Harbor of Hope

Galatians
Week 2: The Gospel’s Greatest Enemy
 
 
Summary: Continuing with Paul’s letter to the Galatians and introducing the concept of ‘Religion’ referring to ‘salvation through moral effort’ and ‘gospel’ referring to ‘salvation through grace’.  

Welcome…it’s good to be with you.  
 
We’re spending five weeks in the book of Galatians…It’s a letter that was written to a group of 1^st century local churches located in modern day Turkey, that the Apostle Paul started as he took the Gospel from Jerusalem to Western Asia and into Europe. 
 
The overarching theme of Galatians is that you and I were created by God to be free…and in the spirit of helping you remember the central theme of this book, we’ve provided a visual…a ball...simple as this little object it is, we have an intrinsic understanding that this ball was designed to bounce…
 
Here’s how to prove it…Try giving one of these to a child and saying, ‘now hold it, don’t bounce it.’  No…balls, designed to bounce and to be delighted in…
 
In the same way, Paul says in Galatians, chapter 5… 
 
Galatians 5:1 says… “So Christ has truly set us free.  Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” 
             
In Galatians, Paul is revealing God’s heart and desire for us to live free and full lives…
 
Let’s go to the book of Galatians…
 
If you were here last week, you will remember from chapter one that soon after Paul established the churches in Galatia, some Jewish leaders who were committed to preserving the customs and traditions of early Judaism came onto the scene and started preaching what Paul refers to as a ‘false or imitation good news.’  By doing so, they were leading the believers in Galatia to not only turn from the Good News of God’s mercy, but in the process, to turn away from God…
 
Now, in chapter 2-4, Paul is going to continue to address the differences, or the contradictions between the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the message of these religious leaders…
 
To do this, Paul uses an example of how this played out when he was visiting another church in Antioch.
 
Galatians 2:11-13
 
The church in Antioch would have consisted of a blend of Jewish and Gentile or non-Jewish Christ-followers. 
 
Peter preaches the Gospel in Antioch…and starts eating with Gentiles.  The significance of this statement isn’t in the food…it’s in the meal. Peter showed by eating with this non-Jewish, non-circumcised crowd that he accepted them as legitimate followers of Christ…they belonged to God, which is in line with the Gospel…The Gospel eliminates all cultural, traditional, ethnic and socio-economic labels…and says that God is available to all because of His mercy shown in Jesus Christ.   
 
Then, some friends of James came to Antioch, and Peter stops eating with Gentiles, and only associates with the Jews.     
 
This is like a middle-school lunch room maneuver, and most of us, unless you were a super-stud, jock, athlete, cool-crowd kind of person; we’ve spent at least a little bit of time at the ‘other-table.’  The table across the room from where the cool kids hang out. 
 
Peter is slamming the Gentile believers.  He’s not just making a call on their reputation…he’s making a call on their salvation.  In this simple move to scoot across the cafeteria, He’s saying to the Gentiles… ‘you’re not right with God…because there’s something wrong with you.’
You ever been there?  You ever felt like my friend that I told you about last week who said that she walked away from the church because, in her words ‘I knew I couldn’t walk straight.’ 
 
It’s like, you have this idea that God has a certain list of expectations, and try as you may, you can’t meet them, which must mean that something is wrong with you, and therefore God must not be happy with you... 
 
That’s the vibe that Peter is sending…So Paul confronts him…
 
Galatians 2:14-16
 
2 Ways to Approach God…(Religion and Gospel)
 
Historically, there are two distinct ways or paths that people have taken to approach God and/or salvation…every major faith, movement, or religion has a slightly different take on this…and I’ve found this to be true as well for many who wouldn’t even associate themselves with a specific faith; virtually everyone finds themselves on one path or the other… 
 
For the sake of our conversation, we’re going to use the term ‘religion’ to refer to ‘salvation through moral effort’ and ‘gospel’ to refer to ‘salvation through grace.’  
 
Paul identifies both approaches when he says to Peter…
 
“We know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ (gospel), not by obeying the law (religion).” 
 
 
Religion says…I obey God therefore I am accepted…
 
Here’s how this typically plays out in our culture today…
 
The person who approaches God via religion thinks, ‘I’m a good person, therefore I’m accepted by God.’  I follow the rules…I obey the law…I pay my taxes…I love my family…I’ve worked the same job for twenty years… I mow my neighbor’s lawn…I have more good days than bad days…I’m a good friend…I read my Bible…I tithe…I’m a religious person. 
 
When all of these things are combined, they naturally lead me to believe that I’m a pretty good person, which must mean that God accepts me, which must mean that I will go to heaven when I die, right? 
 
In our 21^st century, western culture, this is the dominant way of thinking when it comes to life and God and faith and eternal things and how all of it is going to work out.  Be a good person, and hope for the best!   
 
The fundamental problem with this way of thinking is that it is the very antithesis of what the Bible says…
 
Let me give you an example of how this breaks down.
 
Brooks - My 6 year old, Brooks is pretty tall for his age, and he’s wiry, I mean he can wrestle.  If I put him in a room with any other 6 year old in his class, and shut the door, and let them go all out UFC style, Brooks would take that kid to town…bam.  He’s strong…for a 6 year old. 
 
But, if I step in the room with Brooks, and we go gloves-off (and we do at home), one punch to the face, boom, game over.  Now who’s strong?
 
Each of us has a tendency to compare ourselves to others as if ‘being good’ is a game to be won.  The problem is that you will always be able to find someone who in your view is meaner, more of a sinner, and rougher around the edges than you, and at the same time, someone else who you think is better, holier, or more spiritual than you.  
 
The Bible says that our sin isn’t based on how you and I compare to one another.  The Bible says that God is the standard for goodness…God who is holy…and perfect, pure, flawless…and good and loving and merciful, inside and out, all of the time, in motive, in thought, and in action…
When we place ourselves up against him, game over…we’re not holy, we are not good…The Bible says that we fall short, every one of us. 
 
Isaiah 64:6 says…
“We are all infected and impure with sin.  When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.  Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.
 
You and I cannot, therefore, deal with our brokenness and sinfulness and self-absorption through our moral uprightness, by trying to be a good person through an act of the will. 
 
Do you know the story of Jim Marshall of the Minnesota Vikings? 
 
Jim Marshall was involved in what is considered to be one of the most embarrassing moments in professional sports history on October 25, 1964. In a game against the San Francisco 49ers, Marshall recovered a fumble, but ran 66 yards with it the wrong way, into his own end zone. If you watch this clip…the announcers are yelling… ‘what is going on…he’s running the wrong way.’  Thinking that he had scored a touchdown for the Vikings, Marshall then threw the ball away in celebration. The ball landed out of bounds, resulting in a safety for the 49ers…
 
The religious person says, “I’m running hard to be a good person, so God owes me…Scripture says, “Maybe that’s true, but the problem is that you’re running the wrong way.” 
 
If you are walking toward God via the religion path…If you are trying to earn your right to stand before a holy God, you are going to run out of steam, you will burn out, and you will fall out of the race, because you’re running a race that you were never meant to run.   
 
Timothy Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in Manhattan writes this…
 
There are two ways to be your own Savior and Lord.  The first is by saying, ‘I am going to live my life the way I want.’  The second is described by Flannery O’Connor, who wrote about one of her characters, Hazel Motes, that ‘he knew that the best way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin.’  If you are avoiding sin and living morally so that God will have to bless and save you, then ironically, you may be looking to Jesus as a teacher, model, and helper but you are avoiding him as Savior.  You are trusting in your own goodness rather than in Jesus for your standing with God.  You are trying to save yourself by following Jesus.
 
Keller goes on to say…
 
Living a good life to endear yourself to God, and in effect, to save yourself, may produce a great deal of moral behavior in your life, but inside you are filled with self-righteousness, cruelty, bigotry, and you are miserable…you will always be comparing yourself to other people, and you will never be sure that you are being good enough…
Keller, The Reason for God
 
Choosing to live that way, ironically, is a rejection of the Gospel…therefore, it becomes the Gospel’s greatest enemy…and sadly, the very effort that we believe will help us to earn God’s favor, actually keeps us from him. 
 
 
The Bible Speaks of A Different Way to Approach God…
 
Galatians 2:16
 
This is the core message of the Gospel…
Remember…the fundamental principle of religion is…
 
 I obey therefore I’m accepted by God
 
The Gospel says that I’m accepted by God because of what Jesus Christ has done for me, therefore I gladly obey Him…
 
When Paul writes that ‘we are made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ.’  The word that is translated ‘made right,’ is the word justified. 
 
Justified simply means that ‘We are declared righteous in God’s sight and vindicated of any charge of sin in connection with failure to keep God’s law.’ 
 
The idea of justification is seen vividly in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables.
 
His main character, Jean Valjean, is a bitter ex-convict.  Valjean steals silver from a bishop who has already shown him kindness. Soon, he is caught by the police, and is brought back under arrest to the bishop’s home.  In an act of radical grace the bishop gives Valjean the silver and releases him from arrest which shakes Valjean to the core.  In the following chapter Hugo spells out how threatening this grace was:
 
To this celestial kindness (of the bishop) he opposed pride, which is the fortress of evil within us.  He was indistinctly conscious that the pardon of this priest was the greatest assault and the most formidable attack which had moved him yet; that his obduracy was finally settled if he resisted this clemency (mercy, pardon); that if he yielded, he should be obliged to renounce that hatred with which the actions of other men had filled his soul through so many years, and which pleased him; that this time it was necessary to conquer or to be conquered; and that a struggle, a colossal and final struggle, had begun between his viciousness and the goodness of that man.    Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
 
As you know, in the story Valjean chooses to let grace have its way with him…He gives up his deep self-pity and bitterness and begins to live a life of graciousness toward others.  He is changed at the root of his being…
 
The Good News of the Bible is that we can be declared righteous in God’s sight and vindicated of any charge of sin in connection with failure to keep God’s law.’  And it doesn’t depend on us…Jesus, the Son of God came to us, to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. 
 
 
I find that when most people encounter the Gospel for the first time, it seems almost too good to be true. 
 
We ask, what about our pasts?  And we all bring our past into this room today…anyone else in this room have a past?  (Am I alone?)
 
Religion says…you better get to work on your past…you’ve got a lot of work to redeem yourself. 
 
The Gospel says…you can’t redeem your past (can’t redeem the years wasted…the people you hurt…the money you stole…the spouse you walked out on…the years of anger and bitterness, the choice that you regret now years later…you can’t redeem it, Christ did it for you.  If you will trust in Jesus Christ, and ask Him to save you, He promises to forgive you of all charges in your failure to keep God’s law.
 
Some ask, what about my present?  I have this habit, this pattern…in my life that I just can’t shake.  I’m caught up in anger, I’m self-absorbed, I’m pretending to be someone that I’m not, I’m being unfaithful to my spouse, I’m being dishonest at work, I’m torn up by lust…what do you say about that? 
 
Religion says…get to work and cut it out…Start walking straight.  The loudest message of our culture is ‘help yourself.’ Read a book; attend a seminar.  Try harder! 
 
The Bible says that you’ll never be able to walk straight on your own.  We are sinful and we need to be forgiven…God is the only one who can transform us from the inside-out…If you will call out for Jesus to save you and forgive you and make you new, He will do that…forgiving you of all charges in your failure to keep God’s law. 
 
Well, what about the future?  What about tomorrow?  I’m afraid of letting God down.  I’m afraid I’ll start strong and end poorly…
 
Let me ask you…How many of your sins were future sins when Christ died?  How many?  All of them.  You sin doesn’t stump God. 
 
God’s not like, ‘aw man, I knew about the lust problem, but anger, come on…or, ‘I knew that she would be a workaholic, but materialism, are you kidding me?’  Sin is sin, my sin, your sin was all in the future when Christ died…Jesus paid for it when we stood as enemies of God. 
 
Christianity’s basic message differs at root with the assumptions of traditional religion.  The founders of every other major religion or faith essentially came as teachers, not saviors.  They came to say, ‘Do this and you will find the divine.’ 
 
“But Jesus came essentially as a savior rather than a teacher (though he was that as well).  Jesus says: ‘I am the divine come to you, to do what you could not do for yourselves.’  The Christian message is that we are saved not by our own record, but by Christ’s record.  So Christianity is not religion or irreligion.  It is something else altogether.”  Keller, The Reason for God
 
My prayer for you today is that you would not spend your life approaching God through moral effort in a vain attempt to win his approval…but that you might recognize that God has spoken his approval over you in Christ.  And that this truth might set you free…
 

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