In Jesus Holy Name March 8, 2020
Text: Galatians Series Galatians 3:10-11 Redeemer
“True or False - Two Ways to Heaven”
We have arrived at Galatians Chapter 3. With this sermon we turn a corner in our journey through Galatians. This short letter has three parts:
The Personal Section: Chapters 1-2 Paul’s defense of his apostleship and a strong warning against prejudice.
The Doctrinal Section: Chapters 3-4 Paul defends the “gospel” salvation by faith in Jesus, even using Abraham as an illustration of faith.
The Practical Section: Chapters 5-6 He concludes his letter with practical behavior which is a response to the grace we have received.
Paul returns again and again and again to one central question: Are we saved by what we do or by what Christ has done for us? It’s faith versus works; Grace versus the Law of Moses. The very heart of the gospel is at stake in this letter.
J. B. Phillips begins his translation of verse 1 with the words: “O dear idiots!” Why are you leaving grace to return to the obeying the law as your key that opens the door to heaven. You Galatians are ignoring the cross of Christ. Paul is saying: Continue in the Christian life the same way you started, by grace, not personal performance. Anything else would be ridiculous.
Paul was frustrated because the Galatians were being tricked into relying on the works of the law for their faith: “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?”
Why would they again want to trust in their good works to complete their salvation? It is human nature. Even we, if we are not careful, can think our good deeds must earn some favor from God. Our American work ethic, “pulling ourselves up by our own “boot straps”, can easily slip into our theology destroy the theological truth of grace alone. Our human nature wants us to add something to what God has already accomplished.
So let me begin with a simple theological quiz. Here’s a multiple-choice question: How good do you have to be to go to heaven?
A) Pretty good
B) Really Good
C) Better than Uncle Joe
D) Perfect
The answer is D. If you want to go to heaven, you have to be perfect.
And I don’t mean “sort of” perfect, “mostly” perfect, or 80% perfect. Being 80% perfect is like being 80% pregnant. Either you’re pregnant or you’re not. Either you’re perfect or you’re not. The kicker in all this is that 99.9% of the world believes the answer is either A or B or C. Most people would say it’s A. If I’m pretty good on the relative scale of goodness, surely I’ll go to heaven. This is false understanding of how one enters heaven is unfortunately very common in our American Culture. God does not grade on a curve, nor does everyone get a trophy for participation in life.
Most people are quick to compare themselves to Uncle Joe or Aunt Jane. That’s always an easy comparison because we usually only compare ourselves to someone who isn’t as good as we are. But that’s not what God does. God compares us to Jesus.
Paul’s second argument is from Abraham.
“Consider Abraham: ‘He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:6-9).
This argument, using Abraham, was a master piece because the Judaizers would have considered Abraham the father of the Jewish people. Paul’s point in verse 6 is that Abraham was saved by faith when he believed God and his faith was counted as righteousness. In Paul’s mind, spiritual descent is more important than physical descent. Thus, there are physical descendants of Abraham who are not spiritual descendants because they don’t believe the gospel. And there are Gentiles who are true sons and daughters of Abraham because they do believe the gospel.
This was the very discussion that Jesus had with Nicodemus, recorded for us in the Bible in John chapter 3. Nicodemus was a very good Pharisee, a brilliant Jewish scholar, but he believed that it was his blood heritage, Jewish blood running through his veins, that gave him favor with God. He believed that his ancestry.com connection to Abraham was the key that opened heaven’s door.
Jesus said, No Abraham is not the key. Your Jewish blood is not the key. It is the my blood which will be shed on the cross that is the key to eternal forgiveness.
(key illustration… key notches are made for one door only…don’t change the notch…if you do the door will not open.)
God has only one plan of salvation—not two or three or four. It’s always by grace, always through faith, and always apart from human efforts, or good works to attain righteousness. . “salvation is found in on one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
How is it that God can give us salvation on the basis of simple faith in Jesus Christ? The answer is in verse 13. Christ became a curse for us.
When Christ died, he took upon himself the curse intended for us.
He took the pain.
He took the shame.
He drank the cup of God’s wrath.
He bore the punishment meant for us.
He stood in our place.
He suffered for our sin.
He paid a debt he did not owe.
At the climax of his sufferings, he cried out, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” Those mysterious words mean that in that terrible moment, the Father turned His face away from His Son. The Father became Sonless and the Son became Fatherless. The Trinity was ruptured because of our sin. This was the cost of our salvation. He set us free from the curse by taking the curse upon himself.
He was rejected that we might never be rejected.
He was forsaken that we might never be forsaken.
He was punished that we might never be punished.
He took the curse that the curse might be lifted from us.
John Murray put it: “The question isn’t how can God, being who he is, send us to hell, but rather, how can God, being who He is, not send us to hell?” Someone must pay the price.
The cross is the true dividing line of history. It is the “hinge” of history, the most important event since the creation of the universe. We must never minimize the cross or speak of it in light terms.
We are helpless sinners, there is nothing, there is not a single good deed
we can do that would earn a blue ribbon from God. In his definition to the third article of the Apostle’s Creed Martin Luther wrote: “I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him…” That’s a strong statement. I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ. The Galatian Christians knew that to be true. For the Holy Spirit enabled each of them, just as He has enabled each of us to believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Let me shorten it. Christianity is the religion which confesses, “I cannot”, the only religion which says, “We cannot”. Of the thousands of belief systems and religions through out the world, you will find that Christianity stands alone. Every other religion demands, “You must try”. You must find your way back to God. You must pay for all you’ve have done wrong. You must find a way to make God smile. But…. You will never know, never know, never know for sure.
Christianity and Christianity alone, stands for this eternal truth: Jesus, the sinless Son of God came down from heaven. True Man and True God. Jesus lived the perfect life. Jesus never broke a commandment nor had a false thought. Never a false thought! He rejected every temptation of Satan. He became our Substitute, took our punishment. In His body he took the “wrath” of God, died our death and three days later rose from death and the grave.
This truth, the Galatians believed and accepted when they heard Paul explain Jesus. The problem… they knew and we know that nothing in the normal human life is free….they, and sometimes we can slip back into our human pride and think that maybe God could not be that gracious…so we better keep the commandments, we better do good deeds and thus in that very moment our actions state that the death of Jesus was not sufficient enough….to absorb God’s wrath.
You can’t purchase a ticket to heaven by doing good in this life. And God isn’t impressed by our efforts at self-improvement. Grace is a counter-intuitive truth that runs against the grain of our human nature. Deep inside, we all believe that if we just try harder, things will work out between God and us. It isn’t true, of course, but we still believe it anyway. This is the dilemma Paul finds in the Christians in Galatia. This is our human dilemma.
As long as you and I cling to the tattered rags of our self-righteousness,
you and I cannot be saved. Paul’s argument in the book of Galatians goes like this: Why go back to the old life when God has given us so many blessings in Christ? It doesn’t make sense to go back to the law, for the law only convicts.
Let me illustrate.
Let’s suppose you are walking down a street when you see a sign on a park bench that says, “Wet Paint. Do Not Touch.” If you are like most people, when you see that sign, you will have an almost irresistible urge to reach out and touch the bench. I’ve done it myself many times.
If the sign had not been there, it never would have occurred to you to touch the park bench, but something about that sign awakens a desire within you and even though it says, “Do No Touch,” you want to reach out and touch it. The sticky paint on your fingers is proof that you are a sinner.
The law convicts us of sin but it cannot change us on the inside. That my friends is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit changes our heart. That is why Martin Luther can finish his definition to the third article of the Apostle’s Creed….in this Christian Church the Holy Spirit Sanctifies me and keeps me in the true faith…
The key to heaven does not include our good deeds. The key to heaven is God’s grace… we can not and should not add anything to the key
Somewhere on Facebook or the internet I saw a T-shirt with “JESUS” in huge letters. Underneath were these words: “And that’s my final answer.” Make Jesus your final answer and these promises will be yours. And when you die, the best is yet to come. Amen.
