Hey my friends, it's Matt. This is the Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast. And if you've been listening to this program for a while, at some point, you're probably thinking to yourself, Man, I like this Bible stuff, but boy, is that a lot of stories over the years about Matt Whitman's complicated relationship with Colorado professional sports. And to that I would say that is a very fair point. You're not wrong. I'm not going to argue with you. And I completely understand your feelings. Also, here's another story about my complicated relationship with Colorado sports. It was 2005. I was living in Las Vegas, and I had a wedding that day. A wedding for two dear friends who are still married, by the way, which is great. That's it's hard to think of a reason to ever talk about weddings and success rates with weddings, but it's one of the things that really matters to me about what I've done over the course of my life. I really, really care about that stuff. And it thrills me that Kevin and Liz are doing well all these years later. That was a great wedding. That was a beautiful day. And so we got done with the wedding. I came home and the Denver Broncos had a playoff game. So I watched them play the New England Patriots and a young Tom Brady. If you don't know who they are, they've been very good for a very, very long time. The Patriots were driving down the field. It looked like they were going to win, gonna score an important touchdown. And Tom Brady went, he threw a pass, then legendary Hall of Fame cornerback. Cornerbacks are defensive players who try to stop receivers from catching the ball. Champ Bailey jumped in front of the ball for the Broncos. He intercepted that Tom Brady pass and he ran it back like a hundred yards, almost scored a touchdown. He got tackled right at the end. It was kind of freaky there, but it all worked out. It was a glorious, happy day, and the Broncos advanced in the playoffs. And if you're a Patriots fan, it's probably a sad memory. But if you start to feel disappointed that I brought that up and it's painful, just use both hands to grab your like 19 Super Bowl rings that you won in the ensuing years and just let them clink together in there. I think the sound and weight of that will probably comfort you to some degree. The point is, that was the happiest 14-point swing that I think I can ever remember in football. Looked like everything was gonna go one way and then boom, in one reversal of fortune moment, everything went the other way, and I was jumping up and down and screaming and hollering and all of that stuff. And likewise, that's what we've been talking about here at the end of Galatians chapter three. There's a 14-point swing. There's a grand reversal that is occurring. And if Galatians 2 and 3 was a little bit weighty and a little bit overwhelming, well, it was worth it because here's the payoff. Galatians 3 23. Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we're no longer under the supervision of the law. Here's where it gets awesome 14-point swing. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. And I know I've been gushing about it like a giddy little schoolgirl for the last three days that we've been talking about all of this. That is real because the Bible's alive. And you can read it a bajillion times and you think you get it, and then you get to a hard part and you're talking with other people about it, and it's hard, and it can be a little overwhelming in the moment, and then pow, it's almost like the true God of the universe is on the other end of this document, and from time to time you encounter the true God of the universe as you're reading through it in ways that are really, really abundantly clear. That's what I've been feeling this week, because we've been talking about this 14-point swing, this grand reversal. And acknowledging that Galatians 3 is some pretty heavyweight theology and uh humbling for me to read through it and try to make sense of every single word and every single phrase, acknowledging that it's difficult for me and it might have been difficult for you. I have cheated by going over to Romans chapter 3, where Paul deals with basically the same stuff in really tight, really clear language that was meant for more outsiders, people who weren't familiar with all the terms and the inside baseball stuff when he was writing to the Galatians over there in Galatians chapter three. So yesterday we read just a beautiful passage in Romans chapter three, but uh now a righteousness apart from the law has been made known, to which the law and prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through redemption that came by Christ Jesus. And there it is, there's your grand reversal, there's your 14-point swing. I know there's a whole bunch of you who think a whole bunch of different things and got a bunch of different reads in terms of like what expression of historic Christian faith makes sense for you. I know that there's a whole bunch of you who follow people on the internet who are always yelling about who's right and who's wrong, that's very popular right now for whatever reason. And sometimes it can be this weird, chippy theology fight all the time, and it can just be easy to forget that this is the point. This thing is supposed to produce joy. It's supposed to produce delight and life and life abundantly. And yes, theology is interesting. Obviously, I'm something of a fan of that, and it's fun to grind through all of the difficult stuff. But man, this is something that should be enormously unifying, regardless of where you grew up in church or where you're at with it now. And I know there are a bunch of you who are listening to this who are like, I think I believe in God now. I don't even really know how that happened, but I think I do at this point. I just don't go to church yet. I'm not quite sure what to do with that. Well, you know what? You celebrate too. This is awesome. Like maybe today is the day that this stuff just hits hard enough where you're like, yeah, I don't know exactly when that happened, but today's as good as any day to count that as a 14-point swing, a reversal that I am swept up in, that I am a part of. This is for everybody. Outsiders, insiders, people who know the language, people who don't know the inside baseball language, people who are brand new to it, people who on paper you would think like, yeah, you're just into all the wrong stuff. You're from all the wrong background. That's not the tribe or the demographic or the political persuasion that gets caught up in the grace of Christ and has their eternal destiny changed and their heart transformed and goes from being a slave to a son, a daughter, a child, an heir, an agent of the kingdom. But guess what? It's for everybody. And that's part of what the difficult slog through some of the hard parts of Galatians brings to the surface. It's for everybody. It was always for everybody. A grand reversal. I told you yesterday I wanted to keep going with this grand reversal stuff and Paul elaborating on what's going on in Galatians with a little bit more reading in Romans. So I'm just gonna read you some more Bible right now from Romans chapter four. Here we go. This is picking up right where we left off at the end of and we finished Romans chapter three yesterday. So we're just going Romans four, one. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If in fact Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. What does the scripture say? Quote, Abraham believed God, and it's funny because all of you are saying it with me right now, as you're running on the treadmill in your super sweaty leopard print unitard, or as you are pushing the super fun grocery cart that your kids can sit in and pretend to drive like it's a car, and you have earbuds in and you're maneuvering your way around the grocery store listening to this, or as you're on the commuter train or bus with people sitting uncomfortably close, but you don't care, you're saying it with me anyway, because you know what the next phrase is. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now Paul's gonna do the thing again where he flips a chair around backwards and he flips his hat around and he like gets real with you. Here it goes. Now, when a man works, his wages aren't credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. Makes perfect sense. However, to the man who doesn't work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. What a turn of a phrase who justifies the wicked. Those terms aren't supposed to go together. It feels so unnatural. And yet there it is. It's not just for like people who made a mistake one time, or I s let something slip that I shouldn't have, or I was trying to do a good thing. I tried so hard, but I I just didn't get it right in the end. I mean, the forgiveness of God is for that too, I guess, but here it's not like a light offender who's in view, like a well-intentioned bumbler. It's the wicked. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, gives the wicked his own righteousness, and gives the wicked right standing before a holy God, his faith is credited as righteousness. It's just like what Paul's saying over in Galatians, right? If you belong to Christ, this is the last verse of Galatians three, if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Or like Paul said a little bit earlier in Galatians chapter three. So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Paul's spelling it out as clear as he can. This grand reversal, this 14-point swing in this situation, isn't something you earned. It isn't something where you agreed to a contract and then you went and did a certain amount of work, and then you were given the agreed upon wages for your work. Both parties shake hands and you go on your way, and everything was fair. This isn't fair. This is the God who justifies the wicked. That isn't fair. Fair would be the condemnation of the wicked. No, this isn't God paying off an obligation that he owed Abraham or owed anybody because they were so good that God was like, Well, a deal's a deal. Here's your thing. Uh-uh. It's all a gift. Abraham was justified by faith. Peter was justified by faith. Paul was justified by faith. I'm justified by faith. You, the person who was like, Yeah, I guess today's the day that I've thought about, like, yeah, okay, yeah, I'm in. Weird. I guess I'm just saying that today. You're justified by faith. This isn't a paycheck. This isn't an obligation. It's the gift of God, and that faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him. Yeah, we're going to be in Romans just a little bit longer, because there is no way that I'm going to pass on talking about the circumstances of that psalm that David wrote and the implications for the conversation that we're having in the whole 14-point swing, then the whole reversal of fortune thing. So guess what? More of this stuff, Magnana. Thanks for indulging in another story about my complex relationship with Colorado Sports. And also congratulations to my friends Kevin and Liz for being married and doing a good job of it for the long haul. Way to be you two. All right, that's plenty for now. I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.