Freedom’s Power (Galatians 2:11-21)
Several years ago, the Chicago Tribune, ran an article about the religious history of the Chicago area. It began with a paragraph about Zion, a small town north of the city: “Rev. John Alexander Dowie left little to chance a century ago, when the charismatic preacher founded the city of Zion as a carefully ordered religious utopia: He immediately outlawed sin.” (Chicago Tribune, 9-22-00; www.PreachingToday.com)
It sounds silly, but no more silly than what many people do in their own lives. In order to get a better life, they try to outlaw certain behaviors, but that seldom, if ever, works.
For example, how many of you are still keeping the New Year’s resolutions you made just a month ago on the 1st of January? This is the 1st of February. How are you doing?
Was there anything wrong with your resolutions? Probably not? You probably had some great ideas to make your life better – like eating less or getting more exercise or spending regular time in the Word.
The rules are good, but they don’t make us better people, do they? If anything, they just make us feel guilty when we don’t follow through.
In fact, trying to follow a list of rules can actually make things worse. Trying to abide by a legalistic standard can actually lead us deeper into sin.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Galatians 2, Galatians 2, where we see the dangers of legalism. Galatians 2, starting at vs.11 (read to vs.12)
When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. (NIV)
"The circumcision group" were those who belonged to the Jewish group of believers in Jesus. You see, in the first century you had Jewish believers in Jesus – “the circumcision group” – and Gentile believers in Jesus – those who were not circumcised.
Well, Peter had gone to visit the church in Antioch, the first church planted with Gentile believers. & When Peter got there, he disregarded his own Jewish dietary laws and ate with the new Gentile believers. He enjoyed pork and ham and perhaps some shrimp scampi with his new friends in Christ.
But when James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, sent some of his Jewish buddies to Antioch, Peter stopped eating with the Gentiles. He withdrew from his new friends, because he was afraid of what his old friends would think. Their standards were stricter when it came to diet, and Peter didn’t want his old friends to think he was slipping.
But what do you think that did to his new Gentile friends? It hurt them deeply!
And that’s what legalism does. When we try to make ourselves look good by following a list of rules, then we divide ourselves from one another. We separate ourselves to exclude those who don’t measure up. We consider ourselves better than other believers, and that is just plain wrong, vs.11 says.
Believer as I believe – no more, no less;
That I am right (and no one else) confess.
Feel as I feel, think only as I think;
Eat what I eat, and drink but what I drink.
Look as I look, do always as I do;
And then – and only then – I’ll fellowship with you.
(Chuck Swindoll, Seasons of Life¸ p.286)
Sad to say, that’s the attitude of many in our churches today. Unless you measure up to my standards, then I’m not going to have anything to do with you.
Mark Buchanan talks about the time a friend of his, by the name of Al, assembled a weekend work party to lay sod in his yard. The sun was shining. He had fresh coffee and cinnamon buns. And the crew he’d called together were all good friends. They liked each other immensely.
Then Al said, “Guys, do you realize something? This is it! This is it!” They all stopped.
“Al, this is what?”
“This is community.”
Everyone murmured their assent and congratulated each another. Yes. This is it.
But then Mark said, “Al, this is great, but I don’t think this is it. I like you all too much. Add a person or two to this company who lacks social graces, who looks different, who’s needy, smelly, and irritating. If we truly loved a person like that, then that would be it.”
Silence. Then one of guys said, “Uh, Mark. We’ve accepted you, haven’t we?”
They all laughed, but they got the point.
Then Mark made this comment: “We’re always tempted to turn the church into a club. With our kind of people. With a strict decorum designed to keep up appearances and keep out the, shall we say, undesirables. But Jesus said it’s no credit to us if we love those who love us – our kind of people. We don’t need God to love them; natural affinities are sufficient. But you, Jesus said, are to love the least of these and the worst of these – losers, enemies. That takes God: a supernatural subversion of our own prejudices, and a heaven-borne infusion of God’s prodigal love.” (Mark Buchanan, “This Is It,” Leadership journal, Spring 2008)
God calls us to love those who are different than we are. He calls us to enjoy fellowship with those who may not measure up to our standards, but legalism keeps us from doing that.
When we try to make ourselves look good by following a list of rules, then we divide ourselves from one another and it causes a lot of hurt.
More than that, when we try to make ourselves look good by following a list of rules, then we also deceive ourselves. We lie to ourselves and to each other. We become hypocrites pretending to be something we are not.
And that’s exactly what Paul accused Peter of doing. vs.13 (read)
The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. (NIV)
Barnabas was the first pastor of the church at Antioch, and Peter’s hypocrisy led even him astray. The word, “hypocrisy,” literally means to play-act, or to pretend. It was used in Bible days of actors putting on a show.
Well, that’s exactly what we do when we try to adhere to some legalistic standard. We’re just putting on a show. We’re play-acting. We’re pretending to be something we are not.
A cowboy walked into a Texas bar, ordered three bottles of beer, and sat in the back room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finished them, he came back to the bar and ordered three more.
The bartender told the cowboy, “You know, a bottle goes flat after I open it. It would taste better if you bought one at a time.”
The cowboy replied, “Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Australia, the other is in Dublin, and I’m in Texas. When we all left home, we promised we’d drink this way to remember the days we drank together, so I drink one for each of my brothers and one for myself.”
The bartender admitted this was a nice custom and left it there.
The cowboy became a regular in the bar and always drank the same way. But one day, he ordered only two bottles. All the regulars took notice and fell silent. When he came back to the bar for the second round, the bartender said, “I don’t want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss.” The cowboy looked puzzled for a moment, then a light dawned and he laughed.
“Oh, no, everybody’s just fine,” he explained. “It’s just that my wife and I joined the Baptist Church in Longview, and I had to quit drinking. It hasn’t affected my brothers though.” (Ed Rowell, Monument, Colorado; www.PreachingToday.com)
Who’s he kidding, the big hypocrite? But that’s what legalism does.
It makes us hypocrites. It makes us liars, pretending to be something we are not.
That’s what happened to Benjamin Franklin, of all people. In order to better himself, he settled on 13 virtues, including:
Silence: “Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.”
Frugality: “Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; that is, waste nothing.”
Industry: “Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.”
Tranquility: “Be not disturbed at trifles or accidents common or unavoidable.”
He set up a book with a page for each virtue, lining a column in which to record “defects.” Choosing a different virtue to work on each week, he daily noted every mistake, starting over every 13 weeks in order to cycle through the list four times a year. For many decades, Franklin carried his little book with him, striving for a clean 13-week cycle, but it never worked.
For even as he made any progress on his 13 virtues, he found himself struggling with yet another defect: pride, the worst sin of all. And pride is so pernicious that even if we completely overcome it, we would probably be proud of our humility. (Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace, Zondervan, 1997, p. 34)
Trying to abide by any external standard does nothing to change us on the inside. In fact, when we do that, we only divide ourselves; we only deceive ourselves. And worst of all, we deny the truth of the Gospel. We stray away from the good news of Jesus Christ.
That’s what Paul says Peter and his friends were doing by trying to follow the Jewish standards of righteousness. vs.14 (read)
When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? (NIV)
By their actions, they were forcing Gentile believers to behave like Jews in order to be accepted. & That’s a denial of the gospel, which says that faith in Christ is enough.
Whenever our actions do anything to divide and exclude other believers, we are walking away from the truth of the Gospel. That’s because Jesus died to bring us together. He died to break down the barriers (the rules) that divide us. He died to reconcile us not only to God, but to each other.
Mahatma Gandhi, the great spiritual and political leader of India in the early 20th century, once seriously considered becoming a Christian. He wrote in his autobiography that in his student days, he was very interested in the Bible. He was deeply touched by reading the Gospels, and actually thought that Christ seemed to offer the only real solution to the caste system that was dividing the people of India.
So, one Sunday, he went to a nearby church to attend services. He had decided to see the pastor and ask for instruction in the way of salvation and enlightenment on other doctrines.
But, when he entered the sanctuary, the ushers refused to give him a seat and suggested that he go worship with his own people. Gandhi left and never came back. “If Christians have caste differences also,” he said to himself, “I might as well remain a Hindu.”
Just think of what could have happened in India had that churched lived out the gospel and invited Gandhi in! Instead, they denied the very gospel they preached by refusing to accept someone who was different.
We don’t make ourselves better people by trying to follow a list of rules. In fact, we make ourselves worse! We divide ourselves. We deceive ourselves. & We deny the gospel.
So, if you’re looking to become a better person, if you’re looking for true righteousness, then DON’T DEPEND ON A LIST OF RULES. Don’t trust a law of any kind. Don’t look to any legalistic standard.
Instead, look to Christ. DEPEND ON THE LORD. TRUST JESUS, WHO ALONE CAN MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE IN OUR LIVES.
For when we trust Christ, first of all God declares us righteous. He affirms that we are law-abiding citizens of His Kingdom. Or to use the biblical term, He justifies us.
Paul is speaking to Peter, and he says, vs.15 (read to vs.16)
“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. (NIV)
Obeying the law justifies no one, Jew or Gentile, because no one obeys the law. There is no one righteous, not even one, Romans 3:10 says. Therefore, the law can only condemn us, not declare us righteous.
For example, the law is very clear: “Do not write a check for more than what you have in your checking account.”
Well, what happens when you do that? What happens when you overdraw your checking account? If the bank decides to take you to court, the law can only condemn you. It may impose a fine or send you to jail, but it cannot justify you. It cannot pretend that you kept the law when in fact you broke it.
The best you can hope for is that the bank honors the check anyway, sends you an overdraft notice, and requires that you make up the difference along with paying a hefty fine.
But wouldn’t it be nice if the bank not only honored the check, but also put millions of dollars in your checking account to cover the overdraft? You’d be a millionaire and wouldn’t have to worry about any overdraft checks ever again. Your past “sins” would be taken care of as well as any future ones!
Well, that’s exactly what happens when we put our faith in Christ! God justifies us. He declares us righteous! That means He not only covers the indebtedness. He deposits the righteousness of Christ in our account, and we become spiritual millionaires. In other words, God considers us as righteous as Christ!
So if you truly want to become a better person, don’t trust a law;
Trust the Lord! Put your faith in Christ. Depend on Him and God will declare you righteous.
Then 2ndly, God will not only declare you righteous, He will make you righteous, as well. He will begin the process of changing you from the inside out. & Christ will live his life in and through you.
vs.17 “If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! (NIV)
The doctrine of justification by faith does NOT promote sin. On the contrary, it’s trying to keep the law that promotes sin.
vs.18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. (NIV)
If I go back to trying to keep a law, then I only prove myself a lawbreaker.
vs.19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. (NIV)
The law condemned me to death, so I died because of my sin. You say, “Paul, when did I die?”
vs.20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (NIV)
I died when Christ did. He died in MY place for MY sin. So now, according to the law I am dead. I no longer live. There is no “double jeopardy” – the law cannot condemn me twice. &
And since I am already dead according to the law, now I am free to let Christ live His life in and through me. Now I can truly live by faith in Christ who loved me and died for me.
And that’s the secret to becoming a better person. It is not in trying to follow a list of rules. It is in trusting Christ to live His life through us.
Last April 26 (2008), the Western Oregon women’s softball team played against Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. During the course of the game, Western Oregon senior, Sara Tucholsky, hit the first homerun of her college career. She dropped her bat and started to make her way around the bases. In the midst of all the excitement, she forgot to tag first base. When the first base coach brought the mistake to her attention, she quickly turned around. To everyone’s horror, her right knee buckled. Crying, she tried her best to crawl back to the base. Tucholsky’s teammates were warned that if they touched her, she would be called out. The umpires also noted that if her coaches opted to call in a pinch runner, the homerun would only count as a single.
You can probably imagine the shock everyone felt, then, when Mallory Holtman, the opposing team’s first baseman and career homerun leader for Central Washington, turned to the umpire and said, "Would it be okay if we carried her around the bases, and she touched each bag?" When the umpires gave their approval, Holtman and teammate Liz Wallace picked up Tucholsky, crossed their hands beneath her, and carried her to second base. Once there, they lowered the injured player and gently touched her foot to the bag. They did the same for third base and home plate. The crowd erupted into a standing ovation. Western Oregon went on to win the game, eliminating Central Washington from the playoffs.
When later asked about the good deed, Holtman said the decision to help out her opponent was simple. She felt Tucholsky deserved the homerun, because the ball cleared the fence. In her own interview, Tucholsky said, “It’s amazing, what they did… I hope I would do the same for her in the same situation.” George Vecsey, a writer who was there covering the game, said what happened can only be described as a moment of grace. (George Vecsey, “A Sporting Gesture Touches ’Em All,” The New York Times, 4-30-08; www.PreachingToday.com)
And that’s the same kind of grace Christ extends to us. We were out, because we didn’t even touch 1st base. We couldn’t even keep the first rule – “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). & When we tried, we found ourselves broken on the ball field of life.
Then Christ came, when we put our faith in Him. He was on the opposing team. The Bible says we were once enemies of God, but Jesus picked us up anyway. & Now He is carrying us across all of the bases until we reach home and get a homerun! That’s grace!
vs.21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (NIV)
When I try to keep the rules in my own strength, then I set aside the grace of God, and I treat Christ’s death as nothing.
Don’t do it! The law can only condemn you. No.
If you want to find true righteousness before God, if you want to hit a homerun with Him, if you truly want to be a better person, then don’t depend on a list of rules; instead depend on the Lord. He’ll not only declare you righteous when you do. He’ll begin to make you righteous by living His life through you.
Mensa is an organization whose members have an IQ of 140 or higher. A few years ago, there was a Mensa convention in San Francisco, and several members lunched at a local café. While dining, they discovered that their saltshaker contained pepper and their peppershaker was full of salt. How could they swap the contents of the bottles without spilling, and using only the implements at hand? Clearly this was a job for Mensa! The group debated and presented ideas, and finally came up with a brilliant solution involving a napkin, a straw, and an empty saucer. They called the waitress over to dazzle her with their solution.
“Ma’am,” they said, “we couldn’t help but notice that the peppershaker contains salt and the saltshaker—“
“Oh,” the waitress interrupted. “Sorry about that.” She unscrewed the caps of both bottles and switched them. (Found on MSN; submitted by Sherman Lee Burford, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama; www.PreacingToday.com) -
So often we complicate things when God made it so easy. The point is, if you want to live a better life, then stop trying so hard and simply trust the Lord.
