Introduction
"It ain’t over ’til it’s over."
This is probably the single most famous quote from baseball legend Yogi Berra. It’s simple but elegant and must have come to him in a rare moment of linguistic clarity, because he is much better known as the master of confusion and doublespeak like this:
"This is like deja vu all over again."
"You can observe a lot just by watching."
"You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there."
"I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early."
"Baseball is 90% mental -- the other half is physical."
"A nickel isn’t worth a dime today."
"It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was talking too much."
"If you come to a fork in the road, take it."
"If the fans don’t come out to the ball park, you can’t stop them."
"It ain’t the heat; it’s the humility."
"You should always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise, they won’t come to yours."
"I didn’t really say everything I said."
Yogi’s not the only guy to ever get confused though. It can be a confusing world out there, even the most important things in life can be confusing. The whole point of Paul’s letter to the Galatians was to clear up some confusion that was the result of false teaching that was going on in their churches.
In our text today Paul begins to wind up His argument about what God really wants from us and the nature of our relationship with Jesus. As he does that He gives us three central truths to help us cut through the confusion. If we can have clarity about these things, I believe the cloud of confusion will begin to subside.
Interrogative: So what are those three things?
Transition: Well I’ve got a What a Who and a Which. Let’s begin with the What. The First thing we need to be clear about is...
1. What Counts
v. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
The false teachers were teaching that lot’s of things counted, specifically the requirements of the Old Testament Law, especially those outward things that helped to establish Jewish identity. Paul cuts through the confusion and says the only thing that counts is faith,and that faith, if it is genuine,will express itself outwardly.Not in merely symbolic ways, but in practical ways, in loving ways.
A surgical procedure doesn’t matter, a dress code doesn’t matter, a special diet doesn’t matter, only faith matters.
Yes, when that faith expresses itself through love, some of those externals may need to change, and we’ll look at that in a few moments, but those externals are not the main thing, the only thing that matters is a life changing faith in Christ.
Specifically it is trusting that the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross is sufficient to pay for all your sins, it is understanding that there is nothing you can do to add to what Christ has done, that your behaivior can never merit God’s favor. Faith is understanding that and then humbly accepting the offer of salvation.
Does a change take place in your life and behavior when you reach out in faith? Always. Does that change earn salvation? Never. Why? Because Faith is what counts, Faith is the only thing that counts.
Secondly, if we are to cut through the confusion we must be clear about...
2. Who’s Calling
v. 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.
Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice and they follow me." An important way to avoid confusion is to make sure you know the voice of Jesus, so you can discern who’s calling.
The false teachers will come, and they will be convincing, they will come wielding Scripture, they will come with followers, they will come Jesus said even working miracles. You need to know what the voice of Christ sounds like so that you can discern the voice of the confusers.
The way to know what Jesus sounds like is to spend time with His Word.
It would be difficult to recognize a counterfeit bill if one didn’t know what the real thing looked like. In the same way to recognize a counterfeit Gospel, You’ve got to understand the true Gospel. This can be confusing, especially when you are confronted by people who have been trained to take Scriptures out of context. The only defense is to know the central message--that we are saved by God’s Grace alone, through faith alone--and to be strong in the Scriptures, so that you will know when something has been taken out of its context.
You need top be able to recognize who’s calling. Finally, to cut though the confusion we need to know...
3. Which Command
v. 14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
We need to know which command is important for us as believers. It’s not the command to be circumcised, not the dietary law, not even the ten commandments, but this one, the one that sums up what’s important about the law.
This command also sums up the essence of the freedom that we have in Christ. We are set free to love. But the interesting thing here is that having been set free, the desire of our hearts is to serve one another.
Of course the ultimate example of this is Christ Himself. No one could dispute that Christ was the epitome of freedom, He was only chained to a human body because he chose to lay aside his rights as God. Yet as the ultimate expression of His freedom, he chose the cross, the ultimate expression of love, which looked very much like bondage. But he made it clear before he went to the cross that it was his choice: "For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)
As we follow the example of Christ we will find also that our freedom is expressed in serving one another--that is what we have been set free to do. Verse 13 of our text says: "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love".
A good example is found in Paul’s letter to the believers at Corinth when he tells them that for the sake of brotherly love they should give up eating food sacrificed to idols--not that it was sinful but because it was a problem for their brothers.
This applies to us too, though we have freedom in Christ, for the sake of love, sometimes we need to choose not to exercise that freedom. If you are behaving in ways that you know causes a distraction or a problem for your brothers and sisters, by your dress or grooming or language or choice of entertainment, then you are breaking the law of love.
We may find that our freedom to love causes us to do things we’d rather not do on our own. It may cost time out of our busy schedule, It may cost us money we’d been saving for a special treat for ourselves.
But ultimately we will find that this appropriate use of our freedom to serve one another will reap great blessings and joy in our life. It’s what it means to be in the grip of God’s Grace. It’s what it means to be led by the Spirit. It’s what it means to have Christ formed in us.
CONCLUSION:
In two weeks we will explore this even further with the passage that begins "Live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature."
And living by the Spirit is exactly what will happen in our lives as we cut through the confusion by knowing
What Counts--Only faith in Christ, not an external set of rules and regulations, and by recognizing
Who’s Calling as we learn to discern the voice of the Shepherd from the voice of the theif, and finally as we understand
Which Command we should live by, the command of love which is the ultimate expression of our freedom in Christ.
