As you are probably quite sick of hearing; Galatians 5:1 states the theme of the entire letter. Christ has set us free. What Paul wants more than anything is for us to enjoy this freedom that Christ has provided. When we allow ourselves to become subject to traditions and other man made standards we neutralize the effect that grace has upon our lives. When the effect of grace is allowed to be neutralized in our lives we slip back into the slavery of a religion based upon works. As we have learned if we want to live a life apart from grace we in reality are living a life apart from Christ. Because we once again have been enslaved by the things Christ had set us free from. When it is all said and done there is only one thing that counts. And that is neither an outward religious observance nor the observance of some law or tradition but faith. In 1954 Dwight Eisenhower gave his famous explanation of the foundation of American Democracy. “Our government makes no sense unless it is founded on a deeply felt religious faith and I don’t care what it is.” It is obvious though the Paul cares and he is convinced that God cares. That faith that expresses itself is faith in Christ. So let’s take some time this morning to examine this faith that Paul is presenting.
I. Faith in Christ is a central theme in the Gospel message.
A. Paul is concerned that the Galatian Christians not return to any form of slavery to “the weak and miserable principles” they formerly served.
1. We will not go astray if we remember that for Paul, Christian liberty was always grounded on the believer’s relationship with Jesus Christ on the one hand and with the community of faith on the other.
2. Outside of Jesus Christ, human existence is characterized as bondage—bondage to the law, bondage to the evil elements dominating the world, bondage to sin, the flesh, and the devil.
3. To the church at large Paul says, “If you go on having yourselves circumcised,” you are relying on a false premise. This dependence on circumcision must stop!
4. Christ will “profit nothing” to those whose trust is in their own work of keeping laws such as circumcision. It is not merely a matter of adding an innocuous “extra” to the gospel; it is a matter of changing it to no gospel at all.
5. An ethical life must begin by recognizing that the foundation of God’s dealings with men is grace through faith rather than legalism. "Do you wish to lead a holy life?" Paul seems to be asking. "Then begin with the principles of faith and shun legalism."
6. In the ever ongoing arguments over whether it is possible for a Christian to “fall away from grace,” this verse is a sword that cuts both ways. On the one hand, it clearly is possible for a Christian who has believed and received the Holy Spirit to be later misled and be “alienated from Christ” and “fall away from grace.” On the other hand, it must be noted that the way such people fall away is not by inadequate attention to keeping all God’s rules, but by inadequate reliance upon grace.
B. For the Galatians to accept this heretical theology and the practice derived from it would mean that they had rejected God’s all-sufficient provision for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross.
1. To have faith in Jesus Christ is to trust his sacrifice to be adequate in God’s eyes to save the sinner. To believe that his sacrifice is in any way deficient is not to trust—not to believe.
2. The Gospel is the Good News of Jesus Christ. Christian faith is faith in Christ not in some outward religious expression.
3. The outward expressions of religion: circumcision, dietary laws, Sabbaths can do nothing about saving us from our sins.
4. To trust in such things is to be alienated from Christ, fallen away from grace and having no right to hope that the Lord will one day declare us righteous.
5. Holiness will never come as the result of someone insisting on adherence to either man-made or even God-made regulations.
II. True faith in Christ always expresses itself.
A. If the Galatians submit to the rite of circumcision they are demonstrating more faith in the Jewish Law than in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.
1. It is “by faith” that the peril of apostasy is avoided. “Falling away” is not avoided by deciding it could never happen (Calvinists) nor by trying harder to earn a safer place in God’s favor (legalists).
2. Paul and those who like Isaac are children of promise do not place their trust in their own deeds of righteousness. Instead, they place their hope in God and eagerly await a righteousness “not of their own, not based on law”
3. Legalists, on the other hand, think they can nail down their claim on salvation by works, thereby leaving nothing to shaky, unstable things like faith, hope, and trust.
4. The Spirit of God helps to keep this hope alive. Christians are able to “rejoice in hope”.
5. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:5—NIV)
B. When Paul speaks of faith expressing itself he is assuming the obvious: faith cannot help expressing itself.
1. In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. (James 2:17-18—NIV)
2. A while back a letter to the editor in Time Magazine expressed a common misconception that faith and belief in God has nothing to do with daily behavior. The writer asserted that morality flows from an understanding of life’s potential grace and beauty.
3. There is one inescapable fact: what I believe, I do. What I do expresses my faith. Morality is faith expressed in word and deed.
4. Paul claims that the true Christian experience is characterized by faith. This is a faith of solid expectation: it eagerly awaits God’s final demonstration of righteousness, when his truth will be vindicated and his people will receive the final verdict of ‘not guilty’. It is also a faith generated and sustained by the presence of the Spirit.
III. True faith in Christ is always expressed through love.
A. The faith by which believers are justified is the faith which operates through love.
1. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18—NIV)
2. Faith becomes operative, expressing itself or working.
3. We are saved by faith alone; but for these Galatian believers who want so desperately to work, Paul seems to be saying, “Go ahead and work, but don’t try to earn your salvation. Instead let your salvation by faith result in loving and kind works done to serve others.”
4. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:10—NIV)
5. What obedience to law failed to produce love could produce.
B. The bottom line is this: If the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love, then we who are Christians must make sure that our faith rests squarely in Jesus Christ and our lives reflect His love.
1. The faith that operates through love is nothing other than the faith by which we are justified before God.
2. Christianity does have moral demands, but we cannot be saved by measuring up to them. Our salvation motivates and energizes us to love and live right.
3. Love for others and for God comes spontaneously to those whom God has forgiven.
4. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” (Luke 7:47—NIV)
5. Since faith expresses itself through love, you can check the health of your faith by your love for one another.
6. Hans Kung writing on the subject of Christian freedom penned these words: “To be available for others, to exist for others, to live in selfless love is the only way to realize freedom.”
7. The question we need to answer is, “Where are we putting our faith: in Christ or in our own actions?”
Back in the 1980’s a story was reported that expressed this type of love. A twelve year old boy in Greece developed a benign tumor that began pressing against his brain and causing difficulty in the boy’s breathing and frequent nose bleeds. He had undergone several surgeries, but the tumor kept on growing and threatened to leave him brain damaged. His people were quite poor, his father a fisherman trying to make a living out of the uncertainties of the sea and the little bit of oil he could get from the few olive trees on his land. In spite of his poverty he managed to save enough to take his son to America for a successful surgery at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. The father scarcely left the boy’s side. He slept on a cot in his hospital room and, when the surgeon announced the operation’s success, the father couldn’t stop hugging the doctor and tried his best to kiss him. Casting aside restraint in the fullest expression of his gratitude, the father whose love for his son caused him to sacrifice everything now abandoned himself in showing his love for his son’s surgeon. His is a faith expressing itself through love. He enjoyed the freedom that is the result of this type of expression. The writer of the AP article about this event concluded, “You’ve got to know these people. They work hard, the laugh hard, they cry hard and they love hard.”
