Questioning Legalism (Galatians 3:1-5)
Questioning Legalism
Galatians 3:1-5
April 6, 2014
I was talking with Sandy Sandlin this past week
And he shared a story with me I think you’ll appreciate.
In 1947 the General Mills Company invented a woman as a pioneer baker to help women. That woman’s name was Betty Crocker. And Betty Crocker was to instantly be a busy mom’s best friend.
Betty Crocker supplied a cake mix that only required water in order to bake a cake. All the other ingredients were present.
Just add water and bake.
The invention failed miserably. No one would buy it, no one would use it.
The think tank came together a few years later and revolutionized their strategy.
In 1952 the secret powder was changed.
Now, in order to bake a cake, you needed two ingredients.
Water and an egg.
And the rest is history.
Why did the first and easier mix fail where the second greatly succeeded?
Answer: People were more comfortable if they at least did a little work themselves.
In her book “Something from the Oven: Reinventing dinner in 1950’s America”
Laura Shapiro wrote:
“Looking for reasons why so many women who could benefit from cake mixes seemed to be ignoring them … Ernest Dichter [came up with an] analysis in the course of a study he was carrying out for General Mills. After interviewing women and exploring the emotions that surrounded cakes and baking, Dichter reported that the very simplicity of mixes — just add water and stir — made women feel self-indulgent for using them. There wasn’t enough work involved. In order to enjoy the emotional rewards of presenting a homemade cake, they had to be persuaded that they had really baked it, and such an illusion was impossible to maintain if they did virtually nothing. “This is typical of what the average housewife said: ‘Yes, I’m using a cake mix; it saves me a lot of trouble but I really shouldn’t,'” Dichter wrote later. His advice was to leave the homemaker something to do — for instance, add the eggs — whenever she made a cake from a mix. She would feel she had contributed something of herself, and the mindless nature of the task would no longer plague her.
According to Dichter, his client — and, by implication, the other manufacturers — seized on this wisdom and promptly reformulated their mixes, leaving out the dried eggs. Women started adding their own fresh eggs, stopped feeling guilty, and cake mixes became a success. Over the years this story came to be a favorite among other consumer experts, who often rounded up more psychological studies to reinforce Dichter’s analysis. The egg theory, with its emphasis on the homemaker’s personal investment in the cake, set the tone for much subsequent advertising (“You and Ann Pillsbury can make a great team”) and has been widely acknowledged as the insight that saved cake mixes.”
And wrapped in that story is the very heart of legalism.
People don’t accept something that is too good to be true.
They fell better if they can do a little of the work themselves.
Now granted, they don’t want to pick the grain, mill the flower,
And bake the cake from scratch – that’s too much.
But they’d sure feel better if they could at least add an egg.
What a picture of religious legalism.
People don’t want to go the whole distance and atone for their own sin,
But they would feel a lot better if they could just add a little to it for good measure.
And that is precisely the problem the Galatians are facing.
You will remember that they had been led astray by the Judaizers.
Led astray, not only from the gospel, but from the God of the gospel.
Galatians 1:6 “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;”
They had bought the Judaizer theology that Jesus + Law = Salvation.
And Paul is rebuking that heavily.
Over the last few weeks we saw Paul’s rebuke of legalism
From a theological point.
Paul exposed the true fruit of legalism.
Legalism:
• Divides the Body
• Distorts the Gospel
• Deserves Rebuke
• Destroys Sinners
• Disputes Christ
• Disregards Grace
I can’t think of anything else that can accomplish that much harm.
Legalism is the most dangerous of cancers to infiltrate the church.
William Hendricksen said it best:
“A supplemented Christ is a supplanted Christ”
And this helps explain Paul’s animosity toward legalism.
Paul was one who had learned first hand the futility of legalism.
Philippians 3:7-9 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,”
Paul knew that all of his legalistic methods proved to be utterly worthless in regard to obtaining righteousness before God.
Paul had no use for it any more.
And what really has him angered now
Is the fact that so many who know that same truth
Are choosing to return to that worthless legalism anyway.
And that is where we are in the letter.
Paul now hits the Galatians right between the eyes.
What we find in these 5 verses are 5 questions.
Questions meant to challenge their logic and their new way of thinking.
Paul is very simply questioning legalism.
Let’s look at them.
#1 IN REGARD TO THEIR SEDUCTION
Galatians 3:1
Now you have already figured out that
Paul is not trying to win a popularity contest here.
“You foolish Galatians…”
Is not the type of phrase that earns you a lot of friends.
But understand what Paul is saying here.
He’s not calling them stupid, so much as he’s calling them lazy.
Remember the two men on the road to Emmaus that Jesus encountered?
Luke 24:21-27 “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. “But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. “Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see.” And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”
Jesus said those men were foolish. Why?
Because they weren’t taking into account
All that the prophets had spoken.
They weren’t dumb, they were gullible to believe what they heard,
And too lazy to search out the truth on their own.
And that is precisely where we find the Galatians.
They weren’t doing the work, they weren’t practicing discernment,
They were just buying every argument,
Simply because it seemed like it made sense.
THAT IS FOOLISH!
1 Thessalonians 5:21 “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good;”
Listen, only a fool believes everything he hears.
We are called to test, to discern, to examine.
Ephesians 4:14 “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;”
There is a good analogy.
Don’t be like children.
In what sense?
Children are gullible and they are undiscerning.
If you didn’t watch out for a child
They would either sweeten or poison themselves to death within a year.
They don’t know not to take candy from strangers…
They are gullible and trusting and undiscerning.
We are called not to be like that.
• Christians are called to have discernment and understanding.
• We are called to know better than to fall for a foolish argument.
And those who do, merely show their laziness
In regard to searching out the truth.
Paul is angry at the Galatians because they are lazy.
“You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you…”
• Paul wants to know who “charmed” them.
• Who held the swinging watch in front of our face?
• Who sold you the snake oil?
• Who fooled you with smoke and mirrors?
Someone came in and gave you such a slick argument
That you didn’t even bother checking out the truth of it.
You just bought it because it tasted good.
Some false prophet amazed you with his presentation and slick argument,
But you didn’t even check him out.
That is so dangerous, because that is precisely how false prophets work!
2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”
That is precisely these false teachers,
Telling you too much of what you want to hear.
2 Peter 2:1-3 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
That word “exploit” in the Greek means “to make merchandise of you”
It is were we get our word emporium.
They are snake oil salesmen who talk too fast and feel too good,
But you had better check them out first.
And that is Paul’s first question.
“You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?”
That is to say, you know all about the crucifixion of Jesus.
You know all about what it accomplished.
You know all about its purpose
And yet you are now walking away from it.
Who sold you that bill of goods?
Who seduced you?
Who hood winked you into that decision.
They didn’t go that route by studying the word,
Someone deceived them.
And Paul wants to know who.
In Regard to their Seduction
#2 IN REGARD TO THEIR SALVATION
Galatians 3:2
Here is question number 2 and here Paul appeals to their experience.
Now experience can also be dangerous if not also discerned by the truth.
But experience based upon truth is powerful.
We call that a testimony.
And Paul is appealing to that here.
“This is the only thing I want to find out from you; did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?”
Now why would Paul ask such a question?
B/C the presence of the Spirit equals the presence of salvation.
The absence of the Spirit equals the absence of salvation.
1 John 4:13 “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”
1 John 3:24 “The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”
The presence of the Spirit equals salvation.
And so Paul is here asking.
I just want to know how you got saved.
Did you get saved after you read the Law and obeyed it?
Or did you get saved after you heard the gospel and believed it?
Which was it?
You know the answer when you look at your own life, just like I do.
We got the Holy Spirit…we were saved when we believed.
Acts 10:44-48 “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?” And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.”
And this is the same point Paul spent all of Romans 4
Making in regard to Abraham.
Romans 4:9-12 “Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, “FAITH WAS CREDITED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.”
And again it is clear.
Salvation doesn’t occur when you finally obey the Law enough.
Salvation occurs when you trust Christ.
Their Seduction, Their Salvation
#3 IN REGARD TO THEIR SANCTIFICATION
Galatians 3:3
And this is really the main point of the questioning.
“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
Do you understand the line of thinking here?
They were justified in the sight of God by faith apart from works,
But now they think they are going to fully please God
By going back to works.
Works weren’t needed before,
But all of a sudden they think they are needed now.
Let me tell you what is actually occurring.
The Galatians are actually saying that the work of Jesus on the cross was enough to forgive them, but not enough to glorify them.
The work of Jesus on the cross was enough
To start the salvation process, but not enough to finish it.
In order to reach final glorification
It is still going to take some sort of works from you.
And that is so foolish!
What are you going to add to the cross?
2 Peter 1:2-3 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”
We already have everything we need.
Christ did not short us in any way.
His death was more than enough not only to justify you,
But also to sanctify you, and to glorify you.
Who would be so foolish as to say that the death of Christ is not enough?
And yet that is what legalism says.
It challenges the sufficiency of the cross.
Legalism says that whatever Christ did on the cross, it was partial at best.
However far the atonement went, it was still incomplete.
If you are going to be truly perfect.
If you are going to be totally glorified.
Then there is still a checklist of things you need to accomplish.
THAT DIMINISHES THE WORK OF THE CROSS
And if the cross is not enough there are so many strange passages in Scripture.
1 Corinthians 2:1-2 “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
If what Jesus did was not enough then it seems to me that
His death shouldn’t have been all Paul preached about.
Seduction, Salvation, Sanctification
#4 IN REGARD TO THEIR SUFFERING
Galatians 3:4
Now, the word “suffer” here can also be translated “experience”
Paul is talking about their salvation experience.
Paul is talking about the day they received God’s Spirit.
And he asks, “Did you suffer so many things in vain?”
That is to say, was all of that pointless?
Was all of that of no value?
Apparently receiving the Holy Spirit was not that big of a deal to you, because you are running back to the Law to try and get better.
But that is what legalism does.
It convinces you that believing in Christ
And receiving His Holy Spirit is an insignificant thing.
Legalism would rewrite Paul’s statement in Philippians.
It would say it like this:
“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of obeying the Law. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of obeying the Law, for which I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain the Law, and may be found with it, not having an experience of my own derived from the with Christ, but the righteousness which comes from the Law on the basis of obedience,”
Isn’t that foolish?
I have to tell you, I don’t know of any experience in my life
That I value more than my salvation experience.
That night in Brownwood, TX when Jesus confronted my spiritual poverty and offered to me His perfect righteousness, it was hands down the greatest day of my life.
• August 8, 1998 (wedding) was a big day
• October 11, 2003 (Zek) was a big day
• May 11, 2005 (Hannah) was a big day
• January 8, 2007 (Zech) was a big day
• February 19, 2009 (Abigail) was a big day
But none of those days are as big as the day I was born again.
But if were to now run to the Law in order to be pleasing to God
I would in effect be saying that that day wasn’t all that great.
I would be saying it was “in vain”
That I received Christ’s Spirit, it was futile.
And that would be foolish
Their Seduction, Their Salvation, Their Sanctification, Their Suffering
#5 IN REGARD TO THEIR STANCE
Galatians 3:5
Here comes the conclusion.
Here is the “so then” we have been waiting for.
Since you have now answered the questions and have decided that:
• I was saved by hearing with faith
• I am also perfected through faith
• My experience with Christ was not in vain
That being the case Paul then has one final question.
“So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?”
Paul is simply asking, how do you think God works?
What do you think prompts God?
And the answer is obvious.
Everything God does in your life He does in response to faith,
Not works of the Law.
And so Paul wants to know:
WHAT IS YOUR FINAL STANCE?
Are you going to walk away with the opinion that works still matter?
Or are you going to walk away with the belief that faith is enough?
YOU HAVE TO MAKE A CHOICE.
And let me tell you, everyone in this place has to make this choice.
You have to decide in your Christian walk
Whether or not Christ is enough.
You have to decide whether or not faith in Him is in fact sufficient.
In short you have to determine whether salvation is by faith alone,
Or if it is by faith and something else.
In that same conversation I had with Sandy this week, he was lamenting a conversation he had with another preacher who adamantly denied that salvation was by faith alone.
The preacher’s main argument being that Ephesians 2:8 does not use the word “alone”
What other thing could it be?
And the answer is nothing.
IT IS BY FAITH ALONE.
IT IS BY TRUSTING IN CHRIST ALONE.
It is not by works…
It is not by effort…
It is not by ritual…
But you have to decide that in your Christian life.
You have to decide if what Christ did was enough,
Or if you need to do something else.
And that is precisely where Paul has the Galatians.
Decide!
• You know of Christ crucified…
• You know how you received the Holy Spirit…
• You know what prompted God to work in your midst…
What was it?
Faith in Christ or works of the Law.
AND FRIENDS THE ANSWER IS OBVIOUS, IT IS FAITH.
Do not return to works, it is not what God is seeking,
And if some slick salesman has come in and convinced you of that,
Then he is corrupt and you are foolish.
Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone.
And still people won’t believe it because it is too good to be true.
They would feel more comfortable
If they could just add an egg to their water.
They would feel more comfortable
If they could just add circumcision to their salvation.
But when you do that,
You question the effectiveness of what Christ did,
And that is not faith, and that cannot save.
Trust in Christ – Trust in Christ Alone
