Untitled Sermon (7)

Who Did You Do it for?

Intro: There are times where we do the right thing for the wrong reason, or there are times when we do wrong thing with good intentions. Paul has already pointed out that the false teacher’s teaching is wrong. They preach circumcision and the keeping of the law as necessary for salvation, when salvation is through Christ alone.

Paul points out that the false teachers have 3 people-pleasing and self-pleasing motives. Their reasoning for requiring circumcision and teaching that the law must be kept are the result of motives that will fulfill their own desires and the desires of those around them.

Paul begins this section by telling us that he himself is writing, and he is doing so in large letters. The New Living Translation puts this verse in all-caps, which I think is completely appropriate. It appears Paul had a scribe to write his letters, like a lot of the letters from his time, but that he snagged the pen from the scribe to write this last part with his own hand. Remember, the letters in Scripture would be read aloud in the churches, from start to finish. Galatians is a good-lengthed sermon of about 30 mins. It has some good illustrations of the law as a guardian and the two covenants being Hagar and Sarah. Paul gets heated a couple times throughout and he comes down hard on the false teachers. In our passage today, Galatians 6:11-18, Paul is bringing the book to a close by summing up his argument, but He wants to make sure everyone is listening. Look at what large letters I am writing with. I can picture the reader at the front turning around the page to show everyone just how big these letters are. It’s as if Paul is saying “If you have missed any of what I have said, I am going to sum it up right here. You in the back, Wake up! This is important! This is the heart of the message right here!”

3 Improper Motivations in the Christian Life (the old creation)

3 Motivation of Living for Self

1. Pride in Status

Show off their circumcision

First, the false teachers desire to make a good showing in the flesh. Remember, the false teachers are teaching that you must become Jewish to become a Christian, which required circumcision and following the law. They are operating under the old creation system. They are arguing, unlike Paul in v. !5, that circumcision counts for something. They look back to the covenants made with Abraham and with Israel and they are bringing the outward practices of the old covenant into the new. The result, is that the world is divided into those who are circumcised and those who are not, those who follow the mosaic law and those who don’t. This division of following the Torah, the law of Moses, and those who don’t follow it is in the early church as both Jews and Gentiles are being saved. In the old Testament if you wanted to follow God, if you had faith in him, then as a Gentile you would try to become like a Jew, you would get circumcised and follow the Mosaic law. But in the new testament, if a gentile believes in Jesus, do they need to become like a Jew to follow God? This is the big question Paul is addressing.

The False teachers in Galatia are teaching that you need to be circumcised and keep the law to follow God. It is the proper response to faith in Jesus. This is why they care so much about circumcision and the law of Moses.

But Paul demonstrated that even in the old testament, it was not about who was circumcised and who wasn’t, but who had faith. Circumcision was always meant to point to the circumcision of the heart, in other words, to the transformation of the heart by the work of the Holy Spirit through faith. That’s why Paul recalls the story of Abraham. He believed in God and it was creditied it to him as righteousness before he was circumcised.

It is not that the false teachers are on the wrong team, they are playing the wrong sport! They showed up for hockey in their swimsuit! They are showing off their goggles ot their teammates when they should be wearing a helmit. (Get a better illustration). Paul argues that it is not about whether you should be circumcised or not, the point is that it doesn’t matter. We are dealing with the weight of eternal life and eternal death, and they are focused on a, quite literally, fleshly matter. They want to boast in their circumcision, which, is boasting in being in the physical line of Abraham, boasting in following the law of Moses. But they have focused on the wrong categories. The false teachers are placing their trust in being a Jew, a descendant of Abraham. Some of them, born Jews, circumcised on the 8th day, following the law since they were a child, Others would have been born gentiles, circumcised when they became a part of the synagogue or church, taught to follow the law. The false teachers are boasting, taking pride in their Jewishness, and they want the Galatians Christians to do the same by being circumcised and following the law.

How do we divide ourselves up into false categories instead of uniting over faith?

Just as the Judiazers placed their faith in connection with Abraham instead of Christ, we can place our faith in the Church instead of Christ. We can think that we are a part of the “right people” because we come to church, instead of putting our faith in Christ and his righteousness. You do not come to church because it makes you a Christian, you come to church because you are a Christian and because this is the place where we come to boast about Christ together. You should not attend regularly to boast in your connection with church, you should attend regularly to boast about Christ together. You should come to church regularly. You are commanded to in Scripture to hear the Word of God, to encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ and to be encouraged by them. You are to come together to boast in the person of Jesus Christ. Is that why you are coming to church? Do you come to church because it looks good to others? Do you come to church because you put your trust in that you are a part of the “right” group? Or do you come to church to boast in the Jesus Christ?

Do you come to church because it is the right thing to do? Because its what good Christians do?

I have realized a tendency in myself to put my faith in other people’s faith, just like the judaizers put faith in Abraham’s faith. Like, I look at Marahsll and think, “there ia an awesome dude, he’s smart, he’s well read, and he’s cool, so because He’s smart and believes in God, I can to.” Although it is good for me to look up to Marahsl and learn from his faith, my faith needs to be in Christ.”

Pride in works

The false teachers want to keep the old division of the circumcised and uncircumcised as well as the law front and center, because this makes them look good. Just like how Sarah and Abraham tried to have a child by the flesh, by Abraham sleeping with Hagar, in the same way, the false teachers want to keep doing the law by the flesh so they can show how well they keep the law. Look at us, we are circumcised. Look at us, we give a tenth of our money, our spices, our crops. They want to show off in how they can keep the law in their own strength, show off in the flesh.

How do try and show off in our own strength instead of boasting in Christ?

We can have a tendency to take pride in how smart we are, or in how much work we do, or in how well we parent our children. These are not bad things to pursue or even to share with other people, but it is pride when we think of ourselves as better than others, when we think more highly of ourselves then we should. The false teachers want to boast in their own accomplishments, instead of in the cross of Christ.

2. Fear of opposition

The second motivation for living for self is avoiding opposition for the gospel. The false teachers are preaching circumcision and the keeping of the law because it makes them more tolerable to non-Christian jews. If they maintain that circumcision and the law are a necessary part of Christianity, then they can avoid the opposition and persecution of those offended by the cross of Christ. The result is that they do not preach the cross of Christ as the only means of restoration to God.

As Marshal noted a couple weeks ago, Paul did not have a problem with circumcising Timothy for ministry to the Jews. Timothy, as a half-jew himself, could be circumcised in order to not be a stumbling block to the Jews. Where Paul draws a clear line is in the preaching of circumcision for all gentile believers and the keeping of the law as necessary for the Christian life. They are adding to the gospel in order to avoid opposition and ultimately persecution of rhe cross of Christ.

The idea is, “we are just like you.” We are circumcised, we teach the law, there is no need to persecute us. This motivation to avoid opposition results in watering down the gospel. It changes the message from salvation in Christ alone to one that includes works of the flesh. The Jewish people understood their relationship with God as a result of their decent from Abraham. But Paul has demonstrated in Galatians that it is those of faith who are the true descendants of Abraham. Thus, to maintain circumcision as necessary is to hold physical descent from Abraham as the center of salvation instead of the cross of Christ. Our unity with Abraham is that we both have faith in the person of Jesus Christ who would save us from our sins.

The false teachers pervert the gospel in order to avoid persecution. By including circumcision and keeping the law, they try to make Christianity palatable to the Jews.

How do we change our theology in order to avoid opposition for the cross of Christ? Sometimes we can literally change our theology to try and be more tolerable or fit in with those around us. In our culture it is usually avoiding the topics of sin, the sacredness of human life, the judgment of God, etc. We don’t want to offend those around us by our faith, but usually with a self-pleasing motive. I don’t want to be uncomfortable by having a difficult conversation. I don’t want people to think I am insane for believing there is a God. I don’t want people to think I am loser because I don’t sexualize people. We can let a fear of opposition or criticism about our faith keep us silent about the gospel, keep us quiet from boasting in Christ.

3. Pride in Followers

The third motivation of the false teachers is to gain followers for their own boasting. They want all the gentile Christians to be circumcised and to follow the law of Moses so that they can boast. “Look at the work we have done, we’ve circumcised this many people.” They want to boast about circumcising gentiles, because it maintains the distinction of the circumcised and the uncircumcised. This boasting can be both in front of non-Christian Jews and Christian Jews. The result is that they can boast in their followers instead of boasting in the Jesus they claim to follow. They desire to boast in the physical acts of circumcision and keeping of the law, instead of boasting in the inner work of the Spirit. They want to boast in what they are doing on the outside, instead of what Christ is doing on the inside. They want to boast about bringing people into the fleshly descent of Abraham, instead of the family of faith with Abraham. They want to boast in increasing the people of Israel, instead of the family of God.

The false teachers want to be the best. Do you know what the problem with only boasting in Jesus Christ is? He is the only one that gets to be the best!

How do we focus on influencing others to things other than Christ? The false teachers wanted the gentile believers to act like Jews, to act like them. They wanted to boast in how many people were following them and living like them. This can be a danger for us. We can think our way is the only way. We know the way that we live and follow Jesus and we can assume that this should look the same way for everyone. The unity of the church is not in following Jesus like a Jew or following Jesus like a Gentile, but that they all follow Jesus. Our desire when guiding and helping others is that we point them to Jesus not ourselves.