Even since moving down to the Eastern shore, one problem that I have encountered here is the drug use. 

 

This epidemic is more than just cold debating on public policy. Rather, it is personal and it involves people. Every name that makes the obituary is someone’s son or daughter, and we as Christians are called not to sit our our hands and do nothing, but to think clearly about the issues and take action that is in lockstep with the Kingdom of God, because that is what our King commands us to do. This action is to be grounded in Gospel theology, the Christian worldview which contains pillars: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Glorification. It is these four “strainers” (three for this article) that we must run this and other issues through in order to develop a robust theology in which to ground our action.

 

This is the Christian story: A) Creation-In the beginning God made all things and made them to be good. B) We turned our backs on Him, severed the relationship we once had, and now all things are broken, C) Jesus Christ offers a way through Him in His Kingdom to be freed from sin and healed of brokenness. D) One day, He will return to complete the work He started and the work we are called to continue.

 

We these pillars in place, let us return to the issue of drug use. This is hard for me to explore as truthfully, I have never used illegal drugs and have never even smoked a cigarette, so all I can do is speculate and observe, but here are some noticeable facets I have picked up during my life and time in youth ministry. Drug uses (many but not all) want 1) A sense of community, 2) some activity that feels good and 3) do not want to be bored. I have no doubt there are other reasons also but for this blog, I wish to focus on these three and tell the story of God’s kingdom so that whoever reads this has a core that binds it all together and a sturdy foundation upon which to build.

 

A) Creation-1) God created all things to be good. Just like God knew that “it is not good that man should be alone,” He knows we are social creatures that need to have community with one another and community is a gift he gave us. 2) God has no problem us feeling good, for joy and happiness and laughter are also good gifts from Him, but He wants us to find these things within a personal relationship with Him, and instead we look for it elsewhere, and 3) God created each of us to have a purpose; there is no such thing as a purposeless human being and although there should be times of rest, when we walk with Him daily in our lives there should be no room for boredom

 

B) Fall-1) We live lives alone and isolated and we want to belong to something or some group no matter the cost. Often when people are introduced to drugs, it is not the drugs that draw them, it is the sense of friendship and community they find within the group of users. We look to belong, but it is based on destructive forces and activities. 2) We also look for things that only give us temporary pleasure by living on the motto “we only life once” yet we fill the heart’s desire for communion with God and each other with things that only give us temporary pleasure like sex, money, or in this case, drugs. G.K. Chesterton once had a quote summing this up: “He who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God.” 3) Ever since the Fall, sloth and laziness have always been pitfalls for people, and we lose the value found in hard work done with a purpose which leads to boredom and doing anything to entertain ourselves.

 

C) Redemption-1) Through accepting Jesus as Savior and bowing the knee to the King daily, we enter into His kingdom, a community of believers, the family of God. When we act as a body in obedience to the head, then we show the world both love and truth, essential for community. 2) Working and worshiping, loving and serving God in whatever work or employment you have is where true joy is to be found, not fleeting and temporary pleasure, but deep abiding joy. 3) Belonging to Christ’s kingdom give one a living, vital, dynamic, pulsating yet tranquil relationship with God and others that never leaves one bored or dull. Whether it is acts of service, prayer, worship, fellowship, anything , “whatever you do, do to the glory of God”

 

St. Augustine once had a saying, “The heart is restless until it finds its rest in You, Lord” Many people turn to drug use to find community, pleasure, and purpose. Within the Kingdom of God, we find true community, pure joy, and solid purpose. 

I thought I would continue the series focusing on justification by using one of the earliest New Testament books: Paul’s letter to the Galatians. This is done in order to show us what the early church was facing in its day and how we can see its relevance in ours.

 

For this information, I am indebted to my New Testament professor, and one of the best in the world, Doug Buckwalter who deserves the credit. 

 

The churches in Galatia probably refer to the southern portion of modern-day Turkey, and Galatians is a window into early Christianity. The main thrust of the letter plays into what we have been looking at previously: It is Christ alone who justifies us, declaring us not guilty of sin. Although most of you reading this may view this as “same old, same old”, it is a lesson to which we as Christians must return again and again. It keeps us humble, realizing that it is Jesus alone who saves and gives us new life. No amount of our good works could do that. It is the equation Christ + nothing = being justified in God’s court. This fact, rather than cause us despair, should be seen as a great banner of hope, and we will see why below.

 

For Paul, the point of Galatians is simple: the Gospel modified is no gospel at all. The gospel Paul preached at Galatia was the universal need to believe in the full adequacy of Jesus Christ’s death as atoning for sin (Gal. 1:4; 2:20; 3:13; 4:4). Sin inescapable for all people except through belief in the cross of Christ (Gal. 3:22). Through His death and resurrection, our penalty was pain, our chains of sin broken and shattered, and we are justified. 

 

However, a relatively short time after Paul’s work in Galatia, certain groups were arriving and telling the new believers that it was necessary to keep certain Jewish customs (like circumcision and kosher laws) before become true Christians. According to Paul, such a “law-loaded” Gospel would not only eclipse the person and work of Christ but also of God Himself (Gal. 1:1)/ 

 

The Old Testament law was not legalistic but a gracious revelation of God and of His saving plan for Israel (and the world). However, its divinely intended climax was Jesus and the cross (3:23-25). To return back to trusting in the law for salvation and to then enforce that on to others turns the blessed law of God into legalism because it forgets the dependence we must have on God expressed in relationship with Him. All throughout the Old Testament, God wants relationship with His people and not simply cold obedience (2:19-21). God never meant his law to be legalism. Paul cannot stress enough the importance of the gospel (1:3-7; 2:21), because the Galatians were in danger of losing touch with God.

 

For Paul and the New testament, the Cross and the Creator are inseparable; to accept one is to accept the other.

 

Galatians is strongly worded and uncompromising (3:13), although pleading in its tone. How were the Gentiles to see themselves? They were at one time, ‘God-less’ Gentiles, with no intimate knowledge of Israel’s God. (maybe they had an idea of Him like the Athenians in Acts 17). Paul’s thrust in writing His letter in saying Gentiles can indeed become Christians without becoming Jews first. Through faith in Christ, all are heirs to the covenant promises of God! (3:6-9)

 

The issue is not throwing off culture as such, for we as believers are called to be transformers of our culture. Rather, it is recognizing the unique and sufficient work of Christ on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. The Jewish Christian is free to retain laws and customs as suits cultural practices, as in any culture, but never to forget or change or add on to a law-free gospel. This is condemnation for angels and people of any stripe (Gal. 1:8-9). 

 

Why is this relevant for us today? Why should we care? and what does this have to do with justification? Lots.

 

Picture for a moment that you are a father with a son of a rare blood type, t-cell count, etc. A doctor approaches you with a request. An elderly man named Mr. Zolton who has been a smoker, drinker, and over-eater is in need of your son’s unique heart, lungs, and liver or else he will die, but having the operation would kill your son. I am not a father, so I cannot imagine the angst, the pain, the heartbreaking loss, and I would have to make sure my son actually wanted to go through with it (and even then I would probably stop him!). However, if the same doctor came to me and said “Well Mr. Gaunt, Mr. Zolton can have the operation OR he can simply stop smoking, drinking, and over-eating and he will live.

 

This is a no-brainer for me. I will be over there at 5 in the morning to make sure Mr. Zolton is running to work, giving up the booze, and never picking up a cigarette ever again! It is all because I love my son.

 

***God loves His Son Jesus infinitely more than I could ever love my future Son. If there was any other way for us to experience new life and salvation apart from the cross (like enough good deeds, moral actions, “religion”, etc.)…Christ died for nothing, and God is a cruel father figure (Gal. 2:21). If there was another way to save humanity that would not require the life of your son, what father in his right mind would still give him up? Yet this is Paul’s argument. Jesus is the only one who can break our chains of sin and bondage and justify us to freedom! 

 

No one can come to God but on His terms and through his provision. Paul makes it clear in Galatians that this only happens through the gracious gospel of Christ. The problem of sin is once-and-for-all resolved at the cross.

 

As the Gospel is above any one set culture or group of people, so should we too be humble in our attitudes. Our churches have the tendency to place unnecessary “stumbling blocks” in people’s road in coming to the gospel (they are only allowed to sit in certain places that aren’t “my spot”, they can only wear certain clothes, sing a certain way). Christ would scold us for our arrogance rather than our humility.

 

Believers are truly free in Christ. Free to serve in love. A freedom that releases us from the snares of religious legalism and cultural superstitions. But as with our Savior, freedom from sin rightly expresses itself in the willingness to brand ourselves as servants of Jesus Christ (Gal. 6:17).

 

Christian freedom when worn by the believer looks like the garments of the Loving, Humble, Servant Himself (5:6, 13).