Losing Jesus

Introduction

A couple of weeks ago we got to hear a presentation from Ken Ham, the founder of Answers In Genesis, at a Christian radio forum in State College. Answers in Genesis is “an apologetics ministry dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ effectively by providing answers to questions about the Bible—particularly the Book of Genesis—regarding key issues such as creation, evolution, science, and the age of the earth.”

Over the years we have worked quite a bit with Answers In Genesis curriculum, so it was a treat to be able to go see Ken Ham in person. The foundational convictions of his ministry are very much the same as ours here at Bethel--that the Bible is to be absolutely trusted from the very first verse, and that the first eleven chapters of Genesis are recorded as literal history—not myths or allegories. God really did create the earth in six literal, consecutive days, He really did create a man named Adam out of the dust and a woman named Eve out of Adam’s rib, and He really did place them in a garden named Eden where they actually ate a piece of fruit that He had forbidden them to eat. And we take the Bible at its word that these things all happened about six thousand years ago.

Now, that is by no means the majority report in the church today. In fact, most churches in the United States in the first decade of the 21st Century would either deny that those things happened as literal history, or would claim that it is impossible to know for sure. Instead of a so-called “Young Earth” Creation, they would affirm (along with secular scientists) that the Earth is somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.5 billion years old, and that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are mythology rather than literal fact.

Those two positions, “Young Earth Creation” and “Old Earth Creation” are obviously very different opinions—both of them can’t be correct at the same time, and yet both of those positions are held by Bible-believing Christians. And so during Ken Ham’s presentation the other week, the question was posed to him: “Would you question the salvation of someone who believed that the earth was billions of years old and that life evolved over millions of years?”

And without batting an eye, Ken said, “Well, of course you know what the Bible says in Romans 10:9: ‘If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead and that the earth is 6,000 years old and that Genesis 1 is literal history, you shall be saved!” (That last part isn’t in there…). He went on to make the point that your position on the age of the earth and your reading of Genesis 1-11 may be very important, but it does not save anyone! As good as that conviction might be, it is not essential.

This is a distinction that we really have to hold on to as Christians, because we are always tempted to take something good in our Christian lives and treat it as though it were an essential. When we do that, we are falling into the trap of legalism.

Legalism: Treating that which is good as though it were essential.

There are a lot of good and important distinctions that Christians hold to: Young Earth versus Old Earth, believers’ baptism versus infant baptism, Calvinism versus Arminianism, congregational leadership versus presbyterian leadership, dispensationalism versus covenant theology, secret rapture versus preterism—and the list goes on and on. And all of these things are good things to have convictions on. But when we make those distinctions essential to our salvation—when we validate our entire salvation based on whether we hold to one side or the other—then we are falling into the trap of legalism.

This warning is at the heart of Paul’s words to the Galatian Christians here in our passage. In their case, they wanted to define their salvation in terms of whether they were circumcised or not. And so Paul warns them that if they treat circumcision as though it were essential to their salvation, they would lose Jesus! That is his warning in this passage:

When we fall into legalism, we lose Jesus

This is no exaggeration—look at the way he states it in verses 1-4:

Galatians 5:1–4 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

Now there are at least three things these verses warn that we are in danger of losing when we lose Jesus: We lose our freedom in Jesus, we lose our peace in Jesus, and we lose our love in Jesus. I want us to look at these warnings one at a time, and then to see what this Scripture tells us about how to “stand firm” in the freedom we have in Christ.

First, when we fall into legalism

I. We Lose Our Freedom in Jesus (vv. 1-2)

Galatians 5:1–2 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

The word “advantage” here in verse 2 is also translated “benefit” or “profit”. If the Galatians insist on taking circumcision and making it essential for their salvation, they will lose any benefit of believing in Jesus.

A couple of years ago I had one of my student veterans suddenly disappear during the semester—he quit attending classes, and we couldn’t get hold of him on the phone. Finally I tracked him down through a colleague at the CareerLINK office, who said that the student had to drop out of school because he couldn’t afford his bills. Which was weird, because I had just helped him access all of his VA Educational Benefits that paid for his entire tuition and a generous stipend for living expenses. Here we came to find out that he had gone and borrowed a ton of money so that he could live in a big lakeside house at Treasure Lake, and couldn’t afford the rent! His VA Benefits were of no advantage to him, and he lost his education because he turned away from those benefits and got himself into all kinds of unnecessary debt!

In the same way, Paul says, when you fall into the trap of legalism, then

Your whole Christian life will rise or fall on how well you perform in that area you have made essential.

Think of that for a moment—do you really want your entire Christian life to be tied to what you believe about baptism? About predestination? About the King James Bible? About the Second Coming? Do you really want the validity of your faith to hinge on things like that? Do you really want to live in that kind of bondage?

Because that’s what it is— “A yoke of slavery”. Any time you begin a sentence with “I’m a Christian in good standing because *I*_______________”, you are flirting with legalism. Because the only way to end that sentence is “I am a Christian in good standing because Jesus purchased my righteousness!”

When you succumb to legalism, you lose your freedom in Christ. And when we lose that freedom in Jesus,

II. We Lose our Peace In Jesus (vv. 3-4)

Galatians 5:3–4 ESV

I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

When you turn away from Christ and embrace legalism, you no longer have His perfect work covering you! Paul warns the Galatians that if they begin counting themselves righteous in God’s sight based on what they do to keep the Law, then they have to keep the whole law! They can’t pick and choose what parts of the Law to keep! If you go flying down a residential street at 60 miles per hour and the cop pulls you over, you can’t just brush him off by saying, “It’s okay, officer—I wasn’t breaking the law! I always wear my seat belt!” Just because you were perfectly keeping the law by buckling up every time you got behind the wheel does not excuse you for breaking the speed laws!

Wanting to earn your righteousness in one place means you have to earn it everywhere.

So, Christian, if you really deep down think that you are a good Christian because of what you believe about one point of doctrine (say, predestination), then you are obligated to get every single conceivable point of doctrine correct as well! If you insist that a “good Christian” can only believe “just so” about this point of doctrine with absolute, settled, unalterable certainty, then you are obligated to carve out a “just so” position—with the same absolute, settled, unalterable certainty—about every single point of doctrine and theology throughout Christianity!

And that means, among other things—goodbye to any peace in your Christian life! Instead of resting in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, you now have to earn your righteousness before Him by constant, unending struggle to be exactly, perfectly, precisely right about everything. The grace of God no longer applies—you have to be perfect in order to be righteous before Him!

When we succumb to legalism, we lose Jesus. We lose our freedom in Jesus—we have to constantly strive to earn our righteousness before God. We lose our peace in Jesus—we can never be sure that we are right enough, good enough, perfect enough before Him. And third, we see in verses 13-15 that when we succumb to legalism,

III. We Lose our Love in Jesus (vv. 13-15)

Galatians 5:13–15 ESV

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

If you have ever spent time in a church that has succumbed to legalism, you’ll understand the description Paul gives here. As we saw last time, a church that is snared in the throes of legalism is a church that “bites and devours one another”. Because when you really begin to believe that your righteousness before God is defined by how you perform, then

Other people’s performances become a threat to you.

If you derive the validity of your Christianity based on how theologically precise you are, for instance, then someone else who is more precise than you becomes a threat to you. If you count your righteousness before God by how much money you give, then that means that someone who gives more is more righteous than you! If you count yourself righteous before God because you teach Sunday School, then when someone else steps in to teach you are threatened by them!

And so you begin biting and devouring—knocking them down a peg or two during Bible study, going after them in church business meetings over expenditures, going behind their backs to keep them from “taking your ministry”. Don’t you see there is no room for love in an atmosphere like that?

Paul warns us that when we take a good thing and make it the essential thing in our Christianity, we are succumbing to legalism. And when we succumb to legalism, we lose Jesus. We lose our freedom in Jesus and are enslaved to our performances. We lose our peace in Jesus and can never rest—constantly trying to be better. We lose our love in Jesus, and bite and devour and fight and maneuver and strive against one another.

And so what can we do? What does this passage tell us about avoiding the bondage of legalism? Because what we need to learn from these verses is

IV. How To Stand Firm in Jesus

Now, the first thing that we have to affirm is that there really are issues that divide believers from non-believers. Saying that we should not validate our Christianity based, for instance, on whether we believe in a Young Earth or an Old Earth does not mean that there are no issues worth dividing over.

It really does matter what you believe about salvation in Christ.

When you read verses 7-12, you see Paul making some pretty “black and white” statements about belief and unbelief—the false teachers “hindered them from believing the truth”. Because of the false teachers, the Galatian Christians were in danger of losing the essential truth of Christianity. And he goes on to say that he wished that the false teachers would be “cut off” from the Galatians—in fact, he uses some pretty harsh language in verse 12:

Galatians 5:12 ESV

I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

So we can see from this that there really are issues worth dividing over. It really does matter what you believe about what it means to be a Christian, and that’s why it is so important that we don’t get tripped up over non-essentials. Part of the problem with legalism is that everything is “a hill to die on”—everything is worth fighting over, because everything becomes a matter of achieving righteousness before God.

So how do we tell the difference between essential beliefs and non-essential? How do we know where we have to fight, and where we can agree to disagree? The key is there in verse 6:

Galatians 5:6 ESV

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

What ultimately counts in this life is saving faith in Jesus Christ.

The only thing that counts for your righteousness before God is not what you believe about the age of the earth, it’s not what you believe about predestination, it’s not what Bible translation you insist upon or whether you go out to eat on Sundays; it is whether you trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. That’s what Paul means there in verse 6 when he says “faith working through love” is what matters. When you call on Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins and trust only in Him, believing His promise to save you, He gives you a new heart and a new life that is characterized by love for Him and for people.

Beloved, when you stand before Jesus Christ on the Day of Judgment, He is not going to ask you whether you went to a Baptist church or a Presbyterian church! He is not going to be concerned whether you spoke in tongues or not! He is not going to ask you whether you were a Calvinist or an Arminian. He is not going to want to know whether you read from the King James Bible or whether you sang hymns or worship songs in church. You are not going to have to pass an oral exam on the precise points of the doctrine of justification by faith alone! There will be one question, and one question only on that Day—did you trust completely in Jesus’ promise to forgive your sins through His death, burial and resurrection?

And if you say “yes” to that question, then it doesn’t matter what answer you give to any other of those questions! And here is the point, beloved—if it doesn’t ultimately matter on that day, then it doesn’t ultimately matter here!

Neither young earth creation or old earth creation counts, but only faith working through love! Neither premillennialism or postmillennialism counts, but only faith working through love! Neither teetotaling nor a glass of wine on your anniversary counts, but only faith working through love! Neither free-will or predestination counts, but only faith working through love! Neither Republican or Democrat counts, but only faith working through love! Neither old hymns or new worship music counts, but only faith working through love! Neither dispensationalism or covenant theology counts, but only faith working through love! Neither believer’s baptism nor infant baptism counts, but only faith working through love!

That’s not to say that it’s wrong to care about those things, or that they don’t count at all—but it means that they are only important as far as they promote faith and produce love. If your adherence to one or the other of those things stifles the Gospel or cools your love for others (or their love for Christ), then you need to ask yourself whether you just might be succumbing to legalism—trading freedom for bondage, peace for labor, love for biting and devouring.

Beloved, stand firm in the freedom that Jesus purchased for you by His death on the Cross! Don’t reckon your righteousness on how well you perform in your Christian life—do you really want to stand before Him on the Last Day to give an account of how well you performed? The Scriptures describe that Day—that Day that is coming for every last person in this room:

Revelation 20:11–12 ESV

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

When you stand there on that Day before the presence of the Ancient of Days, before whom the earth and sky flee away, and the books are opened and your deeds—every last one of them—are read out in His presence, are you really prepared to defend yourself? That sin that you have worked so hard to cover up—that secret wickedness that nobody knows about—will be read out in excruciating detail before God on that Day. What defense are you prepared to give?

All of your fine theological and doctrinal precisions will be evaluated on that Day—are you really prepared to debate and defend the finer points of your theology with God Himself? All of your good and wholesome Christian disciplines will be up for review, all of your timesheets for your church attendance and Christian activity will be audited, every last word you spoke will be analyzed for evidence of your righteousness. Are you ready for that Day? How can you be ready for that day when you don’t even know when it will be?

Beloved, there is only one answer that you will be able to give on the Day when Almighty God executes judgment on all of human history. There will only be one defense against the mountain of evidence against you, and it won’t be your position on eschatology or the age of the earth or predestination. The only defense you will have will be whether you have trusted in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation!

And if that is true of you this morning, then instead of dreading that Day, you can be excited for it!

Galatians 5:5 ESV

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

When you place your faith in Jesus Christ alone for your righteousness, and not in anything else—not your theology, not your Christian habits, not your ministry track record—when Jesus alone is your hope, then your answer will be easy on that Day, won’t it? When all of your deeds—the good, the bad, and the ugly—are laid out before the eyes of God once and for all, you will be able to say, “There’s nothing in any of that that I can defend—Jesus is my only hope!” On that day you will be free because Jesus freed you from bondage to your works! You will be at peace because Jesus made peace between you and God! You will be loved by God because Jesus loved you enough to die for you on the Cross!

Are you looking forward to that Day of Judgment eagerly because it is the Day when you will finally enter into that perfect righteousness before God for eternity? Do you want to look to that Day with eagerness instead of dread? Don’t put it off another day—come down front to talk to me or one of the deacons after the service, come down and let us pray for you and show you how you can know that you are free, how you can have that peace with God, how you can eagerly await that Day when you awake in His presence and be perfected for all eternity in the righteousness of Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 ESV

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

1 Thessalonians 5:28 ESV

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Questions for Reflection:

What are some “good” things in the Bible that Christians are tempted to make into “essentials” for salvation? How can this passage help Christians with different convictions to better understand one another?

What does Paul mean that accepting circumcision would result in the Galatians being “severed from Christ”, and that they have “fallen from grace”? Does this mean that they have lost their salvation? Why or why not?

How do you think about the day when you will stand before God? Is it a day that you dread, because you know your own efforts will never be enough? Or is it a day that you “eagerly wait for”, because you know that Jesus Christ has perfectly fulfilled God’s righteous demands for you? Have you called on Him for salvation?