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Beyond the Law

August 11, 2025 / / 0 Comments

“In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” ~Galatians 5:6

We are not saved by obeying the law or observing the traditions or keeping the rules, we are saved by our faith in Christ alone. That’s the point of Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia. And it’s one that bears much repeating.

Circumcision? Doesn’t count! Uncircumcision? Who cares! In Christ Jesus, those kinds of things don’t have any force. It doesn’t exercise any power.

Worship styles? Don’t count! Denominational differences? Who cares! Women’s roles, baptism methods, spiritual gifts–you name it! Small groups, Wednesday nights, lectionaries and missionaries, premillennial or amillennial, kitchens and KJVs–don’t give it any energy! Don’t waste your time. Don’t worry about it, don’t fight over it, and don’t divide over it. Why? Because it doesn’t count! The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. That’s it. Do we trust that, or not?

“There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful humans to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful humans, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us.” ~ Romans 8:1-4

God in Christ has fulfilled the entirety of the law’s purposes on our behalf. The whole point of the law and the rules has been fulfilled for us by Jesus. That’s the whole point of Jesus! Do we trust that or not?

The perfect Son of God, the one who’s never broken the law, took on your sin, he became your sin for you and took all of it to the cross. And when your sin is condemned in him, you become in God’s eyes like you’ve never sinned. Through his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus has taken care of absolutely everything to set you totally free from sin and death. Now, is your faith in that? Or is it in something else?

We spend so much energy debating worship styles and doctrinal positions and denominational differences, when there’s only one thing that matters. We argue about methods and traditions and structures and rules, when there’s only one thing that’s important. We get worked up over interpretations and translations and obligations, but only one thing counts.

You can only experience God’s freedom when you give all of yourself to the fact that your salvation has already been secured, that there’s nothing left to do, that it’s all been done. When you embrace that in faith, now you’re living in freedom. In Christ alone, you are free from your sins and anything that’s ever happened in your past. You’re free to stop worrying about yourself and your rights and your preferences and your understandings and to start loving and serving other people so that walls can be torn down and wounds can be healed. You’re not anxiously fretting about your standing with God, you’re not looking for proof of who’s in and who’s out. You are free! Free to become what God created you to be, what you always wanted to be, you just didn’t know what it was.

And whatever rules there are, whatever obligations remain, you are free to live above them and beyond them. You don’t worry about the law or the rules because your faith in Christ alone has you loving so much. Our faith expresses itself through love. And that makes the rules and laws irrelevant.

Here’s the best way to illustrate this:

There are laws in the State of Texas, and federal laws, that regulate how parents must treat their children. Child welfare laws. There are state and federally mandated requirements about food and nutrition, about not locking your kids in a closet; there are laws that prohibit physical and verbal abuse, laws regulating how much school my children get and their living conditions.

I have no idea what those laws are.

And you know what? I don’t care! I don’t. Why would I?

My deep, undying, committed, all-in love for my children has me so far beyond the letter of those laws, they don’t matter to me. I’m not under those laws. They don’t concern me. I’ve blown past all that. My love for my kids makes the law irrelevant. I’m free from those laws.

The Gospel truth is that you are saved because Jesus Christ has become for you your righteousness, holiness, and peace. You faith in him, and in that, compels you to love. It moves you so much that the law doesn’t matter. It transforms your heart and your head, it changes your principles and priorities, so the rules no longer matter. The Gospel truth and your faith in Christ alone moves you to defend the weak and stand with the accused and speak up for the oppressed. It motivates you to give and forgive with abandon. It empowers you to let go and live the way God lives, with abundant grace and giving everybody the benefit of the doubt.

That’s the only thing that counts.

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Carrie-Anne and I spent this past weekend up in Tulsa with Elliott and Samuel who turned one-month-old on Friday. We spent a little bit of time visiting with their parents, too. As always, you can click on the pictures to get the full size. You should especially click on that first one. Look at these guys!

Peace,
Allan

The Law Doesn’t Save

August 10, 2025 / / 0 Comments

“I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believed what you heard?” ~ Galatians 3:2, 5

I love Whataburger. I could eat at Whataburger twice a day for three weeks and be just fine. My lunch Whataburger is on Andrews Highway here in Midland and they know me when I walk in the door. They know my order. Number One with cheese and everything on it, extra onions. Unless the Pico de Gallo burger is back for a limited time. I ease into my corner booth with that burger and those piping hot fries and spicy ketchup and the latest issue of Texas Monthly or Christianity today and I’m good for like five hours. I love Whataburger. It’s easy and it makes me happy.

But it’s not good for me. It’s killing me. I know it, my doctor knows it, my family knows it. Whataburger is bad for me.

So Carrie-Anne lays down this law: No more Whataburger. Eat at Subway. Get the six-inch Black Forest Ham on wheat. No chips. Get the apple slices. You know, that’s a really good rule. It’s a good law. That commandment is holy and righteous and good. If I eat at Subway, it’ll benefit me greatly. I’ll enjoy a greater peace with my body and the freedom to tuck in my shirts. I should not eat at Whataburger.

But in the middle of the day, when it’s time for lunch, I get in my truck and…

If I go right out of the church parking lot, Subway is just right there. But if I go left and jump on Andrews Highway, Whataburger is just right there.

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate to do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good… For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing! When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  ~ Romans 7:15-21

I can’t keep the law because I’m hungry. And human. That doesn’t mean the law is bad. It means I’m bad. And faulty. And weak. Carrie-Anne’s going to get a notification and she’ll see the receipt even before I can get back to the church building. I know all this, but I do it anyway. The law is not bad, the rules are not bad–it’s just that the rules can’t save me. No matter how good and holy and righteous the law is, the law can never save me.

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” ~ Romans 7:24-25

Christ Jesus is the only way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. The grace of God and the love of Jesus is the only way that works. So, there’s only one thing that matters.

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” ~ Galatians 5:6

Peace,

Allan

Concerning Galatians 5:4

August 5, 2025 / / 5 Comments

“You who are trying to be justified by law have been separated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” ~Galatians 5:4

Last week I encountered a stumbling block in our sermon text that threw me for a loop and upset my weekly preaching routine. I spent much more time in prayer and study and conversation with others than I typically do around a particular text. And I still don’t know if I adequately addressed it on Sunday.

We are preaching through Galatians here at GCR Church and for the past two months I’ve been comparing the circumcision issue that was dividing those Christians then to the legalistic lines we draw in the sand around our own issues that separate Christians and groups of Christians today. In Galatia, the Jewish Christians were telling the Gentile Christians that if they truly want to be saved, if they really want the full benefits of God’s salvation and citizenship in God’s Kingdom, they have to become like Jews. All Christians have to be circumcised, they must keep the Jewish holy days and feasts, they have to observe the food laws and cleanliness codes–they must become “like us.” That is the issue the apostle Paul is addressing in Galatians. He goes to great lengths in lots of different ways to assert that no one is saved by observing the law, we are all only saved by God’s grace and our faith in Jesus Christ. We are saved by Christ alone. If you add anything to Christ alone, if you require anything more than faith in Christ alone, Paul writes that you are “turning to a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all.”

So, I’ve used plenty of examples in our sermons the past two months from my own experiences with the legalistic and sectarian churches of my upbringing. Our insistence that all Christians must worship like us and believe like us and baptize like us and eat the Lord’s Supper like us in order to be authentic Christians is divisive at best and, at worst, heresy. I’ve been comparing the first century Jewish food laws and circumcision rituals to our current day church structures and practices, our distinct worship styles and baptism methods and Lord’s Supper frequency, and our denominational names and titles and furnishings in our buildings.

If those comparisons are accurate–I absolutely believe they are–what do we do now with Galatians 5:4?

“You who are trying to be justified by law have been separated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” 

I know tons of Christians who are legalistic and sectarian. I’m related to a lot of these people; I love all these people. These wonderful people still insist on their Church of Christ distinctives and still enforce their Church of Christ traditions as part of what saves people. They believe and practice their rules and laws as critically connected to their salvation and their standing with God. So they still judge and condemn those outside their distinctives and traditions as unsaved. They refuse to call other Christians brothers or sisters in Christ. They don’t acknowledge their place in “The Church.” So, what about legalistic Christians? Are they not saved?

“You who are trying to be justified by law have been separated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” 

I really wrestled with that verse last week. I had a very tough time with it. I read what the apostle writes here by the Holy Spirit and it sounds really cut and dried, very clear. But I know God’s matchless love and his amazing grace is more than enough to cover me in my continued missteps and misunderstandings. I certainly don’t have everything all figured out. I’m not doing everything exactly right. And all of it is covered by God’s grace. Praise him!

I know God’s character. I know God’s history and his will and his heart. That same divine love and mercy and grace that covers me in my mistakes covers all those who confess Jesus as Lord in their mistakes. I know that. Yes!

But Galatians 5:4 is hard.

I consulted twice as many commentaries as I normally do during the week, but few of them even acknowledged my question. The couple that did referred back to Galatians 1:8-9 in which Paul writes that anybody preaching something other than Christ alone should be eternally condemned. He says it twice!

Well, yeah, I’ve known Paul was serious about this from the opening lines of the letter. This is a big salvation issue. If you’re insisting that others follow the law by keeping your traditions and the law’s rules in order to be saved, you’re not preaching the Good News. You’re distorting the truth. You’re dividing God’s Church. You’re condemned. Severed from Christ. Fallen from grace. Damned. Is Paul saying the same thing in both places? It’s the same letter to the same people about the same issue. I remember being very gung-ho about it during the first two sermons and since. But it just hit me differently last week.

I think maybe we’ve spent the past two months applying this to some of our specific issues: church structures, worship styles, denominational differences, women’s roles, spiritual gifts, baptism methods–all that stuff. And I think maybe I’ve preached myself into a corner so that legalism is an unforgivable sin. Legalism puts a Christian outside the grace of God. But, particularly my definition of your legalism. Your legalism according to my understandings. So, that can’t be right. I know there are plenty of sincere Christians who would view my “Gospel convictions” on things like the necessity of baptism or the sacramental function of the communion meal as “legalism.” So, how do we understand Galatians 5:4? And how do I preach it?

In addition to my extra prayers and study last week, I discussed this with just about anyone who would listen. I spent two full innings talking about this with Barry Thomas at a RockHounds game on Tuesday. I ambushed a lunch with Greg Anderson on Thursday to get his opinions. I changed the subject in a conversation with Jim Tuttle last week from the Cowboys to Galatians 5:4!

Here are the things we considered:

This verse is in the context of the freedom we have in Christ. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. This freedom is a gift, it’s a grace. Unmerited, undeserved, impossible to earn grace. Grace is something that’s given to us that we, in turn, must receive. And, the phrase “fallen from grace” might mean something different to us and me in our Church of Christ settings than it does to other Christians. I instinctively understand “fallen from grace” as no longer saved. Other Christians in many other traditions understand grace as extra blessings not directly tied to one’s salvation. Maybe. Either way, the very next verse affirms that the righteousness we seek only comes from God’s Spirit and it won’t arrive in its fullness until the day of glory. We’re waiting. If you seek righteousness or salvation by observing the rules and laws, you are cutting yourself off from the freedom that God desires for you. God’s not separating from you, you are separating from him or, more specifically, his gift of freedom.

Here’s how I preached it:

Paul says if you go down that path, you’re cutting yourself off from Jesus, from his gift, from his grace, from his freedom. When you’re holding on to the rules and the laws, your hands can’t be open to receive God’s grace, your heart can’t be open to receive this freedom in Christ. The rules and laws can’t save you. So, when you hold on tight to the rules and laws and you base your salvation on the rules and laws, you live with a guilt you were never meant to have. You carry a burden you were never intended to carry. You experience an uncertainty you were never meant to have. All that is the exact opposite of freedom! Or, even worse, you get real judgy about people who don’t keep your rules and laws or they don’t keep the rules and laws the way you keep the rules and laws and it hardens your heart and, eventually, sucks all the love right out of your soul. 

Praise God, we have been freed from all that! You and I have been freed from a tight-fisted, closed-minded, hard-hearted religion! God has freely lavished on us his amazing and matchless grace that saves us. We respond to his grace in faith, a complete and unreserved confidence in the goodness of God and his eternal promises. And the result of that grace and faith is freedom–freedom to love, freedom to serve, freedom to give and forgive, freedom to accept others and worship God and live every hour of every day with supreme assurance and joy! To seek justification by observing the law or keeping the rules just right separates you from that very life of freedom Christ died to provide for you. 

That’s how it ended up Sunday. Again, I’m still not sure I fully addressed it. But I praise God for his grace and I trust every Sunday that he places his proclaimed Word exactly where he needs it to go.

Peace,

Allan

People of Promise

July 3, 2025 / / 0 Comments

“If the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.” ~Galatians 3:18

We are not a people of the law, we are a people of promise. And that matters. It matters big time.

If we believe we are saved by the law or by rules and regulations or by behaving correctly, then we’re going to treat people harshly. We’ll be arrogant and judgmental, we’ll be unbending and unforgiving. We’ll be nervous or unsure about the correctness of our own performance, so we’ll fight and divide over the weirdest things. And we’ll turn off a lot of people.

When we know we are saved by the gracious promise of God in Christ, then we’ll be a people of mercy and love. We’ll give others the benefit of the doubt. We’ll be flexible and forgiving, we’ll seek to bless others, we’ll be kind and hospitable. Our words will be encouraging, our actions will be inviting. We’ll be unified by a focus on the really important things. And we’ll inspire a lot of people.

We are not people of the law. We are not people of rules or people of regulations or people of the guilt trip or people of the coercion. We are not people of correct interpretations or proper practices. None of those things save us! Those are things we use to gain control. Or to be right. Or to be better. Or more prominent. Those are the things that divide us and separate us, those are the things that lead to strife and condemnation.

The Good News is that your forgiveness, your salvation, your eternal life rests solely in the unchanging promise or our God through Christ alone.

“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” ~Galatians 3:29

Peace,

Allan

Before You Were Born

June 2, 2025 / / 0 Comments

An update on our daughter Valerie, now entering her 34th week of carrying our two new grandsons: she’s ready to be done with this stage of parenting. She told me during our last phone conversation that in the moment between waking up and getting out of bed, she fantasizes about using a walker. The boys weigh a little over three pounds each now, and they’re getting a little more kicky. So, while she’s increasingly uncomfortable, all of Val’s numbers and readings are good and she’s hanging in there really well. I mean, just look at her! She looks so beautiful in this picture. We’ve got to be just three or four weeks away now. (!!!!!!!)

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A theme that you’ll find in Scripture is that God has been with you since before you were born. The prophets write of being called by God before they were born. The psalmist sings of being brought out of his mother’s womb by God. The apostle Paul tells the Galatians God set him apart from birth and called him by his grace.

What that means is: Your life has meaning and purpose.

And I know it doesn’t always feel that way. Things happen in your life that seem random. Things that happen don’t always make sense. Your sister never smoked a day in her life, but now she’s diagnosed with lung cancer. You wind up at a college you didn’t pick. Somebody else gets the promotion you deserve. Somebody breaks into your car. Terrible parents you know have wonderful children, but your kids have gone off the rails. You’ve been divorced. Or devastated in some other terrible way.

Those things can seem so random. But our God is ultimately turning that thing–whatever it is for you–toward a salvation goal. So, on a higher level, that awful thing does make sense. That’s faith. That’s what we believe.

And I’m not trying to give some easy surface explanation for human tragedy and pain. I’m not trying to cheaply cheer somebody up who’s suffering. Sometimes our Christian comfort and counsel can sound very casual and detached. Cheap. That’s not what I’m saying.

I’m saying the God who grabs you, the God who owns you, is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is BOTH crucified and risen! So, whatever you’re dealing with or suffering through is not meaningless. God is moving all of it and you toward his eternal salvation goal for your life.

You are a part of something. It’s going somewhere. You have a role to play. God is involved. He’s got it. And he is at work in it and in you for your ultimate good.

Even as you endure whatever it is, God is changing you and calling you. And you can trust him. He’s been paying attention to you and loving you and protecting you since before you were born.

Peace,

Allan

The Lord Forbid

June 4, 2024 / / 0 Comments

When he had the chance in that cave at En Gedi, David did not kill Saul. You would expect 1 Samuel 24:4 to say, “David crept up unnoticed and cut Saul’s throat.” Or maybe, “David crept up unnoticed and cut Saul’s kidneys out” or “…cut Saul’s heart out through his back.” Instead, surprisingly, the text says, “David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.”

And he felt bad for doing that. He regretted it immediately.

“David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. He said to his men, ‘The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.’ With these words, David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul.” ~1 Samuel 24:5-7

There’s all kinds of symbolism here with the cutting of the robe. What really fascinates me, though, is why David didn’t kill Saul. It’s so uncharacteristic for David not to kill Saul. It goes totally against David’s nature. As a boy, David killed lions and bears to protect his sheep. He began his military career by killing Goliath. He began his marriage by killing 200 Philistines. He killed hundreds and hundreds of Philistines, Geshurites, Girizites, Amalakites, Kenites, Moabites, Edomites, and Ammonites. David had killed his tens of thousands. They wrote a song about it and it went viral.

David was a killer. But he didn’t kill Saul. Saul is the one man out of the tens of thousands David had the most motivation and the most reason to kill. Saul’s hunting David down like a wild pig through the canyons and wadis of the desert. But David let him go. “The Lord forbid.” Why?

Because Saul is the Lord’s anointed. He’s anointed by God, he’s established by God. He represents God. David’s men see their ruthless enemy in a vulnerable position and they want to take him out. But David sees the king anointed by God. This King Saul–the man and his position–belongs to God. He represents God.

This is not about Saul, this is about God. David turns this crude scene in a dark cave in the Judean Wilderness into a beautiful act of faith and worship to God. This is true faith and total trust in the protection and provision of the Lord, no matter what.

And it’s not about David. This is all about David’s faith in God and in God’s ways and God’s timing. If David had doubted for one second that God was protecting him, he would have killed Saul. If David had been concerned about his own reputation, he would have killed Saul. If pride were motivating David, if he was moved by his own instincts of right and wrong, if David was worried about protecting his rights or securing his safety, if he were compelled by the world’s sense of fairness and revenge and power, he would have slashed Saul’s throat. But David is motivated solely by his faith and trust in God and in God’s ways and in God’s timing. The very idea of killing Saul is unthinkable to David. He regrets even the insult of cutting his robe. Not because of Saul, but because of God.

Trusting the Lord is a lot more than just going to church a couple of times a month, reading your Bible, and not cussing. Faith in the Lord to protect and provide means faith in the Lord to protect and provide in every single situation. God is in charge of “this thing,” whatever “this thing” is for you right now.

Jonathan had told David earlier that this kingdom thing is going to work out. This thing God is doing in you and through you–he’s going to make sure it happens. David professed that same faith and it controlled David’s thoughts and actions. In the cave at En Gedi, David refused violence. He refused to employ a violent solution to his problems, even when his best friends were telling him it was God’s will. Yeah, the kingdom was falling apart. Yeah, David was being falsely accused and treated unfairly. But Saul is the Lord’s anointed. Saul bears the image of God. Period. And David is going to let the Lord take care of it.

We are living in a world we’ve never lived in before. Right now, in the United States, in 2024, today, almost everything feels messed up. We are living in a post-modern, post-Christian, post-truth world and it feels wrong.

As disciples of Christ, nobody’s threatening our religious freedoms or our physical safety–that’s not the problem. Things feel messed up and wrong for Christians because Christians are no longer in control. Christians don’t have the cultural power or the societal authority we once had which, it seems to me, we were never intended by God to have in the first place. But as our culture and our society increasingly line up against the Church and the Kingdom of God, we can be tempted to take matters into our own hands with the bloody and violent methods of the world.

And I say, to borrow David’s words, the Lord forbid!

We don’t slash the throats of our lawmakers and politicians with angry emails and insulting Facebook forwards and posts. Young people who think differently, older people who act differently, migrating people who dress differently, outsiders who speak differently, people who vote differently, people who believe differently and live differently–we don’t cut out their kidneys with an accusing finger in their face. We don’t take out their knees with out harsh words and bitter complaints. We don’t rip out their hearts with bumper stickers and boycotts and T-shirts and flags. The Lord forbid.

All these people are created by our God. And loved by our God. And they bear the divine image of our God.

If we’re trying to kill them, we’ll never save them.

This Kingdom thing is going to work out. His perfect time frame. His perfect ways. His perfect plan.

May we trust in him.

Peace,

Allan

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