Minor Thoughts from me to you

Recently I've been looking over my notes from an assisted study on the Biblical book of Galatians (The Glory of the Gospel: Studies in Paul's Letter to the Galatians is the name of this thing; I don't have the name of the author). I don't usually enjoy assisted Bible studies; the study guides almost always strike me as insipid and condescendingly vapid. I wouldn't have read The Glory but a good friend recommended it.

And thanks be t'God for him doing so, because The Glory of the Gospel doesn't mess about with peripheral nonsense; the sole subject broached is the central tenet to The Way of the Christ, and it is discussed directly and with intelligence. Which is its stated purpose: the writers of The Glory kick off their whole book with an introduction excerpted from A Passion for God, by Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., who writes,

"Imagine the evangelical church without the gospel... What might our evangelism, without the evangel, look like? We would have to replace the centrality of the gospel with something else, naturally. A number of things, conceivably. An introspective absorption with recovery from past emotional traumas, for example. Or a passionate devotion to the pro-life cause. Or a confident manipulation of modern managerial techniques. Or a drive toward church growth and success. Or a deep concern for the institution of the family. Or a fascination with the more unusual gifts of the Spirit... Or a determination to take America back to its Christian roots through political power... But not only is this conceivable, it is actually happening among us right now...

"Rather than carelessly assume the Gospel, we must aggressively, deliberately, fully and passionately teach and preach the gospel. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. If we do not intentionally search them out, we will miss them."

I'd like to share some notes and transcriptions from the first chapter of the study (concerning Gal. 1-2:10) with you here.

The Glory of the Gospel supplies as commentary on the first passage Martin Luther's own words, naturally paraphrased and abridged. The Reformer writes as follows (and I'm editing for space):

"Now it is right to be a good citizen, to be loved and respected by your social group, and to be a morally upright person. So all these may be received without danger, if we attribute to them no power to satisfy for sin, to please God, or to deserve grace... These kinds of righteousness are gifts of God, like all good things we enjoy...

"Yet there is another, far above the others, which Paul calls 'the righteousness of faith!'--Christian righteousness... God imputs it to us apart from our works--in other words, it is passive righteousness, as the others are active. For we do nothing for it, and we give nothing for it--we only receive and allow another to work--that is God...

"This 'passive' righteousness is a mystery that the world cannot understand. Indeed, Christians never completely understand it themselves, and thus do not take advantage of it when they are troubled and tempted. So we have to constantly teach it, repeat it, and work it out in practice. For anyone who does not understand this righteousness or cherish it in the heart and conscience, will continually be buffeted by fears and depression.

"Nothing gives peace like this passive righteousness... For human beings by nature, when they get near either danger or death itself, will of necesity view their own worthiness. We defend ourselves before all threats by recounting our good deeds and moral efforts. But then the remembrance of sins and flaws inevitably comes to mind, and this tears us apart, and we think: 'How many errors and sins and wrongs I have done! Please God, let me live so I can fix and amend things.'

"We become obsessed with our active righteousness and are terrified by its imperfections. But the real evil is that we trust our own power to be righteous and will not lift up our eyes to see that Christ has done it for us... So the troubled conscience has no cure for its desperation and feeling of unworthiness unless it takes hold of the forgiveness of sins by grace, offered free of charge in Jesus Christ, which is this passive or Christian righteousness...

"If I tried to fulfill the law myself, I could not trust in what I had accomplished, neither could it stand up to the judgment of God. So... I rest only upon the righteousness of Christ... which I do not produce but receive; God the Father freely giving it to us through Jesus Christ...

"It is an absolute and unique teaching in all the world to teach people, through Christ, to live as if there were no Law or Wrath or Punishment. In a sense, they do not exist anymore for the Christian, but only total grace and mercy for Christ's sake... There is no other alternative to Christian righteousness but works-righteousness; if you do not build your confidence on the work of Christ you must build your confidence on your own work... So you who would be teachers and counselors of others, I admonish to exercise yourselves continually in these matters through study, reading, meditation on the Word and prayer--that in the time of trial you will be able to both inform and comfort both your consciences and others, to bring them from law to grace, from active/works-righteousness to passive/Christ-righteousness.

"For in times of struggle, the devil will seek to terrify us by using against us our past record, the wrath, and law of God... So learn to speak to one's heart and to the Law. When the law creeps into your conscience, learn to be a cunning logician-learn to use the arguments of the gospel against it. Say: 'O law! You would climb up into the kingdom of my conscience, and there reign and condemn me for sin, and would take from me the joy of my heart which I have by faith in Christ, and drive me to desperation, that I might be without hope. You have over-stepped your bounds... You are a guide for my behavior, but you are not Savior and Lord of my heart... So trouble me not!'"

"This then is the argument of this Epistle, which Paul expounds against the false teachers who had darkened the Galatians' understanding of this righteousness by faith."

P. 78 of The Glory of the Gospel adds that "If I am saved by my works, then I can either be confident but not humble... or humble but not confidence... In other words, apart from the gospel, I will be forced to be superior or inferior or to swing back and forth between the two... So I am continually caught between these two attitudes because of the nature of my self-image. But the gospel creates a new self-image. It humbles me before everyone, telling me I am a sinner saved only be grace. But it emboldens me before anyone, telling me I am loved and honored by the only eyes in the universe that really count.

I'm not sure there's a lesson out there which we're more likely to forget or that's more important for us all to remember.