GALATIANS 2:17-18 | LOVE NOT LEGALISM

While v.20 receives much of the attention in chapter 2, I believe it is verses 17-18 that are the heartbeat of Paul as he will spend much of the remainder of this book as well as large portions of others dealing with this issue.

The subject at hand is that of legalism.

As one writer put it, “Religious legalism focuses on obedience to laws or moral codes based on the assumption that such obedience is a means of gaining divine favor.” - Pocket Dictionary of Ethics

Taken to the extreme that Paul was dealing with, these religious works and holding to the law were a means to gaining salvation!

We spent an entire service two weeks ago dealing with this very issue.

I wont re-preach the message, but Paul makes it abundantly clear we are not justified, declared righteous, by the law.

The law points out our guiltiness and it is God’s grace and our faith in Christ that brings salvation!

He passionately makes this point in Galatians 2:16

Galatians 2:16 KJV 1900

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

APPLICATION: Friend, if you are trying to obtain salvation through some good works you can do, you can never do enough!

There is only one way to salvation, and that is Jesus Christ and His finished death on the cross.

EXPLANATION: In v.17, Paul sums up the issue that Peter has created through his wavering stance for Christ.

Galatians 2:17 KJV 1900

But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.

The Jews, who held that the Gentiles were sinners, couldn’t imagine turning their backs on the Jewish law, for it was their way to salvation and justification.

But if Christ declared the law wasn’t the way for justification and instead they must seek to be justified in Christ, wouldn’t that put them on the same plain as the Gentiles that didn’t follow OT law, and the Jews condemned as sinners?

And if they were on the same level as the Gentiles, they too would just be sinners who didn’t follow the OT law.

So does that mean that Christ, by telling them not to obey the law for salvation, was making them a sinner.

NO! The Gospel and Christ give us an escape from sin, not condemn us in our sins!

And then Paul turns to v.18, and this is where we will spend out time today, because this verse can be transformational if you will listen to it.

Galatians 2:18 KJV 1900

For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

ILLUSTRATION: Have you ever had to admit that you were wrong?

I haven’t, but I thought maybe you had, and I was curious what that felt like.

EXPLANATION: Paul says here, if I were to do what you are doing Peter, and acts like it was by the law that I could be justified, I’d have to say I was wrong.

But Paul wasn’t wrong.

In fact he says, if I started building back up that the favor and justification of God could be obtained by my good works, I would make my self a transgressor.

While the religious crowds were claiming that Jesus was making them sin by not holding to the OT law for salvation, Paul says I would be making myself sin if I taught it was holding to the OT law for salvation!

You see the problem, at the end of the day, was those religious Jews had an over emphasis on religion.

APPLICATION: I have found in my 13 years of ministry that the greatest hurdle to seeing someone saved is religion.

They have to be deprogrammed from what some religious institution taught them was the way they could earn heaven.

Because salvation by grace through faith is just too easy!

We mentioned 2 weeks ago those verses in Matthew 7:22-23

Matthew 7:22–23 KJV 1900

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

The heartbreaking thought that there will be not a few, but many who one day stand before God having never put their trust in Him as their Savior.

Friend we have a gracious God that has been so good as to make a way so that you can have eternal life.

Romans 10:13 KJV 1900

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

But even with that offer put in front of them, so many will reject His gift because they are going to do it themselves.

They are going to use their religion to get them to heaven.

Friend, if that is you today, ask God to reprogram your mind and realize it isn’t your religious actions that is going to get you to heaven.

And put your full faith and trust in Jesus as your Savior!

One of the greatest hurdles that keeps people from getting saved is religion.

But I also found that one of the greatest weights that many carry after salvation, is religion.

There are many that have been taught that you are saved by God’s grace, but you must earn God’s approval.

And so they live their lives under the weight of trying to be good enough and do good enough to earn God’s love and acceptance.

They go to church because if they do then God will love them more

They read their Bible, not to commune with God, but because if they don’t God is watching.

They keep high standards because that will please God and gain His favor.

And they look down on everyone else who has lower standards because they aren’t as godly as them.

And they look up at everyone with higher standards, and those people are just holier than thou.

But they are just right where they are!

But what happens when they slip up on their standards?

What happens when they miss their Bible reading?

What happens when they don’t make it to a church service?

What happens when they find themself in sin?

The truth is they aren’t motivated by God’s favor, they are actually motived by their guilt!

The overwhelming guilt that they feel because clearly they believe they have fallen out of favor with God!

How could God love me when I’ve let Him down, when I’ve failed Him?

And if it happens enough time, eventually they give up.

Because who could ever make God happy all the time?

It seems like an impossible task!

And it is!

Because just like you will never be good enough to gain eternal life through your good works, your religion, you will never be good enough to gain God’s acceptance with your good works.

So why even try?

The path of the Christian life is littered with broken lives who just couldn’t do enough.

The weight of living to try to gain God’s approval just became too much to continue on.

So they quit.

And they become the ones who are outside the church and point to everyone on the inside and call them hypocrites.

Because they have to pretend to be something that is impossible to always be.

Do you remember what Paul said about Peter and the way he was acting?

Galatians 2:13 KJV 1900

And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.

They were carried away by their dissimulation… Hypocrisy.

People were looking at Peter and they were pointing the finger at him and calling him a hypocrite.

And you know the truth is, they were right.

ILLUSTRATION: I’ve got a trailer at our house that we bought last year to haul wood and other things.

It’s nothing super fancy, in fact the trailer had some spots of rust on it.

When I first got the trailer I sanded down the boards on the deck and stained them again.

And then I went around the trailer and anywhere there was rust a took a can of black spray paint and sprayed over it.

After it was all said and done, it actually looks like a fairly nice trailer.

But if you were to take a screw driver and just scratch on that metal in some of those places, you know what you would find: Rust.

The paint just made it look good, but reality was underneath.

ILLUSTRATION: There are ladies that make a living off of pretending to be something they aren’t.

Some of these ladies on social media giving make up tutorials.

Without makeup, they are a completely different person!

But if they put enough coats of paint on it’s amazing what can happen!

APPLICATION: You know the sad part about many churches is the same thing could be said about them that was said about Peter in the 1st century.

They look polished on the outside, but if you just apply a little pressure the rust will show through.

They are trying to be good enough to earn the favor of God on their life and they are exhausted.

Maybe you are here this morning and you are exhausted by religion.

You are trying to do all the religious things, but if you were just being honest your relationship with Christ is absent!

You have spent all your time building up the religious things, but you have failed to focus on the most important thing and Paul says, it is a sin.

This past week I was listening to an audio book about people in ministry and how to be resilient.

In the chapter I brought something up that struck me so deep.

He mentioned Matthew 22:37-39

Matthew 22:37–39 KJV 1900

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

ILLUSTRATION: Praying with Jon

He wasn’t saying words to impress me.

He wasn’t just going through the motions.

No I kinda felt a little awkward because it was like I was an intruder into the throne room.

Jon was talking to his God… Someone that he knew personally.

APPLICATION: In the book I was listening to the author said this,

“Because those two commandment form the hinge on which we form all the law and the prophets, we often speak of them as equal and interchangeable. They are not. Love to God is commanded first.” and that is for a reason.

Don’t miss this, we often confuse the works we do for others in the name of God, as being “love for God.”

Now we will see next seek that those works are an outflow of a true love for God, but they are not loving God.

The truth is, it can be easy to serve God without loving Him first!

And this is the root that separates religion from a relationship.

This is the reason that so many Christians get burned out in the Christian life.

This is the reason people leave the church and become bitter at other Christians still in the church.

It’s because they learned to obey the second commandment well, but they failed to follow the first and greatest commandment.

“Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.”

Galatians 2:18 KJV 1900

For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

To elevate our works for God above our love for God is sin!

And friend, you will end up on the send of the spiritual highway out of gas if you mix these two commandments up.

ILLUSTRATION: Jesus and his disciples came into Bethany and were invited into the house of a woman named Martha.

We know that Martha lived with her sister Mary and probably Lazarus as well, and on this day they now had 13 other men in their house.

Now with the company coming over you know as well as I do what must have been going on.

Martha was sweeping the floor, emptying the dishwasher.

She threw the pile of clothes that needed folded on her bed and closed the door.

She dusted and cleaned the bathrooms, and did her very best to give the appearance that no one lived in that house.

I’m just making assumptions here.

And now Jesus and His disciples were in her house and it would have been customary to offer them a meal, which for 13 grown men would have been a pretty heavy task.

As she is in the middle of whipping up the spaghetti she looks in the living room, and there is Mary.

Just sitting on the floor in front of Jesus.

She probably tried to get her attention with a cough at first.

Then she slammed a few of the dishes around to get her sisters attention.

At some point, I’m confident she even called out Mary’s name, but there was no assistance that was offered.

Finally in a bit of frustration Martha marched into the living room and spoke directly to Jesus,

Luke 10:40 KJV 1900

But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

Jesus, I could use some help serving you, I’m so busy doing this for you and I could just use Mary’s help serving you!

Luke 10:41–42 KJV 1900

And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Can I summarize what Jesus told Martha, “Martha you are so busy serving others that you have missed the one thing that matters the most… Do you love me?”

APPLICATION: Friend, do you love God?

Or have you become so focused on doing the religious things that you’ve forgotten the most important thing?

If I can just be honest, when I was listening to that book last week and I came to that part, God smote my heart.

Because one of the great dangers of the Christian life is to do the religious things, all the while quenching the Holy Spirit because you’ve fallen out of love with God.

John, under inspiration of God, penned in his letter to the church at Ephesus this rebuke:

Revelation 2:2–4 KJV 1900

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

They were taking the right stands

They were doing the religious works

They were busy with good things

But they forgot the most important thing… They forgot to love God.

And at the core of legalism is a problem with the starting point.

It is doing things to get more of God’s love

To get more of God’s favor.

But that’s impossible, because He gave you all of His love and favor when He died for you on the cross and you accepted Him as Savior.

You could never get any more or any less.

No, as we will see next week, our actions for God should be a result of His love for us, that constrains my love for Him!

2 Corinthians 5:14–15 KJV 1900

For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

CONCLUSION

So what if you are here today and you have been living a life under the weight of trying to please God with your religious works?

Well, Revelation 2:5

Revelation 2:5 KJV 1900

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

He says remember what you left! Remember your first love!

Repent for not loving him the way you should: with all your heart, soul, and mind.

And then after you have things in the right order, do the first works!

Next week we are going to dive into what that means to truly live a crucified life for Christ, and I can’t wait!

But friend, if you miss the message this week, you’ll never get what God has for you next week.

More important than what you do for God, is the answer to the question, “do you truly love God?”

This morning if your love for God isn’t the preeminent focus of your life, then as Paul says, “You’ve made yourself a transgressor.”

My prayer today is that you will love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, and mind!