Today we’ll focus in on Galatians 3:15-18 and Gen 12:1-7 and Gen 15:1-2. Read those passages together.

Questions for reflection:

1. What is Paul’s point about inheritance, the law, and the “promises?” What “promises” is he referring to?
2. How does Paul see these promises as the solution to the problem of Jewish and Gentile Christians being separated by ethnic and religious customs?

Yesterday we read about the covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis 15. At it’s core, this promise was that God himself would be Abram’s “great reward” (Gen 15:1), a reward that is tied directly to Abram’s earlier calling and promise, that “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:3). This is the “gospel” that Paul quotes in Galatians 3:8

The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

This is the gospel as Paul understands it; that all the people and nations of the earth would be “blessed” (think Matthew 5:1-12) by the reward of God’s very presence. It’s this great age of peace and reconciliation that the Jewish prophets would speak of centuries later (we’ll get to that on Wednesday).

Other versions of the “gospel” that we have heard – for example, that Christ came to die for our sins and eradicate our guilt, or defeat God’s enemies, or make a way for us to live in eternity with God – are only one part of the gospel. The fuller gospel, the good news, is that God has made a promise to pour out the blessing of his very presence upon all the people of the earth, thereby reconciling the world to Himself, and bring about the long awaited peace, justice, and reconciliation that the world so desperately needs. This gospel extends far beyond the sin-guilt of the individual and infiltrates the familial, political, ethnic, cultural, and religious realms of humanity.

So, if this gospel promise goes all the way back to Abraham, what kept it from being implemented or announced all those centuries ago during the extended and difficult history of the Jewish people of the Old Testament?

Today read Leviticus 18:1-5 and Deuteronomy 27:9-26 alongside Galatians 3:10-14.

Questions for reflection:

1. What do you see as the purpose of the law from reading Leviticus and Deuteronomy? What are the key verses in those passages that are clues to the purpose of the law?
2. According to Paul in Gal 3:10-14 what does the law (or Torah) accomplish?
3. How do you think this purpose for the law (to be a curse) might contribute to the gospel of bringing God’s blessing to all the nations?

This week we will track the trajectory of the gospel through the Old and New Testament in order to get a better sense of what Paul is talking about.

Today, we’ll start by reading Genesis Chapter 15. This passage relates the covenant made between God and Abraham (or “Abram” at this point), the father of faith claimed by Jews, Muslims, and Christians. It will be impossible to understand Paul’s argument for the gospel if we don’t have a sense of who Abraham was and how God related to him.

Questions for reflection:

1. What are the promises God makes to Abram in this encounter one starry night in the desert?
2. Can you find the “moment of faith” Abraham experiences with God in this passage?
3. Have you had similar moments of faith? Recount here in the comments or in a journal or to a friend.

This week we’ll pray through the Lord’s prayer as an outline, one line at a time. Today, read the first line, verse in Matthew 6:9:

“Our Father, in Heaven,
Hallowed be your name.”

Think about each word and what it teaches you as you pray it.

“Our Father”
Jesus calls God his father, an unusually intimate term for his culture. What does “father” mean to you? What would it mean for you to see God as a good father in your life? How does this affect your concept of God?

“In Heaven”
Jesus didn’t mean Heaven the way we tend to think of it – as a distant cosmic place. Rather, Heaven was the realm of power in which God was fully in charge; Jesus, and all of the Old Testament scriptures, depicted heaven as the place where God’s rule and reign were unspoiled and uninterrupted by sin, disease, violence, and death. God occasionally broke into the present earthly realm, but he lived and worked from heaven. Given this, what does the concept of God being from heaven mean to you?

“Hallowed be your name”
Hallowed means to revere or honor. In the culture of the ancient near east where Jesus and the other Jews lived a person’s name was more powerful and meaningful than it is to modern Western societies. A person’s name was their identity. It reflected their character and purpose. Likewise, the name of God throughout scripture reflects His character and purpose. There are many names for God in the Old Testament, and each depicts, in some way, his divine character as witnessed by the ancient Hebrews. Here are a few:

• YHWH-Yireh — “The LORD will provide” (Genesis 22:13-14)
• YHWH-Rapha — “The LORD that healeth” (Exodus 15:26)
• YHWH-Niss”i — “The LORD our Banner” (Exodus 17:8-15)
• YHWH-Shalom — “The LORD our Peace” (Judges 6:24)
• YHWH-Ro’i — “The LORD my Shepherd” (Psalm 23:1)
• YHWH-Tsidkenu — “The LORD our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6)
• YHWH-Shammah — “The LORD is present” (Ezekiel 48:35)

Prayer Exercise:
Find a quiet place to pray, uninterrupted for 20-30 minutes. Begin by addressing God as your father, then pray through some of these names of God listed above, asking God to be your “provider,” your “healer,” your “peace,” etc. Pause with each one as consider what this might look like in your life and pray for the specific situations that come to mind. Thank God for the ways in which He has already acted in this way for you.

Afterward, share a bit of your experiences in the comments below. Was this a good exercise? Was it easy or difficult? What did you experience?

Today we’ll be wrapping up our time spent in the Beatitudes. First read Matthew 5:10-12, and then read the following excerpt from Clarence Jordan’s book Sermon on the Mount, and do the exercises below:

It is difficult to be indifferent to a wide awake Christian, a real live child of God. It is even more difficult to be indifferent to a whole body of Christians. You can hate them, or you can love them, but one thing is certain – you can’t ignore them. There’s something about them that won’t let you. It isn’t so much what they say or what they do. The thing that seems to haunt you is what they are. You can’t put them out of your mind anymore than you can shake off your shadow.

Something is very wrong with the world. Oppression, violence, exploitation, injustice, sickness, and even death can all be attributed to mankind’s broken relationship with God – the source of all that is good. The bible calls this brokenness “sin,” and it is the result of our willful rejection of God’s good rule in our lives.

The gospel, or “the good news,” is that God’s rulership has returned to earth through Jesus Christ and the door is now open for anyone to enter His kingdom and enjoy the goodness of God. As Jesus himself said repeatedly, “Repent, for the Kingom of heaven is at hand” (Mk 1:14). Jesus’ clear invitation is to simply change our minds (that’s what “repent,” or metanoia means) about the way we live and join him in a brand new life where God and his goodness is available to anyone who seeks.