In college I majored in business administration. Probably the thought driving that decision was one in which I was facing reality. After all, if you’re going to major in biblical languages, then you better minor in something that actually has the potential of earning a paycheck. So, for some reason, with the reality of needing to earn money in life pressing down on me, I made the decision to minor in business administration. And it was actually an enjoyable minor in which I learned much.
One of those things I learned was something I’ve actually never employed to date, namely, how to handle being interviewed for a job. And one of the things that stuck out to me when we were talking about being interviewed in class is how you want to be careful in addressing your weaknesses. What we were taught is that when you were asked by a potential employer to share your weaknesses, you actually wanted to share weaknesses that everyone in the room could really see as strengths. So, for example, you might say that one of your weaknesses is that you’re a workaholic, bringing home your work and turning your forty-hour work-week into a seventy or eighty-hour work-week. Or you might say that you struggle watching those around you fail and will often help them do their work well after you have done your own when for all you know that individual might need to feel the weight of their failure, and you’re getting in the way of their growth. We could come up with other examples, but I think the picture is clear. Basically you want to share your weaknesses in such a way that your potential employer will think to himself, “Wow, even his admitted weaknesses could be construed as strengths.”
I always wondered, though, what you would do in a job interview if you gave that answer, the interviewer saw right through your approach, and noted the severity of that weakness. What would happen if you gave your typical, “My weakness is that I’m a workaholic” answer and the interviewer responded, “Yeah, that is a serious issue because we don’t want to hire anyone who would neglect his family and destroy it for work; it shows a failure to understand priorities that we feel would probably be manifest in other ways here on the job.” I always thought that that kind of response would jar someone out of the “I’m going to share a weakness that really looks like a strength” approach and would be a stern and needed response. It would scream, “Yeah, you really are admitting a serious weakness here even though you don’t think you are.”
Job interviews aren’t the only places that we’re tempted to see legitimate weaknesses as strengths, though. The church is another. And one of those things you can confess in the church that we’re tempted to see as a strength is that you’re prone to legalism or that you oftentimes live and think as a legalists. Don’t we sometimes confess this along the same kind of lines as someone interviewing for a job confessing that sometimes they work too many hours? Don’t we feel as if confessing our legalistic tendencies says, “Yeah, that’s right, I really strive for holiness”? Don’t we feel as if we’re living by a higher standard if we say that we don’t really feel forgiven until we’ve lived differently for a few days or really beat ourselves up a bit, regardless of what the Bible says about God’s faithfulness to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness? We hear those confessions and are tempted to say, “Wow, that person is holy and he really takes sin seriously.” Again, it’s like confessing a weakness that we all know can easily be seen as a strength.
Well, just as the person almost boastfully sharing his tendency to work too many hours may need to hear a stern warning about priorities so that he sees that there really is a problem he’s glossing over, so it is good for us to hear a stern word about basing our standing before God on how many good works we’ve done or sins we’ve avoided. And the reason it is good for us is because it is easy to keep dabbling in sin if you never recognize it for how damaging and, indeed, damning it is. Therefore, it is good for us to turn our attention this morning to Galatians 5:2-12.
For weeks as we have gone through this book, we have seen Paul’s heart in longing for the Galatians to know the freedom that he has and to walk out of under the bondage of the law which reveals our sin and condemns us in it. And it has been my aim to hold up for us week by week the beauty of the freedom that is ours because of a gospel – a freedom from condemnation that almost sounds too good to be true. Week by week we’ve gathered and celebrated the truth that we are justified by faith alone and not by our obedience to the law. But this morning our text has a different nature. This is not so much a text that woos us by holding up the beauty of freedom as much as a text that warns us by holding up the damning nature of legalism – of trying to be justified by the law. This text shows us the truly horrible road that we go down as we fall prey to living under the law, and that’s what I want us to see this morning. This morning, I want us to see the result of trying to be justified by the law, remind us again of how we are justified and what that looks like, what should and will happen with those who try to put others under the law, and why it is that so many will hate the message of justification by faith alone. So, first, let’s see what is the result of trying to be justified by the law. Paul lays it out for us clearly and sternly as he makes clear in verses 1-5 that if you strive for righteousness by the law then you forfeit benefit from Christ.
Paul makes clear in these first few verses that if you try to rely on your obedience to God’s commands as any portion of your hope for righteousness before God, then Christ counts nothing for you. I’ll say this to us again in a second, but let’s first see this in the text. Paul writes in verses 2-4, “Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace.”
Now, we could read these verses as if there’s something greatly evil about being circumcised specifically, but that would miss what Paul is saying. Being circumcised or uncircumcised doesn’t matter in terms of one’s standing before God. Paul makes that clear in verse 6 when he says that “neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything.” So, Paul’s point is not to rail against the evil of circumcision as an act. In these verses, Paul references circumcision because it was that act that represented the Galatians’ temptation to try to be righteous by obeying the law.
Most likely, the false teachers were telling the Galatians that they had to be circumcised in order to be declared righteous before God, so that’s why Paul is targeting this. So, this is nothing against circumcision, per se. But what Paul was saying is that if you try to base any portion of your righteousness before God on your obedience to any point of a law (e.g., circumcision), then Christ will be of not advantage, no benefit, to you.
You see, what Paul wants them to see is that your plea before God must be 100% Christ or no Christ at all. Either you proclaim, “All I have is Christ” or you must proclaim, “I want none of Christ.” There is no middle ground. So, if they are going to be circumcised as a means of trying to attain righteousness before God, then they better not stop there. They better keep the whole law perfectly. That’s what Paul tells them in verse 3. “To every man who accepts circumcision … he is obligated to keep the whole law.”
You can’t think that you’ll try to obey the law as best you can and Christ will make up for where you fall short. Either Christ represents you entirely or he represents you not at all. Those who would be justified by the law are therefore severed from Christ. His perfect life does not count for them. His penalty-bearing death does not count for them. His justifying resurrection does not count for them. Either you boast of your salvation as completely of grace based entirely on Christ or (to use Paul’s words) you fall completely away from grace and confess that your hope for perfect righteousness before God entirely rests on you.
And that’s the word we need to hear, isn’t it? After all, I don’t think that any of us say that we want our righteousness to be based on our good works. We say we want Christ. And the temptation for us with legalism doesn’t come in the form of the enemy whispering to us, “You don’t need Christ.” We know better than that. The temptation to legalism comes in the form of the devil whispering, “Do you really think God sees you as righteous when you’ve done that?” or “Do you really think you can be considered righteous before God when you haven’t done this or that?” In each case, the enemy knows better than to try to convince us that we do not need Christ. We know better. But he tries to convince us that we also need just a bit of our own righteousness with Christ. And Paul says, “No. It’s either all Christ or no Christ.”
So quit living life always wondering if you’ve done enough to be acceptable to God. Stop it. Stop wondering if you really loved him enough yesterday or if your motives were pure enough today or if you were diligent enough today to be acceptable to him. The answer is that you weren’t. You fell short of loving him enough for God to count you as righteous. Your motives were not pure enough for God to count you as righteous. And you were not diligent enough for God to look down on you and declare you justified. You can’t do enough. And even if you did one thing God commanded and wanted to hold that up, then you better get ready to do every single thing God has commanded perfectly or you’re going to hell. Because either you see that nothing you have done or will do counts one ounce toward your righteousness before God because you are wholly relying on Christ or you trust in yourself wholly and Christ is no advantage to you. Those are our only two options. The first leads to freedom and life and the second to slavery and death. And any attempt to mix the two means that you don’t get any benefit or advantage from Christ because he either counts for everything or for nothing.
So, let me put it stark terms for us. When we confess that we are really tempted to think that we are not righteous before God until we’ve obeyed his commands or that we are really tempted to think that we are not really forgiven until we have done certain things, we are saying to our brother or sister in Christ, “I am being tempted to a way of thinking that will lead me to hell, and I need you to help me, hold up the gospel for me, and pray for me.” We’re not confessing something that everyone around us should see as a strength. We’re confessing our temptation to think that Christ’s life, death, and resurrection is not sufficient for our righteous standing before God.
So, we might ask, “What do we do then?” If we don’t do good works and point to them as the basis for our righteousness, what do we do? The answer is that we place our faith in Christ and see that faith demonstrated in love.
Paul shows us the contrast of trusting in the law and our obedience to it as the basis for righteousness in verse 5. He writes, “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.”
There is such a temptation as believers to be able to point to something as the irrefutable evidence that we are righteous. Whether it is the good we have done or the bad we’ve avoided, we want to be able to say, “Look at that. Look at what I’ve done or not done. That’s why God must declare me righteous. I am righteous.” Christianity does not allow us to do that.
Rather, we confess that we will never do enough and could never do enough. We gladly confess that if you took our deeds or thoughts or words, there’d be enough to condemn us a million times over. We confess that we offer nothing except our faith in what someone else has done. And that someone else is Jesus Christ, who lived, died, and was raised for us. But you can’t point to anything that shows your righteous before the world because nothing you can point to in yourself is sufficient. We simply trust in Christ and eagerly wait for the day that the righteousness that is credited to us is made clear before all men. And what we eagerly wait and hope for is certain.
And, there’s more. Those who believe, who place their faith in Christ, have hearts that love God and love their neighbors. That’s why Paul writes in verse 6, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love.”
See, Paul hasn’t forgotten that we are called to obey the commands of Christ. In the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus told us to make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that he has commanded. Of course we are called to obey our Lord. But what Paul wants us to see is two things. First, obedience to the Lord’s commands can never be seen as even a portion of your hope for righteousness before God. Rather, we simply have faith in Christ and his righteousness counts for us. Second, as we have faith in Christ, the result of that is that the Spirit produces love in our hearts that leads us to long to live lives of holiness.
Being justified by faith alone is followed by having a heart that wants to obey God’s commands. That’s why if someone is a believer and yet struggling with assurance, you can say to them, “Fine, go out and sin like crazy,” and they will say, “I can’t.” Why? Did placing faith in Christ make them so that they physically can no longer do certain things? We know better. The reason is because as they placed their faith in Christ, the Spirit changed their hearts. He gave them love. So, they want to do what is honoring to God and loving toward others.
So, let me take an aside here for a second and draw out an implication for us. If you confess faith in Christ and yet find yourself frustrated by your prayerlessness, lack of commitment to read the Bible, or lack of purity, then there are a number of things you can do. Yet, set your alarm clock to give yourself time. Find an individual or individuals who will hold you accountable. Ask others to pray for you. And there are a number of other things along this road that we can discuss more as we gather together. And they take discipline. But, the greatest thing you can do is, “Preach the gospel to yourself and believe it. Preach to yourself all that Christ has done, all his benefits for you, and of who you are to God, and believe it.” Keep holding up the gospel to yourself, preaching it to yourself, until you confess your faith to that reality. And the reason this is the biggest key to our holiness is because obedience in the believer’s life stems from faith because we are justified and not from some kind of drive to obey in order that we might be justified.
So, we are justified simply by faith in Christ alone, but that faith produces in us love that manifests itself in holiness. Thus, Paul does not ignore the call to obedience but reminds the Galatians and us that obedience springs forth from a heart that has first been justified by faith alone.
Therefore, we’ve seen the danger of seeking to be justified by our works and the blessing of being justified by faith alone. But Paul doesn’t want us to take our eyes off of the seriousness of the sin of trusting in our works, so he reminds the Galatians of what must be done with those who would preach justification by works and what awaits them at judgment.
After talking about how believers are and are not justified, Paul turns again to the Galatians’ specific situation in verses 7 and following. He writes in verse 7, “You were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth?” It’s as if they were running and someone cut in on them in the race and caused them to stumble. Paul wants them to stop and think about these false teachers for a second. After all, there’s a chance that the Galatians could have grown quite fond of them, especially if they were making much of the Galatians. So, Paul calls the Galatians to stop for a second and answer the question, “Who hindered you from obeying the truth?”
Then, in verse 8, Paul makes clear that these false teachers are not of the Lord. He writes, “This persuasion is not from him who calls you.” So, he’s asked them to identify the false teachers, and then states what should have been obvious, namely, that these men are not of God.
Then, Paul presses them a bit more, reminding them in verse 9, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” It’s as if Paul is pushing more and more with each verse. Who are these men? You know they’re not from God, don’t you? Then by his words in verse 9, Paul is saying, “You know they must be dealt with, don’t you?” You simply cannot let teaching that perverts the gospel go unaddressed, for it will spread and affect many lives.
Now, at this point, perhaps the Galatians could be tempted to grow anxious. Maybe they’re coming to their senses and thinking, “What have we done, listening to these men?” However, verse 10 would have encouraged them while reminding them of the serious threat these men pose as Paul writes, “I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.”
Again, we can follow the steps Paul is taking in making these points. Identify the men. Realize they’re not from God. Realize they need to be dealt with. I’m confident you can deal with them while holding fast to the gospel. And know that these men will be judged by God. With each step, he’s increasing the severity of the situation of these false teachers until finally in verse 12 Paul declares, “I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves.”
Now, this is an ironic statement in this sense. Deuteronomy 23:2 made clear that those who emasculated themselves were in disobedience to the Lord. So, perhaps Paul is saying, “I wish these men would just make clear that they are no better than pagans.” Perhaps Paul is saying, “I wish these men would make themselves of such a state that you would be less tempted to follow them.” Or, perhaps Paul is saying simply, “If these men think a little cutting is good, I wish they would really do damage to themselves.” Whatever the case, the irony is that these false teachers would no doubt not want to emasculate themselves, they would see that as terrible. But the sad thing is that unless their eyes are opened to what a terrible situation they’re in right now, they will go to hell.
So, what this means is that if we’re going to see how dangerous justification by works is, and it is dangerous. You can’t go that route without ending up in hell. Then we also need to see how seriously those who teach justification by works need to be dealt with. What I mean is this. In our fight to hold up the gospel and rejoice in it week by week, we need to make sure that we do not tolerate anyone teaching that we’re justified on the basis of works, not even that any percentage of our righteousness is based on our works. Otherwise, we miss the seriousness of this sin. Instead, we must preach the cross, knowing it will always be an offense to human pride and self-sufficiency
In verse 11 Paul says something that catches us a bit by surprise. He writes, “But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed.” What’s surprising about this verse is that it seems odd for Paul to make the point that he doesn’t preach circumcision. Of course he doesn’t. Read this whole letter. So, why does he write this? Well, it would seem that these false teachers troubling the Galatians were trying to argue that Paul preached the same thing they did, only he was being a hypocrite in not preaching this message of circumcision to them. That is, to the Jews they would charge that Paul preached the necessity of circumcision, knowing they would like that, while to the Gentiles, Paul would have not preached circumcision, knowing they would like that. So, how does Paul dispel this lie? He simply asks one question, and that one question makes a powerful point. He says, “If I still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted?”
You see, everyone knew that the popular thing to proclaim was the necessity of circumcision, and if you wanted to avoid persecution, you jumped on board with that teaching. Paul had already reminded the Galatians that this threat of persecution was already powerful enough to lead Peter to act hypocritically when he had gotten up and left the table of the Gentiles. And Paul makes clear that these false teachers were motivated by the same thing. In Galatians 6:12, Paul writes, “It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.”
You see, when you tell someone that they can do something in order to be righteous – whether circumcision or some other act – it appeals to men’s pride. It’s something they can point to and say, “See what I’ve done.” Christianity is not a teaching that appeals to men’s pride. If you want to flatter someone, don’t preach to them the gospel. The message of the gospel says that we can’t do anything. It says that we cannot meet the standard of righteousness required before God. It says that nothing we do is good enough to contribute to a righteous standing before God. Therefore, we are left to look to Christ alone, to have faith in one who did everything for us – one who lived, died, and was raised for us. And that is offensive to human pride and self-sufficiency. Men either have their eyes opened and love that truth or they hate it and fight against it and will even persecute those who proclaim it.
So, Galatians 5:2-12 is somewhat of a reality check for us. It reminds us that legalism is nothing to deal with. If you rely on yourself and your works for even an ounce of your righteousness before God, then you’re saying that you don’t want any of Christ, for it’s all of Christ or none of him. We simply place our faith in Christ and allow the Lord to transform our hearts. Furthermore, those who preach against this gospel must be dealt with, for in the end they will be judged by God. And, finally, as we go out preaching the gospel in its clarity and purity, we will find many who hate this message and some who will persecute you. Yet this message is their only hope even as it is our only hope. So, just as Paul was persecuted and counted it an honor to suffer for the sake of the gospel, so must that be our calling. And in the end we will find that the suffering of this world is not even worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us. So, in light of that good news, let us come rejoicing as we come to the table. Amen.