This week, we are looking at a section of a letter in the Bible called the book of Galatians. Yesterday, we saw Paul share that he had traveled to Jerusalem in order to meet in a private and special meeting with the influential leaders of the church at Jerusalem so they could consider the message of the gospel that he was proclaiming. Paul was concerned that the gospel that he was publicly proclaiming to the non-Jewish world would cause division among those who were Jewish who were becoming followers of Jesus. Paul’s fear was the there would be a Jewish Christian Church and a Gentile Christian Church.
Paul was concerned that the message of the gospel that he was publicly proclaiming would divide the church and thus hinder God’s kingdom mission. Paul had been running; he had been striving and exerting himself to spread that message. And Jesus had sent Paul down to the leaders of the church at Jerusalem to consider that gospel message to ensure that there would be unity and not division when it came to the message and mission of this new movement called the church. Today, we will see Paul reveal what happened after the leaders of the church at Jerusalem considered the message of the gospel that Paul was proclaiming in verse 3:
But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.
To understand what Paul is communicating here, we first need to understand what circumcision is and its significance to the Jewish people. Circumcision is a surgical procedure that involves removing the foreskin from the male genitals with a surgical knife, or in this case, a knife made of stone. The reason that circumcision was so significant was that circumcision was a covenant sign that identified the Jewish people as being God’s people. Circumcision was an outward sign was done in order to demonstrate an inward commitment and relationship to God. Circumcision was a religious act that was required to be performed under the Law so that you would be able to be identified as being right with God as part of the Jewish religious system. Circumcision was something you did for God in order to be right with God.
By contrast, in the Jewish culture of the 1st century, an uncircumcised person was viewed as being in a state which was not right with God and not identified as being part of God’s people. And since only Jewish people and those who converted to Judaism were circumcised, that meant that all of the Gentiles who Paul had been publicly proclaiming the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel to were uncircumcised.
So the question on the table for Paul and the leaders of the church at Jerusalem was “do Gentiles who hear the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel have to do anything more than believe, trust, and follow Jesus to receive forgiveness and experience the relationship with God that they were created for?” In other words, is it what you do for God that makes you right with God? Or is it by trusting in what God has done for you that makes you right with God? Or is it a combination of the two?
So when Paul explains that but not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised, he is revealing for us the reality that both Paul and the leaders of the church at Jerusalem agreed that both Jews and Gentiles received forgiveness and experienced a relationship with God the same way. Paul is revealing the reality that the gospel is not about what we do for God in order to be right with God. Instead the gospel is all about placing our confident trust in what God has done for us through Jesus life, death, and resurrection by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader. However, there were some people who crashed the party, so to speak, with a different point of view, which Paul reveals for us in verse 4:
But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage.
When Paul refers to the false brethren here, he is referring to a group of people known as the Judaizers. Now the Judaizers taught that to become a Christian, one must follow the Mosaic Law’s standards and become circumcised. In essence, they were teaching that to become a Christian, you first needed to become a Jew. The Judaizers were legalists who advocated a faith plus works basis for salvation. In other words it was what you did for God plus trusting God. In addition, they denied Paul’s authority as an apostle and leader.
Paul explains that these Judaizers were brought in to the meeting in a sneaky and shady manner so that they could spy out and gather intel on Paul and the message of the gospel that he was proclaiming. Paul explains that they were spying out the liberty that they had in Christ. When Paul uses this phrase, he is referring to the freedom that the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel provides from the slavery that comes about from attempting to do things for God in order to be right with God by keeping a list of rules, in this case being the Law, which were the list of commands in the first five books that are recorded for us in our Bibles today.
Paul then reveals the motives behind the sneaky and shady dealings of the Judaizers. The Judaizers were gathering intel in order to bring us into bondage. Now this phrase literally means to enslave or reduce someone to slavery. The Judaizers were there to attempt to bring followers of Jesus away from the gospel and to the religion of legalism. And it is here that we see Paul reveal for us a timeless reason why we are to vote no on religion. And that timeless reason is that we are to vote no on religion because religion results in division. Where Paul and the early leaders of the church at Jerusalem had unity when it came to living a gospel centered life the Judaizers were intent on creating disunity and division. The Judaizers were intent and bent on removing the freedom that comes for a gospel centered life in order to enslave people in the religion of legalism.
Now you might be thinking to yourself “how can you say that the gospel brings unity while religion results in division? Look at all the different denominations within Christianity; how does that show unity? If you that question is running through your mind, I want to let you know that is a great question to be asking. And here would be my response: while there are a great many denominations within what we would call Christianity today, there is great unity among what I would call gospel centered churches.
In other words, churches that center their ministry and mission in a gospel centered way have unity among one another and within their churches. Mark Driscoll communicates this truth with this word picture: Just as the United States has many different state boundaries that unite under the constitution to form the United States, gospel centered churches may have different state boundaries when it comes to minor doctrinal differences, but are united under message of the gospel.
Now here is my question back to you: when it comes to a religious centered life; when it comes to attempting to do things for God in order to be right with God by keeping a list of rules, who gets to make the list? And who decides which list is right? You see religion results in division. Whether it is the religion of legalism or the religion of license, there is some list to follow that is made by man and that is disagreed on by man. That is why we have so many religious systems and worldviews in the world. And, that is why, in most cases, much of the “division” that we have within churches and with denominations is caused by people who want to live religious centered lives instead of gospel centered lives.
Friday, we will see how Paul responded to those who wanted to live religious centered lives instead of gospel centered lives
No comments:
Post a Comment