A Letter to the Recovering Pharisee, A Call to Remember the Truth of the Gospel and the Freedom it brings
Intro
Whenever the church has understood this gospel message, Galatians has brought life and freedom to recovering Pharisees.
This was true in the life of Martin Luther (1483–1546), the father of the Reformation. Luther had tried everything he knew to be a good Christian. He wrote, “I was a good monk and kept my order so strictly that I could claim that if ever a monk were able to reach heaven by monkish discipline I should have found my way there. All my fellows in the house, who knew me, would bear me out in this. For if it had continued much longer I would, what with vigils, prayers, readings and other such works, have done myself to death.”2 Yet as hard as Luther worked, his conscience was still troubled by the thought that he was not good enough for God. He didn’t understand the gospel of grace. His breakthrough came when he discovered that Christianity was not about what he had to do for God; it was about what God had done for him in Jesus Christ.
What is the truth of the Gospel?
Paul uses the assurance of predestination to strengthen the church for her struggles against evil and discouragement. This perspective does not solve all our logical questions about predestination; however, understanding Paul’s purpose helps us properly contextualize our presentation of this precious doctrine when we talk to others. Predestination was never meant to be a doctrinal club used to batter people into acknowledgments of God’s sovereignty. Rather, the message of God’s love preceding our accomplishments and outlasting our failures was meant to give us a profound sense of confidence and security in God’s love so that we will not despair in situations of great difficulty, pain, and shame.
A woman named Lisa writes:
Adoption is attractive to me because it is the perfect antidote to legalism.… [Legalism] was the driving force in my life. I kept trying to be good enough for God but despaired at how impossible the task was. At the very heart I was afraid of one thing. At some point I would do something terrible and consequently lose my salvation. Although the church I was raised in preached assurance of salvation, I often wondered if I believed it mostly because I wanted it to be true. The confusion came from the fact that although the churches I attended said they believed in the assurance of salvation, they preached a list of things one had to do to be a “good Christian.” I got the feeling that if you failed in any of those areas you probably were not saved to begin with.
The study of adoption has clarified the confusion I once felt. Adoption is a legal procedure which secures a child’s identity in a new family.… God didn’t choose to be our foster parent. We don’t get kicked out of the family because of our behavior. We don’t have to worry day to day whether or not we are good enough to be part of the family. In his infinite kindness, God made us a permanent part of his family.… Nothing can undo the legal procedure that binds me to Christ. He died to redeem me. He signed the adoption papers, so to speak, with his blood. Nothing can cancel the work he did for me. I am free from the fear of falling away. Hallelujah!9
“I do not seek [my own] active righteousness. I ought to have and perform it; but I declare that even if I did have it and perform it, I cannot trust in it or stand up before the judgment of God on the basis of it. Thus I … embrace only … the righteousness of Christ … which we do not perform but receive, which we do not have but accept, when God the Father grants it to us through Jesus Christ.”3
How then is one right with God?
“No human deeds, however well motivated and sincerely performed, can ever achieve the kind of standing before God that results in the verdict of justification.”
Faith is a total surrender to Jesus Christ, a complete acceptance of all that he is and all that he has done for our salvation. The reason faith justifies is that it takes hold of Christ, and Christ is the one who makes us right with God. We are acceptable to God—not by keeping the law ourselves, but by trusting in the only man who ever did keep it, Jesus Christ. The doctrine of justification can be stated in these general terms: we get right with God not by observing the law, but only by trusting in his Son.
In Luther’s words, “Now the true meaning of Christianity is this: that a man first acknowledge, through the Law, that he is a sinner, for whom it is impossible to perform any good work.… If you want to be saved, your salvation does not come by works; but God has sent His only Son into the world that we might live through Him. He was crucified and died for you and bore your sins in His own body.”19
This is for our Freedom.
This is for our Freedom.
Conclusion:
Consider what the gospel says. It does not tell us what we have to do to please God. Instead, it announces that God is already pleased with us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God is as pleased with us as he is with his own Son. This liberates us from seeking the approval of others. At the same time, it frees us from striving for God’s favor. We already have the tender affection of his eternal love. What more do we need? Nothing more, which is why the one true gospel is such amazingly good news.
“When the devil accuses us and says: ‘You are a sinner; therefore you are damned,’ then we can answer him and say: ‘Because you say that I am a sinner, therefore I shall be righteous and be saved.’ ‘No,’ says the devil, ‘you will be damned.’ ‘No,’ I say, ‘for I take refuge in Christ, who has given Himself for my sins.’ ”9
