his co-worker, while Titus was probably someone Paul had led to faith, the fruit of his ministry (see Titus 1:4).
As a follower of Jesus Titus was free, but the religious committee in Jerusalem wanted to run the rule over him. The expectation was that converts to Christianity should first convert to Judaism. For 2,000 years the Jews had been circumcising their sons, giving them a physical sign of a spiritual reality – that they were separated from the world, and joined to God – and they didn’t see why this should change. So for Titus to do things decently and in order, for him to be both acceptable and accepted, he needed to be circumcised.
This is what moralism does – it adds preconditions to the gospel. It says that obedience is needed to earn acceptance. Paul wouldn’t give an inch to these people! The gospel says, “You are accepted” and obedience – righteous living – flows out of that, not the other way around.
Threats that Paul faced: 2, Ministry to Gentiles
Paul’s ministry to non-Jews was controversial. Moreover, Paul didn’t fit the normal apostolic profile: He wasn’t one of the 12 disciples; he hadn’t been there at Pentecost; he had only spent 15 days in Jerusalem in the company of the other apostles; and he was going primarily to non-Jews.
At the same time, Paul was the best educated, the cleverest, the most able, the most Jewish of the apostles! He should have gone to the Jews! He should have run for parliament! But by going to the gentiles rather than doing what he was obviously qualified to do Paul aroused suspicion among the Jews in Jerusalem. They didn’t like his freedom. They didn’t like the way he broke the mould.
But the key thing was the gospel!
Peter, James & John saw that Paul was preaching the gospel and they welcomed him on the basis of the gospel.
The application of this for us is that we are free to minister wherever God has placed us. We can reach out to people who are like us (as Peter did with Jews) but we are also free to reach out to people different from ourselves. We don’t need to conform to any standard – except to the gospel! The gospel frees us! Very practically, this means we can just as freely go to either Sandbanks or Turlin Moor. The gospel is the ultimate agent of social mobility!
Paul resisted any threat to his freedom, and illustrates this to the Galatians powerfully with the story he tells in verses 11-14. This example is recorded in scripture so it might stand for all time – Paul doesn’t spare Peter’s blushes! Where Peter is a hypocrite Paul is unafraid to say so, and to keep on saying so!
Let nothing compromise your freedom! But this is a freedom that leads to fruitfulness…
Remember the Poor
Paul tells us that he went to Jerusalem in response to a revelation (v2). It is possible that this refers to the incident recorded in Acts 11:27-30, where a prophet warned of a famine that was to come, and the believers took up an offering for the poor in Judea. If this is the case, the very reason Paul was in Jerusalem was to serve the poor. Either way, it is clear from 2 Corinthians 8 & 9 that collecting a gift for the poor in Jerusalem was a major event in Paul’s ministry.
The Apostolic burden is for the poor. The gospel is good news for the poor – it just is!
Any so-called freedom that ignores, forgets or despises the poor is a bogus freedom. Our freedom in Christ results not in selfishness but in blessing to others. This is a freedom that affects even our wallets!
Our freedom to resist must include resistance on behalf of the poor. This resistance will often involve sacrifice – of our money and energy and time – but resistance always involves sacrifice. We are reminded of this on Remembrance Sunday. And we are reminded of it by the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Most of all, though, we are reminded of it by the Cross – the greatest ever act of sacrifice, and the greatest ever guarantee of our freedom.
Let’s be true to the cross, and keep resisting in the cause of freedom.
The apostle Paul was a fighter! He was quick to recognize attacks on his freedom and to resist them.
Today is Remembrance Sunday – a day on which we remember those who have died fighting against tyranny – who have resisted threats to our freedom. Of course, this is now somewhat muddied by the widespread ambivalence (and for many people, outright opposition) towards the current military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But while there is increased questioning about the purpose and value of these military operations, there seems to be also an increased desire to express solidarity with those who serve in the armed forces.
At the same time, there has been increasing controversy about the wearing or not wearing of poppies, with a particular debate about whether people on TV should all be wearing them. The irony is that a poppy – which represents the sacrifice made to gain our freedom – can itself become a form of legalism. Paul is making a similar observation in his letter to the Galatians.
Tomorrow is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of Berlin Wall. This was one of the better moments of our recent history, when resistance to tyranny led to the collapse of an oppressive political system. Paul writes to the Galatians 20 years after the cross, and freedom was the issue, just as it still is for us. Paul’s message is that anything that compromises freedom needs to be resisted – the wall needs to be demolished!
Christian Freedom
Sadly, the all too typical impression people have of the ‘Christian’ is someone who is stiff, cold, boring and drab. This stands in stark contrast with the Biblical view of who a Christian is – someone who is free! Who lives a hi-def life of adventure, purity and compassion.
Why the difference?
The sad truth is that too often the Church has allowed Christian freedom to be robbed from the people of God, and Christians have indeed become stiff, cold, boring and drab!
This is weird, because Christianity is a story of freedom. We grow up on freedom stories: of Moses, David and Esther. And we sing in church each week about being set free by Jesus. Moreover the gospel promises us freedom: from the tyranny of emotions, the opinion of others, and our bad memories. But then we end up living in a strait-jacket.
Why?
Because freedom is dangerous! If we give people freedom, they might do things they shouldn’t! So freedom is suppressed for the best of motives – to preserve morality. The cart is put in front of the horse, and rather than purity resulting from a life changed by Jesus, morality tries to win the acceptance of God by being obedient.
We need to be acutely sensitive to these threats to our freedom. And we need to really believe the gospel. The problem for all of us is sin and suffering – the bad stuff we have done, and the bad stuff other people have done to us. The solution to both these problems is found at the cross. At the cross Jesus paid for our sin, and at the cross he carried our suffering. Only by the cross can we be truly free.
Threats that Paul faced: 1, Circumcise Titus
Titus was a Greek, and it was controversial to bring a Greek to Jerusalem. But Paul always worked in a team, and he always chose to travel with his team mates. Barnabas had been his first mentor, and was now his co-worker, while Titus was probably someone Paul had led to faith, the fruit of his ministry (see Titus 1:4).
As a follower of Jesus Titus was free, but the religious committee in Jerusalem wanted to run the rule over him. The expectation was that converts to Christianity should first convert to Judaism. For 2,000 years the Jews had been circumcising their sons, giving them a physical sign of a spiritual reality – that they were separated from the world, and joined to God – and they didn’t see why this should change. So for Titus to do things decently and in order, for him to be both acceptable and accepted, he needed to be circumcised.
This is what moralism does – it adds preconditions to the gospel. It says that obedience is needed to earn acceptance. Paul wouldn’t give an inch to these people! The gospel says, “You are accepted” and obedience – righteous living – flows out of that, not the other way around.
Threats that Paul faced: 2, Ministry to Gentiles
Paul’s ministry to non-Jews was controversial. Moreover, Paul didn’t fit the normal apostolic profile: He wasn’t one of the 12 disciples; he hadn’t been there at Pentecost; he had only spent 15 days in Jerusalem in the company of the other apostles; and he was going primarily to non-Jews.
At the same time, Paul was the best educated, the cleverest, the most able, the most Jewish of the apostles! He should have gone to the Jews! He should have run for parliament! But by going to the gentiles rather than doing what he was obviously qualified to do Paul aroused suspicion among the Jews in Jerusalem. They didn’t like his freedom. They didn’t like the way he broke the mould.
But the key thing was the gospel!
Peter, James & John saw that Paul was preaching the gospel and they welcomed him on the basis of the gospel.
The application of this for us is that we are free to minister wherever God has placed us. We can reach out to people who are like us (as Peter did with Jews) but we are also free to reach out to people different from ourselves. We don’t need to conform to any standard – except to the gospel! The gospel frees us! Very practically, this means we can just as freely go to either Sandbanks or Turlin Moor. The gospel is the ultimate agent of social mobility!
Paul resisted any threat to his freedom, and illustrates this to the Galatians powerfully with the story he tells in verses 11-14. This example is recorded in scripture so it might stand for all time – Paul doesn’t spare Peter’s blushes! Where Peter is a hypocrite Paul is unafraid to say so, and to keep on saying so!
Let nothing compromise your freedom! But this is a freedom that leads to fruitfulness…
Remember the Poor
Paul tells us that he went to Jerusalem in response to a revelation (v2). It is possible that this refers to the incident recorded in Acts 11:27-30, where a prophet warned of a famine that was to come, and the believers took up an offering for the poor in Judea. If this is the case, the very reason Paul was in Jerusalem was to serve the poor. Either way, it is clear from 2 Corinthians 8 & 9 that collecting a gift for the poor in Jerusalem was a major event in Paul’s ministry.
The Apostolic burden is for the poor. The gospel is good news for the poor – it just is!
Any so-called freedom that ignores, forgets or despises the poor is a bogus freedom. Our freedom in Christ results not in selfishness but in blessing to others. This is a freedom that affects even our wallets!
Our freedom to resist must include resistance on behalf of the poor. This resistance will often involve sacrifice – of our money and energy and time – but resistance always involves sacrifice. We are reminded of this on Remembrance Sunday. And we are reminded of it by the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Most of all, though, we are reminded of it by the Cross – the greatest ever act of sacrifice, and the greatest ever guarantee of our freedom.
Let’s be true to the cross, and keep resisting in the cause of freedom.
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Cry Freedom, Part 2: Free to Change
The change industry is huge. I found 93,166 books on Amazon when I searched for “change.” There are books about personal change, business change, political change, climate change, style change, fashion change, partner change, sex change… You name it, someone out there will tell you how to change it!
Constant change is here to stay but most people don’t like change. Only 20 per cent of people are innovators or early adopters. That means 80 per cent of us are wired to resist change!
At the same time many of us would like to change ourselves. We’d like to be happier, healthier, fitter, better looking, wealthier, more popular, more successful…
We live in a world where all is changing; and that change is happening ever faster. In order to survive in that changing world we have to adapt and change.
So we live with this tension, where we want to change but don’t like change yet need to change!
The story of the gospel is the story of changed lives. This is either good news or threatening depending on your perspective! In his letter to the Galatians Paul tells a story of how he was changed by meeting with Jesus. Before he changed Paul didn’t want to change, or see his need to change, but he was eternally grateful that Jesus changed him.
Galatians 1:11-24
Everyone has a story to tell, and this is Paul’s story (which is also told in Acts 9). Paul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the church, when he was encountered by Jesus (we get further details about this incident in 2 Corinthains 12:2-4). Paul (or Saul as he was then known) was blinded in this encounter, and then received his sight when a believer called Ananias prayed for him. As Ananias prayed, Paul received not only his sight, but also the Spirit. He was then immediately baptized in water, and then went off preaching in Arabia and Damascus. Three years later Paul went to Jerusalem, to compare stories with Peter. After a couple of weeks with Peter, he was sent off to Tarsus (in Cilicia).
We can imagine Peter and Paul sitting with their feet up in front of the fire, saying, “This is what happened to me…”
Where Paul had come from
Saul was a man who wanted to impose order on the world. The followers of Christ were disrupting the social fabric and needed to be stopped.
Saul was a religious man; an ambitious man; a proud man. These are dangerous men! Saul was someone who wanted to override other peoples stories. But Saul became Paul and as well as a name change was transformed into someone who changed stories, not by force, but by the grace of God.
Peter and Paul were very different. Paul was sophisticated, urban, educated, while Peter was rural, rough. Paul never met Jesus (except on the Damascus Road) but Peter had walked beside him. But both Peter and Paul had a story to tell of how Jesus had changed them.
Learning to tell stories
Everyone loves a good story.
A love of stories is not something we have to learn – it is just hardwired into human nature. My children have loved stories from as soon as they were able to communicate in any meaningful way. At first the stories children love are very simple – ‘duck goes for a swim’ – but quickly the stories get longer and more complicated. Small children (very irritatingly!) love to hear the same story over and over again. As we get older we like to hear the same story strung out over a long time, as in a two hour movie or a novel, or even over a lifetime, as with Coronation Street! Some of the best moments in my family are when someone says, “Remember when…” Stories are important to us.
The big story
There are many types of story, and they can take many different forms, but they can all be pretty much boiled down to just two broad categories: TheLove Story, and the Rescue Story. Everyone’s personal story will contain elements of these types of story, and everyone’s personal story can at some point be connected with the story of God:
The Love story: Boy meets girl. Fall in love. Live happily ever after.
This is probably the most common story of all, and is told and retold in countless forms from ‘high culture’ (Romeo & Juliet) to ‘folk culture’ (Snow White) to ‘pop culture’ (Sleepless in Seattle).
Most people’s stories will contain a lot of this story, because it is the story of relationships. Everyone has a story to tell of love fulfilled, broken or unrequited. This is the story that fills acres of newspaper print and celebrity magazines. It is the story other people tell us whenever we sit down together and say, “Tell me about yourself…”
The love story is also the story of the Bible because God’s story is about him winning for himself a bride, the love of his life, who he will lavish his love on forever. From Genesis to Revelation the story is all about a God of love and the consequences of that love. Out of the overflow of his love God created the universe and people to fill it. Out of love God pursues relationship with these people, even when they sin and mess everything up. Out of love God chooses a people for himself – Israel. Out of love God remains faithful to Israel, even when she divorces him. Out of love God comes to the earth in Jesus Christ to win his bride back for himself. The climax of the whole story is a wedding feast when Jesus and his Bride are at last brought together in the new heavens and earth.
Of all the types of story there are, this is really the one big story, because every other story is really in some way about our search for love.
The Rescue story: Boy meets girl. Fall in love. Girl captured by evil monster. Boy kills monster, gets girl. Live happily ever after.
Many of our most popular movies and TV shows are rescue stories: Die Hard, 24, The Matrix. A hero does something impossible and saves the day. Often the story ends with him getting the girl, but it might be something more than that, like Oscar Schindler rescuing hundreds of Jews from the gas chamber.
This story connects with us so powerfully because many of us (especially men) indulge a fantasy to do something heroic, and because in some way all of us need rescuing (from addictions, disappointment, mundane jobs, debt, etc.)
This is also a Bible story because Jesus is our great hero who rescues us from our most deadly enemy – Sin and death. Jesus does the impossible in going to the cross, but, just as the closing credits are about to roll, he bursts back into life unconquered and undimmed. The last enemy to be destroyed, as 1 Corinthians says, is death. This is the big one. In films, the last enemy to be destroyed is always the head villain (it wouldn’t be quite the same if Alan Rickman died half way through Die Hard, or if Jack Bauer killed the chief terrorist by 11am). The last enemy is always the most dangerous villain of all, and the reason why the other villains are there. It’s the same in Scripture. Death is the biggest of the enemies and the explanation for the others. If there was no death, there wouldn’t be any war or injustice or fear or sickness. So if you can abolish death, you can totally strip all the other enemies of their power.
And that’s the Gospel of Jesus and resurrection. On Easter Sunday, the biggest of all the villains was totally and completely undone. The tomb was empty, and it still is. And that means that at least one person has conquered the grave, smashed the last enemy, and overturned the curse of death that has afflicted every human since time began. A champion only has to be killed once. Death had a pretty strong track record, until it faced Jesus, to whom it had no answer whatsoever. His resurrection life was simply too powerful. So, as Paul taunted: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O grave, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).
Telling our stories
Every other type of story there is (tragedy, comedy, parable, myth, legend, biography, fairytale, fable, mystery, whodunit, epic, etc.) will contain at some point these two greater stories.
The way that we get to know people is by listening to their stories. We need to listen to one another’s tales of love and rescue. We need to share together the stories of what God has done for us, and we need to help others see how God’s great story connects to their personal story. We need to help people see that they can actually become part of the story of God – that he is the one who loves them, and can rescue them.
Paul’s story
How was it that Paul had undergone such a dramatic change? Clearly, the vision on the Damascus Road was an overwhelmingly powerful experience, but there was more to it than simply that. In verses 15-16 Paul describes for us how God had changed him…
God was at work in Paul long before he was born. God always had a plan for Paul, even when he was living in a way that seemed hell bent on destroying the work of God.
Paul was called by God’s grace. This grace was undeserved but free. That’s the point about grace! Paul deserved only God’s wrath, but instead received his love.
And then Jesus was revealed to Paul, in that encounter with the Savior on the Damascus Road.
My story is different from Paul’s, but similar as well. I haven’t seen Jesus in an overwhelming vision, but I know I have been set apart, called, and Jesus has revealed himself to me. This has changed me! It means I have a story to tell; a story of a life changed by the grace of God.
What a story! What grace! What a change!
It doesn’t matter where you come from – whether you are a Saul, or a Peter – by the grace of God you are free to change!
Paul tells the Galatians that the end result of this change is that others will worship God. This should be our aim, that we live our lives and tell our stories in a way that causes worship to raise to the Savior who has changed us.
Constant change is here to stay but most people don’t like change. Only 20 per cent of people are innovators or early adopters. That means 80 per cent of us are wired to resist change!
At the same time many of us would like to change ourselves. We’d like to be happier, healthier, fitter, better looking, wealthier, more popular, more successful…
We live in a world where all is changing; and that change is happening ever faster. In order to survive in that changing world we have to adapt and change.
So we live with this tension, where we want to change but don’t like change yet need to change!
The story of the gospel is the story of changed lives. This is either good news or threatening depending on your perspective! In his letter to the Galatians Paul tells a story of how he was changed by meeting with Jesus. Before he changed Paul didn’t want to change, or see his need to change, but he was eternally grateful that Jesus changed him.
Galatians 1:11-24
Everyone has a story to tell, and this is Paul’s story (which is also told in Acts 9). Paul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the church, when he was encountered by Jesus (we get further details about this incident in 2 Corinthains 12:2-4). Paul (or Saul as he was then known) was blinded in this encounter, and then received his sight when a believer called Ananias prayed for him. As Ananias prayed, Paul received not only his sight, but also the Spirit. He was then immediately baptized in water, and then went off preaching in Arabia and Damascus. Three years later Paul went to Jerusalem, to compare stories with Peter. After a couple of weeks with Peter, he was sent off to Tarsus (in Cilicia).
We can imagine Peter and Paul sitting with their feet up in front of the fire, saying, “This is what happened to me…”
Where Paul had come from
Saul was a man who wanted to impose order on the world. The followers of Christ were disrupting the social fabric and needed to be stopped.
Saul was a religious man; an ambitious man; a proud man. These are dangerous men! Saul was someone who wanted to override other peoples stories. But Saul became Paul and as well as a name change was transformed into someone who changed stories, not by force, but by the grace of God.
Peter and Paul were very different. Paul was sophisticated, urban, educated, while Peter was rural, rough. Paul never met Jesus (except on the Damascus Road) but Peter had walked beside him. But both Peter and Paul had a story to tell of how Jesus had changed them.
Learning to tell stories
Everyone loves a good story.
A love of stories is not something we have to learn – it is just hardwired into human nature. My children have loved stories from as soon as they were able to communicate in any meaningful way. At first the stories children love are very simple – ‘duck goes for a swim’ – but quickly the stories get longer and more complicated. Small children (very irritatingly!) love to hear the same story over and over again. As we get older we like to hear the same story strung out over a long time, as in a two hour movie or a novel, or even over a lifetime, as with Coronation Street! Some of the best moments in my family are when someone says, “Remember when…” Stories are important to us.
The big story
There are many types of story, and they can take many different forms, but they can all be pretty much boiled down to just two broad categories: TheLove Story, and the Rescue Story. Everyone’s personal story will contain elements of these types of story, and everyone’s personal story can at some point be connected with the story of God:
The Love story: Boy meets girl. Fall in love. Live happily ever after.
This is probably the most common story of all, and is told and retold in countless forms from ‘high culture’ (Romeo & Juliet) to ‘folk culture’ (Snow White) to ‘pop culture’ (Sleepless in Seattle).
Most people’s stories will contain a lot of this story, because it is the story of relationships. Everyone has a story to tell of love fulfilled, broken or unrequited. This is the story that fills acres of newspaper print and celebrity magazines. It is the story other people tell us whenever we sit down together and say, “Tell me about yourself…”
The love story is also the story of the Bible because God’s story is about him winning for himself a bride, the love of his life, who he will lavish his love on forever. From Genesis to Revelation the story is all about a God of love and the consequences of that love. Out of the overflow of his love God created the universe and people to fill it. Out of love God pursues relationship with these people, even when they sin and mess everything up. Out of love God chooses a people for himself – Israel. Out of love God remains faithful to Israel, even when she divorces him. Out of love God comes to the earth in Jesus Christ to win his bride back for himself. The climax of the whole story is a wedding feast when Jesus and his Bride are at last brought together in the new heavens and earth.
Of all the types of story there are, this is really the one big story, because every other story is really in some way about our search for love.
The Rescue story: Boy meets girl. Fall in love. Girl captured by evil monster. Boy kills monster, gets girl. Live happily ever after.
Many of our most popular movies and TV shows are rescue stories: Die Hard, 24, The Matrix. A hero does something impossible and saves the day. Often the story ends with him getting the girl, but it might be something more than that, like Oscar Schindler rescuing hundreds of Jews from the gas chamber.
This story connects with us so powerfully because many of us (especially men) indulge a fantasy to do something heroic, and because in some way all of us need rescuing (from addictions, disappointment, mundane jobs, debt, etc.)
This is also a Bible story because Jesus is our great hero who rescues us from our most deadly enemy – Sin and death. Jesus does the impossible in going to the cross, but, just as the closing credits are about to roll, he bursts back into life unconquered and undimmed. The last enemy to be destroyed, as 1 Corinthians says, is death. This is the big one. In films, the last enemy to be destroyed is always the head villain (it wouldn’t be quite the same if Alan Rickman died half way through Die Hard, or if Jack Bauer killed the chief terrorist by 11am). The last enemy is always the most dangerous villain of all, and the reason why the other villains are there. It’s the same in Scripture. Death is the biggest of the enemies and the explanation for the others. If there was no death, there wouldn’t be any war or injustice or fear or sickness. So if you can abolish death, you can totally strip all the other enemies of their power.
And that’s the Gospel of Jesus and resurrection. On Easter Sunday, the biggest of all the villains was totally and completely undone. The tomb was empty, and it still is. And that means that at least one person has conquered the grave, smashed the last enemy, and overturned the curse of death that has afflicted every human since time began. A champion only has to be killed once. Death had a pretty strong track record, until it faced Jesus, to whom it had no answer whatsoever. His resurrection life was simply too powerful. So, as Paul taunted: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O grave, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).
Telling our stories
Every other type of story there is (tragedy, comedy, parable, myth, legend, biography, fairytale, fable, mystery, whodunit, epic, etc.) will contain at some point these two greater stories.
The way that we get to know people is by listening to their stories. We need to listen to one another’s tales of love and rescue. We need to share together the stories of what God has done for us, and we need to help others see how God’s great story connects to their personal story. We need to help people see that they can actually become part of the story of God – that he is the one who loves them, and can rescue them.
Paul’s story
How was it that Paul had undergone such a dramatic change? Clearly, the vision on the Damascus Road was an overwhelmingly powerful experience, but there was more to it than simply that. In verses 15-16 Paul describes for us how God had changed him…
God was at work in Paul long before he was born. God always had a plan for Paul, even when he was living in a way that seemed hell bent on destroying the work of God.
Paul was called by God’s grace. This grace was undeserved but free. That’s the point about grace! Paul deserved only God’s wrath, but instead received his love.
And then Jesus was revealed to Paul, in that encounter with the Savior on the Damascus Road.
My story is different from Paul’s, but similar as well. I haven’t seen Jesus in an overwhelming vision, but I know I have been set apart, called, and Jesus has revealed himself to me. This has changed me! It means I have a story to tell; a story of a life changed by the grace of God.
What a story! What grace! What a change!
It doesn’t matter where you come from – whether you are a Saul, or a Peter – by the grace of God you are free to change!
Paul tells the Galatians that the end result of this change is that others will worship God. This should be our aim, that we live our lives and tell our stories in a way that causes worship to raise to the Savior who has changed us.
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