Do you ever read The Family Circus? I always like the ones where the Mom and Dad tell their oldest son to go get the mail or something - and instead of walking out the door and down the driveway and back - he goes out his window, around back, through the garden, plays with the dog, jumps the fence, crosses a creek, takes a bus to Denver - and finally arrives back with the mail in hand.
In Leviticus 11:45 God says: "Be holy, because I am holy." Becoming whole - pure - right - that’s what this is all about. There are two ways to get there - one is to allow the Spirit of God to work righteousness in you - starting with being cleansed from sin by the blood of Jesus Christ. The other is to make yourself righteous by hard work and discipline.
If you are like the boy in Family Circus - you try your own way - and it will lead you around and around and never ever get you to the goal - though it will seem like you are "doing" a lot of stuff.
Face it: we like to do things our own way. God often times is much too slow for our schedule - or He doesn’t do things the way we would - so we short circuit His work by coming up with our own, much better plan. That’s a little how the Galatians who had been fooled by the Judaizers felt when it came to the Jewish Law. Paul straightens them out with an example from the patriarch Abraham.
Verses 21 - 23
Genesis 15 - God promised a son from Abraham’s body
Genesis 16 - Sarah got impatient and gave Hagar to Abraham to fulfill God’s promise
It’s always dangerous to fulfill God’s promise through our own efforts - Hagar gave birth to the Arabic people who have been a thorn to the Jews ever since - and recently even to us
"ordinary way" we have free will and we can do things - we can monkey with genetics, but we aren’t creating life, only moving the blocks around. We can do things and claim that God was really doing them - when He is not.
Do you ever get impatient with God and just do something because God is taking too long? Don’t be surprised when it comes back to bite you.
Paul is making an allegory - a story where the characters have spiritual counterparts.
Verses 24 - 27
Mount Sinai, of course, represents the Law of Moses - which enslaved the people to an obedience they could never attain - and a Law that should have had them on their knees before God praying for the coming Messiah. Jerusalem was the present day HQ of the Jews and the religion born of the Law (but messed up by humans)
Christians are not born of the law, but of the promise given to Abraham - not something done in human effort or in the "ordinary way" but in a supernatural, very extraordinary way of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection to win our release as slaves to be free from the Law of sin and death.
Verse 27: The fruit of the promise is so much more than the fruit of the Law. The Law can only bring condemnation and point us to Christ - it cannot make us righteous - but the thing that we could not do - save ourselves - has been accomplished for us - what fruit that brings!
Now Paul switches the view to the offspring of the two women and allegory to the two religions - the old way of the Jewish religion, and the new way of Christianity - and the enmity that exists between the two - which is the center of the controversy boiling in Galatia.
Verses 28 - 31
Being born again is a miracle born of God’s promise
Ishmael persecuted the young Isaac and the results were that Sarah asked that Abraham banish Hagar and Ishmael. (Genesis 21)
Christianity and Judaism can’t co-exist as two ways to God - only one truth remains - Jesus.
Application: You can’t please God through your own efforts and please Him by living in the Spirit. Let go of control!
Matthew 16:24 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Its not asceticism (the denial of self) but the denial of self rule in favor or Christ rule (it’s not our cross - its His)
We die to live - why should we be slaves again?
Chapter 5, Verse 1
Another way to translate this is: "Christ has set us free so that we can live as free people."
But we’ve got to proactively hold on to our freedom - stand firm - with the passive "let yourselves" - you will be drawn back into slavery to law and legalism if you don’t fight it.
The Law is a heavy yoke - a burden - because it is impossible to fulfill, you will never get it right.
Again - we’re not talking about ’license’ to sin as the opposite of obeying the Law - we are talking about liberty to obey Christ - and in the next study Paul will talk directly about how living life in the Spirit means freedom not only from Law, but from sin as well!
For those who wanted the "sign" of obedience to the law - the outward extraneous stuff - the appearance of good - namely circumcision - he has some strong words:
Verses 2 - 6
The moment you trade faith for a rule-keeping system of legalism, you squander the hard won gift of grace that Jesus obtained on the cross - it’s of no use if you try to garner God’s favor by your own actions.
If you go one step into it, you might as well go the whole way and declare that you don’t need Jesus at all - you can do it yourself.
I don’t think Paul means they lose their salvation "fallen away from grace" but that you are trying to win God’s favor outside of the grace of Christ.
Instead, verse 5 - instead of clawing our way to rightness, we believe the promise and wait eagerly for the Spirit to do that work of transformation in us.
Verse 6 - religious observance or agnosticism mean nothing - the only thing that matters is faith - a faith that transforms us into people who love one another (Jesus only command in the NT - John 13:34)
Verse 7
It’s like the finish line was lost to sight as the allure of the Law cut in to block their view of the truth.
Verses 8 - 9
It doesn’t matter where the teaching of legalism comes from - but we must know that it does not come from Jesus - but we should also know that it like yeast, legalism is quick to spread through a life and a body of believers.
When one person says "I’m offended by the liberty that brother has" and another starts to agree - and pretty soon you have a full blown division.
Romans 14:1-5 don’t condemn the brother who has liberty or the one who is weak in faith and does not feel free.
Verse 10
"in the Lord" not according to human reason - he’s confident they will come to their senses.
Paul may have not known who the leader of the Judaizers was - but knew that God would judge him.
Verse 11
"Offense" means a stumbling block or trap. The cross, and the freedom through faith in Christ, was a stumbling block to the Jews who maintained that obedience to the law - and circumcision as the sign of obedience - was the only way to God.
Paul’s saying: if I were still preaching circumcision (which I’m not) then there’s no reason to get uptight.
Now get this:
Verse 12
Wow!
The Judaizers wanted it both ways - faith in Christ and obedience to the Law. You can’t have it both ways so Paul says - take your idea to its illogical conclusion - castration. After all, wouldn’t that make them more holy?
Conclusions
You are born of a promise
You are born free of rule and law
Grace is of no use to you if you try to become changed by your own efforts
You should give up trying to control and cede that control to God
You must maintain that system - it will naturally fall to legalism
Watch out for those who will try to drag you into slavery again
Colossians 2:6-8 6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
Neil Anderson "The Bondage Breaker"
"We are not trying to become children of God, we are children of God who are becoming like Christ."
Righteousness is the goal - it’s the means that gets us messed up. (so don’t be like the boy in Family Circus)
The problem with legalism is that it creates classes.
"I’m more holy than you because I do this and don’t do that."
"My pastor can beat up your pastor any day."
Another problem is that we become more godly than God - our standards are higher than His. Remember Peter and the sheet in Acts 11? After Peter thought he knew better than God, God said: Acts 11:9 ’Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’
There are two sides to the legalism question
1. Excessive freedom:
Turn to 1 Corinthians 8, verse 1 - "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up."
Verse 9: "be careful that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak."
Paul says: "If my behavior causes a brother to stumble in their faith or turn their back on Christ or feel that they are sinning - then I am in the wrong."
Chapter 10:23-24 23 "Everything is permissible"-but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"-but not everything is constructive. 24 Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.
2. Mistaking behavior with sin
Some people say that you should not play musical instruments in the church. In fact, I know of well meaning Christians who feel that rock music is of Satan. They say that because they claim the beat is opposite to the human heartbeat and therefore that makes it evil.
I won’t go too deep into the false logic there - but others argue that musical instruments are used by some to create lyrics that profane God and encourage sin - therefore only the human voice should sing in church.
They are mistaking behavior for sin. You can use the human voice to create lots of evil - but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use our mouths.
Our problem is that we put ourselves in the place of God - deciding what is right and wrong - and because of this many people have been barred from the kingdom of God.
Colossians 2:20-23 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21 "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? 22 These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
So questions to ask: Will this behavior cause me to sin or a brother to stumble - and I don’t mean get offended because I’m doing it - I mean turn his or her back on Christ.
If it’s the case - then don’t do it. But if not - then don’t worry about it.
Romans 14:1-4 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2 One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Why should I worry about being righteous anyway?
It’s because earth, and all of us, are an endangered species. God is alive and well - but He is very dangerous. He is right now protecting the earth from certain destruction - anything that is not like Him will perish in His presence.
He’s holding back - but not for long. The only way of escape is to become like Him - but you can’t do that because you are terminally ill with a disease you inherited from your father called "sin."
The only cure is one God provided Himself - the death of His only Son Jesus to pay for your sin, and to wash you clean of the disease once and for all. The cure is available free but you must administer it for it to work.
You do that by giving your life away to Jesus - making Him Lord and Savior. You believe that what He did on the cross was for you - and you put your trust in Him. The cure is immediate and permanent.
For more Bible studies and an audio copy of this message, please visit:
www.CalvaryChapelNewberg.org.
