Finish the Race before you
Notes
Transcript
Good morning,
Let us open with a word of prayer.
Pray 3+
If you could turn in your Bibles with me to Galatians 5 and we will be looking at verses 1 through 15
1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
As we have studied Galatians, Paul has given us two possible ways of life. Both of these ways of life are built on works. The first is based on us keeping the law and maintaining a perfect record, forever enslaved to its demands and requirements. This way is entirely based on our works and we must live up to God’s holiness and perfection. The other based on the work of Jesus and his perfect life and sacrifice on the cross adopted as sons and daughters of God the Father. It offers freedom and redemption. We have been set free from the legal requirements of the law, free from sin and death. We have been set free from the world and the corruption in it, we have been set free from satan and been made alive with Christ, and we have been set free from the passions of our flesh.
The people Paul was writing to had come to know God and now had a relationship with Him. He showed them how even in the Old Testament, salvation came through faith because of God’s promise and how the law was merely a guardian that was to guide them to Christ. Now in verse 1 of our passage Paul says,
Are we standing firm?
Are we standing firm?
Galatians 5:1 “1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” He gives two imperatives or two actions the Galatians and by extension we must take because of the freedom Christ has given us. He tells them to stand firm and do not submit. We are to firmly plant ourselves in Christ alone and never again submit to the yoke of slavery.
Paul writes something very similar in the book of Ephesians. Turn with me to Ephesians 6. I will be starting in verse 10
Ephesians 6:10–14 “10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,”
Three times here in Ephesians we see Paul say to stand or stand firm and here in Ephesians it is against the schemes of the devil we see we are fighting against rulers, against authorities, the cosmic powers over this present darkness against spiritual forces of evil. And if we are standing against this if we submit again to a yoke of slavery as our passage in Galatians tells us we are by extension submitting to this. Paul will emphasize this in verses 2-6 of our passage when Paul writes:
Galatians 5:2–6 “2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”
We know based on earlier parts of this letter that those in Galatia had accepted the truth of the Gospel or at least many of them had. We saw in Galatians 3:2 when Paul wrote :“2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” we saw that they recieved the Spirit. But they are now being swayed.
Paul uses his name here and anytime you see an authors name in the middle of a book you should take notice. He is essentially saying the words that follow are by Apostolic authority and we have some serious consequences in what follows. He gives the believers a test of their salvation. There is a fairly common faith versus belief illustration using a chair and it will give us a good illustration here as well. The illustration goes something like this, but I can look at that chair and see that it is a chair and I believe it is a chair, but if I have faith in the chair I sit in it, I let my weight rest in it, that is faith. And yes the illustration breaks down some for describing belief and faith, but what it works well for is this situation. It is like they are in or on the chair but only just. The chair is not actually doing anything and if it is removed from under we find out they are using their own strength to hold themselves up.
It is as if they want to sit in the chair but just in case it doesn’t hold them up they are going to hoover just above it. Paul is telling them they cannot have it both ways, if they are trying to add the law back in it shows that they were never his. They are severed from Christ. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9 that grace is a free gift.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
We see that those who try to earn it fall away from it. If we could earn it, we would be able to boast and honestly we would defile it. What is interesting about every other religious system in the world is the fact that without exception there is no assurance of what will happen to them in the afterlife. In every one of them, there is a vast amount of uncertainty, why? It is because it is a works based system, they must earn and work for the reward. For those who believe in reincarnation, they hope to earn a better state of being in the next life, but there is no assurance they will, it is all based on how good they are. For the Muslim, the Qur’an states “For those who do good deeds, there shall be the best reward and yet more blessings.” (Ch.10: V.27) Yet it is up to Alah to decide what the good deeds are and whether or not a person lived up to them and most Muslims will agree you cannot know for sure what will happen. The freedom and assurance that we can find in Christ is unique and it is offered freely. Paul tells us it is by faith through the Spirit we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. In 2 Timothy, Paul writes,
2 Timothy 4:7–8 “7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”
When he says there is laid up for him a crown of righteousness, he says that in the present tense. It is something that is already done for him. It is based on his faith working through love as he said in verse 6 of our passage. We see he has kept the faith and loved Christ’s appearing and all who have have a crown of righteousness laid up for them.
What is the cause of Christian persecution?
What is the cause of Christian persecution?
If you turn back to Galatians 5 I will read 7-12. This is where we get the title of today’s sermon from.
Galatians 5:7–12“7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!”
Paul tells them they were running so well. Paul, we have to remember views the Christian life much like a race or a marathon. In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Paul tells us:
1 Corinthians 9:24–27 “24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
It is as if the churches in Galatia had started to run race like they were going to win but along the route they were deceived and had got off course and now those who were deceiving them were contaminating the whole church. Paul is confident that they will turn back to the truth. In our family there is a group of relatives that always have a short cut. It doesn’t take long to learn however that these short cuts usually aren’t short and often aren’t even to where you are trying to get. So it doesn’t take long to realize the truth of the situation. Most people do not follow these short cuts after one or two times taking them and just take the correct route. Paul is confident they will turn back to the truth in much the same way all those who take these so called short cuts learn to turn back to the true route.
He is also confident that those who are causing the troubling them will face the consequences of leading these people astray. Just as those who wish to be justified by the law are severed from Christ so too are those who are leading the people here astray. Paul writes in Romans 2:5 “5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” Paul knows those who are not in Christ will one day face his judgement for their actions. But he goes so far to wish that those who are miss leading them would emasculate themselves. That seems harsh but we must remember those who distort the Gospel are leading people to Hell. But we see a bit of a weird statement right between these two sentences in Galatians, in verse 10 Paul says those causing the trouble will bear the penalty, and in verse 12 he wishes they would emasculate themselves.
But in verse 11, Paul seems to take this side note, it is thought that who ever this person or these people were suggested that Paul had been preaching circumcision. We are not given the context of why Paul says this and there are several theories behind it, possibly his becoming all things to all men that he might win some. We just are not sure, however we are given some insight into why Christians are disliked and persecuted here. We see in verse 11 that it is for the offense of the cross that Paul is persecuted and this is so often why people hate Christianity.
When you ask most people if they are going to heaven or hell, their response is heaven. Why is that their response though? Usually it is followed by something along the lines of because I am a good person. The reason it is so easy to fall back into the law is because we all naturally think we are good people. We are self righteous and prideful but the cross destroys that. The cross tells us that not only are we not good enough, it says that we could never be good enough. It is only by God’s power that we can come into fellowship with Him and selfish and sinful people do not want to hear that. We want to be our own god and the message of the cross is we need a savior because we are weak and sinful and our best is filthy rags.
Paul asks them if he was preaching circumcision why is he still being persecuted and if you read the book of acts quite frequently it is by the Jews. The same people who push circumcision and keeping the law for holiness. The cross offers both freedom for those who believe and condemnation for those who reject it.
What is our freedom for?
What is our freedom for?
But all this freedom begs a question, what is our freedom for? One of the part of the offense of the cross is the idea that if I just believe in Jesus I can live however I want with no consequences. This idea however was never condoned by any of the apostles or early church fathers. Look with me at Galatians 5:13–15 “13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”
Our freedom is not to be used to gratify the desires of our flesh rather we are to serve one another through love. Paul tells us the whole law is fulfilled in one word or one command, that is you shall love your neighbor as yourself. In our passage today, every time the word love is used it has this idea of self sacrificial love for another. Whether that is our love for God or our love for our neighbor. Our freedom is to be expressed in love. We can ask how it is that the whole law can be fulfilled in this one command to love our neighbor as ourselves, but everything up to this point is about properly understanding our relationship with Christ. Once we understand that it is his work on the cross that brings us into relationship with him, we understand that it is the most critical message that everyone needs to hear. We love him by sharing his truth with our neighbors we love them by sharing the message of salvation with them. This in the lives of our neighbors is played out in many different ways, but it is always pointing them to him. Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 9:19–23 “19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”
Run in the truth of the Gospel, in his word and the message of salvation, loving our neighbors and sharing his message of salvation with them making disciples and teaching them to obey all that he commanded.
However if we live our lives for ourselves be careful or we might be destroyed by one another.