Preserving the Truth of the Gospel

Galatians 1:6-2:6 Preserving the Truth of the Gospel Introduction: Martin Luther said that, justification by faith alone is not just one doctrine among others; it is “the article by which the church stands or falls.” Luther also said that justification by faith alone is hard to accept and hard to hold onto. In his commentary on Galatians, he wrote, “This doctrine cannot be beaten into our ears too much. Yes, though we learn it and understand it well, yet there is no one who takes hold of it perfectly or believes it with all his heart, so frail a thing is our flesh and disobedient to the Spirit.” But this truth calls for more than doctrinal subscription, it also must have an cultural manifestation or we unsay what we say. Meaning that it can’t just be taught and thought but it has to be worked into our church culture and practice as well. But as seen in the letter to the Galatians as we, God’s church, struggle to hold to the truth of the Gospel in word and practice we can and should expect there to be persecution from both liberals and conservatives. As Tim Keller often says, This is because the Gospel is neither religion nor irreligion but something else altogether - Grace. This letter addresses a social and racial division in the churches of Galatia. As we know the first Christians in Jerusalem were Jewish, but as the Gospel spread out from that center, increasing numbers of Gentiles began to receive Christ. However, a group of teachers in Galatia were now insisting that the Gentile Christians practice all the traditional ceremonial customs of the law of Moses, as the Jewish Christians did. They taught that the Gentiles had to observe all the law and be circumcised for full acceptance and to be completely pleasing to God. Although this specific controversy may seem disconnected to us today, Paul addressed it with an abiding, all important truth. He taught that the cultural divisions and disunity in the Galatian churches were due to confusion about the nature of the Gospel - what Jesus had really done and accomplished in his sacrifice and resurrection. By insisting on Christ-plus-something-else as a requirement for full acceptance by God, these teachers were presenting a whole different way of relating to God ("a different Gospel", 1:6) from the one Paul had given them (“the one we preached”, 1:8) It is this different Gospel that was creating the cultural division and strife. Paul forcefully and unapologetically fought the “different gospel” because to lose our grip of the true gospel is to desert and lose Christ himself. That means that everything was at stake in this debate. 1. When Fundamentalist Attack 1. “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant[b] of Christ.” It seems that these Jewish teachers in Galatia were accusing Paul of being soft on the gospel, of practicing licentiousness and cheap grace. Paul is simply telling you want you want to hear, they would say. 2. Paul begins the defense of his gospel by first defending himself. 1. The attacks on Paul’s message of freedom for the gentiles were inextricably tied to questions that had been raised about his apostolic authority. Why should the Galatians listen to him at all? It would be a mistake to view ch. 1-2 merely as a personal defense. Paul's autobiographical remarks are always subordinate to his primary purpose of establishing 'the truth of the Gospel’ (2:5, 14) 2. Paul cared intensely about people. He cared sincerely about their opinions and their feelings, and he wanted to please them. He says in 1 Corinthians 10:33, “I try to please everyone in everything I do.” This man was a sweetheart! He never stopped thinking about how he could win people’s hearts for Christ. He was widely adaptable, because he respected people and their various ways of seeing things. And here is how he reconciled his desire to please people, on the one hand, with his deeper desire to please God, on the other. - When Paul faced a choice between pleasing himself and pleasing others, he pleased others. When he faced a choice between pleasing others and pleasing God, he pleased God. (We need more pastors like Paul) 3. In fact, he is so clear about this that he states his position as a stark either/or: “If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” He will not depart from Christ for anyone. His justification is in Christ alone, and to Christ alone he therefore gives himself in complete surrender, whatever price he might pay socially in terms of human disapproval. He wants to please people, for the sake of Christ; but he wants to please Christ himself more, so he is willing to be unpopular, even controversial. He is willing to be misunderstood and misjudged. He doesn’t relish it. But neither is he threatened by it. And by his example, he is calling the Galatians and us to follow him into bold independence. 2. Paul understands what is really going on here because he is a Post-Radical Jewish Fundamentalist. 1. Paul goes on to defend his Apostolic ministry. 1. Paul defends that he is an Apostle by commission of Jesus Christ himself and that none of the Apostles commissioned him or taught him. Actually that after many years Paul came to Jerusalem and met with Peter, James and John and shared with the Apostles the Gospel that he preached which they whole heartedly affirmed, giving Paul the right hand of fellowship. 2. Paul’s Gospel is straight from Jesus and is consistent with the Apostles and the Jerusalem Church no matter what these “false teachers” claimed”. 2. Paul’s pre-christian experience was characterized by two features that are incompatible with his present ministry: 1. First - He was fully committed to the persecution of Christians and the extermination of the church. 2. Second, Paul was a totally devoted Pharisee. The expression he uses the “Traditions of my Fathers” refers not only to the general teachings of Judaism but more specifically to what is otherwise known as the Oral Law - an extensive set of regulations that distinguished the Pharisees from other Jewish groups. -Paul actually says that was excelling above his contemporaries in his zeal for this sect of Judaism. 3. We have descriptions of some of the these radical Jewish sects in the four gospels (the Sadducees and Pharisees). What is clear is that the Pharisees were not necessarily zealous for the Law of Moses but esteemed the “Traditions of the Elders or Fathers” even above and often times in conflict with God’s Law. The point being, that certain sects of Judaism especially the Essenes and the Pharisees had created a greater strictness of “holiness” creating an even greater divide between Jews and Gentiles than the Law of Moses called for. Claiming that Jews could not touch a Gentile without being unclean, were forbidden to eat with such people, or to enter into their houses etc. This created not just a “Holiness” divide but a cultural, racial divide, and created a certain amount of self -righteousness among many of the Jews. Paul knows where these guys are coming from he was once even more radical than they are. Paul now fights here in Galatians the same self-righteousness that Jesus fought against in the Pharisees. Jesus was constantly accused of breaking “The Tradition of the Elders.” 4. But -The Gospel and Paul’s personal revelation he had from Jesus Christ about the gentiles radically reshaped his way of thinking, and living. Paul knows that it is not zeal for God’s law that is driving these false teachers but it is their own bigotry and self-righteousness that insist on the Gentiles conversion to Judaism before entrance into the Church. 5. When Paul refers to this revelation of Jesus Christ - and what God was doing through his ministry he quotes from Jeremiah 1:5. There is little doubt that Paul’s reference to his ministry in the words of Jeremiah’s own ministry meant that he saw his own ministry, not just comparable with the OT prophets but as the culmination of what they prophesied. Now at last the message of salvation is breaking all national barriers. Light has fallen on the lands of the Gentiles, of whom the Galatians are a part. So what does Paul do? 3. Paul Walks the Line 1. "But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. 4 Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— 5 to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.” 2. This truth is that Jews and Gentiles are accepted by God on the same terms, namely through faith in Jesus Christ and must therefore be accepted by the church without any discrimination between them…. 1. Jesus lived the life that we should live. He also paid the penalty we owe for the rebellious life we do live. He did this in our place -on the cross. We are not reconciled to God through our efforts and record, as in all other religions, but through his efforts and record. Christians who trust in Christ for their acceptance with God, rather than in their own moral character, commitment, or performance, are - simultaneously sinful yet accepted. As Tim Keller puts it - “We are more flawed and sinful than we ever dared believe, yet we are more loved and accepted than we ever dared hope at the same time.” 3. Paul says, but men literally sneaked in, (they didn’t belong there, they had no place or say) “to spy out our freedom in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery.” 4. Paul saw this issue clearly. It wasn’t just an issue or question of circumcision and uncircumcision, of Gentile and Jewish customs. It was a matter of fundamental importance regarding the truth of the gospel, namely, of christian freedom verses bondage. The Christian has been set free from the Law in the sense that his acceptance before God depends entirely upon God’s grace in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ received by faith. Paul was determined that nothing would stand in the way or hinder this message. 1. Now I’m sure that we would be hard pressed to find a pastor in this room that doesn’t agree with this truth… 2. But in verse 5, what Paul insists on is not the gospel as bare theological data but “the truth of the gospel,” that is, the right understanding of the gospel. What does that tell us? It tells us that “gospel faithfulness is more than saying, “Justification by faith alone is the truth”. We must follow through on the implications, or we unsay what we say.” - Ray Ortlund 3. There is no place in true Christianity for us to shelter behind the fence of theological orthodoxy, denominational superiority, or a verbal assent to gospel values which bears no resemblance to lifestyle. One of Paul's most striking victories for the early Church was his insistence that the "fence" of Jewish orthodoxy - and in particular, circumcision - should not become a barrier to entry to the Christian community. Paul insisted that faith in Jesus alone was the criterion. 1. Martin Luther comments on this passage: “Let this be then the conclusion of all together, that we will suffer our goods to be taken away, our name, our life, and all that we have; but the Gospel, our faith, Jesus Christ, we will never suffer to be wrested from us. And cursed be that “humility” which here humbles and submits itself. Nay rather, let every christian man here be proud and spare not, except he will deny Christ. Wherefore, God assisting me, my forehead shall be more hard than all men’s foreheads. Here I take upon me this title, according to the proverb: Cedo Nulli - I give place to none. Yea, I am glad even with all my heart, in this point to seem rebellious and obstinate. And here I confess that I am and ever will be stout and stern, and will not one inch give place to any creature. Charity giveth place, for it “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things”, but faith gives no place. Concerning faith we ought to be invincible, and more hard, than the adamant stone; but as touching charity, we ought to be soft, and more flexible than the reed or leaf that is shaken with the wind, and ready to yield to everything.” - Martin Luther 4. Church -Walk the Line. 1. Paul did not yield submission to the pressures of these false brothers for a minute, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for us. How does this apply and play out for us today? 2. If we are going to preach and practice the gospel - (God’s saving love, forgiveness and rescue from judgment and death, at infinite cost to himself, without any human goodness or effort.) If you walk that fine line of Grace you are going to get judgment from both the right and the left. Jesus People are always misunderstood by the religious and the irreligious. 1. Fundamentalist will criticize - too much sin to become a part of God’s family - especially when it comes to the new norms of sexual identity. 2. Liberals will say - how dare you say that God requires repentance or that we are sinners. 3. This isn’t a new challenge for the Church but an ongoing challenge to engage the ever changing culture with the never changing Gospel. 1. My Grandpa had to dealt with this same issue in his day - hate from conservative christians because he was allowing crazy hippie people into church services - long hair, jeans, no shoes.. all sorts of uncomfortable things for your straight laced evangelical christians at the time….And as these individuals began to put their faith in Jesus it caused a recapturing of the gospel for the church. They realized it didn’t matter where people had come from, what they looked like, if they showered or not, wore nice clothes or not, what drugs they did or who they slept with the night before… they were coming to the church looking for answers.. they were sinners desperately loved by God and God was drawing them to hear the gospel…. 2. Russell Moore, President of the ERLC, Says, “If we Christians are right about the universe, the sexual revolution cannot keep it’s promises. Unhinged sexual utopianism can only go so far before it leaves the ground around it burned over, like every other utopianism. We the Church, need to be ready, after all of this, to point a light to the older paths, toward water that can satisfy. We need to be a john 3:16 people in a john 4:16 world.” 4. With the way our culture is going with the Sexual revolution in it’s views of sexual identity and with the mainline protestant denominations following their lead it’s only logical to assume that this will create greater disunity in the Church than there already has been. There are and will continue to be equal opportunities in and through the Church to either water down the Gospel (Playing down or deemphasizing the seriousness of sin, and God’s own righteousness and justice, pitting God’s love against his righteousness) or adding to the Gospel (Gospel plus something equals salvation - adding pre-salvation requirements…. absolutizing and enforcing any tradition.demonizing certain sins over others) 1. Example: I was in a meeting recently with some local pastors and the question was brought up about what to do with a situation where non-believers attending the church are in open sexual sin. A certain pastor responded that if they hadn’t already repented of their sin, God was obviously not drawing them to himself, therefore they should not be allowed to attend church services…. But I couldn’t help but think: Aren’t we then requiring the righteousness that comes from faith in Christ to precede faith? Doesn’t this require that someone first fix themselves, get clean, get sober, get straight and then come to Jesus? I can’t find any such teaching in the N.T. or consistent with Gospel of God’s grace. 1. Jesus after all was the one who said - "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” -Matthew 11:28 2. Story of student struggling with gender identity. Conclusion: Building fences or digging wells? Building fences to protect our churches from sinners, to protect ourselves from legislation; Or digging a really deep well of Gospel grace and power to be made new through Jesus Christ? I guarantee if we love on sinners like the LGBTQ community the way Jesus loved on sinners; If we make our churches a place where sinners feel welcome to find love, healing, and forgiveness, faith and repentance; We will receive censorship from other christians. They’ll say we are being soft on sin, people pleasers, cheap on grace.. This is what was said about Paul. But are we willing, are you willing to preserve the truth of the Gospel for those in your city who so desperately need forgiveness, cleansing and healing, new life and new identity in Jesus? Are you willing to walk the Line? “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” Here’s the truth, Jesus people are always misunderstood. On the right and on the left. But… “Justification by faith alone creates a culture of acceptance and warmth and beauty and safety: “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:7). The more clearly that doctrine is taught, and the more beautifully that culture is developed, the more powerfully a church will bear prophetic witness to Jesus as the mighty Friend of sinners. He will be honored, and people will come.” - Ray Ortlund Jr.