“Galatians Finale” Galatians
INTRO: State inspector at the church—here to inspect
our body cooler!
This
building was once a place of death. I’m
sure it was nice as funeral homes go.
There were flowers and soft music. But it was a place of death.
There was once a body cooler on the
premises.
Then
there was a change. Suddenly there was
life and laughter in this place.
There were children running through the halls
to Sunday school classes—
spilling glitter on the carpets in rooms
once funeral parlors.
There
was new music. Joyful music. Exuberant music.
There were changes and additions made to the
building that made it
more beautiful and useful that moved it
farther from what it was—
so that now it is almost completely changed.
Imagine
that a group of people said:
We like the changes made to this place—new
building, remodeling.
but if we really want to make this place a
real church—we need more.
We need something that will make it really
serious.
Let’s
bring back some of the funeral home rules.
No running in the halls. No chase in the parking lot.
Move tables out of fellowship hall, park
hearses in there like used to.
We have to do something about the music—no
guitars, no drums.
This piano playing has to stop—need
gloomiest organ we can find
We like
the new building but we need some of the funeral home rules
to make this the proper kind of serious
church that we need.
That
is an illustration of what was happening spiritually in the Galatian churches.
The
Galatians were once godless pagans who were spiritually dead.
They did not know the living God. Dead in their sins. Without hope.
Then
Paul came as a missionary. And he said,
“I have good news!”
The Son of God has lived and died for you so
that you can be forgiven of all sins
and you can know the living God—have life
and joy and peace in Him.
All
you have to do is trust in Jesus and you will be accepted by God.
Galatians
believed. Suddenly there was a
change. There was life and laughter.
But some people came to the Galatian
churches.
Very
sincere people. Professing
Christians. Believed Jesus Son of God.
Said
to the Galatians.
It’s a good thing you know about Jesus. Very important. Come a long way
But
to be really proper Christians—to really be accepted by God—
you have to keep some rules—some religious
ceremonies, circumcision.
If
you believe in Jesus and if you keep the rules—
then you will be accepted by God.
Galatians
is Paul’s response to these people.
If
you think that you are accepted by God through believing in Jesus
plus being a good person, plus doing the
right things,
plus keeping the rules, plus religious
rituals—
then you really aren’t trusting Jesus at
all.
You
are trusting yourself. Jesus is just a
part of your strategy for self-salvation.
That leads you to either pride or
despair—and away from God.
Leads you back into spiritual bondage.
The
Gospel is Jesus Christ plus nothing.
The Gospel is that Jesus Christ has done
everything.
He
lived the perfect life. He suffered the
judgment for sin.
By simply trusting in Him, you are totally
accepted by God.
All
your strategies for self-salvation are destroyed—
and out of that comes the freedom and
assurance that you are a child of God.
Paul
goes on to say—there is doing in the Christian life. There are good works.
But not as part of what you do to gain God’s
acceptance.
Instead you do them because you are already
accepted, cannot be forsaken.
That
was Paul’s message.
Now Paul takes the pen in his hand. He had been using a secretary.
With his own large letters he writes the
finale.
He
sums up for Galatians why schemes of self-salvation are so appealing.
Or, to use other terminology—why we are
drawn to legalism.
Then
he reminds them of the wonderful alternative.
The cross of Christ and the new
creation.
As
we end study of Galatians, these two things need to stay with us.
The appeal of legalism, and the wonderful
alternative.
MP#1 The appeal of legalism
Why
is legalism appealing to Christians and churches that have known grace?
Look
at verse 12 and 13 again:
Those who want to make a good
impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid
being persecuted for the cross of Christ.
Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be
circumcised that they may boast about your flesh.
Two
reasons.
Legalism
makes a good impression outwardly and it is a way to avoid persecution.
Legalism wins strokes and avoids pokes.
Legalism wins strokes.
Deep
in every human heart is a craving for approval.
The Bible describes this as our loss of
original righteousness.
We’ve covered this ground many times but
it’s crucial to understanding legalism.
When
God created Adam and Eve they were righteous.
That means they were perfectly acceptable in
God’s eyes and knew it.
That’s
why Genesis says that they were naked and unashamed.
They had absolutely nothing to hide, because
in God’s eyes they were acceptable.
When
they sinned they lost their righteousness.
So when they heard God in the garden they
hid and made clothes of fig leaves
to cover their nakedness. Tried to regain their righteousness by doing
something.
They
were trying to be their own saviors.
All
their descendants do the same thing.
We do things to make ourselves acceptable
and gain favorable judgments.
We
seek approval from our parents, children, peers, spouses, strangers.
Even people who say they don’t care what
anyone thinks, really do.
When
you become a Christian, you receive the perfect righteousness of Christ.
His perfect life and record become yours.
You
are not only forgiven, but in the eyes of God you are approved.
God’s judgment of you is that you are
righteous.
The
Christian life is simply a matter of believing this new judgment
is true and living it. Believing and resting in the righteousness of
Christ.
But
since our hearts are bent from birth towards external things and judgments—
we are constantly tempted to prove our
righteousness by what we do.
And avoid Jesus by becoming our own
saviors.
Plays
perfectly into church life and religion.
Temptation is to turn morality or ceremonies
into the external things
we use to prove that we really are accepted
by God.
Remember
the story I told back in February when in chapter 2.
Woman who had grown up in a church that
taught
that godly women wear dresses and worldly
women wear pants.
For
years when I put on a dress it made me feel accepted by God.
My dress was my righteousness.
She
not only got the approval from her little church sub-culture—
but it scratched an even deeper itch—drive
to make self acceptable.
Her
modest dress was her way of being her own savior and avoiding Jesus.
Christians
and churches are continually tempted to set up keepable,
external standards as a way of getting right
with God.
Depending
on the church, the emphasis will either be rituals or morals.
Things like being baptized, taking
communion, going on retreats
or things like never getting drunk, modest
clothes, avoiding bad entertainment.
Of
course all of those are good things, part of Christian life.
But legalism makes them part of our salvation—we
are drawn to that.
So legalism wins strokes.
It also avoids pokes.
Legalism is a way of avoiding being
persecuted for the cross.
This
means that people are more offended
at being told that Jesus has died for their
sins
so that they can be right with God by faith
in His Son.
They
are more offended at that than by being presented with
a list of dos and don’ts that they are told
they must do to win God’s approval.
As
Christians and as churches we pick up on that—
and we want to avoid that offense, and so
look for ways to give people
keepable standards instead of giving them
the message of the cross.
Because
the cross says they cannot keep the standards.
Jesus has kept for them.
Years
ago in
They were not members anywhere, wanted it
because grandparents in town.
I
told them we only baptize children of members—but had something better.
I
asked: Do you want baptism just for tradition,
or child’s spiritual welfare?
They said:
Spiritual welfare of child.
I
said: God has provided a way for your sins
to be forgiven and to know Him.
That’s by faith in his Son, Jesus
Christ.
Greatest thing you could do for spiritual
welfare of your child
is for the two of you to give your lives to
Lord, pass on that faith to child.
They
said: Wow. That’s wonderful. You mean that through Jesus we can know
God and be forgiven and pass that wonderful
news on to our child!
No—they
got mad and left.
Now,
their response is not my point. I want
to tell you what was going on in me.
I knew they were going to get mad. I wanted to get out of it.
If
I could have said, Read this book on baptism.
Make a commitment to start coming to church,
I will baptize your child.
Might have said no. Don’t have time to read book. Not interested in church.
But
they wouldn’t have gotten mad.
I knew that if I brought up Jesus and sin
and faith—the message of the cross—
that they would not like it and I wanted to
offer them a legalistic way out.
People
aren’t nearly as bothered by lists of dos and don’ts as they are
by the message of the cross—God reaching
down in grace to helpless sinners.
They
may choose not to do them, may think unreasonable or prudish.
But they are not as offensive as the cross
because what they hear you saying
to them is, you have it in you to gain God’s
approval if you just do these things.
The
cross says: You are a hopeless sinner in
need of God’s grace.
Which
is easier in Cullman, to say to a person who you think is lost—
You really need to get involved in church,
get kids in Sunday school.
Or
to say: Jesus Christ died for your sins
so that you can be forgiven
and accepted by God. Church attendance means nothing. Trust Jesus.
Even
in Cullman, where everybody has heard about Jesus,
it’s harder to say the second—because
potential for greater offense.
That’s
the appeal of legalism for Christians.
Win strokes and avoid pokes.
Now
let’s consider
MP#2 The wonderful alternative
The wonderful alternative to legalism is the
cross of Christ.
The
Judaizers troubling the Galatian churches said that they
needed to do something to really be accepted
by God—be circumcised.
Go
through the religious rituals and then you will have something to stand on.
That will be something to boast about.
Paul
replies: Christians, don’t fall for
those old rules.
Let’s never boast in what we do or don’t do.
Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
means anything.
We
have something much greater—the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the new life, the new creation that
flows from the cross.
The
cross of Christ is the answer to our legalistic hearts in two ways.
First, the cross frees you from trying to achieve your
own righteousness.
All the religions of the world basically
have the same message.
Do this or you will be judged.
The list of dos is different
in every religion.
The concept of judgment is different. But that’s the message—Do.
But the message of the cross
is—Done!
Jesus was judged for you. It’s all done. Now, believe and rest in that.
Let’s ponder for a moment how
this is the total opposite of legalism.
The
legalist says:
“Because I’m trying to be a good person, I’m
acceptable to God.
Christian
says:
“Reason I’m able to be a good person,
because I am already accepted by God.”
Legalist
says:
“I do my religious duties so God will bless
me, won’t pound me.”
Christian
says:
“I do my religious duties, because know God
will always bless me.”
Legalist
says:
“I have to repent or God will reject me and
I’ll fall from grace.”
Christian
says:
“I have to repent because God won’t reject
me and I can’t fall from grace.
How can I grieve the person who at infinite
cost saved me from my sins.”
When this sinks in, it can
flow over into all other parts of your life
where you are seeking righteousness through
your works—
Few months ago I heard a
personal story from a minister—PCA.
This man built a large congregation of
several thousand, seemed quite successful.
But he was a legalist.
If you had told him, would have laughed in
face because doctrine impeccable.
His legalism was not in his teaching, it was
in his life.
Everything had to be perfect,
image was everything, order was everything.
He would severely criticize the staff for
smallest mistakes.
But the person who suffered most was his
wife—perfectionism crushing her.
Growing farther and farther apart but he
could not see it.
God began to deal with
him. Knew something wrong in life,
didn’t know what.
Of course was not about to ask anyone.
One Sunday, things went very
wrong in the worship service.
Sound system problems, music problems,
disorganization, he made mistakes.
It was his nightmare.
Driving home from church his
wife said:
That was the first worship service in years
that I actually enjoyed.
What do you mean? It was a disaster.
I loved seeing you messing up
in front of people—
it shows me that maybe you really do need
Jesus.
Those words penetrated his
heart, caused him to ask, where is my righteousness?
Realized it was not in Jesus and the
cross—but in his control and perfectionism.
He changed. By God’s grace he changed.
That freedom began to express itself in so
much exuberance that
a number of people left the church—it’s not
the same.
And his marriage was restored
as he began to bring that same freedom to home.
I hope you can take that
story and see how the cross can touch all of your
legalistic pathologies—shyness, self-pity, bitterness,
perfectionism, fears—
happens when it starts to come home, Jesus
has done it all.
2. The cross
gives you strength in suffering.
Legalism appeals as a way to
win strokes and avoid pokes.
The cross gives us the greatest stroke of
all—righteousness of Christ.
The cross does not get rid of pokes—enables
you to rise above them.
When you become a Christian
you do not step into a charmed circle.
The Bible says that in this life you will
have tribulation.
How does this fit into the
law of sowing and reaping we studied last week?
Isn’t the law of swing and reaping that
obedience will result in blessing?
It certainly is. And there will always be blessings for
obedience.
But the Bible always puts sowing and reaping
in the context of eternity.
Only at the final judgment will all things
be set right.
Until that time you live in
fallen world.
You not only live in a fallen world, live in
what Bible calls an evil age.
Not just brokenness, there is also
evil.
Evil is not impersonal—Bible says we have an
enemy.
There is an invisible, cosmic
battle between darkness and light.
You are in it. As a Christian the devil and his forces
desire your misery.
The final outcome is
certain. Jesus resurrection guarantees
victory.
In fact, so certain, Bible speaks in
finished terms.
Satan has been cast down. He has been bound.
But still there is final day
when all broken things set right, all evil destroyed.
Until that time, even in this age of grace,
even in lives of Christians, your life—
God allows, for His sovereign purposes, some
freedom for forces of evil.
As a person living in a
fallen world, more so, as a Christian solider—
you are going to suffer wounds.
That’s why you need the cross
of Jesus.
It doesn’t give you away to avoid wounds and
hurts—
but gives you the presence of a suffering
Savior.
Jesus lived among us and
suffered the worse that a fallen, evil world
could fling at him—he was rejected by his
people, abandoned by his disciples,
betrayed with a kiss, shamed in his death,
mocked in his suffering,
and forsaken by God.
And now he’s risen, and
reigning over all things.
So you can turn to Him in times of suffering
and he will come to you
and comfort you and strengthen you.
That will be much better than
all your ineffective strategies for avoiding
suffering.
In fact, those always break down.
If you avoid pokes by walling
yourself off from other people by perfectionism,
you will reap another sort of poke,
loneliness.
Psalmist: The sorrows of those will increase who run
after other gods.
CONC: It is the cross of Christ that is the answer.
Jesus had done it all. Better than all your self-salvation schemes.
That’s the message of Galatians.
That’s what Paul wants Christians to
remember.
Richard
Hooker, great 16th century Anglican theologian
preached a famous sermon on justification,
wrote something wonderful.
“We care
for no other knowledge in the world but this:
that man hath sinned and God hath
suffered:
that God hath made himself the sin of man,
and
that men are made the righteousness of God.”
That’s the cross of Jesus
Christ. That’s justification.
Read it again, this time put your name
there.
I care for no other knowledge in the world but
this:
that Andrew hath sinned and God hath
suffered:
that God hath made himself the sin of
Andrew,
and that Andrew is made the righteousness of
God.
That’s the wonderful news of
the cross. That’s grace. That’s the Gospel.
Take it, chew it, taste it, swallow it—
allow it to work into every part of your
life.