You're listening to the Ten Minute Bible Member podcast. It's best on the free daily deep minute Bible. And right now we're talking about collisions.
SPEAKER_00I had a job that didn't work out when I was a young man. I thought it was gonna work out. Seemed like a really good idea. I really liked the guy who hired me, and I moved for this job, moved there, gave it my all, and it did not work out. And I ended up tapping out of this job fairly quickly. Things were a mess. This is a difficult time for everybody, right? I really did like and respect the guy and still do who hired me. Even though it was clear that the situation was kind of cooked and I just needed to move on, I still went to his house with my U-Haul on the my last day as we're getting ready to move away. This gentleman, he said, You know, Matt, when you swim in dirty water, you get dirty. And the water's been dirty around here. Instead of pointing a bunch of fingers, he said, in this moment, at this time in this place, uh this is how I understood him at least, that stuff just wasn't good and it was very hard to navigate. And he's right, and that's how I really feel about it looking back. I know I got stuff wrong, but I also don't know exactly how I would have played that differently. And for the longest time I thought to myself, that's a good description of that moment. But the longer I've lived, the more I think you know, it's also a good description of kind of life in general. And I don't think I'm gonna go all negative here as I'm recording this as a for a Monday episode. I don't want to do that to you on a Monday. I think the world's beautiful. I think the fingerprints of the God who I believed made all of it are all over this world. But at the same time, have you tried navigating life and coming through it untouched and unscathed? Have you ever tried to do the right thing in every single decision and then got to the end of that and realized, uh, well, I really think I made ethical, shrewd, smart, good decisions at every turn there, and somehow I still screwed it up. Why is that? Well, I think it's because the water's a little bit dirty. And I think a lot of times the perfect option for how to navigate things isn't there, even if we had perfect self-discipline and control and could get everything right. Why is the water dirty? I suppose because people are selfish and we do mean things sometimes, but a lot of the reason that the water is dirty is because I'm me and you're you, and the communication barrier is there, and sometimes we don't understand each other as clearly as we meant to, and we're trying, and things just don't work. Also, there's only so many hours in the day, and also we're forgetful, and we don't remember all the things that we need to do or that we said or that were supposed to happen, and there's distractions, and even with the best of intentions, we're still swimming in dirty water, and as a result, we're still gonna get dirty. In the book of Galatians, Paul keeps referencing in this opening foray, this opening couple of paragraphs that he throws out that are not super pleasant. He's angry. He keeps referencing this idea of the gospel, this idea of good news that was presented to the Galatians, presented accurately, as we discussed last time around, and it was received accurately. The true thing was received, and it was good, and they rejoiced in it, but now somebody else has come along with a different version of it, a version that really is no version of it at all. It's an entirely different religion, it's an entirely different hope, it's an entirely different equation about what to do about the dirty water. I think when you're a kid or when you're reading through the Bible for the first time, it's really easy to fixate on the right and wrong stuff being willful naughtiness versus willful good behavior. Willful rebellion against God is what we need forgiveness for. Willful obedience to God is what you're trying to do. These are the ideals. And at a very simple level, I think that's very, very true. But I think the further you get into life and the more you get dinged for stuff, and the more you inflict injuries on other people that you really didn't mean to, the more you swim in that dirty water, the more you realize it's more than just volitional good, bad, naughty, nice, mean, kind, goofish, gallant kind of stuff. It's really difficult to navigate this thing in a way where you consistently spread beautiful, redemptive things and the values of the kingdom at every turn, even when you try to get it right, you still get it wrong. Why? Because the water is dirty and we are in the water. There's this underlying assumption that the people who went to the Galatian church and started heaping rules on them hold. And that underlying assumption is you can fix this by your effort. Through meritorious good work and self-discipline, you can make it so you don't swim in dirty water anymore, I guess they imagine. So that none of that dirty stuff gets on you and you're just kind of above it. But the gospel that Paul preached and the gospel that the Galatian church received, that good news starts with kind of bad news. You're in dirty water. And the further bad news is you're drowning in it and you can't get out of it, and you're covered in the same dirty stuff that is in the dirty water. Big time paraphrases mine here, but I don't think it's a stretch. The relief from that is the unmerited favor of God, the true and comprehensive forgiveness of Christ, not just for volitional bad stuff that we just had an evil day, I guess, and decided to do wrong, but also for the ick that's on us because we're swimming in dirty water. And if you swim in dirty water, you can't help but get dirty. If you cannot escape the water, you will always be covered in whatever is in that water. The escape from the dirty water, biblically, based on what Paul is teaching here, based on the teachings of Christ, is Christ. It isn't you find a way to get out of it. In this analogy, the water is inescapable and the water is not cleanable. Only through the work of Christ is there forgiveness, is there redemption, is there any kind of solution to this inescapable human problem? Not just a volitional, intentional, I'm gonna be bad today, willful sin, but the dirty water stuff where you were really trying to get it right, or you just forgot to pay attention for a second, or you forgot something that you were supposed to do, or you thought you knew the facts, but you didn't know the facts, so you acted a certain way, but you actually should have acted the other way. Volitional, willful, intentional bad behavior, I think for most people, is probably the minority of the kind of mistakes that we make. Far more of it could be credited to lapses in competence, lapses in judgment, inattentiveness, distractedness, genuinely believing we were doing the right thing and throwing energy fervently at that, but actually we were getting it wrong and doing the wrong thing. Well, all of it, the result's still the same. It's wrong. However, we got there, we're still imperfect and in need of the forgiveness of God. Paul consistently throughout the Bible demonstrates that he understands that what we need to be forgiven for is more than just the volitional, it's also the dirty water. Jesus understands this too. I mean, he looks at the masses and he sees that they're harassed and harried like sheep without a shepherd. He wants to gather the people of Jerusalem under his wing like a mother hen, protecting the chicks. Jesus sees, and Paul is given eyes to see, that humanity is really in a very desperate position and one that cannot be solved by human effort. And it would take something exactly like what Jesus did, and exactly like what the actual gospel is to solve that. And so I think a huge part of the emotion and the passion that we're getting from Paul here in Galatians, in addition to his disappointment that their rejection of the true gospel represents a rejection of him, a rejection of God, there's also a deeply compassionate element here where as the letter of Galatians unfolds, we're going to see that what Paul is saying is this won't work, and I care about you. This alternative thing, this alternative plan for dealing with the dirty water problem that we all have, whether we know it or not, will fail you. It's going to let you down. There is one way to get the dirty water off. There's one way to get out of the dirty water problem, and that way is the unmerited favor and grace of Christ displayed and made available through the cross and the resurrection. He spells it out when he writes to another church in Ephesus in Ephesians 2. He talks about the problem first. This is Ephesians 2, 1, and then a bunch more. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air. See, it's in the air, it's in the water, everywhere. The spirit who's now at work and those who are disobedient, all of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God who's rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions, it is by grace you've been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, it's the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we're God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. That's the message Paul preached to them. That's the message they received, that's the message that acknowledges the dirty water situation and acknowledges the impossibility of humans who cannot get out of that water to separate themselves from the ick that is in the dirty water. That is the message that pointed them toward the one solution to that problem, to that situation, which is the redeeming work of Christ, the forgiveness of Christ through his death on the cross and his resurrection. It resonated for those churches in Galatia once. I believe that it resonated for them again. But this is part of why we go back and we read these letters, because it's not just for them, it resonates for us. It resonates for me as I think about all the stuff I've intentionally got wrong, because I just felt like getting something wrong, but also all the stuff where I either was not paying attention or I was just not competent enough to get it right, or I had the facts wrong, or I really genuinely meant to get it right, and I got it wrong anyway. I don't just need forgiveness for the ick that I put in the water. I need forgiveness for the stuff that somebody else, I guess, put in the water, but that is on me because I am in the water. That is exactly the solution. That is exactly the message that Paul relayed to the Galatians back in the day, and they accepted it. And now it's game on as we see if Paul is going to be able to persuade them to return to this belief, this truth that was actually efficacious, and to see if he can persuade them to reject this false gospel, this false hope that has been foisted upon them. I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again.