Galatians
WHOSE MESSAGE? Trinity
Galatians chapter 1 31.3.19
Jordan Peterson is a Canadian academic, well known for his conservative views, and his ability to take on those with so-called ‘progressive’ views.
He had been invited to take a study fellowship at Cambridge University later this year. Last week, he was uninvited. The University spokesman said that they have “an inclusive environment” at Cambridge, and Peterson’s views are opposed to others.
Did they see the contradiction in that? A place for every view – except for any view that says another view is wrong. Especially if it is a conservative view promoted by men who are male, pale and stale.
Try this one at Cambridge University: Galatians 1:8,9 “even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”
Is that going to work anywhere out there? Maybe in here we find it embarrassing, prickly and at least a bit over the top.
Some things are not worth dying for. You voted one way last weekend in the State election, and I voted another. You prefer savoury and I prefer sweet. We can live with that kind of diversity.
What can be so important that you say that that view is out of hell, and that one is out of hell?
Here’s the story. Some people are getting into the ears of these Christians in Galatia, part of modern Turkey. What they are saying is that Jesus is not enough.
If they are serious about being right with God, there is a list of ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’, mostly lifted out of the law of the Old Testament. In particular, as Gentiles, they must at least be circumcised.
One of the men here was telling me about a friend of his who was not born a Jew, but who wanted to become a Jew. When he went off to clear this with a rabbi in Sydney, was he asked which Jewish doctrines and which Jewish traditions he embraced?
No. All the rabbi wanted to do was to check that he had been properly circumcised. That one was the real test of legitimacy.
The people causing trouble back here in Galatians have not, like that rabbi, walked away from Jesus. They believe he is true, and that it is right to trust and follow him. What they are really saying is that he is not enough, and that the real test of legitimacy as a child of God is your circumcision.
Paul’s message is JESUS ONLY. Their message is JESUS PLUS. They are on a collision course.
Are we talking here about ancient history? Is this an issue anywhere today?
- It’s an issue if you believe what Roman Catholicism teaches. It has never denied that Jesus by his death must save you. But you must add to what he does … you need to observe a bunch of rules and add your contribution to Jesus’ contribution. It teaches the need for “co-operating grace”. It is a “Jesus Plus” gospel.
- It is an issue for the lovely young guy who door-knocked us on Friday. He believed that you couldn’t be right with God apart from Jesus, but there were add-ons for him. He was a Jehovah’s Witness who has to add his door-knocking and keeping a bunch of other rules to Jesus, in order to get across the finish line.
- Let’s come closer to home. Is Jesus enough for me? Or do I need my baptism, my praying, and my obedience to get me across the line? What if I fall into a serious sin – am I then done for? Is being in the right with God down to JESUS ONLY or is it really about JESUS PLUS the things I get right?
Does this really matter? Let me give you two reasons why it matters immensely.
- The “jesus plus” gospel deprives you of ASSURANCE
When it comes to how we can ever hope to stand before a holy God, Paul’s message is crystal clear. He says in verse 4 that Jesus “gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father”.
The word ‘deliver’ means to rescue. Imagine I am at the beach, and I have been taken out to sea by a rip. I have no strength left, and I am about to go under for the last time. What do I need? Someone to throw me a “How to Swim” manual? I need someone to rescue me, not someone to get me half-way back and then tell me to swim the rest of the way on my own. In my helplessness I need a real rescue. Which is exactly what Jesus has done, when it comes to being in the right with God. He didn’t throw me a Do It Yourself manual, nor did he bring me just half-way there.
No, Jesus substituted himself for me. My sins, all my sins became his sins. “He gave himself in place of our sins”. All of them, all of them. He didn’t get me half way there, and then tell me to get the rest of the way under my own steam. He did everything that had to be done to set me free from this “present evil age”.
It’s always been God’s work of grace from start to finish. You can see it in Paul’s own change of career:
He was drowning. “I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my father”. (vv13,14)
How can you explain the change that turned the murderer of God’s people to the most significant missionary ever?
>> God “set me apart before I was born” (v15a)
>> he “called me by his grace” (v15b)
>> he “was pleased to reveal his Son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles” (v16)
>> did he get his message from Peter or John or other heavies in Jerusalem? No. “I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” (v12)
Had Paul pulled himself out of the religious mess he was in, and then sorted a few things out for himself? Was he the victim of some indoctrination by others? No. It was sovereign, saving, revealing, and changing grace of God from beginning to end.
My JW friend can’t sleep easily at night, for he doesn’t know how much door knocking will be enough to get him over the line.
I won’t sleep at night if I think keeping the rules keeps me in the family of God, and breaking them knocks me out.
A JESUS PLUS MESSAGE DEPRIVES YOU OF ASSURANCE. It doesn’t work, and has never worked.
- The “jesus plus” gospel deNIES GOD OF GLORY
If Jesus puts me on the team, but it is what I do that keeps me there, then when the game is over, and the medals are handed out, Jesus and I must share them.
Jesus will receive the medal for “getting people to 40 metres from the beach” and I will get the one for “bringing it home”.
Do you think we realise what an insult that is to Jesus? Do you think we see how that takes glory and praise that belong only to him? If we did, I doubt we’d ever see our faith or our obedience or our anything as having any merit before a holy God, let alone a decisive and deal-clinching place.
Do you see how in verse 5, Paul links the rescue of Jesus with “our God and Father to whom be the glory for ever and ever.”
Nothing eternal dependent on how much I get right? Nothing. Nothing good that I do, or good that I fail to do making the difference between heaven and hell? Nothing. No credit to me? None.
All the glory to the Living God? All of it, from start to finish. He gets the glory. And that’s not going to change. It’s that way “forever, and ever” and so, it’s that way now.
Do you see why Paul hates the “JESUS PLUS” Gospel? It’s got nothing to offer helpless sinners. And it denies God of the glory that is rightly his.
WHERE TO FROM HERE, THEN? TO THREE PLACES I WANT TO MENTION FAIRLY BRIEFLY:
- LISTEN TO AND LOVE PAUL
It’s a fairly common belief that Paul and people like him wrecked things. If we’d just stuck with Jesus and his simple message of love, we wouldn’t have all the awkward stuff he promoted.
More than that: I may not want to set myself against Jesus, but Paul’s views on life, marriage, sex and anything else are just the opinions of man; who says his opinions are any better than mine?
Paul does have opinions, and sometimes says when he is giving what is only an opinion. But in the matter of how to be right with God, and many other matters, he is resting not on his opinion but on what he here calls “a revelation of Jesus Christ” (v12b).
More than that, God has chosen him to be THE apostle to the Gentiles (v16), to people like us. So we don’t get to pick and choose.
Paul isn’t Jesus. But if we do not accept him, and do not line what we say up with what he says, then we are rejecting Jesus. His message is that important!
You won’t buy the line that you can have Jesus but reject Paul, or any other of his apostles, will you? God calls on us to listen to Paul, and love him as the gift of Jesus to us.
- BE INTOLERANT
Abusive? No. Abrasive? No. Aggressive? No. Awkward to get along with? No. Intolerant of anything you don’t agree with? No.
When it comes to this message of JESUS ONLY as the ground of your acceptance with God, there is no room for negotiating, for diversity or for inclusiveness.
What happens if on your way out of here this afternoon you meet a real angel, and that angel tells you that it IS what Jesus does plus the bits that you do that make you right with God? What do you say to him? “Go back to hell from where you have come.” “Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached top you, let him be accursed.” (v8)
When I was recently in K Mart, an announcement over the PA system reminded us all that K Mart is a place of diversity and inclusiveness. These are the catchcries of a culture that wants to tell us all views are accepted and right, except the ones that say they are not.
To a point, it’s a good message. We should all be full of grace to people, regardless of race, religion or most other things. Of course we should respect their freedom of speech as much as we want them to respect ours.
How about when the truth about Jesus is put out there as just one choice among many. The Jesus-plus message is just as valid as the JESUS-ONLY message.
No, no. It leaves helpless people still drowning and it detracts from the glory of Jesus. We can’t pretend it’s okay, can we?
- DO IT ALL WITH JOY
We tend to think that being intolerant or strong about something means that we are sour in spirit or difficult to get along with but it doesn’t have to be at all like that. In fact, people who know they have been rescued by Jesus can be full of deep joy.
Has Jesus recued me from all my sins? He has. Are there any sins I can do, or duties fail to do, which will cause him to undo the rescue he has won? There are none. Not one. Even though my sins will spoil my life, and maybe the lives of others.
Does that mean obedience does not matter? The rest of this letter will show us that it matters immensely, but it has no place in securing acceptance with the Living God.
Is it easy to stand for a JESUS-ONLY Gospel? That won’t win you many friends, as Paul says in verse 10. It makes enemies.
Some of my sins are gross. There are more good things that I have failed to do than I could poke a stick at. I know however, that I have been so completely rescued by Jesus that when I come to breathe my last breath in this world, my next breath will be in the presence of Jesus himself.
Is there any better place to stand other than on JESUS ONLY? A message that really rescues lost people. And is designed to bring great glory to God. That’s why you and I can stand there with joy and with grace.
It’s a brilliant place to stand, isn’t it?