The Vineyard Church of North Grand Rapids, MI

Ray Befus    Galatians 2:11-21       Take Your Seat at Grace’s Table 18 October 2009

Nancy is a Christian.  She used to own a coffee shop nearby this facility.  Over a couple years, Carol and I befriended her. She was a delightful prophetess of new-age fancies and sensibilities.  In time, she came along with me on a motorcycle ride, kayaked with us and shared dinner at our home. And she reciprocated.  Five years ago we invited her to go see Mel Gibson’s Easter movie, The Passion of the Christ.   She did and, as we watched the movie, I could see that she was crying.  Afterward, Carol and Nancy and I talked about the movie.  I invited her to put her faith in Jesus.  “No”, she said, she wasn’t ready to talk to God.  She was moved by the story of Jesus’ death for our sins—so moved that she felt the only right thing to do was to start cleaning up her life, get her act together, and make herself somewhat presentable to God. She couldn’t believe that all God asked her to do in return for Jesus’ death was to decide to trust him.  She said that simple faith seemed much too easy, perhaps even disrespectful to God.  Nancy’s personal religion was new age legalism. She was convinced that she needed to earn God’s forgiveness, acceptance, and blessing in her life. So we spend the next two hours talking about sin and grace. Before we walked out my office, Nancy made the decision to trust Jesus as her God, and to trust him with her many questions and needs, her singleness and her sexuality, even her hopes and dreams.  Today, Nancy is an exceptionally passionate single Christian woman who is employed in a Christian ministry that focuses on helping people like us find spiritual freedom from the past, from secret struggles, from addictions, from fear, and from legalism . . . the belief that we must earn God’s trust, God’s forgiveness, God’s help, God’s acceptance, God’s love and blessings by doing the best we can, all our lives, to be decent people.

This fall we’re studying the NT letter of Galatians, a letter written by the Apostle Paul, that contrasts two spiritual paths through life.  One spiritual path is the path of legalism.  Legalism is characterized by a decision to believe in Jesus AND to work as hard as you can to be as good as you can in the hope of being fully forgiven, accepted, loved and blessed by a God who is generally disappointed in you.  Early on in their spiritual journies, legalists decide that they don’t want to go to hell when then die.  So, they raise their hands, pray a prayer, and invite Jesus to come into their lives.  After that first step of faith toward God, legalists believe that the rest of the Christian life is up to them.  They must tow the line, keep the law, honor the traditions, maintain the values, obey the standards IF they want to be the kind of good Christians God likes and blesses. Legalism always includes a giant AND along with a huge IF.  Legalists put their faith in Jesus AND their personal track record of good works.  Legalists do not trust that Jesus‘ death on  a cross was enough to secure God’s unconditional forgiveness, acceptance, and blessing. Legalists don’t trust that God is that good or gracious.  So, their personal, hybrid religion combines faith in Jesus with faith in their own ability to do better . . . next time, next week, next month, next year.  That’s the AND; here’s the IF.  Legalists are convinced that God will keep forgiving them, accepting them, and blessing them IF their daily lives measure up to his standards.  Legalists generally believe that God forgave them, accepted them, and blessed them the day they made a profession of faith.  But the only way to keep that forgiveness, acceptance, and blessing flowing all through out life, is to earn it day by day.  Legalism isn’t Christianity.  Legalists don’t understand the good news of God’s amazing grace.

There is another spiritual path through life, and that is the path of grace and freedom through child-like faith in Jesus Christ.    It’s the path taken by Ragamuffins—men and women who know that couldn’t have earned God’s forgiveness in the first place and that they still don’t have what it takes to earn his acceptance and blessing today. Brennan Mannin’gs book the Ragamuffing Gospel describes authentic Christianity.  You step on to this path of grace by deciding to be honest about your weaknesses, sins, and failures; and, you stay on this path by continuing to be honest about your weaknesses, sins, and failures.  You step on this path by deciding to trust that Jesus has done for you what you never could do for yourself. You stay on this path by continuing to trust that, by the power of the cross, God will continue to love, forgive, accept, and bless you every step of the way to heaven—when you stumble and struggle and fail, and when you get up again.  This Gospel teaches that, along the way, God  himself will transform us from the inside out by the power of his Holy Spirit.  Our part is just to keep being honest, living in community, trusting in God’s love, and opening your heart to his Spirit.

Legalistis cry out that this spiritual path is much too easy.  The truth is that nothing demands more courage and tenacity in all of life than to living in authentic community while we continue being honest with others and trusting that God loves us just as we are, not as we should be. Legalists cry out that this spiritual path doesn’t make enough of sin.  Paul responds in Galatians that legalists have a childishly, low view of sin.  Legalists demand that the OT laws of God be given more respect; Paul responds the OT laws have no power to change a man or woman’s life from the inside out.  Legalists claim that people of faith need to keep DOING those things God requires in his law.  God doesn’t change.  Paul responds that the cross has changed everything.  All that our unchanging God ever required for our forgiveness, acceptance, and blessing was DONE through’ Jesus death on a cross; all that remains to be done in our character will be accomplished by the transforming presence of the Holy Spirit within us.  Friends, get this!.  Legalism begins with a fundamental distrust of God and his ability—by grace, through faith—to save a people for himself who grow to reflect his character, wisdom, and power in the world.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to ruthless trust . . . in God’s  love, the grace that streams from the cross, and the power of the Holy Spirit to do within us what even God’s OT law could never do.  Those who decide, in trusting-faith, to open their hearts to God’s love, God’s grace, God’s p people and God’s Spirit are welcomed into a kingdom family that is ever-turning from sin to reveal his character and glory to the rest of the world.

These truths are rooted in a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the new Christians who were living in Galatia some 2000 years ago.   If you’re not yet a Christian or you’re new to the faith, this ancient letter is a challenged to follow.  Even scholars have trouble following Paul’s argument. He was a highly educated Jewish teacher; we’re not.  He lived a couple thousand years ago; we don’t normally spend time reading literature like this.  But there’s life in this difficult ground, so we’re plowing it up as best we can on Sunday mornings this fall. Let’s review what we’ve covered so far.  The young Christians in Galatia are being told that if they really what to be sure of God’s forgiveness, acceptance, and blessing in their lives, they need to keep the OT law—at very least the main Jewish identity markers: circumcision, Kosher food laws, along with Saturday worship and other Jewish holy days. In other words, to be good Christians, it’s not enough that they’ve put their trust in Jesus and have been filled with the Holy Spirit. These Gentiles need to follow the OT law as well. Basically, they needed to become Jews to be Christians!  They were being told that unless they followed OT law, they would remain on the outside with God, still half-way alienated from God and excluded from the deepest blessings God promised Abraham and his descendants.  To Paraphrase Paul, we can say “To Hell with that”.   That’s not the Christian Gospel, that’s not Christianity. Paul is challenging this legalism as he concludes chapter two by telling a personal story from a conflict he had with the Apostle Peter on one occasion in Antioch.  READ vv. 11-21.

The church in Antioch was very diverse. We discover in Acts that this congregation was made up of Jews, Arabs, Africans, and Europeans. Yet, they regularly ate together, celebrating God’s grace and Jesus’ death for them.  These meals were called Love Feasts.  Picture something like a big, all-church thanksgiving dinner being held in Jesus’ honor. On at least one occasion, the Apostle Peter (the first Pope, if you will) was there in Antioch, sharing one of these meals.  Long before this particular meal, Peter had stopped eating Kosher because of a vision and experience God had given him in Acts 10.  God revealed to Peter that he (God), had declared all animals clean—even pigs. Because of the cross, Kosher food laws were history—irrelevant to salvation and spiritual growth. The coming of the Spirit on Gentiles demonstrated that they were fully accepted by God, just as they were.  While Jewish Christians could eat Kosher at home if they wanted to, at church gatherings, everyone could bring their favorite foods and freely enjoy the unity of the Spirit.  No one ate Kosher at church meetings in Antioch.  There were no outsiders at the table when the church gathered.

But then, on one occasion when everyone—including the Apostle Peter—was sharing in one of these non-Kosher meals, some visitors from Jerusalem, the mother church, arrived.  These visitors were aghast at what they saw and must have said to Peter something like . . . “You ought to be ashamed of yourself for this compromise.  You’re an apostle to the Jews and now you’re doing something that will hopelessly offend Jewish people who need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ”.  Peter must have felt his face turn red and even Barnabas, Paul’s associate, thought to himself, “They’re right.  We need to be more careful about not causing Jewish people to stumble.  How are we ever going to reach Jewish people for Jesus if we don’t eat Kosher?” So, Peter and Barnabas began to step back from this practice of eating freely in unity with the Gentile Christians in Antioch.  Either the Gentile church members would have to start eating Kosher at church functions, or Jewish church members and Gentile church members would have to eat separately—separate tables or even separate meetings. There was no other way to honor the Torah and the religious sensibilities of Jewish people.

Paul just happened to be there as well.  Inspired (and enflamed) by the Holy Spirit, Paul stood up and spoke out. Peter, Barnabas, and the other Jewish Christian leaders were being led astray from the Good News of God’s grace and into hypocrisy—playing games with the Gospel and with the Gentile Christians.  Understand that Peter and Barnabas and even the people who’ve come from Jerusalem all love Jesus and they even preach Gospel of Grace. But Paul is convinced that Peter and the others really haven’t thought through all that God’s grace means for salvation and spiritual growth, all that the cross did in abolishing the dividing wall created by OT law, all that it means to live in the freedom purchased at the cross.  Peter loved and preached the cross.  Peter celebrated and preached God’s grace. But, Peter didn’t see that if Jewish Christians and Gentile can’t eat together and remember Jesus together at the same table, then the gospel of grace is meaningless and the Christian faith will completely unravel.   So, to paraphrase Paul in verse 14: “Peter! You’re a Jew.  Yet since that day in Cornelius’ house, you’ve been eating like a Gentile with Gentiles at the same table.  And you claimed that this was a freedom God revealed to you on a roof top in Joppa.  How can you now start forcing Gentile Christians either to eat Kosher or to eat at a different table—like they’re on the outside with God?  What kind of a legalistic game are you playing, Peter?”

The logic and flow of Paul’s speech to Peter in vv. 15-18 is very difficult to follow.  Paul is speaking to Peter in common Jewish language and categories of understanding (that are foreign to us).  Paul’s ancient Jewish listeners (in Antioch) and readers (in Galatia) would have been quick quick to get his points. For instance, the Jews considered the Gentiles sinners by birth, because they didn’t have the OT law.  Jewish people saw sin essentially as breaking the OT law.  If you didn’t have the OT law, you were a sinner—born a sinner.  Jewish people didn’t see themselves as sinners because they were children of Abraham and had the law.  So, in developing his argument, Paul now refers to Gentiles as sinful Gentiles, not because Paul thinks Gentiles are especially sinful, but because the Jews thought of Gentiles as especially sinful.   That’s the way is with many fundamentalists today.

In verse 15 Paul says to Peter that “Even we Jews have been justified or pardoned and made righteous by God, not by observing the OT law, but by putting our faith in Jesus.  Even for Jews, righteousness comes by faith in Jesus, not by observing the OT law.  Even we Jewish Christians know that the OT law is irrelevant to being righteous before God”.  Peter, James, John, Barnabas, and every other early church leader would have agreed completely to this point.  Now Paul’s argument will take a hard right turn.

Paul is arguing from three propositions.  First, he knows that from a Jewish point of view, sin is defined breaking the OT law.  Second, Paul is convinced that God has provided salvation for Jews and Gentiles through Jesus’ death on a cross.  So, OT law is now irrelevant to salvation and so, no longer holds up as the defining standard of sin. So, therefore (thirdly) breaking the OT identity markers does not constitute sin.  In other words, since observing OT law is no longer relevant to salvation, breaking OT law—especially the precious identity markers—cannot be considered sinful.  Paul is convinced that since Jesus’ death and the coming of the Spirit, sin can no longer defined as breaking God’s law. Later in this letter, Paul will redefine sin as yielding to the flesh, not transgressing the OT law.  This is a huge change in God’s ways with humanity.

So here’s my paraphrase of Paul’s very technical argument in verses 17-18: “Peter, if you and I, as Jews have sought justification through faith in Jesus . . . and we have both eaten freely non-Kosher food with Gentiles . . . and we define sin as not keeping Torah . . . then we too are sinners.  We’ve both been preaching that Jesus’ death on the cross fulfilled the law and made it irrelevant to being made righteous. If Torah is the path to righteousness, then you and I Bro, are in deep doo-doo. If I destroyed the relevance of the law through preaching grace, and now I am rebuilding the law as essential to pleasing God, then I am a lawbreaker myself.  And if we ask, who is responsible for our misguided, sinful preaching and practices, it is Jesus. Jesus himself has led us into this sinful compromise!  But, that makes no sense at all!

Paul is intensely angry.  In a side conversation, Paul might have said, “Peter, you’ve preached from Jerusalem to Antioch that you’ve put your faith in Jesus and Jesus has pardoned you and made you acceptable to God—simply by grace through faith.  Now, by withdrawing from meals with Gentile Christians who are not following the OT law, you are communicating that they are still outsiders, still sinners, unless they keep the OT law. You’re suggesting that God will hold out on them until they earn his full forgivness, full acceptance, full blessings.  What kind of legalisticgame is this?  These Gentile believers have put their faith in Jesus and have received the promise of the Holy Spirit.  If faith in Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit isn’t enough to justify a person before God and give them a place at the table, what is the good news?”

In verses 19-21, Paul reveals that the Gospel has completely redefined how Jews and Gentiles both become Christians and live as Christians.  The OT law is still circulating around out there, being preached and lived by Jews and even by Christian legalists.  But Paul and every person who has put his or her faith in Jesus has died to the OT law.  Death to the law means that  the OT law has no more power over us, no more power to define sin or condemn us for our sins; the OT law has no relevance to our relationship and standing with God. But in saying “Good-By” to the law are we now just free to indulge in sin?  No, those who truly trust Jesus and are filled with the Holy Spirit turn from sin and live for God as never before!  If we ask, “Paul, How does this work?”, Paul responds, “Jesus lives in me.  Jesus isn’t somewhere out there, inspiring my faith from a distance. The same Jesus who loved me and sacrificed his life for me . . . the same Jesus I decided to trust and follow has invaded my life and is living in me, living his life through me.  Jesus living in me—by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit—is creating within me a righteous character and lifestyle that my feeble attempts to follow the law could never have produced.  This is God’s grace and I will never trade it for the Ten Commandments or any other part of the OT law”.

So, what? So, what is God saying to us through this portion of Paul’s letter to the Galatians?  Three things.

1.   These ancient legalists had a childishly low view of sin.  They viewed sin as stepping across the OT boundary markers, from the Ten Commandments to circumcision, to what a person eats or drinks, and what days they choose to worship God on.  Paul will go on to teach that sin is not just on the other side of some religious boundary markers, sin lives within us, in our flesh—our very humanness.  Sin is rooted in our profound, radical selfishness—selfish ambition, self-pity, self-absorbtion.  “I will decide what’s true for me.  I will decide what’s good for me.  I will decide what right and wrong for me.  I will do whatever it takes to see my needs met.  That’s the sin that corrupted all humanity in the Garden of Eden. The problem for us today is that if we define sin badly, obsessing on legal standards of one sort or another, we will either ignore or, we will even embrace all kinds of real sin, from gossip and slander, from drunkenness to hatred, from lack of self-control in general to sexual immorality in particular.  If we define sin badly, we probably won’t murder anyone, but we’ll speak of other people in hateful, slanderous ways.  No, you we won’t drink alcohol, but neither will our lives be full of love, joy, or peace.  No, we won’t commit adultery with married married men or women, but we will live without self-control and frequently stumble into all kinds of sexual compromise. We might worship twice on Sunday and never miss special holiday church services, but in our daily lives with family, neighbors, and co-workers we may never reveal God’s character to those who know us best. To define sin as not breaking the OT law is a childishly low view of sin.

1.   These ancient legalists had much too high a view of law—yes, God’s OT law.  Paul will go on to explain that the law was never much more than a coach, whose job was to give God’s people a distinct identity and to spare them from self-destruction, until Jesus came along to provide the grace that would change them from the inside-out.  Paul will explain that the OT law never had the power to produce the kind of life-change parents hope to see in their children, spouses of unsaved men and women hope to see in their partners, or the kind of life-change we hope to see in the church or in our larger communities.  

There’s only one source of transforming life-change and that is Jesus’ death and resurrection. That’s why Paul concludes Galatians by writing  that he will never boast or brag about anything but the cross.  And, its the Holy Spirit that releases the power of the cross in our daily lives. This is why wise parents are always praying for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit for their children, why small group leaders are always laying hands on people for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit, why we end every Sunday service with an opportunity for men and women to come forward for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit.  This is why worship leaders and pastors are always inviting you to open your hearts still wider in worship and prayer.  This is why pastors are always urging us to listen for the Spirit’s voice and to take risks with the Spirit’s promptings. Yes, if you set up boundary markers for your children and friends, you can probably manipulate their behavior for about 18 years.  But unless you lead them to a place where they decide to truly trust God with their sexuality and their finances, where they trust God with their needs and dreams . . . unless you lead them into deeper and deeper experiences with the Holy Spirit, they’ll eventually drift from your faith.

1.   These ancient legalists, who thought of themselves as insiders with God, were misrepresenting God’s attitude toward outsiders.  We’re all born into this world on the outside with God.  We’re all sinners of one sort or another—non-religious sinners or religious sinners, Gentile sinners or Jewish law-breakers.  The good news is that Jesus came into our world to save sinners.  That’s all of us.  All of us are born into this world, separated from God by our sin.  Sinful outsiders.

But now, through Jesus death and resurrection, all of us can step into the river of God’s unconditional forgiveness, complete acceptance, and eternal blessing.  All we have to do is to decide to trust God—that he’s good and wise, that he loves us, that he’s for us, that his instructions are trustworthy, his warnings are to protect us, and that his promises are true.

One of the few meaningful distinctions between those who are on the inside and those who are still on the outside with God is honesty.  People on the inside with God admit that they’re not making it, that for all their church attendance and Bible knowledge, they still are sinning.  They’ve concluded that, given their history of trying harder, they’re never going to measure up to their own goals, much less than God’s plan for their lives.  So, they come to God with unusual honesty and humility, something Jesus described as being poor in Spirit.  They admit that apart from God’s grace, they’re never going to find forgiveness or freedom, they’re never going to be able to earn enough points to be blessed in this life or get to heaven some day.  So, they look to the cross and decide to trust that God really does love them, just as they are, not as they should be.  And that’s when everything changes.  They begin to approach God and life out of gratitude instead of fear.  They begin to reveal their inner lives to God and others and welcome the light of God’s Word into areas of their lives legalists keep hidden.  And, the Spirit of God begins to lift them out of the muck that keeps proud legalists stuck in secret sins for a lifetime.  The only people in the room this morning who are on the outside with God are the men and women who are pretty sure they can handle their stuff on their own, apart from trusting in the amazing grace revealed in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

Upcoming Events Calendar