Either Christ Is Enough, or He Isn't

Introduction

If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those and turn with me to Galatians chapter 5.

Y'all, we are almost through the book of Galatians. We have just about three weeks left in this book and I pray that you have been blessed through this study.

And once we are finished with this series in Galatians, we are going to spend some time this summer in the Psalms.

I’m really excited about that. So stick with us.

Now if you have been with us in Galatians, you know that Paul has been fighting for the gospel since verse 1.

He has defended his apostleship, rebuked Peter to his face, walked us through the story of Abraham, and drawn the sharpest possible line between two ways of standing before God — the way of law-keeping and the way of faith in Christ.

Last week, we sat with Hagar and Sarah, with Ishmael and Isaac, with the Jerusalem below and the Jerusalem above.

And Paul's conclusion was unambiguous: we are children of the free woman. We are not slaves. We have been set free.

Aren't you thankful for the freedom that we have in Christ?

Now in chapter five he drives that freedom home — and he does it with an urgency that should stop us cold.

Something that we have to remember is that the Galatians were not abandoning Christ outright.

They were adding to him. They were implying, whether they knew it or not, that Christ's death and resurrection was not enough to secure our salvation.

That it was also necessary to earn our standing with God through good works and religious rituals.

And that is so much more dangerous than outright unbelief because of its subtlety.

Why?

Because if we were honest for a minute, we would admit that we are in danger of this very thing.

All of us — it doesn't matter how long you have been following Christ — are in danger of adding to the gospel.

We have been set free.

We are no longer slaves to the law. We are no longer slaves to sin.

We have been set free by Christ through the glorious gospel of his death and resurrection.

And either Christ is enough, or he isn't.

It's either Christ plus nothing equals everything, or Christ plus anything equals nothing.

If we attempt to add anything to Christ’s perfect work, then we are lost.

That is Paul’s point.

Paul wants to make sure we understand what exactly is at stake if we walk back into bondage. Look at verse 2.

This morning, we will just have two points.

And this is the first point,

Point 1: You Cannot Add to Christ Without Losing Him (vv. 2–6)

Let’s started with verse 2,

Galatians 5:2 “Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.”

Notice first how Paul opens this section.

He says , “I, Paul.”

What he is doing here is he is invoking his full apostolic weight. He wants them to know that what he is about to say will carry his God-given authority as an Apostle of Christ.

This is not just his perspective. He is saying that what he is about to say comes directly from God.

What does he say?

He gives a warning to the Galatians who are being tempted to add circumcision to their faith in Christ as a way of securing their standing before God.

And his warning to these people is heavy.

He says, if you attempt to add anything to Christ… Then Christ will be of no advantage to you.

What did he mean by that?

He is not saying Christ becomes your enemy.

He is not saying Christ stops loving you.

He is saying something more sobering than that.

Circumcision in this context isn't just a physical ritual.

It is a declaration.

It is signing your name to a system. It is saying that you need something in addition to Christ to secure your standing before God.

And the moment you do that, [Slow] you have stepped outside the system of grace entirely.

You haven't added to Christ — you’ve walked away from him.

This is where it really hits home for us.

Because we are not tempted by circumcision. We are not tempted by becoming Jewish and observing the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament.

No, but we are tempted by its functional equivalents aren’t we?

Let me ask you a hard question.

When you fail — when your devotion has been cold, when you have done the very thing you said you would never do — where do you go first to make it right?

Do you go to Christ?

Or do you go to your own performance first?

Because where you go when you fail reveals what is actually load-bearing in your theology.

Verse 3,

Paul says,

Galatians 5:3 “I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.”

This is the hard truth that Paul is getting at…

If you accept circumcision as your covenantal entry point.

Then you are under the Old Covenant.

And what that means is that you are now obligated to live your life under the Old Covenant.

But there is huge a problem with that.

Living under the Old Covenant cannot make you right with God.

Why?

Because just like Paul has been saying in this entire letter,

The law was never designed to make you righteous.

It was designed to show you that you need someone outside of yourself who is.

The Galatians may have thought they were just adding one small thing to the gospel, to the New Covenant in Christ.

But Paul says no — you are signing up for all of it.

Every command. Every requirement. Every standard.

You don't get to pick which parts apply to you.

Do you see the problem with that?

[Pause]

There are only two Covenants you can be a part of.

The Old Covenant or the New.

And who among us can keep the whole law perfectly? Not one person other than Christ.

That is exactly Paul's point.

And if you are under the Old Covenant, you are lost in your sins and are outside of Christ.

That is exactly what Paul says next in verse 4,

He says,

Galatians 5:4 “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”

[Slow]

That is heavy, isn’t it?

Paul says that when we rely on religious performance we are severed from Christ.

We are separated from him.

Cut off from the only source of life and righteousness that exists.

And when he says we are fallen from grace, he doesn't mean that grace has failed — he is saying that you have turned away from it as your system of standing before God.

Spurgeon said, "If you mean to have anything to do with salvation by works, get you gone; you are the children of the slave woman."

When we turn to performance instead of the gospel as a means of right standing with God, we are fallen from grace.

We have turned away from grace.

We have chosen to do what only Christ can do.

And here is the frightening thing about this warning.

This is not a danger for the person who doesn't care about God.

The open unbeliever is not at risk of falling from grace in the way Paul is describing here because they were never in grace.

No, this is the danger for the religious person.

The serious person.

The person who loves God, who shows up, who tries hard, who wants to do the right thing.

Because that person — without even realizing it — can quietly shift from resting in Christ to [Slow] relying on their own religious seriousness as the ground of their standing before God.

And it happens slowly.

It doesn't announce itself.

You don't wake up one morning and decide that Christ isn't enough.

You just start measuring.

You start keeping score.

You start feeling closer to God on the days your performance is up and distant from him on the days it isn't.

And what you have done — without meaning to — is replace grace with a system.

A system where your standing before God rises and falls with your obedience.

That is exactly what the Galatians were doing.

They weren't abandoning Christ outright.

They were just adding something to him.

And Paul says that addition — however small it seems — is falling from grace.

This is why the gospel has to be preached constantly.

Not just to unbelievers.

But to us.

To people who already believe.

Because the drift toward performance is never far away.

Now I want to pause here for just a moment because someone is wondering — is Paul saying you can lose your salvation?

That is a fair question.

But that is not what Paul is addressing here.

He is not describing a true believer who stumbles and falls.

He is warning the Galatians against making a deliberate choice to turn from grace and replace it with law-keeping as their system of standing before God.

The warning is real.

But so is the security of everyone who is truly in Christ, amen?

And Paul is about to show us why in verse 5.

I love this next verse.

Verse 5,

Galatians 5:5 “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.”

This verse should make you excited.

Did you notice the shift Paul makes?

He moves from warning against law-keeping for righteousness to worship that can only be inspired from being in grace.

All in one verse.

He moves from the alarm language of severed and fallen to this word — eagerly wait.

And that word carries the sense of eager, expectant anticipation.

Like a child on Christmas morning. Like a soldier who has received word that the war is over and he is going home.

What are we waiting for?

The hope of righteousness.

Now that phrase might sound strange to us.

If we are already justified — if the verdict has already been rendered — what are we waiting for?

We are waiting for the full and final revelation of that righteousness.

Here is what Paul means.

Yes, we are already justified. That is settled.

Christ's righteousness has been credited to our account. He is in us.

But we are moving toward the full consummation of that verdict — the day when every eye will see what is already true.

The day when the new creation is fully unveiled.

The day when the sons and daughters of the Jerusalem above are revealed in glory.

We are not striving toward righteousness like the religious are when they are observing their religious rules.

We are waiting for its full revelation.

And how are we waiting?

Through the Spirit, by faith.

The Spirit himself is the down payment of that future.

The guarantee that what God has begun he will complete.

This is the contrast Paul is drawing.

The Galatians were looking backward — to a physical rite, to a system that has been fulfilled and set aside in Christ.

But Paul says stop looking backward.

Instead, look forward.

Why? Because the full verdict is coming.

And it will vindicate everyone who trusted Christ alone.

Let me ask you this this morning.

Are you striving?

Or are you waiting?

Striving is exhausting.

It never ends.

There is always another standard to meet. Another requirement to fulfill. Another day where you wonder if you did enough.

That is the life Paul is warning the Galatians against.

A life of perpetual striving toward a righteousness you can never fully reach.

But the life Paul is describing in verse 5 is completely different.

It is the life of someone who is waiting.

Not anxiously. Not frantically.

But eagerly. Confidently. Restfully.

Like someone who has already won and is simply waiting for the victory to be fully revealed.

That is what grace produces.

Not striving — waiting.

Not anxiety — anticipation.

Not exhaustion — rest.

And if you are striving for righteousness, I want you to hear me…

You will be disappointed when Christ appears.

Because he is not coming for those who are striving.

He is coming for those who are waiting.

Who long to see him.

That person knows that their only hope is Christ.

That there is nothing they can bring to the table.

And that is exactly enough.

Verse 6,

Galatians 5:6 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”

Did you hear what Paul said?

Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything.

Paul is not just saying circumcision is unnecessary.

He is saying that in Christ, the entire framework of your religious identity markers has been set aside.

It doesn't matter which side of that line you were on.

None of it counts.

What counts?

Faith working through love.

And here is the beauty of that phrase.

Faith working through love is not faith plus love as two separate requirements.

It is not another item on the list.

It is not a condition you have to meet alongside faith.

It is faith that is alive.

Faith that has been set free from the anxiety of self-justification and now has room to love.

Think about it this way:

When you are striving — when you are exhausted from trying to maintain your standing before God — you don't have much room to love anybody.

Why?

Because you are too consumed with your own spiritual performance.

But when you are resting in Christ alone — when you know the verdict is in and the ground beneath you is secure — something is freed up.

Gratitude rises.

And out of that gratitude, love begins to flow.

Faith leads us by the way of gratitude up to the standpoint of love.

It begets in us a desire to please Christ and to imitate him.

Because love always grows like its object.

You cannot love a thing without becoming something like it.

And just in proportion as you love Jesus, you will find yourself becoming like him —

and inevitably becoming a lover of the people around you.

That is something circumcision law-keeping, and religious performance can never produce.

Law-keeping produces anxiety, striving, comparison, and despair.

Faith working through love produces gratitude, freedom, and a life that looks increasingly like Christ.

So here is what I want you to do this morning.

I want you to stop striving.

Not because obedience doesn't matter. Not because holiness isn't important.

But because your striving was never what held you.

Christ holds you.

And he has never once needed your help doing it.

If you have been exhausted — if you have been measuring, keeping score, wondering if you have done enough — I want you to hear the verdict that has already been rendered over your life in Christ.

[Slow]

You. are. righteous.

Not because of what you have done.

But because of what he has done.

His obedience credited to your account.

His death absorbing everything that stood against you.

His resurrection guaranteeing everything that is still to come.

Rest in that this morning.

Let the striving go.

And if you have never trusted Christ alone — if you have been carrying the weight of your own religious performance hoping it will be enough — I want you to know that it will never be enough.

Not because God is cruel.

But because the law was never designed to save you.

It was designed to show you that you need someone who can.

And that someone is Christ.

Trust him this morning.

Not Christ plus your performance. Not Christ plus your church attendance. Not Christ plus anything.

[Pause]

Christ alone.

Because either he is enough, or he isn't.

And the good news of this gospel is that he is.

He is enough.

[Pause]

But here is where we have to ask a hard question.

If the gospel is this clear — if Christ alone is this sufficient — then why are so many people walking away from it?

Why were the Galatians being pulled away from the very freedom Paul just described?

Because there were voices. Persuasive voices. Voices that complicated the simple sufficiency of Christ with religious requirements and conditions.

And that brings us to our second point this morning.

Point 2: Beware of Any Voice That Complicates the Gospel (vv. 7–12)

There are voices all around us that are complicating the simple message of the gospel of Christ alone.

I would argue that there are more voices today than even in Paul’s day.

In verse 7, Paul write,

Galatians 5:7 “You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?”

I love how Paul opens this section.

He doesn’t come out swinging with condemnation.

He opens as their pastor who is mourning their departure from the faith.

He says — you were running well.

There is something tender in that.

Paul is acknowledging what they had when he last saw.

He had seen these people come to faith. He had watched them run. And they were running well.

But something happened.

Someone cut in on them. Someone stepped into their lane and broke their stride.

And now they are no longer running toward Christ.

They are running toward something else.

And Paul asks the question that every one of us needs to sit with this morning.

Who hindered you?

Who was it that complicated the simple sufficiency of Christ for you?

Whose voice got into your head and added conditions to grace?

Whose teaching made you feel like faith alone wasn't quite enough?

Paul already knows the answer. But he wants the Galatians to name it themselves.

Because until you identify the voice that is pulling you away from the gospel, you cannot silence it.

And that is exactly what we need to do this morning.

We need to identify the voices that are complicating the gospel for us.

Verse 8,

Galatians 5:8 “This persuasion is not from him who calls you.”

Paul is unambiguous here.

This new teaching that you have accepted, this requirement that you have taken on — it did not come from God.

Think about what he is saying.

The same God who called you out of darkness and into grace — the same God who opened your eyes to the sufficiency of Christ — is not now calling you back into law-keeping.

That is not his voice.

That is not his gospel.

God called you to faith in his Son.

Not faith plus works.

Not faith plus circumcision.

Faith alone.

So if someone is teaching you otherwise — if someone is adding conditions to the grace that saved you — that voice is not from God.

It doesn't matter how confident they sound.

It doesn't matter how many Bible verses they use.

It doesn't matter how sincere they appear.

If the message complicates the simple sufficiency of Christ, it did not come from the God who calls.

And here is what makes this so dangerous.

The drift toward performance can happen on its own. It is already a temptation in our own hearts.

We are naturally inclined toward earning, toward measuring, toward keeping score.

But false teaching pours fuel on that fire. It takes what is already a temptation in our hearts and gives it the appearance of authority.

It makes the drift feel like obedience.

That is exactly what was happening in Galatia.

And Paul says — that voice is not from God.

Verse 9,

Galatians 5:9 “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.”

Paul uses a simple image that everyone in his day would have understood.

When you make bread, you don't need a lot of leaven to affect the whole loaf.

A little goes in and it works its way through everything.

You cannot contain it. You cannot isolate it. Once it is in — it spreads.

And that is exactly what false doctrine does.

It doesn't announce itself as poison.

It doesn't come in and say — I am here to destroy your faith.

It comes in small. Subtle. Reasonable sounding.

Just one little addition to the gospel.

Just one small requirement alongside grace.

But it spreads.

It works its way into the way you think about God.

Into the way you approach prayer. Into the way you measure your own standing before him. Into the way you read your Bible.

Before long the whole lump is affected and you can't even remember what the pure gospel tasted like anymore.

Spurgeon said,

One voice can influence thousands.

One piece of false doctrine can taint a whole creed.

This is why Paul takes this so seriously.

This is why he is so urgent.

Because he has watched a little leaven get into these Galatian churches and he can see where it is heading.

And it is heading somewhere bad.

But Paul doesn’t end on alarm.

Verse 10,

Galatians 5:10 “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.”

After all of that urgent warning — after the alarm language of severed and fallen, after the leaven spreading through the whole lump — Paul says I have confidence in you.

Not confidence in their own strength. Not confidence in their ability to figure it out on their own.

He says I have confidence in the Lord.

It is the Lord who will bring them back.

It is the Lord who will guard his people from the leaven of false teaching.

It is the Lord who will complete what he began in them.

That is pastoral grace.

[Pause]

Paul loves these people.

And even in the middle of his sharpest warning he cannot help but express his confidence that God is not finished with them.

But then he turns to the false teachers themselves.

The one who is troubling you will bear the penalty. Whoever he is.

That last phrase — whoever he is — is important.

Paul is not naming the agitator. But he is making clear that God knows exactly who it is.

No false teacher operates outside of God's sight. No one who leads the people of God away from the gospel will escape his justice.

That is both a warning and a comfort.

A warning to anyone who would complicate the gospel for the people of God — there is a penalty coming.

And a comfort to everyone who has been led astray — God sees it.

And he will make it right.

Let’s keep going — We’re almost done,

Paul closes this section with two final moves in verses 11 and 12.

Galatians 5:11 “But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.”

Galatians 5:12 “I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!”

First Paul defends himself and his gospel once again.

Apparently, the agitators had been claiming that Paul himself still preached circumcision in certain contexts. They were accusing him of hypocrisy.

And Paul shuts that down immediately.

How?

By pointing to his own persecution.

If Paul were preaching circumcision, nobody would be persecuting him.

The very reason Paul is being hunted, beaten, and left for dead is precisely because he is preaching a gospel that removes every human contribution from salvation.

That is what offends people.

That is what makes the cross a scandal.

And that word — offense — is worth pausing on.

Why?

Because the cross is offensive because it leaves no room for your contribution.

It says that you brought nothing to your salvation.

That Christ did everything.

That your only role was to receive what you could never earn.

That is the offense of the cross.

And Paul says if you add circumcision to the gospel — if you add anything to the gospel — you remove that offense.

You make the cross just one step in a longer process rather than the whole and final answer.

And then verse 12.

Paul's frustration boils over.

He says, “I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves.”

That is a shocking line.

Paul is being deliberately sharp here.

He is saying — if circumcision is so important to these teachers, why stop there? And that is as far as I will go with that.

But his point is that anyone who is leading the people of God away from the sufficiency of Christ has no place among them.

Beware of that voice.

Beware of teachers out there that are leading you into religion and law-keeping.

Closing

You can go ahead and close your Bibles.

I want to close this morning with a short story of a man named Thomas Goodwin.

Goodwin was a seventeenth century Puritan theologian.

He was one of the greatest minds of his generation.

He knew his Bible. He believed the right things.

And yet for seven years after his conversion he could not find peace with God.

The problem wasn't his theology.

It was where he was looking.

He kept looking at himself.

Examining his obedience.

Measuring his devotion.

Asking whether his faith was strong enough to confirm that grace was real. And the more he looked at himself the more he found to doubt.

Until a wise pastor finally told him — stop looking at yourself. Look to Christ alone.

And when Goodwin did — the peace he had been searching for came rushing in.

Here is why I am telling you that story.

Goodwin wasn't a Judaizer.

He wasn't trying to earn his salvation.

But functionally he had added a quiet condition to grace.

And it nearly swallowed him whole.

[Quietly and Slowly]

That happens to us.

All the time.

And the cure for that problem is the same one Paul prescribes in Galatians 5.

Stop looking at yourself and your performance.

Look to Christ.

Because either Christ is enough or he isn't.

And the good news of the gospel is this.

[Slow]

He is enough.

Let’s go ahead and stand and pray about it.

Response

This morning I want to give you an opportunity to respond to that question.

Maybe you have been striving.

Maybe you have been adding.

Maybe you have been listening to voices that have complicated the gospel for you.

Today is the day to stop.

This is the time to repent and respond.

Christ is enough.

Or maybe you have never met Christ.

You can meet him today.

I and a couple of our elders will be standing at the front during this last song.

If you would like to speak with someone. If you would like prayer.

We would love to talk.

Let me pray and we will sing one last song together.