Engaging Scripture

Worship: Cry Out Together – Psalm 77, Part 5

This week I welcome guest blogger, Clint Watkins, as he shares with us how his personal experience of loss and pain led him to learn how to seize hope through lament. If you want to learn more about Clint, please visit his website.

As we conclude our study of Psalm 77, did you notice that we skipped a part of this Psalm? In our previous posts, we learned how Asaph teaches us that when we are struggling with loss and pain, we can seize hope through lament by we eping, wrestling, wondering and waiting. But there one more step we skipped, a step that’s crucial to our understanding of lament. We skipped the inscription before verse 1:

“For the director of music. For Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A psalm.”

This is not a journal entry, not a private prayer—this is a song. And this song was intended for use in corporate worship. Think about that. Not just the more hopeful part at the end. This entire Psalm, including the pain and questioning, was on the greatest hits of Israel’s worship.

The fact that this is a song is not unique to Psalm 77. This is the nature of the Psalms as a whole. They were not primarily written for devotional use. Though they can help our individual relationships with the Lord, their original function was for corporate worship. That’s why many refer to the Psalms as the “hymnbook” of God’s people. And using the Psalms in this way extends to the church. Paul tells Christians to sing the Psalms when they gather. In other words, the Psalms should be instrumental in shaping the way we pray and sing, together.

Now, at one level, this probably isn’t revolutionary to hear. We use Psalms all the time in our songs and worship. “Bless the Lord O My Soul” is a good example. Or there’s a song, “The Earth is Yours,” that takes one of its lines from verse 16. But what I’ve found is that we’re very selective about which parts of Psalms we use in worship. Can you guess what our tendency is? We only use the happy parts! Often the pain, wrestling, questions, struggle—they get left behind.

In other words, we’ll happily take portions from the second half of Psalm 77, but the questioning, the crying, the part about God not bringing comfort—we won’t include that in our lyrics.

Here’s why this is concerning. Lament is the largest category of Psalms. Lament accounts for well over a third of them. 68 out of 150 psalms are prayers out of pain. That means 1 out of every 3 songs in God’s hymnbook was a prayer in pain. 1 out of 3 songs are filled with lyrics of despair and doubt, wrestling and struggle.

So that shows us that lament is not something we do in order to worship. Lament is worship. God gave us these words as a template for how to sing to him together. Worship is meant to involve the whole breadth and depth of human emotion and experience—sorrow and celebration, heartache and happiness, grief and gratitude, confidence and confusion. God invites us to bring him both our praises and our pain when we gather. Both honor the Lord.

And lament’s prevalence in Biblical worship shows us that lament should be a regular rhythm in the body of Christ. If 1 out of 3 songs is a lament, if lament is the largest category in the Psalter, we should be concerned that it’s virtually disappeared from use. We need to recover this gift, to sing about sorrow together, in order to worship with the honesty that God permits, in order to wrestle for the hope that God provides.

There are many reasons why lamenting regularly together can be powerful, but let me just end by giving you two.

Lament unifies the rejoicing and weeping. On any given Sunday, people are walking into the sanctuary with burdens and struggles. You can use Psalm 77 as an example.

There are people here who are verses 1-9 people. Struggling, in pain, wrestling with God, working through difficult questions
There are people here who are verses 10-20 people. You’re reflecting on God’s character and goodness, lingering and wondering and waiting.
And, honestly, I think we’re all typically a mixture of the two.

But if our tone and posture and lyrics only speak for verses 10-20 people, it excludes the people who are weighed down. In fact, this was my experience, and I have heard this time and time again from others—they feel like there’s no song for their sorrow. An excess of triumphant choruses can leave sufferers feeling defeated. Paul tells the church to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. He also says that, in the body, if one member is honored, everyone celebrates. And if one member suffers, everyone hurts. Praise allows us to rejoice with each other. Lament allows us to weep with each other.

My challenge to you is to incorporate lament in the way you worship together. This ought to be a regular experience—and the more you do it, the more normal it will become. Worship leaders can include songs that capture the heart of lament—it gives voice to the people who are hurting.

It may feel uncomfortable at first to sing lament together. But sorrow belongs in the sanctuary. Think about it: It shouldn’t feel weird to worship the way people do in the Bible. And you will find that singing about both sadness and joy will deepen your relationship with the Lord and each other.

Lament deepens our compassion. Lament offers us a powerful tool to minister to others.

Have you ever felt like you don’t know what to say when someone is struggling? So often we stumble through sentences to offer some sort of comfort. Or, out of fear of saying something hurtful, we keep our distance. But lament provides another way. Instead of trying to say something profound, and instead of being silent, use lament as a framework to listen to others.

If you have trust with someone who is struggling, help them do what Asaph did. Invite them to describe their despair. Give them to space to voice the doubts they’re struggling with. Don’t try to fix them, don’t try to answer their questions, don’t push them to the second half before they’re ready. Just listen. And then, use the framework for lament to pray for them and with them. Share in their despair and their doubts, and recall God’s rescue and linger in redemption with them as they wait.

Suffering and loss can be so unbelievably lonely. But there is something powerful when others make your pain their own. This is what lament allows us to do—we cry out to the Lord together, wrestling with the Lord in our pain, and making others’ pain our own. We cry out together as God moves us toward hope.

At our son’s memorial service, we made sure to spend time lamenting together. Psalm 44 is another lament, full of pain and unsettling questions. We included it in Eli’s service because it gave voice to our grief. But we didn’t just have someone read it at Eli’s service—we had the whole congregation read it together. I can’t tell you how powerful it was to hear other people cry out with us and for us. They shared our pain and our grief and cried out to the Lord with us.

This is the power of lament. We weep, we wrestle, we wonder, and we wait—and share each other’s pain as we cry out to the Lord in worship.

If you’re hurting today, if you are grieving, if you are wrestling with the Lord—know that he welcomes your cries and your sorrow. And if you’re not struggling, cry out for people who are.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Wait: Linger in Redemption – Psalm 77, Part 4

In Psalm 77, verses 1-15, Asaph has taught us that when we lament, we weep, wrestle and wonder. Now in verses 16-20, Asaph continues reflecting on God’s power, but gets a little more descriptive in his pondering. This is a dramatic retelling of when Israel passed through the Red Sea. Look at all the creation language in verses 16-19.

Asaph is not just highlighting God’s power, he’s highlighting God’s redemptive power. What’s the difference? These images—the waters, clouds, rain, thunder, lightning, the sea—these are all images of chaos. People during Asaph’s time had no real defense against the storms of nature. Though we may have better protection these days, natural disasters still show us how powerless we truly are. It’s like the tornadoes that have been ripping through our country over the past week. Nature’s chaos can only be overpowered by the God who created it.

But in Psalm 77, God is not just overpowering the chaos. He’s using the chaos for his redemptive purposes. It’s cosmic Judo. Judo is a form of martial arts where you use your enemies’ strength against them. God uses the chaos to rescue Israel.

This is God’s storyline all throughout Scripture:

Genesis: what you intended for evil, God intended for good.

Exodus: the very waters that could have killed Israel was their path to salvation.

The Cross: the instrument of death becomes the vehicle for resurrection.

God’s redemptive purposes turn evil and chaos upside down.

As Asaph reflects on God’s redemptive power, the energy of his prayer builds. The waters are writhing, the clouds are swirling, lightning is flashing—it’s as if Asaph is getting louder and louder as prays. But there’s a surprising end to his prayer. The final verse in Psalm 77, verse 20, has been called an anticlimax. Almost a disappointing end. Like a joke with a bad punchline. Really, Asaph? You’re just gonna stop? I like to picture Asaph reflecting on his bed. He’s struggling to fall asleep. It’s as if he passes out while reflecting on God’s redemption. His prayer just stops. But this is no accident. He lingers here purposefully. The Psalm ends with the Israelites in the wilderness. Asaph, too, is still in the wilderness. His situation hasn’t resolved. His questions haven’t been answered.

But he knows that this is not unfamiliar territory for God and his people. God has brought his people through the wilderness before, and Asaph wants us to feel the anticipation that the Lord might do it again.

This is what faith can look like in the wilderness. You’re struggling. You’re wrestling with God. You know he’s working redemptively—but you can’t see it. You’re still wondering what he’s doing. And on this side of eternity, you may never know why he’s allowing this to happen. So you simply wait. Wait for God to do something, to show up, to save.

This is how the Bible as a whole ends. Revelation paints this future hope of God erasing all tears and pain—but it ends in the wilderness. “Come, Lord Jesus!” We revel in redemption, we anticipate Christ’s return, but we wait.

There’s an enormous amount of pressure to “find the silver lining” in the storm. It can feel unfaithful if you haven’t found the spiritual purpose for your suffering. Now, it’s not wrong to find purpose in your pain—I know it can be really helpful for people to point to particular ways that their suffering led them to do something. But Scripture also makes room for stories that linger until Christ returns.

If your suffering hasn’t ended, or you don’t have specific reasons for your pain or haven’t found the silver lining, you can still be a person of profound faith and powerful hope. We linger in redemption as we wait for Christ’s return.

Be encouraged. Lament takes time. This isn’t a once and done process. It’s not something that happens in a single conversation with God. Asaph had to process this, wrestle with the Lord, then he composed this prayer and wrote it down, worked out the poetry, edited it, finished it. Don’t rush this process. It’s okay to have seasons of wrestling with the Lord. Your sorrow is not the end of the story, but you also don’t need to rush the plotline. And working through your sorrow honestly will move you to a place of rugged hope.

Photo by Guilherme Stecanella on Unsplash

Wonder: Remember His Rescue – Psalm 77, Part 3

As we continue studying Psalm 77, we have already learned how lament starts with weeping, in which we describe our despair to the Lord, and then it moves into wrestling, voicing our doubts to the Lord.

After voicing his doubts, the writer of Psalm 77, Asaph, does something about them. Look at verse 10. He makes a diligent search of the Lord’s goodness. Did you catch the language he recycles from earlier?

Verse 3: Remembering God caused him grief.
Verse 6: He remembered his song in the night.
Verse 11: He now remembers the deeds of the Lord.

He can’t find answers to his questions in his own situation—he’s struggling to see God’s goodness in the present, so he turns to the past. He meditates on who God is and what he has done. I appreciate verse 13, “What god is great like ours?” It’s similar to the cry of Peter when Jesus asks his disciples if they’re going to leave, “Where else will we go?” When you’re in the midst of suffering, and you’re struggling with the Lord and his plan, sometimes it comes down to this: you don’t know what God’s doing, you don’t like what he’s allowing, but you know there’s no hope outside of him.

And do you see what event Asaph lands on as he contemplates God’s character? Verse 15: “You redeemed the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.” He’s talking about the Exodus. God’s people were enslaved to a ruthless King and they cried out to God in their distress. God heard their cries and rescued them from slavery.

Asaph recalls an event that happened a couple thousand years earlier in order to cling to the Lord in his suffering.

Past rescue fuels future hope. This is the anthem he remembers: “God hears our cries and has the power to rescue.”

Asaph had the Exodus to look back to in order to remember God’s rescue. We have our own Exodus event—it’s Easter. The cross and the empty tomb are our receipt of God’s rescue. Christ’s death and resurrection proclaim the same reality that Asaph ponders here: “God hears our cries and has the power to rescue.” In our lament, we can look to the cross.

Nicholas Wolterstorff models for us what this can look like. His book, Lament for a Son, is a book of reflections and laments after his son died in a climbing accident. Listen to a part of one of his prayers, and how similar it sounds to Psalm 77, both in its honesty and its hope. He describes his despair, voices his doubt, then he remembers God’s rescue.

“How is faith to endure, O God, when you allow all this scraping and tearing on us….

If you have not abandoned us, explain yourself.

We strain to hear.

But instead of hearing an answer, we catch sight of God himself scraped and torn.

Through our tears we see the tears of God.”

So when you suffer, after you have described your despair and voiced your doubt, remember his rescue. This is not to erase the sorrow, it’s not to ease the pain. It’s to cling to trust in the midst of trial. To grieve with hope. Through your tears, see the tears of God.

Photo by Tim Foster on Unsplash

Wrestle: Voice Your Doubt – Psalm 77, Part 2

In the previous post, we learned how lament starts with weeping, in which we describe our despair to the Lord.

Look at how Asaph’s prayer takes a turn. Notice the first word of verse 4: You. Remember Asaph’s sleeplessness in verse 2? He can’t sleep. And who’s responsible? God. Think about this image. “God, it’s as if you are holding my eyelids open. I’m so tired! I can’t even speak! Why aren’t you letting me get some rest?”

He continues describing his despair, which leads him into a refrain of very unsettling questions. Look at these 6 questions that Asaph rattles off. It would be tempting to rush past these. But let these questions impact you.

     Will the Lord reject forever? 
     Will he never show his favor again? 
     Has his unfailing love vanished forever? 
     Has his promise failed for all time? 
     Has God forgotten to be merciful? 
     Has he in anger withheld his compassion?”  (Psalm 77:7-9)

This really changes the tone of the conversation, doesn’t it? Asaph no longer sees the Lord as a counselor—they’re in conflict! Some assume that it’s inappropriate to question God. But think about this—the Psalms are the words God gave us to give back to him. These prayers have been inspired by the Holy Spirit, authorized by God. So asking questions like this cannot be inappropriate. They’re God-ordained!

This is shocking, because you will read a lot of bold questioning and complaining in the Psalms, a lot of prayers punctuated with question marks and full of confrontational statements. Let’s just read a few:

     Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? 
     Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1)

     How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? 
     How long will you hide your face from me?  (Psalm 13:1)

     My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 
     Why are you so far from saving me, 
     so far from the words of my groaning?  (Psalm 22:1)

     I say to God my Rock, 
     “Why have you forgotten me? 
     Why must I go about mourning, 
     oppressed by the enemy?”  (Psalm 42:9)

     Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? 
     Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. (Psalm 44:23)

Suffering puts us in a place where our pain doesn’t seem to line up with God’s promises, “I know you’re good, but this doesn’t feel like it. I know you’re powerful, so why aren’t you helping me?” It’s not just okay to ask these questions—it’s good and healthy. God invites us to.

Now, why is that? We speak often of being in a relationship with the Lord. “It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.” Well, a sign of any good relationship is not the absence of conflict, but dealing with conflict in healthy ways.

A strong relationship with the Lord will involve healthy conflict. Wrestling with God is in our DNA. Remember, that’s how Israel got its name—when Jacob physically wrestled with God. He renamed Jacob and called him Israel, which means “struggle with God.” The Lord saw this wrestling match as the way he wanted to identify his people—those who struggle with the Lord.

And the biblical language of healthy conflict with the Lord is lament. Lament is the courageous decision to deal with the conflict you have with God. It says, “I’m not going anywhere. But I’m not gonna sweep my questions under the rug.”

This is an astounding invitation. The God of the Universe, the one who knows all things, controls all things, sustains all things. The sovereign and holy King—invites you to bring him your questions and complaints. His grace has purchased us a relationship where we can bring him all of our concerns—even when they’re with God himself.

So bring your questions to the Lord. Wrestle with him. Voice your doubt.

Photo by Md Mahdi on Unsplash

Weep: Describe Your Despair – Psalm 77, Part 1

Three and a half years ago my wife and I lost our son, Eli, to stillbirth.

One of the difficulties we faced as we experienced loss and pain, especially in gathered worship, was that it felt like there was no song for our sorrow. But God’s word includes songs of sorrow called lament.

Mark Vroegop defines lament as. “A prayer in pain that leads to trust.” The way I like to describe it is “wrestling honestly with the Lord.” Lament gives us language to seize hope by wrestling with God.

Turn to Psalm 77, and we will find it is a lament that teaches us how to lament.

Weep: Describe Your Despair (verses 1-3)

Notice how Asaph shares his pain in this prayer.

Crying out, distress, groaning, spirit grows faint
Sleeplessness
God is not bringing him comfort.

Have you ever felt this way? In distress, discomfort, despair? Do you feel this way today? God’s Word acknowledges your sorrow.

Asaph’s lament is so honest. Our prayers are typically polite, calm, measured. But his prayer is full of tears, volume, and pain—even thinking about God agitates his soul! Yet he turns to the Lord to explain his distress. He cries out to God and talks about his suffering. He describes his despair.

You see this all throughout the Psalms—sufferers take the time to explain their situation and their sorrow to the Lord. This is surprising—God is all-knowing. So why would we need to describe our experience for him? Doesn’t he already know? It’s common to pray something like, “God, you know what we’re going through, so please help.” Yet, even though God knows what they’re going through, people in the Bible describe the details of their suffering with God.

This is really surprising, that God would both invite and command us to explain our situation and feelings to him. It feels inefficient, uncomfortable, unnecessary. Yet the Lord offers his listening ear and welcomes us to describe our despair.

I had a very powerful experience with this type of invitation to describe despair. After we lost our son Eli, I knew that seeing a counselor would be helpful to process my grief. But the first counselor I saw was a pretty negative experience. He did more talking than listening, leaving me further agitated in my grief. But I knew I couldn’t let that dictate my whole view on therapy (especially because my wife was a therapist!), so I moved on to a different counselor.

As I anticipated my first session with this new counselor, I was nervous. Was this going to be another waste of time? Was he going to listen? But I’ll never forget how he started our session. Four words. “Tell me about Eli.” It was such a simple yet powerful invitation. He wanted to hear my story, hear about my son, hear about my pain.

This is what the Lord invites us all to do. He brings us in, sits down across from us, and says, “Tell me about your pain.”

It is good and necessary for us to acknowledge the difficulties we feel and the heartbreak we see. The Bible doesn’t force us to slap gospel-colored band-aids on our open wounds. God wants us to engage and express our hurts.

So instead of avoiding the difficult emotions you have, or trying to tune them out, or get over them quickly—slow down and engage the struggles you feel. Bring them to the Lord. Describe your despair.

Photo by Kat J on Unsplash

How do we deal with loss and pain – Psalm 77, Preview

Last week I traveled with my brother and sister to a family funeral in Fredericksburg, Virginia. There we joined my parents and some aunts, uncles and cousins to support my aunt and her family, as her husband, my uncle, had rather suddenly passed away the week before. He was only 69. While he had been in ill health for a while, we figured he’d pull through, especially being so young. But he didn’t pull through. He is the first family member in my parents’ generation to pass away.

Even though I wasn’t especially close to that uncle, the funeral was still difficult. Some pastors have told me they like funerals and dislike weddings. I find that odd. I can struggle with the sadness of funerals. I watched as my cousins expressed grief over the loss of their father. In fact, my cousin called me a couple days before the wedding, asking, if he was too emotional to read his eulogy, could I read it for him? I said I could, so he emailed me the eulogy ahead of time. When we arrived at the funeral home and greeted him, though, he said he felt he was okay to read it. Still, at the beginning of the funeral service, I loaded it on my phone, ready for the nod. During the reading, he was certainly emotional as he shared memories of his dad, but he made it through. I’m glad he was able to. But his sister was not able to. She had my sister read for her. Then my mom read for my aunt, her younger sister. It was too hard for them, and understandably so.

When I do funeral planning with families, I suggest that family members write out their memorial reflections and enlist back-up readers for this very reason. I also suggest that they don’t have open mics during funerals, or if they really want a space for people to share their memories, do it during the meal. Why? Because loss is so difficult, so emotional. People think they want to share, but they usually haven’t prepared. As a result, they get to the mic, and emotion takes over. I’ve heard plenty of open mic comments at funerals that have no business at a funeral.

Last year, a man from our church passed away, and his was maybe the largest funeral crowd I’ve been involved with. So large the family wisely held it in the sanctuary of a local megachurch. Why so large a crowd? Because when this man passed he was only in his early 40s, he also died suddenly, and he was very well liked. One of his family members went back and forth in the days leading up to the wedding unsure whether they were going to talk at his funeral. Literally during the funeral, they decided to go for it, having nothing written down. As they walked up to the mic in front of all those people, they were overcome with emotion, started weeping, and the only thing that came out of their mouth was an expletive. I have a feeling that was the first time a curse word was uttered publicly in that sanctuary.

My guess, though, is that it probably doesn’t surprise you to read these stories of great emotion during times of great loss and pain. What is the greatest loss you have suffered in your life? Perhaps you’ve lost a job, or a prized possession or a house. Maybe you’ve gone through a difficult health situation, or a bad relationship that just lingers and lingers. For most of us, it is the loss of a loved one. What does faith look like in the midst of loss and pain?

This week on the blog, I welcome Clint Watkins who will be preaching about responding to loss and pain through the practice of lament. Clint and his wife Jillian are long-time friends of Faith Church, as they serve with Disciplemakers on the campus of Thaddeus Stevens, just down the road. Clint has preached, led discipleship, and he even taught a video class for us this past fall. What you will learn this coming week is that Clint and Jillian have experienced loss in a very personal way. Our congregation has prayed for them over the years, first when they lost their son Eli, and then again when they experienced miscarriage. These deeply painful experiences have given the Watkins’ ample opportunity to meditate on what it means to be faithful followers of Jesus in the aftermath of loss and pain.

Join us on the blog tomorrow as Clint talks about it further. In the meantime, visit his site here.

You can be set free to love – Galatians 1:1-5:15, Part 5

Do you find it hard to love some people? Maybe there are people you really struggle with? Keep reading because there is hope!

Because Jesus died and rose again, we can be free! Look at chapter 4:1-7. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, Paul says, we can receive the full rights as sons and daughters of God! Better yet, when we become God’s sons and daughters, God sends his Spirit into our hearts. That is a powerful thought. For true followers of Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus lives in us. Paul has repeatedly mentioned the Spirit, because it is so important to him. God’s Spirit living in us is everything. (If you have been following along since the preview post, can you start to see how Paul’s flow of thought will lead to his teaching about the Fruit of the Spirit?)

The importance of the people having the Spirit of God in their lives is why Paul is so concerned for the Galatians. Look at how he describes his concern for them in chapter 4 verses 8-9. Paul cannot believe that those who have tasted freedom in Jesus, with the Spirit of God living in their lives, would want to go back to the slavery of the law. Paul is basically saying, “People, you have been set free from the Law so that you can access the power of the Spirit of God alive and at work in you! Why would you go back to slavery to the Law?”

Paul goes on in verses 10-20 to plead with them to turn to Jesus. The rest of chapter four and chapter five verses 1-12 includes arguments from Paul strengthening his case, imploring them to choose freedom in Jesus rather than slavery to the Law. Take a look at chapter 5, verse 6, which is very important for where Paul’s flow of thought is headed.

There Paul says that circumcision or uncircumcision is not what is important in the eyes of Jesus. The choice of circumcision is an outward act. Instead what counts is the inward condition of our hearts, which Paul says is “faith expressing itself through love.” Faith, in order to be truly faith, must demonstrate itself in love.

Look at how Paul describes this in verses 13-15. He says that we are free in Christ. But that doesn’t mean we go wild. Our sinful nature is calling us to indulge in temptation. Paul says that freedom in Christ doesn’t mean that we do whatever we want. Instead, he returns to love. Serve one another in love.

Then he brings up a teaching from the Law that Jesus once said was the second greatest command after love God: Love your neighbor as yourself. We know that our faith in Christ is genuine when God’s love flows from our hearts.

To sum it up, flowing from God’s grace and love, Jesus was born, lived, died and rose again, so that we could be forgiven for sin, and have a new relationship with God when we place our faith in him. That relationship with God is not based on us keeping the Law, but on God’s Spirit living in us. With God’s Spirit at work in us, we are set free from the Law, free to live by the Spirit, which Paul says is “faith expressing itself through love.”

We are free to serve one another in love. That is the amazing gift of God. That is how God wants to change our lives, our families, our community and our world, by his Spirit in us, empowering us to serve one another in love.

Look at your life. Are you serving one another in love? Consider your family relationships first. Think about the relationships you have with your parents, your siblings, your extended family. Are you serving them in love?

Consider your friends, co-workers, teammates, and neighbors. Are you serving them in love?

Consider your church family? Are you serving in love?

Photo by Simon Maage on Unsplash

How Jesus sets us free – Galatians 1:1-5:15, Part 4

One of my favorite Bible verses is Galatians 2:20. Open a Bible and read Galatians 2:17-21, and take note especially of verse 20.

See what Paul says in verse 20? The amazing truth is that by faith Christ Jesus can live in us!!! That’s a million times better than trying to keep the law! God in us. The power of God works in us, changing us, making us more like Jesus. That’s how to make things right. Best yet, it all stems from God’s love for us, Paul says.

Compare the work of God to the work of the Law. The Law is a pathetic, weak shadow that can teach us about sin, but it cannot make us right. But Jesus alive and at work in us? Amazing! Life changing and transformative.

Furthermore, Paul says that if we could made righteous by keeping the Law, then Jesus’ died for nothing. Paul’s point is very clear: Jesus didn’t die for nothing because we cannot be made righteous by attempting to do good works and keep the Law. Jesus’s death and resurrection is everything.

That powerful truth is why Paul is so upset with the false Christians. They were trying to get the Galatian Christians to start keeping the law again. Especially to get circumcised.

Look at what Paul says next in Galatians chapter 3 verses 1-5. These verses are so intense! But for good reason. The Gospel is at stake! To Paul, what Jesus has made possible through his death and resurrection is so obviously better and so clearly the truth, that Paul cannot believe what he is hearing. Why would the Galatians go crawling back into the dark, dank life of living under the Law?

Also in this section, he mentions a word for the first time. Spirit. Paul is saying, “Galatians, you know that placing your faith in Jesus is the truth because of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.” There’s evidence that this is true. The work of the Spirit shows us that Jesus is the true way to be made right.

Paul continues. He really wants to drive home his point. He wants to prove that he is not just making this up, but that it is God’s truth. In chapter 3, verses 6-25, which Paul makes numerous points about the truth of Jesus. Take a look at verse 14. There Paul says that one of the main reasons for being made right through faith in Jesus is so that we can receive the promise of the Spirit. For Paul, the presence of the Spirit in our lives is exceedingly important.

You can’t have the Spirit in your life if you don’t turn away from trying to keep the Law and turn towards placing your faith in Jesus. Notice the image Paul uses in verses 23-24. Prison. Trying to the keep the Law is like being stuck in prison. But faith frees us. We are free from the law of sin and death.

Paul has come full circle from what he mentioned in chapter 2 verse 4, when he talked about the false Christians who were spying on their freedom. Those false Christians were teaching that non-Jewish Christians needed to get circumcised, thus they could show they are following the law.

Paul says, “No way. Jesus came to set us free from the law.” Do you see why Paul would confront Peter? Peter was giving in to the circumcision group. Paul is saying, “Peter, if you start requiring people to follow the Law, Jesus’ death and resurrection is meaningless.”

But Jesus did die and rise again, and that means we are free from the prison that is the Law. If we are set free from the Law, does that mean we can live however we want?

Paul will address that question, as we’ll see in the next post.

Photo by Bruno van der Kraan on Unsplash

How to be made right – Galatians 1:1-5:15, Part 3

I told a story in the preview post about how I was not right. I made the stupid decision to smack my head against a beam. Maybe you’ve done very dumb or very bad things as well. My guess is that just about all of have at one time or another. Do you need to be made right? The truth is that we all need to be made right. And the good news is that we can be made right! Keep reading to learn how.

In the previous post, we learned that Paul in Galatians 2 brings up circumcision. To our contemporary ears, that might sound odd. Why is Paul talking about something so private in a letter to churches? Notice that Paul says in verse 5 that he and Titus did not give in to the false Christians, so that the truth of the Gospel might remain with them. That is a key point. The truth of the Gospel is opposed to slavery. The truth of the Gospel is in line with freedom.

So far, this might sound confusing. But stay with me. What have we heard thus far? That Paul is very upset, so he tells a story about Titus refusing to get circumcised, about false Christian spies, freedom in Jesus, and the true Gospel. How do all these seemingly unrelated details fit together? Paul doesn’t yet tell us. Instead he continues his story. In Galatians 2:6-10, he explains that while Peter was the apostle to the Jews, Paul was the apostle to the non-Jews, called Gentiles.

Then in verses 11-14, Paul tells us about a surprising confrontation he has with Peter! Before I read these verses, we need to know something about Peter and Paul’s differing reputations and status in the church. Peter is the #1 guy, the top leader in the church. Paul is the up and comer. He’s the new kid with the sketchy background. In that culture, the clear power dynamic is that Peter is vastly superior to Paul. Given that power dynamic, it is possible that people in Galatia would be listening to the letter thinking, “Oh we know what’s coming next. Peter is about to put Paul in his place.” Look what happens. Read Galatians 2:11-14, and you’ll get a surprise.

Paul puts Peter in his place! Paul says, “Peter, what are you doing? You’re giving in to the false gospel of the false Christians.” Paul wants the readers of the letter to know beyond the shadow of the doubt that just because the top leader of the church, and some other high-level people like Barnabas, were led astray by the false Christians, it was wrong! Peter was wrong. Barnabas was wrong.

Think about this. Paul is publicly calling out Peter, the top leader of the church. This word would get around to the churches, as the letter was passed around and read and reread from house church to house church. We’re still reading it today, for goodness sake! That’s how important this teaching is for Paul, he is willing to publicly talk about his boss in a negative light.

So what did Peter do that was so bad? Paul says that he used to eat with Gentiles, the non-Jewish Christians, but when some people from the circumcision group showed up, Peter was afraid of them and changed his tune. There’s that word “circumcision” again. Now we learn there was a circumcision group? What in the world is that?

It might sound super odd, but if you are Jewish, it makes sense. The Jewish Law, given by God to the people of Israel thousands of years before, required that Jews circumcise their baby boys on the eighth day of their little lives as a sign that those boys are part of the covenant with God. We read about this in the story of Abraham in Genesis and in the story of Moses in Exodus. If an uncircumcised adults wanted to become Jewish, they would be circumcised too, as a sign of their covenant relationship to God. To be Jewish, you had to be circumcised.

But Paul was a missionary to the Gentiles, the non-Jews. Like many of the people in the churches in Galatia, they weren’t Jewish, so they didn’t grow up with this religious ritual of circumcision. That became a huge issue for the Christians who did have a Jewish background, and it leads to the major question Paul addresses in this letter: Do Christians need to follow the stipulations of the Old Testament Law? If you answer “Yes,” then those adult Galatian men will need to be circumcised. If you answer “No,” then you are saying that Christians have freedom from the Law, which, to the Jews, sounds super disrespectful to God.

The circumcision group answered “Yes.” Paul clearly answered “No.” Peter started out answering “No,” but then changed his tune when the circumcision group were around. What is the right answer? That’s what Paul gets to next in verses 15-16, some of the most important verses in the letter. Read those verses, and I think you’ll see what I mean.

In these verses, Paul uses two more very important words, “faith” and “justify.” He says it is not the law, but faith in Jesus that justifies us. Let’s examine these two words.

What is faith? The people who started my church in 1968 though it was so important they put it in our name, Faith Church. And for good reason. Faith is that important. But faith is not just believing ideas about something. That is only part of it. We ask a person, “Do you believe in God?” and they might respond, “Yes, I believe God exists.” Or they might even go so far as to say, “I believe Jesus is God and that he was born, lived, died and rose again.” Those are important ideas to believe.

But that is only part of faith. You cannot be a Christian by looking at a doctrinal questionnaire and checking all the right boxes. You also need the second half of faith. You need the part of faith that shows that it is real faith. You know what I’m talking about? The actions. Your life choices show what you really believe. That’s what Paul is talking about when he talks about faith. We need both parts of faith.

Paul also writes that no one is justified by observing the law. Instead we need to put our faith in Jesus. It is faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection that justifies us. What is justification? The word Paul uses means “to be made right.” That’s why this same word is sometimes translated “righteousness.” Another word that helps me understand it better is “rectification.” When you rectify a wrong, you make it right. Paul is saying that before God, human attempts to keep the Law can never make a person right. Jesus can though.

And that brings us to one of my favorite verses, which we’ll discuss in the next post.

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Grace, circumcision, and spies in church? – Galatians 1:1-5:15, Part 2

The church in the former Soviet Union had to be careful because the government sent spies into the church. In Communist China the same thing happens. Believe it or not, the early church faced a similar threat. What would you do if there were spies in your church?

In the previous post, we jumped ahead in Galatians 1, verses 13-17, reading the story of Paul’s amazing conversion to be an apostle for Jesus. He traveled around the Roman Empire talking about the good news of Jesus. In the region of Galatia, many people decided to believe in and follow the way of Jesus, and Paul grouped them in churches. But in a short period of time, things changed.

Look at Galatians, chapter 1, verses 6-9, where Paul gets right to the point.

This is very emotional writing, isn’t it? He is astonished. He accuses them of deserting the Gospel. He accuses other people of confusing them, of perverting the Gospel, and he says that those other people, if they are truly preaching another false gospel, they should be eternally condemned. And then he repeats himself: “let them be eternally condemned!” Paul is fired up! Yes, you just read the Apostle Paul say, “Go to hell.”

What is this other gospel? How are people perverting the Gospel?

Paul doesn’t explain just yet. He has not described the true Gospel, and he has not described the false Gospel. Glance back at verse 6, because there he gives us a clue, the word “grace.” He says that they were called by the grace of Christ, and now Paul is astonished that they are turning to something different. So whatever the true Gospel is, it is in line with God’s grace. And whatever the false gospel is, it out of line with God’s grace.

Keep that in mind. This is a very important point. The concept of God’s grace is central to the true Gospel. Grace is defined as “showing kindness to someone, with the implication of graciousness on the part of the one showing such kindness”^[1]

Grace gives us the image of a situation where you have treated someone poorly, and they turn to you. You are fully expecting a negative response, like anger or at least frustration from them, but as you are preparing for the worst, they are kind to you.

We also heard Paul mention grace in one of the verses about his miraculous conversion (verse 15). God called Paul by his grace. When God revealed himself to Paul the persecutor, God had every right to punish Paul, but instead God show him kindness. That’s grace. The story of the good news in Jesus is that God is gracious to humans.

We didn’t read Galatians chapter 1, verses 10-12. In those verses Paul says that the Gospel is something he received from Jesus. That led Paul to tell his story, which we already read, so jump ahead to where we left off, chapter 1, verse 18. Read through chapter 2, verse 2. There Paul describes how he gradually became a missionary and leader in the church.

Then in chapter 2, verses 3-4, he gets to the point of why he is telling his story. Paul mentions that his ministry associate Titus was not compelled to get circumcised. Woah. To our modern ears, that is a very strange thing for Paul to mention. Circumcision is so private, right? How often have you had a conversation with your friends about whether they are circumcised? Mostly it comes up only when a new baby is born.

But in a church letter? Remember that these churches were all house churches. There were no buildings. Also remember that ancient letter writing was super rare. When a letter arrived, it was a big deal. Everyone in the church family would gather in the house to hear the letter read out loud. It would be kind of like how we have a congregational meeting. We gather to hear people represent our ministry teams, giving reports about what God did in the past year. Imagine if one of the ministry team representatives started talking about how one of the guys on their team wasn’t circumcised. Weird, right? But that’s because we live in a totally different time and culture. It does make me if it would have been at least a little bit awkward in their culture too. Maybe.

But believe it or not, Paul is doing some bible and theology teaching here when he talks about circumcision, and it has everything to do with what has him so concerned that he wrote this letter. Look at verses 4-5, and he explains it a bit more.

Woah…this just turned into a spy novel. “Infiltrating our ranks,” Paul says. What is he talking about? He calls these infiltrators, “false brothers”. That means they were people who claimed to be Christians, but Paul declares them to be false. Just because a person calls themselves a Christian doesn’t mean they are a true Christian. Why does he call them false?

Paul says they are false because they actually wanted to enslave Christians. Paul is not talking about slavery like you and I think of the institution of slavery in our nation’s history. Paul is using slavery figuratively, the opposite of what he calls the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus. What freedom do we have in Christ? And what does this have to do with circumcision?

In the next post, Paul will get to some answers!

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^[1] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 748.