Vote No on Religion Because Religion Results in a Life Driven by the Wrong Motivations...

For the past several months at the church where I serve, we have been involved in a sermon series entitled “Vote No on Religion”. During this series, we have been looking at a letter in the New Testament of our Bibles called the book of Galatians. This week, I would like for us to look at the concluding section of this letter, where we will see a man named Paul provide a final piece of evidence when it comes to the problems that arise when we choose to live a religious centered life. And it is in the evidence that Paul provides that we will discover another timeless reason why we are to vote no on religion. So let’s look at the evidence together, beginning in Galatians 6:11:

See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.

Paul begins this final section of his letter to the members of the churches of Galatia with a seemingly strange statement. To understand this statement, we first need to understand something about Paul and something about the members of the churches of Galatia. As we discovered earlier in this series, most scholars believe that Paul suffered from significant vision problems for the rest of his life after his encounter with Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road.  Because of those vision problems, Paul was unable to write with small letters. Instead, when Paul wrote, for him to read what he wrote required that he write with large letters. As a matter of fact, because of this illness, it was a normal practice for Paul to dictate his letters orally to a scribe and then write the concluding greeting in his own hand.

So Paul’s statement here is to let the members of the churches of Galatia know that this letter was actually his thoughts and not someone else’s thoughts. Paul wrote down this statement and what follows to authenticate that this letter was in fact from him. You see, as we have already seen in this series, the members of the churches of Galatia were skeptical of Paul and had begun to show hostility toward Paul as a result of the influence of those who were influencing and leading them to turn away from a gospel centered lifestyle and toward a religious centered lifestyle.  So they would be looking for any reason to discount the contents of this letter. Paul wanted the members of the churches of Galatia to clearly understand that his letter was from him and carried authority as a result of his role as an Apostle and leader of the early church.

After providing evidence to identify himself as the author of the letter, Paul then begins to address those who were influencing and leading the members of the churches of Galatia to turn away from a gospel centered lifestyle and toward a religious centered lifestyle. And it is here that we will see Paul reveal for us another timeless reason why we are to vote no on religion. And that timeless reason is this: We are to vote no on religion because religion results in a life driven by the wrong motivations. In this concluding section of this letter we will see Paul reveal for us three wrong motivations that drove those who were living religious centered lives to attempt to convince those who were living gospel centered lives to instead live religious centered lives. We see Paul reveal those wrong motivations beginning in Galatians 6:12. Let’s discover them together:

 Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh.

To understand what Paul is communicating here, we first need to ask and answer two questions. First, we need to know who are those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh? When Paul refers to those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh, he is referring to a group of people known as the Judaizers. The Judaizers were legalists who advocated a faith plus works basis for salvation. In other words it was faith in Christ plus works for God that resulted in a right relationship with God. In addition, they denied Paul’s authority as an apostle and leader.

Second, we need to understand why they would compel people to be circumcised. 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 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. The Judaizers taught that to become a Christian, one must follow the Mosaic Law’s standards and become circumcised. And the Judaizers were attempting to convince and compel the members of the churches of Galatia to follow their teaching and turn away from a gospel centered lifestyle and toward a religious centered lifestyle.

Paul responds to what was happening at the churches of Galatia by exposing three shady and wrong motivations that drove the Judaizers. First, in the first half of verse 12, Paul explains that the religious centered leaders were driven to make a good showing in the flesh. But what does the mean? This phrase, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to make a good showing before people.

 

In other words, these religious centered leaders were people pleasers. These religious centered leaders had fear of man issues. These religious centered leaders were first and foremost concerned with winning the approval of men, of being popular. And that reality drove their motivation to attempt to lead people away from a gospel centered lifestyle and toward a religious centered lifestyle. The more people followed their religious centered way of life, the more popular they would be in the eyes of the public.

Now has anything changed? You see this is not a 1^st century problem; this is a human nature problem. You see, unlike a gospel centered life that is driven to respond to all the God has done through Jesus by giving glory and honor to Jesus, a religious centered life is often focused of receiving the glory and honor from people. Unlike a gospel centered life that is driven to please God in response to what God has done, a religious centered life is often driven to please men in response to what they have done.

Second, in the second half of verse 12, Paul explains that the religious centered leaders were driven to avoid persecution. When Paul refers to the cross of Christ, he is referring to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. Throughout the New Testament of our Bibles, we see that the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel are either enthusiastically embraced, or they are violently opposed. The harsh reality is that the preaching of the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel will arouse opposition.

 

And because these religious centered leaders did not want to be harassed because of what they believed, they instead chose the path of least resistance. You see, a gospel centered lifestyle is driven by the recognition of the possibility of persecution, but treasures eternal life with Christ far greater than the temporary troubles of persecution. A religious centered lifestyle, however, can be driven by a rejection of the possibility of persecution because they treasure a temporary freedom from persecution over an eternity with Christ.

Third, in verse 13, Paul explains that the religious centered leaders were driven to take pride in their performance. Paul begins by exposing the hypocrisy of the religious centered leaders. As we have previously talked about in this series, a hypocrite is someone who creates a public impression that is at odds with ones real motivations or purpose. A hypocrite is someone that says “here is the message and teachings of Jesus, or here is a list of rules to follow, and you need to follow them, but I am not going to follow them”. A hypocrite fails to follow the message and teachings that they impose on others.

 

And that is exactly what these religious centered leaders were doing. Instead of keeping the list of religious rules that they were imposing on others, Paul then explains that they “desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh.” In other words, the religious centered leaders were attempting to convince and compel the members of the churches of Galatia to turn away from a gospel centered lifestyle and toward a religious centered lifestyle that was based on following a list of rules for God that they themselves did not follow, so they could take pride in all the new converts that they had.

Now has anything changed? You see this is not a 1^st century problem; this is a human nature problem. You see, unlike a gospel centered life that is driven to take pride in all that God has done through Jesus to bring people into a gospel centered lifestyle, a religious centered life is driven to take pride in what they have done to bring people to their religious centered lifestyle. Unlike a gospel centered life that is focused on God’s activity, a religious centered life is focused on man’s activity.

And that is the problem with religion. A religious centered lifestyle is often driven by the motivation to please men. A religious centered lifestyle is often driven by the motivation to avoid persecution. And a religious centered lifestyle is often driven by the motivation to take pride in their performance. And that is why we must vote no on religion. We must vote no on religion because religion results in a life driven by the wrong motivations.

Tomorrow, we will see Paul contrast the motivations that drive a religious centered life with the motivations that drive a gospel centered life…