From A Park Bench - Galatians 1 v 4

Galatians 1 v 4

Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.

One of the best places to sit and enjoy the world is a park bench.  Every weekend when the weather is nice and the sun is shining I can be found at the park with my daughter, sitting with other parents as she happily plays.

As I sit there, in my own little world I sometimes connect with the life of the triune God that lives within in. It amazes me that Christ should desire and come and dwell within me. But that is exactly how God planned it, before time was created God planned that Christ would die in my place, as me and that I would be adopted into God’s family. All I had to do was to believe in him and trust him for my righteousness and not my own efforts.

Amazingly, when I believed I received a new nature and my old sinful nature was killed.

So as I sit with the other parents, I am totally different, I am seated in heavenly places although I am also seated on the park bench. 

John Crowder explains how we live in a different reality: -

The problem is not that you have a sinful nature. The problem is that you don’t realize you are new. This is why it imperative to renew the mind with the truth of the gospel. The good news is that you died, and now you are 100 percent new. Not just a new version of the old you. You are completely new in kind and quality. A supernatural child of God, fused into a whole new world – a whole new paradigm. You may be sitting next to a sinner on a park bench – and although it seems like you are both in the same place, you are actually in a whole different parallel dimension from him called heaven on earth. You are now seated in heavenly places. You are the righteousness of God. You are a citizen of Heaven. In Song of Solomon 4:7 he says of you, “All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you.”

I have been rescued from the evil world, I live in a different realm, and my citizenship is in heaven. Christ in me is the hope of glory.

Grace Notes - Galatians 4 v 4

Galatians 4:4

“But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.”

Christ entered into the world at the perfect time, when the fullness of time was come.

He entered as an Israelite and was born into the Old Covenant of Law.

Christ was sinless, he kept the law and fulfilled it all, on our behalf and in our place.

When he died in our place, he took all the punishment we deserved and we received all the riches and treasures of heaven that he deserved.

It was the great exchange:

His righteousness in place of our condemnation.

His sonship in place of our alienation.

His perfect health in place of our sickness.

His riches and inheritance in place of our poverty.

His new life in place of our death.

His life living inside of us in place of our separation.

We now are united with him and he lives in his fullness in us.

Andrew Wommack here explains the Father’s Plan:

When the right time came, God sent forth His Son from Heaven in His pre-existent state, into the world. He was born of a woman (virgin birth) and was made subject to the requirements of the law. Jesus was sent at a specific time. The entrance of Jesus into the physical realm was not a random thing occurring at a haphazard time. There were developments that had to take place before Christ could come to earth and redeem man. The Father sent His Son to the earth at the earliest possible time. Anytime prior to the time Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, would have been premature.

His purpose for coming into the world was twofold. First, He came to "redeem them that were under the law." He did this by perfectly keeping the law, fulfilling it, and paying its curse (Mt. 5:17; Gal. 3:13). Thus, Christ delivered us from the entire system of the law. The Greek word for redeem means "to buy OUT OF the slave market."

Secondly, Christ gave us the status of sonship with all its privileges. Not only were we redeemed from the bondage of the law, but we were redeemed unto sonship. Many people stop short, only realizing what they were delivered from, not what they inherit. Sure, we need to rejoice that we are redeemed, but we also need to move on, and realize the full benefits of our inheritance.

God created us for Himself but we sold ourselves into slavery to the devil. God bought us back through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. No amount of effort, human works, or man's own righteousness could bring the divine favor that we needed. It was the actual life of God  that purchased our redemption.

Grace Notes - Galatians 2 v 20

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

This is a very important and life changing truth. Our old sinful nature was crucified and buried with Christ, in fact Christ died AS me. I have now been raised into fullness of life and the power and spirit of God reigns in me.

The focus of my life is now all I am in Christ and not on all I was in the flesh. I am now Christ conscious not sin conscious.

Andrew Wommack explains that now Christ lives through us.

“Paul's "old man" was dead through Christ. He was truly free to live, but it wasn't actually Paul who was living--it was Christ living through him. Paul had learned the secret of victorious Christian living; it is not us living for Jesus, but Jesus living through us.

Failure to understand this simple truth is at the root of all legalism and performance mentality. The Law focuses on the outer man and tells it what it must do. Grace focuses on the inner man and tells it what is already done through Christ. Those who are focused on what they must do are under Law. Those who are focused on what Christ has done for them are walking under grace.

The Christian life is not just hard to live--it's impossible to live in our human strength. The only way to walk in victory is to let Christ live through us.”

Grace Notes - Galatians 2 v 16

Galatians 2:16

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. “

Andrew Wommack in his Bible commentary explains what is meant by the the term, "works of the law"

What are "works of the law"?

Any rule, command or law that a person observes in an attempt to be accepted in right standing with God is a "work of the law." In other words, "works of the law" are a righteousness produced by one's self, a righteousness belonging to one's self, offered to God as a means of meeting God's standard for acceptance. Philippians 3:9 says it's ". . .having  MINE OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS (a righteousness belonging to me) which is of the law. . .".

"Works of the law" have always been man's attempt to be accepted by God. Paul says, Let me "be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith" (Phil.3:9-NIV).

It takes a radical revelation of the gospel of grace to abandon faith in the works of the law. God's standard of righteousness is the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD alone.