Untitled Sermon (12)
Notes
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Galatians 6:11 (CSB)
11 Look at what large letters I use as I write to you in my own handwriting.
In this part of the letter, Paul picks up the quill himself. Up until this point—as was often Paul’s tradition—Paul had allowed someone—probably an assistant who functioned like a secretary—to do the actual physical labor of writing.
But here in this last portion of the letter, Paul takes the writing into his own hand.
He literally says, Look at what large letters I use as I write...
In other words, if Paul were sending a text or an email…he writes on ALL CAPS.
It is as if Paul is saying, “Hey if you havent payed attention to anything else Ive said, you need to pay attention now...”
And so what Paul says here is important…we need to see his urgency and hear his passion.
We need to receive the end of this letter, because Paul’s words here are important...
And so what was so important to Paul?
Paul wants us to get this main truth this morning…He wants us to see How The Gospel Changes What We Boast In
And if we want to understand how the gospel changes what we boast in then we need to understand three truths that Paul highlights in this passage.
The first is this:
We need to understand...
The Danger of Boasting In Religious Performance
The Danger of Boasting In Religious Performance
What do I mean when I say “Religious Performance”?
Religious Performance is the age-old foe of God’s plan of redemption. No sin issue has sidetracked or thrown off God’s people from enjoying the gift of salvation more than a performance based relationship with God.
And here is the saddest part of the performance mentality…it is in all of us.
We all act like our spiritual parents…and when I say spiritual parents, I dont mean you mom and dad…I mean Adam and Eve...
We have all received a sin nature…that much is clear from the scripture…and it’s clear from our experience as well. The world isnt as it should be because of sin…and we arent as we should be because of sin.
And sin…exposes us…it leaves us naked and afraid…and not like the show on discovery channel…but spiritually—sin destroys us with shame, it brings about guilt, and it condemns us before a holy God. It does to us what it did to Adam and Eve in the garden after they sinned.
Genesis 3:6–7 (CSB)
6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
When Adam and Eve sinned…for the very first time they recognized their shame. And what was the response to that shame? Religious Performance…they tried to hide their shame under the fig leaf of performance.
Maybe if I just do something to cover up, God wont see my problem.
Why do I bring up that story?
Because the false teachers in Galatia were faced with the very same issue that Adam and Eve faced.
Look at what Paul says:
12 Those who want to make a good impression in the flesh are the ones who would compel you to be circumcised—but only to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For even the circumcised don’t keep the law themselves, and yet they want you to be circumcised in order to boast about your flesh.
Paul says that the motivation of these false teachers to encourage people to be circumcised was to make a good impression…
But only to avoid being persecuted for the cross...
They wanted people to think highly of them…the message of the cross was foolishness…and they didn't want to be thought to be fools…so they traded in the message of the cross for something that made more sense to them…religious performance...
v. 12—If I perform well…then people will be impressed with me...
v. 13—If I perform well, God will be impressed with me...
And all methods of religious performance…you know what they are? They are fig leafs.
They are fleeting physical attempts to solve the spiritual problem of sin and shame...
And the truth is that you and I have these fig leafs…when we come face to face with out sin…Just like Adam and Eve…and just like the false teachers in Galatia…we try to cover up our nakedness, our sin, and our shame with our religious performance...
And when we do that…we buy into the age old lie that God relates to us based on our performance for Him…we put on fig leaves...
The problem with religious performance is that it doesnt do anything to change God’s mind about us…
Our vain attempts to put on fig leaves are fleeting...Because God doesnt relate to us based on our performance…and he never has...
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 11 Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. 16 He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you. 17 And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.” 20 The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.
God rejects our attempts to cover ourselves…and he clothes us Himself...
And in this picture…we get the very first glimpse of what Jesus would do on the cross.
On the cross, Jesus became the true fulfillment of that sacrifice that Genesis 3 foreshadowed...
the cross of Christ was the
The Delight of Boasting in the Cross
The Delight of Boasting in the Cross
14 But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world. 15 For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.
In the cross we see that God in Christ Jesus has done all that is necessary to take care of the problem of sin and shame.
The way to escape the trap of religious performance is to trust in the performance of Jesus Christ.
It is Jesus who offered himself up to be the sacrificial lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world…
It is Jesus that we look takes away our sin and our shame…by embodying sin and shame on the cross on our behalf...
Our attempts to perform is vainity…But Jesus’ performance for us on the cross is our victory.
And so our boast…just like Paul must be in the cross...
What does it look like to boast in the cross?
v. 15— For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing…what matters instead is a new creation...
When we boast in the cross it means we quit keeping score on our religious performance.
When we boast in the cross…we stop trying…and we start trusting...
We start living as if Heaven isnt something that we will one day get if we perform well enough for God…but that heaven is a present reality for us right now…avaliable to us through and in Jesus Christ...
The new creation life…isnt just coming…it is here... avaliable through the sacrificial death and attoning sacrifice of the Cross of Christ…and it is to be recieved by faith this morning...
The Direction of the Cross Centered Life
The Direction of the Cross Centered Life
16 May peace come to all those who follow this standard, and mercy even to the Israel of God! 17 From now on, let no one cause me trouble, because I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. 18 Brothers and sisters, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
Paul essentially says, Yall quit bothering me with this mess…You know the gospel…believe it...
He prays that peace would come to all those who trust in the promise and hope of the gospel.
Next Steps:
We must continually remind ourselves of the gospel.
How can we do that:
Get in a group—you need people reminding you of the gospel daily…There is no such thing as do it yourself Christianity...you need people who can help you bear the burden of sin…and point you to the beauty of Jesus...
Bonhoeffer quote: Christ in your brother is stronger than Christ in you...
Get in the Word—the whole Bible tells the story of the gospel. —Jesus said in Luke 24:44 that the whole Bible tells the story of Calvary…you need God’s word daily because you need the gospel daily…Reading plan in your bulletin
Listen to Gospel Centered Music
“...next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise. No greater commendation than this can be found — at least not by us. After all, the gift of language combined with the gift of song was only given to man to let him know that he should praise God with both word and music, namely, by proclaiming [the Word of God] through music...”
When im in a funk....the best thing that I can do is crank up some worship music right by myself in my truck and sing my way into worship at to the top of my lungs...
We need the beauty of the cross centered life…if this church is nothing else, we will be a people who boast in the cross…not just in the sanctuary but in all of life...
In this passage Paul exposes the root of the problem of the Judaizers in Galatia. He cuts to the heart of their motivation for why they are encouraging the Galatian believers to undergo the Jewish ritual of circumcision.
You see, up until this point, Paul has been making a theological case against the necessity of circumcision and obedience to the law. And the reason why Paul was making this argument is found in Acts 15:1 where Luke writes:
1 Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.”
This was the teaching that had may its way into the Galatian churches and so Paul addresses this problem theologically. So in Gal. 1:7, he calls this false teaching a “...distortion of the gospel of Christ.” in Gal. 2:14, he says that they were “Deviating from the truth of the gospel...” .
Galatians 2:16 Paul writes, “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ...”
So in order to prove his point, Paul does what every good preacher does…and he takes them to the Bible to show them what how God truly saves.
He shows them that Abraham, the charter member of the people of God…was not considered righteous by his works…but by faith in the promised Son of God…
Christ had done what the law could never do…and the law was actually a tool that God used to show us that in and of ourselves, we could never be righteous. We needed what the Reformers would go on to call as “Alien Righteousness.” A righteousness that came from another source, namely the righteousness that can only come from Christ that is received by faith.…
And the case that Paul makes throughout this letter is this: By teaching that obedience to the law brought justification, they had totally missed the whole point of the law, circumcision, and the entire story of the Old Testament altogether. Paul’s argument throughout this letter is essentially this: “Circumcision