Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Legalism can take many forms.

The late R.C. Sproul said legalism “involves abstracting the law of God from its original context.”

There are some within Christians circles that focus on obeying rules and regulations and perceive Christianity as a series of do’s and don’ts.

It is true that God cares deeply about following His commandments, in fact, Jesus said in , “if you love me, keep my commands,” and there are an estimated 400 commands of Jesus in the gospels.

That can become overwhelming for a person to try and memorize all 400 of those commands.

We must understand that the commands of Jesus and God boil down to morality-based commands.

They are not outward actions to a certain point; however, the source of obedience for a Christian is based in love.

Out love toward God, and the overflow of that love then flows outward toward others.

Dr. Sproul said there are three types of legalism that can bee seen in a church: (1) obedience to bare rules in which we separate the law from God instead of obedience based in a relationship with God, (2) divorcing the letter of the law from the spirit of the law and losing sight of the true intent of the what the law was for.

Divorcing the letter of the law from the spirit of the law pushes the person into outward actions alone instead of and internal feeling, and (3) adding your own rules or traditions to what one would consider “decent Christian behavior.”

For example, the Bible is not explicit on drinking say a glass of wine with dinner, but some would argue the passage of scripture that says, “do not be drunk with wine” as an example of the scripture speaking out against drinking, or perhaps, a regulation that says boys and girls cannot swim together because they may come in contact with each other under the water and thus open the door to other sinful activities, or even the expectation that one (a Christian) does not go to movies because it’s dark in there and who knows what is going on in the movie theater, and thus removing themselves from anything in the world.

There are some matters that we absolutely cannot establish as a test of what we might consider true Christianity, and come very close to a heretical way of thinking because we substitute traditional ways of thinking for scripture.

We must understand that Christians have freedom and discernment over things that we may or may not see as sinful.

Our actions should, of course, be based on scripture and there are certain things that are blatantly sinful, and thus we should not partake of those things, but there are things that we must be very careful to understand that even though they may not be spoke of explicitly in scripture, we should base it on the effects of our actions on others.

Text:

In our text this morning, Paul makes a transition from establishing his authority to speak on these matters in chapters 1 & 2 and his biblical basis fro his argument in chapters 3 & 4, to making personal application for the Galatians in the last two chapters.

Paul is going to help the Galatians establish a basis for what the true Christian life is and that is the freedom of being broken away from a set of laws and obligations to a life and attitude change through Jesus and His atonement on the cross of all who believe.

Jesus freed us from the slavery of sin and obligation to righteousness by works.

Verse 1:

Paul opens this passage with a very strong exhortation for the believers to “stand firm.”

As we already discussed, there were some that were in the process of turning toward the corrupted gospel of the Judaizers that were telling the believers that in order to maintain their salvation, they had to add works of the law to their life.

This is simply not true in the life of the believer, and Paul said back in chapter one that if anyone preached a gospel other that salvation by God’s grace alone, by faith alone, and in Christ alone, those that taught that perverted gospel should be accursed.

One important thing to note about verse one is the way it is worded.

Paul makes the assertion that it was for freedom that Christ set us free.

Although this may sound a bit redundant, we must understand that this is important.

It is important because of the imperative that follows that statement: “stand firm.”

What Paul is saying is that we can stand firm in our faith knowing that this was the entire purpose of Jesus and His death on the cross.

He was to be the one that bore the curse for us as Paul has already explained so that we did not have to try and bear that curse which we could never bear on our own.

Since Jesus became that curse for us, we can stand firm in that knowledge, and will never have to bear the yoke (or burden) of the slavery of sin ever again.

The Judaizers would argue that without the law, Christians would basically run wild and do whatever they want.

They pushed the law to believers so that they could show their right standing with God.

This is just not how that works.

The freedom that is being spoken of that Christ has set us free from is the bondage and slaver non-believers have to the world and their sinful natures.

While a non-christian can be free to believe whatever they want, and most do, it is the sin that drives them.

It is the worldly order that becomes the principal factor in their lives, yet for a Christian, when we accept the freedom from those bonds, we learn that it is no longer a self-oriented life that we lead, it is a God and others-oriented life that we begin to lead.

We are not driven by selfish desires, or rather we shouldn’t be drive by those desires, but we are consumed with a need to please God so that our offering of sacrifice may be held acceptable before Him.

Paul calls turning to a system of works according to the law, a “yoke.”

This is the very same imagery that Peter used in at the Jerusalem council when he said, “Now, therefore, why are you putting Go to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?” Peter knew, just as Paul did, that no one could stand up to the letter of the law, and that it beget legalism galore, especially among the religious elite that placed their boasting in how well they could live according to the law.

That was the yoke.

It was something that became a controlling factor in a person’s life.

It was something that steered them and drove them, and Paul is encouraging the Galatians not be burden themselves with that again.

Turning to legalism will rob you of the spiritual benefits of the Holy Spirit.

Verses 2-6:

In verses 2-6, Paul presents a pretty compelling argument to stay away from legalism.

Paul says that if you start to accept circumcision as a way to maintain salvation, “Christ will be of no advantage to you.”

This is important to understand because if we turn to a legalistic point of view, we have completely nullified the act of grace, and the atonement means nothing.

The law was just a guide, although there are some ideas and traditions that are ok spiritually, we must also understand that abiding by a set of rules or traditions, will not keep us justified to God.

It is only through the act of God’s grace that we can continually stay in God’s favor.

Paul also states that if one were to accept any form of legalism, that puts a person under an obligation to maintain that legalism going forward, and that puts a person into a state of self-righteousness, and his last argument that he makes, is that the people that move to a set of requirements of maintenance have, “fallen from grace.”

That is not to say that a person loses their salvation, but that person that moves to a system of rules and regulations has moved away from the grace of God and into a self-centered system of sanctification.

Hes sums it up quite succinctly by saying, “you are severed from Christ” meaning we have cut ourselves off from the source of our salvation and are relying on ourselves to maintain what we cannot maintain.

As adopted heirs to God through Jesus Christ, we have certain benefits in life.

Those benefits are the riches of God’s glory.

It is only living by God’s grace that we are able to partake of those benefits, and when we turn to a system of do’s and don’ts, we rob ourselves of those benefits, and this is what Paul is getting at here.

We move from being dependent on God’s grace to supply all of our needs to relying on our selves to supply what we need to get through life and past temptations.

True hope lies in faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.

In verses 5 and 6, Paul presents a contrast to what he has just stated.

He moves from talking about how abiding by sets of rules and regulations allow us to not completely righteous to how we can truly maintain our righteousness.

He says in verse 5, “for through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.”

What Paul is saying that here on earth and in this life, we will never be fully righteous, that will come later.

That is the hope of the Christian.

On this earth, we will have temptations, and many times we will fail, and that reminds us of the need to rely on God through the power of the Holy Spirit in order to get to the end.

Life is a process of sanctification.

After we are justified through Jesus and His work on the cross, we begin a journey of transformation.

That is called sanctification.

We are constantly being set apart by God to do His work, and eventually we will see the perfection we desire, but that will not come in this lifetime, and if it doesn’t come in this lifetime, then there is nothing we can do to help bring that state of being on ourselves.

When we step away from legalism, we step back into the sphere of God’s grace, and it is then and only then that we can realize the true power of the Holy Spirit, and the joy we can have knowing that we are free and not chained to a system of rules and regulations that bind us up and suck the joy out of living for God.

The Christian life is a life of love and not deeds.

Our faith works best in love.

Love for God and others.

When we can truly grasp hold of that, then we can know true joy in the freedom that Christ has given us.

The world person does not know this love.

There may be some good people in this world, but the truth is, those outside the sphere of God’s grace will never know that love for God and others as God originally intended it.

Love becomes a motivating factor for the Christian and not the result of something we have done in order to please God.

Hold fast to the truth of scripture.

Verses 7-12:

Paul uses many athletic illustrations to prove his points many times.

He talks about life as a race, but not a short distance race.

Life is spoken of as a long distance race.

Paul knew that as a Christians, we should always be prepared to settle in for the long haul, and not treat this as a sprint.

Paul writes in verse 7, “you were running well,” and now is basically asking what happened?

When he first met them, they received him as an angel, or even as they would have Jesus Himself.

He also made note that they would have gouged out their eyes and given them to him, and something happened somewhere along the way that caused them to get off that race course and lose sight of the joy they first had.

The way the phrase here is worded gives us the idea that someone had cut in on them.

Basically what that means is back in the ancient athletic games, when there would be a race, runners would be assigned a lane, and from time to time, one runner would cut over to another lane in order to get their competitor off course, and this is what Paul is alluding to here.

The Judaizers had “cut in” on the Galatians and caused them to take a spiritual detour of sorts.

Paul then changes his analogy from athletics to cooking.

He makes the statement in verse 9, “ a little leaven leavens the whole lump.”

Leaven (or yeast) was compared by Jesus to sin, and in this case, Paul is using it to refer to the issue of legalism.

Legalism doesn't infect a church all at once, it is a slow process that takes place over time, and eventually it becomes so ingrained that we don't even know why we do some of the things we do.

Legalism is not of God

Legalism is not scriptural.

We do not live by a set of rules, we live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul says in verse 8, “this persuasion is not from him who calls you.”

Legalism in any for is not from God. Legalism is man made, and relies strictly on the self-righteousness of the individual.

It slowly permeates into a group and no one notices it.

we may even introduce a form of legalism as a way of becoming more “spiritual.”

The intentions may be good, and motivations may be pure, but legalistic points tend to get focused on more that the truth of scripture.

Take the traditional Baptist view of dancing for example.