Weak and Worthless Things
TCF Sermon
August 25, 2002
In his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace, Philip Yancey quotes Mark Twain --- he writes that the famous author used to talk about people who were – as he put it - “good in the worst sense of the word.” And Yancey added that this is a phrase that, for many, captures the reputation of Christians today.
How could being good be a bad thing? How can there be a worst sense of the word “good”?
What Mark Twain was talking about in this context, was people who flaunt their “goodness” so much so that they come across as overly judgmental, very intolerant, and also very unapproachable, to the point of people not wanting to be around them at all - in part because people don’t feel a sense of welcome and acceptance around these “good” people - in part because they’re inclined to impose their standards of goodness on you.
They’re people who are not at all unlike some of the people we see clearly described, and clearly condemned, in the New Testament. Of course, the Pharisees are the first to come to mind, because of the many times Jesus had such strong words of rebuke for them.
They’re a group we find easy to cite as bad examples, but hard to see ourselves in – even though that’s often appropriate.
There’s another group, related to the Pharisees because they, too, were good in the worst sense of the word. Paul called them the Judaizers, because they took a group of Christians who had been taught that the way to salvation was by God’s grace through faith, and the Judaizers tried to turn them into law-keeping Jews, to add another layer of rules and regulations, as a requirement to earn God’s favor and blessing.
The apostle Paul had words of rebuke for them just as strong as the words of rebuke Jesus had for the Pharisees, for many of the same reasons.
This morning, we’re going to look at what Paul called “weak and worthless things - that’s the title of this message, Weak and Worthless things.
We’re going to see from the book of Galatians why, when we try to keep laws as a means to earn God’s favor, to earn His love, we’re relying on things that are weak and worthless, and we are, in reality, relying on a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Because gospel means good news, and how can it be good news for us to be right back where mankind was before Jesus came?
Dependent on weak and worthless rules to save us.
The gospel of grace has been much on my mind these past several weeks. I think it’s in part because of several conversations I’ve had with different individuals, who were struggling with their own lack of ability to live up to the standards they’d set for themselves.
Now, the standards they’d set up, were not bad standards. I must be careful to emphasize this morning that when we’re talking about grace versus law, we’re not talking about lawlessness, we’re not talking about no standards of conduct and life. We’re talking about depending on our ability to live up to those standards as our means of acceptance before God.
For these people I’ve talked with, these standards were things that were designed to nurture their faith in the Lord. They were disciplines that many of us strive to maintain, because they can help us in our walk of faith. However, these individuals, when they failed in even little ways, to maintain these disciplines, fell into the weak and worthless things trap.
Because they immediately felt condemned, and believed – even unconsciously, that they’d forfeited their relationship with God. That would lead to a downward slide away from God, because instead of responding to the conviction of the Holy Spirit to get back on the straight and narrow path, they responded to the enemy’s condemnation, which said they’d blown it, and they’d blown it so badly that there was no coming back.
As I pondered the marvel of God’s grace, and considered the gospel of Jesus Christ really is a gospel of grace, and I thought about the many Christians, sometimes including myself, who can easily slip into a performance mentality of earning God’s favor, I began to study Galatians, a book in which Paul draws a clear contrast between the true gospel, which is a gospel of grace, and the false gospel he confronted in Galatia, which was a gospel of law, or works.
I chose six key verses to focus on this morning, each illustrating key principles about this disparity between law and grace. Let me review them briefly before we take a look at them individually.
Number one is found in Gal.1:6-7. That’s where Paul tells us that this so-called gospel the Galatians had slipped into, due to the preaching of the Judaizers, was a corrupted gospel. It was a different gospel – really no gospel at all. It was not news – it was the same old same old, and it certainly was not good.
The second passage is found in Gal. 2:21-3:5. The theme there is that if we fall back into trying to earn our way to heaven, then Christ died for nothing!
The third passage, in Gal. 3:10-11, again shows how strongly Paul rejected the works approach to salvation. He said if we try to get to heaven this way, we’re under a curse.
The fourth passage is in Gal. 3:22,23, where Paul compares being shut up under sin without Christ, and being caught in a law-keeping approach to God. They’re both like slavery – they’re both like prison.
The fifth verse is Gal 4:9, from which we draw the title of this message, Paul calls the rules we keep weak and worthless, or weak and miserable principles, at least as far as justifying us before God, or changing us into His image.
Last but not least, Paul tells us in Gal 5:1-6 about our incredible freedom in Christ.
First, let’s look at Galatians 1:6-7: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- 7which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
In his letters to the churches that make up the epistles of our Bibles today, Paul always offers thanks and expressions of praise to God, followed by expressions of appreciation to the people of the church to which he was writing. The fact that Paul follows his expressions of praise to God with these verses makes the absence of his expressions of appreciation to the Galatians rather conspicuous.
Paul was astonished, he was amazed that, so quickly after he’d left them, they’d fallen for the perversion of the gospel that the Judaizers had brought. They had turned away from the truth, and that was serious stuff. One commentary notes:
“The departure was not simply from a system of theology but from God Himself, the One who had called them by the grace of Christ (the dominant theme of the epistle). In exchange they were embracing a different gospel, one that was false. Paul insisted that a gospel of legalism which adds work to faith is not the same kind of gospel that he preached and by which they were saved. It was actually an attempt to pervert the gospel of Christ.”
What the Judaizers were teaching is that to be saved, these Gentile believers in Galatia had to follow Jewish rules and customs. The Judaizers message completely undermined what Paul had taught. They sabotaged the Galatians’ understanding that salvation was a gift, not a reward for the things we do.
They essentially denied that Jesus’ work on the cross was enough to save us. Paul said that it was not only a different gospel, but it was no gospel at all.
After all, gospel means “good news.” And the fact that God accepts us when we receive the gift of salvation through Christ is really good news. What the Judaizers were teaching the Galatians was no gospel at all, because it wasn’t good news.
It was old “news” – a return to the same system of bondage to laws. Matthew Henry wrote of this passage:
“All other gospels than that of the grace of Christ, whether more flattering to self-righteous pride, or more favourable to worldly lusts, are devices of Satan. And while we declare that to reject the moral law as a rule of life, tends to dishonour Christ, and destroy true religion, we must also declare, that all dependence for justification on good works, whether real or supposed, is as fatal to those who persist in it. While we are zealous for good works, let us be careful not to put them in the place of Christ’s righteousness,”
If we wonder at all how seriously Paul took this assault on the gospel, let’s move on to the next passage: Galatians 2:21-3:5 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" 3:1You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4Have you suffered so much for nothing--if it really was for nothing? 5Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
Verse 21 says: if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!
What a thing to consider. To insist that justification, our standing before God in eternity, depends on how well we obey rules and regulations, is to nullify, to make worthless, the grace of God revealed by the death of Jesus on the cross!
One writer noted:
“...such insistence on legal obedience also means Christ died for nothing. If righteousness comes by keeping the Law, the Cross was a futile gesture, the biggest mistake in the universe.”
Christians today are still in danger of acting as if Christ died for nothing. Think about it. While we as Christians would likely not try to live by Jewish ceremonial laws, we have a very natural tendency to replace Jewish legalism with our own kind of Christian legalism. When we do that, we give people extra laws to obey.
Philip Yancey wrote:
“Where legalism takes root, the prickly thorns of extremism eventually branch out. Legalism is a subtle danger because no on thinks of himself as a legalist. My own rules seem necessary; other people’s rules seem excessively strict.”
When we have extra laws to obey, we’re tacitly, if not expressly and consciously,
somehow believing that we can earn God’s favor by what we do. When we do that, we are implicitly not trusting in Christ’s work on the cross for our salvation, or for the ongoing work of changing us into His image, which we call santification.
If we could be saved by being good, then Christ did not have to die. If you ask most people, at least outside the church, and sometimes in churches, what they had to do to get to heaven, they’d probably reply: Be good.
But in response to this idea, Paul said in ch. 3 vs 1: You foolish Galatians! Pretty strong language! Was Paul trying to get their attention here?
He was telling the Galatians that to embrace a doctrine which essentially rendered Jesus’ death on the cross unnecessary was totally irrational. It was foolish. And then, as he goes on in this passage, he asks them four questions, to demonstrate convincingly that faith in Jesus’ sacrifice is God’s good news of salvation, as well as the way he uses to change us after we’re justified before God.
In 3:2, he asks how did the Galatians receive the Spirit? Of course, it was a rhetorical question, because he asked when they were converted, how did this happen? Was it by faith or by works? Then, in 3:2, he asks them how God is sanctifying them, or how is he working in their lives to change them after their initial salvation.
Assuming that the Galatians would answer that they were saved by faith, he asks them if they’re foolish enough to think that, somehow, they shouldn’t continue to operate in the same fashion? Why would God have them begin their life of faith one way, only to go back to an old, tried and failed way to change them into His image?
There was and is no provision under the law to sanctify, anymore than there is a provision under the law to justify. You know what Paul was saying here? When you’ve come so far forward, why would you take a step backward? The Galatians had taken a step backward when they had decided to insist on keeping the Jewish laws.
People still feel insecure in their faith. Why? Because faith alone seems too easy. To this day, people still try to get closer to God by following rules.
Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias wrote this:
“The Bible says that we are separated from God, and salvation does not depend only on my efforts to get back to Him. This is the classic difference between the Christian faith and others. In Buddhism, you work and work your way into Nirvana, an ultimate enlightenment. In the Islamic faith, it’s always “In Sha’ Allah,” the will of Allah, if one reaches God. These systems of thought have no assured way of knowing where you stand with God. The cross is where God’s work of justification occurred. We are made just, not of our own selves, but by the work of Jesus Christ. Christ, being made sin for us, has redeemed us from the curse of the law. He who knew no sin would be made sin for us that we might be reconciled to God. We now have access to the Father because of the Son.”
Christians ought to know better, but even we tend to slip back into this performance mentality before God. One commentary noted:
“People still try to get closer to God by following rules. While certain disciplines (Bible study, prayer) and service help us grow, they must not take the place of the Holy Spirit in us or become ends in themselves.”
Philip Yancey wrote:
“By instinct, I feel I must do something in order to be accepted. Grace sounds a startling note of contradiction, of liberation, and every day I must pray anew for ability to hear its message. The notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, and the Muslim code of law – each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God’s love unconditional. Ask most people what they must do to get to heaven, and most reply, “Be good.” Jesus’ stories contradict that answer. All we must do is cry “Help!”
That leads us to our next passage: Galatians 3:10,11:
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." 11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith."
The NAS version says:
Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM."
What this means is that, if your identity is in the works of the law, if you are one who lives by the works of the law....or as the NIV says, rely on observing the law.... you’re under a curse – just as were the Jews in the OT. Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27:26 here to prove his point in verse 10. The idea is that breaking even one commandment – it says “we must continue to do everything written” -
So breaking even one commandment, brings a person under condemnation.
Well, guess what? Everyone has broken the commandments. Everyone stands condemned, and the law can do nothing to reverse the condemnation. But thanks be to God, Jesus took that curse of the law on Himself when He hung on the cross.
That gives us the opportunity to be freed from the curse. We just have to receive His free gift of salvation through what Jesus did on the cross. So, in this passage, if you are “of works of law”.... that’s who you are....you’re choosing to rely on how well you can keep the rules, rather than receiving the gift of salvation God offers us in Jesus.
Now, I don’t know about you, but relying on works of law to save me sounds a lot more confining than simple trust in Jesus. That brings us to our next passage:
Galatians 3:22-25: But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. 23Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.
Here we see Paul’s picture of two kinds of prison. We’re prisoners of sin before we know Jesus. Like prison does, sin owns us. It controls us, it confines and restricts our movements. It tells us where we can go and what we can do.
In the same way, as Paul said in verse 23 here... before God’s way of faith in Christ came to pardon us, we were held in a prison of law, too. Just like the prison of sin, Law can own us - it can control us, it can confine and restrict our movements. It tells us where we can go and what we can do.
Now, that doesn’t mean the law was a bad thing. Paul says that before faith came, the law had a purpose. Here’s how one commentary puts it:
“God gave both the Law and promises, but for different purposes. And it was not the purpose of the Law to give (eternal) life. Theoretically salvation could have come by the Law if people had been capable of keeping it perfectly, but they could not (Rom. 8:3-4).
By recognizing that while the Law could not justify or give life, it did prepare the way for the gospel. What part then did Law play in this respect? It declared the whole world… a prisoner of sin.”
Also, Matthew Henry writes:
“The law did not teach a living, saving knowledge; but, by its rites and ceremonies, especially by its sacrifices, it pointed to Christ, that they might be justified by faith.”
Paul’s point in calling the law a prison is not to downplay its role, but to tell us that, in Jesus, we’ve been released from that prison! If you’ve been released from prison, why would you want to go live there again?
And that leads to our next point: Galatians 4:9: But now that you know God--or rather are known by God--how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
Again, Paul’s using pretty strong language here. Calling these things “weak and miserable principles,” or weak and worthless elemental things in NAS, or weak and beggarly elements – KJV. Paul’s trying to be certain the Galatians fully grasp the essence, the importance, of what they’re doing by returning to the law as a way to gain God’s favor.
Did they understand that they would be going back to a state of religious slavery? Was this what they really wanted? If so, why would they be attracted to a system that was weak - because it couldn’t justify or energize for godly living, and miserable (because it could not provide an inheritance).
I found in the Life Application Bible this chart showing the three distortions of Christianity that seem to be the most prevalent. You’ll find it in your bulletin as an insert.
CHART: THREE DISTORTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY
Almost from the beginning there were forces at work within Christianity that could have destroyed or sidetracked the movement. Of these, three created many problems then and have continued to reappear in other forms even today. The three aberrations are contrasted to true Christianity.
Group: Judaized Christianity – book of Galatians is about this
Their definition of a Christian: Christians are Jews who have recognized Jesus as the promised Savior. Therefore any Gentile desiring to become a Christian must first become a Jew.
Their genuine concern: Having a high regard for the Scriptures and God’s choice of Jews as his people, they did not want to see God’s commands overlooked or broken.
The danger: Tends to add human traditions and standards to God’s law. Also subtracts from the Scriptures God’s clear concern for all nations.
Group: Legalized Christianity – the scriptures we’ve read address this, too
Their definition of a Christian: Christians are those who live by a long list of “don’ts.” God’s favor is earned by good behavior.
Their genuine concern: Recognized that real change brought about by God should lead to changes in behavior.
The danger: Tends to make God’s love something to earn rather than to accept freely. Would reduce Christianity to a set of impossible rules and transform the Good News into bad news.
Application question: As important as change in action is, can you see that God may be desiring different changes in you than in others?
Group: Lawless Christianity – a different but just as complete distortion
Their definition of a Christian: Christians live above the law. They need no guidelines. God’s Word is not as important as our personal sense of God’s guidance.
Their genuine concern: Recognized that forgiveness from God cannot be based on our ability to live up to his perfect standards. It must be received by faith as a gift made possible by Christ’s death on the cross.
The danger: Forgets that Christians are still human and fail consistently when trying to live only by what they “feel” God wants.
Application question: Do you recognize the ongoing need for God’s expressed commands as you live out your gratitude for his great salvation?
Group: True Christianity
Their definition of a Christian: Christians are those who believe inwardly and outwardly that Jesus’ death has allowed God to offer them forgiveness and eternal life as a gift. They have accepted that gift through faith and are seeking to live a life of obedient gratitude for what God has done for them.
Their genuine concern: Christianity is both private and public, with heart-belief and mouth-confession. Our relationship to God and the power he provides result in obedience. Having received the gift of forgiveness and eternal life, we are now daily challenged to live that life with his help.
The danger: Avoids the above dangers.
Application question: How would those closest to you describe your Christianity? Do they think you live so that God will accept you or do they know that you live because God has accepted you in Christ?
That brings us to our final point. It seems obvious, but Paul felt the need to say it. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Galatians 5:1-6 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 2Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Turning back to the law ruins grace. It again burdens us with the yoke of slavery – slavery to law and to sin. It makes Jesus of no value to us at all. Jesus died to set us free from sin, and to free us from a long list of laws and regulations.
Now, of course, we have to always remember that in this freedom, we’re not free to do whatever we want, because that would lead us back into the slavery to our selfish desires that Jesus also freed us from – we trade the slavery of the law for the slavery to sin.
Instead, thanks to what Jesus freely did for us, we’re free and able to do what we couldn’t possibly have done before: to live unselfishly. So when we say we’re free, and use that as an excuse to get our own way, or to indulge our own desires, we’re just falling back into sin.
But Paul makes it clear here in Galatians that it’s wrong to put a burden of lawkeeping on Christians. In addition to how turning to the law ruins grace,
it creates a new obligation.
If we rely on The Law, or any laws, we’re required to obey the whole law. If we depend on it for justification or sanctification, it’s all or nothing.
So that’s what we’re choosing.
- the way of rules
- or the way of grace.
It’s all or nothing... we cannot have it both ways and be true to scripture, true to the only true gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And if we choose the way of grace, the true gospel, Paul already noted that our life is not our own (Gal 2:20). So freedom in Christ is not freedom to sin with impunity.
Just as much as He set us free from the Law, He set us free from sin. It is for freedom from both that Christ has set us free. That’s why there is no license to sin implied in the freedom God gave us in Christ.
As we close, let’s see where we fit into this picture:
1. do we live by rules, or even impose rules on others, for the express purpose of hoping to gain God’s favor?
2. do we pervert the freedom we have from law and do things that are just as clearly described in scripture as sin?
Let’s not be in either extreme when it comes to the grace of God. Let’s accept this grace as the freeing, empowering, liberating gift God intended it to be.
pray
