"The Gospel of Legalism"
Galatians 1:6
6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Introduction: This morning I may be preaching one of the most important messages I have ever preached anywhere in my ministry. I hope that doesn't sound melodramatic or sensational but I feel very strongly about the subject of today's message. I have several reasons for preaching about "The Gospel of Legalism" I have seen firsthand the effects of legalism in people's lives and in the church. I have seen the struggles as Christians strive to meet a standard that is based in the Law rather than in Grace; on rules not relationship! I've personally been on the receiving end of criticism that I believe was based on legalism. For the legalist "every I has to have a dot and T has to be crossed, or the legalist is not happy and he will let you know it, I might add! It has been my observation that legalism leads to defeat and a joyless Christian experience. There is never, or least very seldom any sense that one has pleased anyone much less his/her heavenly Father. Legalism also leads to hypocrisy because it is artificial and arbitrary; it leads to hyper-criticism of others behavior while one is blind to one's own faults and failings. Jesus spoke specifically about this very thing. Let me read you a quote:
Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
These believers in Galatia had been saved under a gospel of grace but they were in danger of being seduced by "...another gospel..." the gospel of legalism! Let me provide a little background. Even though the Apostle Paul was a Jew his ministry was by and large to the Gentiles. In chapter 2 verse 7 Paul refers to his belief that "...the gospel of the uncircumcision..." (Gentiles) had been committed to him by God. He also mentions a very important event that occurred when he, Barnabas and Titus went up to Jerusalem in chapter 2, verse 4. He says that while they were meeting with the leaders of the church there were those who came in "...to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage..." The bondage he is referring to the insistence that all of Paul's Gentile converts be "circumcised!" Paul's reply to the elders in Jerusalem is recorded in verses 20-21:
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
To put this issue in laymen's language, Paul is declaring the salvation is through grace alone, not grace plus circumcision. Unfortunately these same "brethren" seem to have followed Paul's mission team about and spued this venom of salvation by grace plus circumcision at every opportunity.
Let's look at the text to see what else we can learn about this issue. First, see that Paul sounds a alarm:
I. AN ALARM
a. The danger of legalism
The language of verse 6 is very suggestive. The word marvel in the KJV is used to convey a very strong emotional response to what he perceived was a very dangerous situation. It is a response to something that one would consider to be reprehensible; or in this case, unthinkable! The tense of the word removed is one of continuing action that had not been consummated. They had not yet committed apostasy but they were progressing in that direction in Paul's judgment. Theirs was a case of doctrinal apostasy as they were moving away from the gospel which had been first preached to them.
b. The deceptiveness of legalism
What I'm about to say will make some of you uncomfortable but there are legalists in every congregation and in verse 4 Paul goes so far as to call them "...false brethren..." Now I wouldn't go as far as saying that all legalists are false brethren but I would say that some are, but there are many more like the Galatian believers who had been saved with a gospel of free grace and now were in danger of trusting a system of the Gospel plus something. They come in all shapes and sizes, all ages, male and female, they sit in the pews and stand behind the pulpits. They sing in the choir or serve in the church nursery. They can be anywhere. What I'm saying is that there will always be those who want just do not feel or can't make themselves believe that grace alone is enough to be saved and to stay saved! Then there are those who are perfectly willing to allow Christ to save them by grace through faith but they have difficulty in believing that the same grace that saved them can also sustain them.
c. The declaration
From verse 11 of chapter 1 thru verse 10 of chapter two Paul declares the source of the Gospel of Grace that he had preached to them, that they had believed and that had saved them. He states that this gospel was "...not after man..." in verse 11. This is in opposition to this "...other gospel..." verse 8, that he considered man made. He declares that his source was "...by the revelation of Jesus Christ..." verse 12, and proceeds to relate to them how he was "...called ...by his grace..." verse 15, enabled and equipped to "...preach among the heathen..." and that when he went to Jerusalem to confer with the leaders of the church he received their unqualified endorsement, chapter 2 verse 9!
ILL - Bruce Howell writes: "A Muslim in Africa became a Christian and some of his friends asked him, "Why have you done such a thing?" He answered, "Well, it's like this: Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the road forked in two directions. You didn't know which way to go; and there at the fork were two men--one dead, and one alive--which one would you ask to show you the way?" (from a sermon by Bruce Howell, The Gospel Vs. Religion.)
II. AN ANALYSIS
a. The creed of a legalist
The legalist believes in salvation and I might add, sanctification by addition! The dispute regarding legalism flared up when some Judaizers from Jerusalem traveled to Antioch of Syria and taught that in order for believers to be saved, they had to be circumcised. This is recorded for us in Acts 15. They taught that circumcision is necessary for salvation. In other words, that grace alone is not enough but you are saved by works in some form or another. Upon first glance, it doesn't seem that bad. But really they were implying that in order to be saved you had to keep the Commandments, the law. It wasn't just circumcision. If circumcision was the only thing then it leaves a great question. How does the legalist believe women were going to be saved? They were also teaching that the law had to be kept if one wanted to be saved.
Acts 15:1 And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.
Acts 15:5 But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
b. The conduct of a legalist
There is an rigidity to the life and attitudes of a legalist. For instance, even though we know that we have unity within the body of Christ by virtue of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit; the goal of the legalist is not unity but uniformity! As a matter of fact the legalist will sacrifice unity to achieve the goal of uniformity. He is constantly striving for something that is impossible to achieve within the body of Christ through the works of the flesh. Instead of celebrating the uniqueness of every Christian they want cookie cutter disciples that all look alike, talk alike, walk alike, and think alike! The legalist has convinced himself that in order to please God he must live a life of perfection or very near it! His conduct is shaped by his concept of God and his God is judgmental and harsh, quick to punish and arbitrary and capricious! The legalist is on a performance treadmill and doesn't realize that there is a better way.
c. The control issues of a legalist
Ultimately the goal of the legalist is control. Paul states that the goal of the religious legalist is to "...bring us into bondage..." The most miserable person in a church is the legalist who has lost control or is losing control, whether it be a position or people or a program. It is unsettling to them and they will resort to any means and I mean any means to regain a sense of control. In the case of these Galatian believers Paul's critics were perfectly willing to allow the preaching of the gospel just as long as those who became disciples would also submit to circumcision and obey the Law. The problem for the legalist is that sometimes God's grace breaks thru and something happens that cannot be explained by human effort or ingenuity. One of the reasons for the intense hatred directed at the Apostle Paul was the result of one of these breakthroughs. You need only read his testimony in chapter 2 to realize how upsetting the conversion of Paul was for the religious legalists of his day. It turned their world upside down.
When David Brainerd took the message of redemption to the North American Indians from 1743 to his death at age 29 just four years later, a revival broke out that impacted the Native American community. Baugh writes, "The revival had greatest impact when Brainerd emphasized the compassion of the Savior, the provisions of the gospel, and the free offer of divine grace. Idolatry was abandoned, marriages repaired, drunkenness practically disappeared, honesty and repayments of debts prevailed. Money once wasted on excessive drinking was used for family and communal needs. Their communities were filled with love."
In 1857, four young Irishmen began a weekly prayer meeting in a village school. The next year, more prayer meetings started and revival was the common theme of the preachers. The next year, 100,000 people were converted into the churches of Ireland in what is marked as the beginning of the Ulster revival of 1859. By 1860, crime was reduced and the judges had no cases to try. One county in Ireland reported no crime and the no prisoners were held in the jail. It was the greatest thing to hit Ireland since the ministry of Saint Patrick. Services were packed with people, there was an abundance of prayer meetings, family prayers increased, Scripture reading was unmatched, Sunday Schools prospered, people stood firm, giving increased, vice abated, and crime was reduced significantly.
In the Welsh revival that occurred around the turn of the 20th century, 100,000 outsiders were added to the churches. Again from Baugh: "Drunkenness was immediately cut in half, and many taverns went bankrupt. Crime was so diminished that judges were presented with white gloves signifying that there were no cases of murder, assault, rape or robbery or the like to consider. The police became 'unemployed' in many districts." This is my favorite part... "Stoppages occurred in coal mines, not due to unpleasantness between management and workers, but because so many foulmouthed miners became converted and stopped using foul language that the horses which hauled the coal trucks in the mines could no longer understand what was being said to them, and transportation ground to a halt."
III. AN APPLICATION
a. We are saved by God's grace
"One of the hardest things for people to understand is the freeness of God's salvation and that explains why we have the legalists today. Today men add baptism, confirmation, church membership, good deeds and other things to the requirements for salvation. That is salvation by works. The great tragedy of legalism is that it doesn't just deny the grace of salvation, but legalism also devalues the work of Jesus. Anyone who accepts a works salvation is saying that the work of Jesus on the cross was insufficient to save souls. They are saying Jesus alone cannot save anyone. That is a doctrine that dishonors Jesus. Anything that is added to salvation besides Jesus is dishonoring the blood of Jesus." Melvin Shelton
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
John 14:6 -- "Jesus told him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.'"
This is so hard for prideful people to accept.
ILL - Listen to Dietrich Bonhoeffer's perspective: "The fact that Jesus Christ died is more important than the fact that I shall die, and the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead is the sole ground of my hope that I, too, shall be raised on the Last Day. Our salvation is "external to us." I find no salvation in my life history, but only in the history of Jesus Christ. Only he who allows himself to be found in Jesus Christ, in his incarnation, his cross, and his resurrection, is with God and God with him" (Life Together). Here he articulates the orthodox Christian perspective: we cannot save ourselves; salvation lies outside ourselves, in events that have happened in history, particularly the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
b. We are being sustained by God's power not works.
Paul asks a series of pointed and powerful questions of the believers in Galatia.
Galatians 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Nowhere in Scripture do we find a devaluation of the importance of obedience in the Christian life. Jesus himself said, "If ye love me keep my commandments..." And we are to live "...soberly, righteously and godly in this present world..." but friend if are a Christian you didn't do anything of redemptive value to become a Christian and you cannot do anything of redemptive value to remain a Christian! We are not saved by works or kept by works!
Conclusion: WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
Victor, a man in Jeanette Hoessel's English-as-a-second language course, came from El Salvador. He asked her one day, "What does C-section mean?" Since Jeanette's three children had been delivered by Caesarian section, she felt confident with her explanation, but Victor's face reflected total puzzlement. "Do you understand what I'm say-ing?" she asked. "Yes," he replied, "but I am still confused." She asked him the context in which the word had been used, and he responded: "Yesterday, on my break, I was reading the newspaper. A co-worker asked me for the C-section, but I didn't know what he meant."
You know, we sometimes get into situations that we just don't understand what is meant.
Does that happen to you?
This morning, we return to our study on the gospel of John. We start today in chapter three with a man that doesn't seem to understand Jesus.
What is ironic about this is that he is very religious. He really knows his stuff.
But His reaction makes us ask this question...
Can it be that there a lot of people, even religious people that do not understand the truth that we are saved and sustained by grace through faith and that alone. One of my favorite songs is "In Christ Alone, I place my trust..." have you done that today, placed your trust, your life, your eternal destiny in Christ alone?
SOURCE: Paul Decker in "Double Delivery" on www.sermoncentral.com. http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=45810
