Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Well last week as we came back to our exposition of Galatians, we encountered a deeper understanding of what Justification is.

We looked at Paul’s understanding of what happens when a person is justified by the Father and how that impacts our walk with Christ.

More importantly than that though, we examined how it is that God moves the person being justified into a new position so that He can look upon us His people and say unto them, “this is my beloved son or daughter, in whom I am well pleased.”

And today Paul is going to be answering some very common questions pertaining to this issue.

Arguments that no doubt were asked of him when he proclaimed this Gospel message.

One of which is found in the very first part of our text for the day.

Please turn with me in your Bible’s to .

Read, Pray

In this modern generation, there are many pre-conceived notions concerning Christianity.

One notion concerning Christianity is that it could be defined as follows:

To become a Christian, take the 10 things that you love to do the most and quit doing them.

Then take the 10 things you hate to do and start doing them.

I kid you not.

This is a concept or understanding of Christianity by many people.

I had a conversation once with a young lady who claimed to be a Christian.

She was professing the name of the Lord Jesus Christ while walking down Bourbon street, clearly intoxicated and a stack of beads around her neck.

Now in order for her to get those beads, more than likely she was required to expose herself.

I asked her what it meant to be a Christian and her response was fairly similar to this.

She said that she had set aside the things that she enjoyed most and then grabbed onto the life of moral goodness that the local priest had shown her.

The problem though was that she was focused upon only action.

She believed that through leaving off the things she truly enjoyed in her heart and picking up these new behaviors, she could be made into a Christian.

So how do you explain this type of misconception?

How is it that the world around us has developed this idea about Christianity?

Now I’m not saying that this view is everywhere.

What I am saying though is that this perception exists.

And I think it exists more in the form of thinking.

Christians don’t do that.

They do this instead.

This perception of Christianity exists because instead of the world knowing of the Gospel of grace.

They know of a rule book Gospel.

And if I can try to define why it is that the world believes this it would be this.

I think that within the Church we have a skewed view and understanding of what it means to live as Christians.

We create a legalistic mindset and then offer that to other people as the Gospel.

Though our intentions may not be this.

This is the perception of the outside world.

Now listen, I’m not talking about the Church at Star City or Kirkwood Baptist Church.

I’m talking about the Church universal.

Without intention of doing so, we offer up to the world a rulebook Christianity.

And if I had to draw a comparison, I think that is precisely what Paul is fighting against here in Galatians.

Yet I don’t mean this at a knock at Christ’ Church.

I mean this to say this, I think we often misunderstand the purpose of the Gospel.

I think that what the world has been sold is a Gospel that is bound by a rulebook.

They’ve been sold this instead of the truth which was that Jesus gave His life so that we may have an abundant life.

A life that is both fulfilling in Him here on earth and everlasting into eternity.

Instead of showing the world the great beauty of the forgiveness of Christ and the abundant life He promised.

We instead show them the list of rules that they can and can’t do.

Paul here in Galatians shows himself and the Gospel to be completely against this mindset.

He had no care for legalistic Christianity.

He not only called it a false Gospel but He called it no Gospel at all.

If I had to make an argument concerning one sin from the New Testament that seems to find it’s way into the Church and stays there it would be this issue.

In the first, second, third, fourth, fifth through to today’s generation, this has been an issue.

A misunderstanding of the Gospel has and will probably always be present until the Lord shall return.

I have said this time after time but I don’t think I’ve said it enough.

A true understanding of the Gospel leaves every portion of the Law to the side.

And inside of that understanding, the Grace we see is profound.

Profound in such a way that we know that we could sin and we would be forgiven.

Yet our desire is not such.

Our desire is to walk with God.

But what’s often proclaimed in the Church today is this idea that says that we must do something.

Follow Jesus, give up this, give up that and you’ll be alright.

Listen, in this text today, we don’t find that idea.

We don’t find an idea that says that you have to give up anything.

Instead what we will find is that through Jesus’ perfect work, we die with Christ in His death and we rise with Him in His resurrection.

And that it is now not I who lives but Christ who lives in us.

And that our obedience to Him is so much more than merely following the law.

That’s Paul’s entire response to legalism.

Understand that we as born again believers upon the Lord Jesus Christ have died and it is now Christ who lives in us.

Throughout all of the text’s that we’ve been studying, Paul has made it his entire point to crush this idea of legalistic philosophies.

But the Jews argument comes back and they ask this question.

If we are then justified in Christ and we are found to be sinners, doesn’t that make Christ to be a servant of sin.

Remember that term from last week where the Gentiles were called sinners?

That is in essence what they are saying to Paul concerning Christ.

Let me lay out this argument for you on their behalf.

If after you’ve looked unto the saving work of Christ, and you continue to sin, doesn’t this mean that Christ is now the promoter of sin.

But Paul’s response is of course not.

To reject the law may make us “sinners” in the eyes of the Jews, but in God’s eyes we are doing the right thing!

Let me rephrase that for us today and I think in doing so, it’ll help us understand the argument.

To reject legalistic Christianity may make us “sinners” in the eyes of the legalist today, but in God’s eyes we are doing the right thing!

Abandoning the Law and embracing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is more righteous than any man who may try to find their own way.

For once we have died to the person of old, we are not now living in ourselves but we live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now some people have believed this idea to promote a form of lawlessness in the Christian life.

And that is actually an understanding of this passage that many people hold to.

The Judiazers complained that justification by faith, apart from the works of the law will promote a form of antinomianism or lawlessness.

Yet in comparing this idea with Paul’s other letters we can see that this just isn’t so.

Paul didn’t believe in lawlessness but he was often accused of it in .

And in some ways I can understand this accusation.

Paul has spent all this time arguing against the law and in doing so, his hearers have all but heard him say that the Law doesn’t matter.

So in a sense I can understand the accusation.

Think of it in this way.

If the only fix for lawlessness is to institute a law, then to argue against the law would be to create lawlessness.

But Paul isn’t arguing against right living in this passage.

Paul isn’t arguing against obedience to the Law.

His argument is instead that the Christian acts upon the inward principle of the Law and isn’t worried about the external exposure of it.

Paul is arguing for an obedience of the inward law.

One that although it does parallel the moral law.

Actually goes beyond the moral Law’s requirements.

The problem with grabbing hold of this idea at this point in the text though is that Paul’s purpose has nothing to do with this.

Paul is not focused upon the believers rule of life.

He’s not focused on the believers motivation to holiness.