Miss a part?

• Galatians Part 1: Are Peter and James confused about how to be saved?
• Galatians Part 2: Jesus plus nothing?
• Galatians Part 3: Jesus plus something

We learned in our previous Bible study, that that Jesus-plus-something perverts the gospel, the good news that Jesus did it all.  Jesus plus something isn’t an inconsequential version of the gospel.  It a perversion of the gospel (Galatians 1:7), because it takes “good news” of God’s unconditional love in Christ and throws the responsibility back on US.

Long-term relationship with God becomes conditional.  Christians are pretty confident that when you first get saved, it’s Jesus-plus-nothing.  But after you get saved, believers drift to Jesus-plus-something.  It’s like, grace is unconditional when you come to Jesus, but after you get saved, your on-going salvation is conditional.  Just how conditional it becomes depends on how you fill in this blank:  Yes, you have to believe in Jesus to get saved, but ______________________.  Paul puts it this way in Galatians 3:3:  ”After beginning with the Spirit,” he writes, “are you so foolish to think that you are trying to attain your goal by human effort?”

Remember, Paul isn’t writing to people who are trying to find God, about how to get saved.  No, he’s writing to Christians who are confused about their salvation after Christ came into their life.  They were confused because Jewish believers were teaching new Gentile believers that, yes, you have to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that, yes, Jesus died on the cross for your sins, but you also have to be circumcised and obey the laws of Moses to be saved.  (See Acts 15:1,5).  And that’s not Gospel “good news.”  That’s bad news!

But there’s more.  Jesus plus something ruins relationships.  Whenever someone adds something to Jesus, whenever the Christian faith becomes something other than Jesus, it’s always the “something” that throws a wrench into our relationships with one another.

Legalism and loopholes

Jesus-plus-something is legalism.  The more you add to Jesus, the more legalistic you become, and and the more that happens, the less tolerant you are of differences.  Self-righteous people are not known for being warm and caring.

Legalism always leads to hypocrisy, too, People who think of themselves as very religious are out of touch with the inconsistencies of their religious convictions.   Hey, everybody is inconsistent, but some people somehow think they aren’t.  Legalism has self-defeating loopholes that legalistic people can’t see for the life of them.  To challenge the pretentious uprightness of the religious community, Jesus taught:

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.”  But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ [calls him a bad name] is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

In other words, if you think you’re pretty good for never killing somebody, if you just think about killing them, or wish they would die, or just call the guy in the other car on the freeway a nasty name, you are in danger of the fires of hell.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus redefines adultery, too:  Guys, just look at a woman the wrong way, and you’ve broken one of the Ten Commandments.

Another example is Jesus’ persistence about healing people on Saturday, sabado in Spanish.  Keeping the Sabbath was, well, a fairly important God-rule.  In the Old Testament, God told the Israelites to kill people who worked on the Sabbath, and at the time of Jesus, although there is no record of the religious community actually executing anyone for breaking the Sabbath, they took it pretty seriously.

Here’s a story about Sabbath observance from Luke 14:1-6:

One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.  There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy.  Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” But they remained silent.  So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.  Then he asked them, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they had nothing to say.

Loopholes!

Mark 2:20-28 tells reports:

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”  He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.  Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

In other words, rules can’t always rule the day.  They’re not made to be broken, but sooner or later, a rule will stand in the way of reality.  Still not convinced?  Visit a law school library and check on the vast volumes of case law, where the court had to decided what to do when the “real” law didn’t fit the case.

I love this:  ”Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former” (Matthew 23:23).

Tales of tithing

When I preached about money at my church, from time to time I’d tell my congregation about how many checks in the offering plate were for odd amounts, like $123.14.  Or $71.40.  What’s up with that?  Were people paying their electric bill?  No, they were tithing!  Exactly 10%.  Oh yeah, I was really grateful for those who faithfully supported our ministry, but I also knew exact tithing betrayed a little legalism.

So I’d tell my folks, “Please be kind to our business office.  We are so grateful you are tithing, but when you write us check, round it up.  Or if you think we are trying to bleed a few more cents out of you, round it down.  God won’t judge you for giving 9.879% instead of exactly 10%.

Do you think my comments ruffled anyone’s religious feathers?  Oh, yes, it did!  One good family even left the church.  It was more important for them to give exactly 10% then to understand the broader principle of generosity.

Legalism is anal Christianity.

To sum it up, the legalistic Pharisees defined what it meant to have a good relationship with God, they were careful to live up the standards they had set for themselves, and they judged everyone on those standards.

[Jesus] told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’

“Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’”

Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

Luke 18:10-14 (The Message)

Like this Pharisee and the tax man, Jesus-plus-something builds a wall of separation, a great divided between the religious haves and have-nots.  On the other hand, Jesus-plus-something brings us together, because we know that no one of us is better than any other of us.  Jesus-plus-nothing is the great leveler.  It fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that promises every valley will be lifted up and every mountain brought low.  In perverted contrast, Jesus-plus-something keeps us apart.  It’s “the something” that inevitably becomes our point of difference, then contention, and finally division.

Unconditional grace is a wide-open world of love, acceptance and forgiveness.  Jesus-plus-something is an closed world, a place of partitions, individual rooms, each defined by the people in that room.  Some rooms are fairly large, some accommodate only a handful, and some are closets of myopic reality for just one narrow-minded person.

Dividing walls of hostility

Speaking about this very relational side of the gospel, Paul writes in Ephesians 2:13-16:

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.  14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

Jesus made the two, Jew and Gentile (or any other two or three who can’t seem to get along) one, and he made this possible by destroying the barrier.  What’s the barrier?  The dividing wall of hostility.  Notice it’s not the dividing wall of difference:  circumcised or uncircumcised, Baptist or Pentecostal, Protestant or Catholic.  No, it the dividing wall of hostility, our sinful inability keep our differences from exploding into rage and division.

Instead, God’s plan was to make one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and to reconcile them both to God together through the cross … oh, I love this … by which he put to death their hostility.

When Jesus died on the Cross, he put an end to God’s wrath about our sins–and our separation from God as a result.  That would be hell.  Jesus died to reconcile us to God, but he also died to reconcile us to one another, to put an end to the hell of misunderstanding, hostility, unforgiveness and rejection.

Let’s pause here for a moment and try to find Jesus in the international controversy over the new immigration law in Arizona.  The more we disagree, the more we dig in our heals, the more we refuse to listen to one another, the more angry we become.  Our differences are the potting soil of hostility, and without Christ we are powerless to do anything other than defend ourselves and scandalize those who oppose us.

Here’s some non-Jesus advice:   If you disagree with somebody–in your family, at work, on the other end of the political spectrum, draw the line. Never give up.  Never give in.  Highlight the difference in red.  Blood red.  Never acknowledge that the person on the receiving end of your hostility is even slightly right.  Drag others into your hostility.  Make them really mad with you.

Make sure everyone knows you are entirely right and that other person is totally wrong.  In fact, make them out to be so totally wrong they become a non-person, someone to mock and scorn.  Whatever you do, don’t find any middle ground.  Build that wall.  Thicker. Higher.

I’m a registered Republican.  A conservative.  But “my people” are so angry.  Mostly, it’s not their church that’s making them angry.  It’s right leaning media.  Talk shows.  Man, I listen to some of those shows, and I start losing my Christianity.  There are just so many things in our world that aren’t right, and we all feel so helpless.  But James says it so clearly:

My dear brothers, take note of this:  Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires  (James 1:19-20).

Or you can repent.  Put Christ at the center.  Remove the log in your eye so you can see clearly that it’s just a speck in your brother’s eye.  You see, Jesus-plus-something isn’t just a good soteriology (the doctrine of salvation).  It’s the entry point to every relationship in life.

In The Message, Eugene Peterson paraphrases 2 Corinthians 10:3-6:

The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.

Jesus-plus-something and ruined relationships according to Galatians 2

At the end of the previous chapter, Galatians 1, Paul tells the story of his years alone in the desert with God.  When Christ came into his life, the life he knew unraveled.  He needed time to put it back together.  To rethink everything he had believed.  To hear from God.  And this crazy idea about salvation totally by grace alone came to him during his three years there in Arabia.

In the opening verses of Galatians 2, Paul brings us forward, to the time when the idea of salvation by grace alone (Jesus-plus-nothing instead of Jesus-plus-circumcision) had become a point of discussion and controversy.

1 Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.

6 As for those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance—those men added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles just as Peter had been to the Jews 8 For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

This meeting in Jerusalem to which Paul refers is not the same public event described in Acts 15.  Although it’s difficult to determine when, exactly, Paul had this private meeting with Peter and John, “the pillars” of the early church, many believe it’s parallel with Acts 11:30. Whatever the historical connection, however, the meat of this chapter is in the verses which follow.

11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

15 “We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ 16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

Here it is!  It’s the Jesus-plus-something problem in living color.  Jesus-plus-nothing isn’t just a doctrine.  It’s the foundation of how Christians ought to be living their lives, accepting themselves, and loving others unconditionally.  Yet legalism remains a temptation even for the very best of us, like Peter!  Can you believe it?!  The first apostle, Peter himself, came under the influence of the Jesus-plus-circumcision crowd.

Notice also that the power of legalism is fear:  ”[Peter] was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision party.”  So he began “to draw back” and “separate himself from the Gentiles.

Paul, bless his stout heart, wasn’t afraid to call Peter’s behavior hypocrisy and oppose him “to his face.”  I would love to have been there to see that!  The Greek term here is a form of hypokrites, which meant literally, a stage actor, hence one who pretends to be what he is not.  The terribly sad thing about hypocrites, though, is that they have come to believe that their pretension is reality.

Even Barnabus was led astray.  Startling, because the name Barnabus means “son of encouragement.”  Legalism and hypocrisy–Jesus-plus-something–make a giant sucking sound.  They rip the love of God right out of us.  Even essentially good people become intolerant.

The apostle Paul got into Peter’s face, not because he was sinning, but because he was a bad example of grace.  He was mistreating those he considered lesser persons because of a good thing, circumcision, that became more important than the best thing, unconditional love and grace.

In embracing Jesus-plus-something, Peter was rejecting others, and in so doing was violating the core message of the gospel,  that we are saved by utterly unconditional grace.  If we think God accepts us conditionally, we will accept others conditionally.  If we are blown away about how God has accepted us unconditionally, we will be deeply humbled to love and accept others unconditionally.

In summary, here are four nasty symptoms of legalism:

1. Separation from others, in the name of the Lord!  Think carefully about this.  Peter appeared to be uncompromising in his spiritual convictions, so much so that he was willing to break up his relationship with other believers in order to maintain his “integrity.”  The truth, however,  was that Peter, in his careful commitment not to compromise, was actually compromising!  He was compromising the gospel of grace!
2. Fear. Fear is the motivation of religion without Christ.  But the Bible tells us, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18).
3. Hypocrisy. Legalism always breeds pretense, because when you can’t be perfect, you have to put on a perfect face.  You have to pretend to be perfect.  Or you have to dumb down perfection, make it easier to be “perfect,” and live up to that.
4. Man pleasing instead of God-honoring. “Even Barnabus was led astray.”  Bad religion affect even the nicest people.  Everyone begins to worry about what others are thinking, even those who are the most conscious of God’s grace, like Barnabus.  Barnabus, “the son of consolation,” a basically tolerant man, became intolerant.

So it doesn’t matter what we do, right?  That question seems to be everybody’s best reason for keeping Jesus-plus-something close to their heart, because Jesus-plus-nothing implies there are no rules, that maybe we can live like the devil, and God will keep just loving us!

Even Paul understood the implications of what he was writing.  So he asks the question in the next verse, verse 17:  If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!

This is part 3 of my Galatians study. You may want to check out Galatians Part 1: Background and the Galatians Part 2: What does it mean to be a Christian?.

Ask your friends what it means to be born again, and you’ll get as many answers as you have friends.

People love to say, “The Bible says that God helps those who help themselves.” No, the Bible does not say that. Yet it seems people prefer the treadmill of self-effort, which is at the core of every world religion, except Christianity. Only the Bible offers a radical message of utterly unconditional grace–and the gift of perfect righteousness to make us right before God forever.

Paul says it this way in Romans 1.17,

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Religion says DO. Christianity says DONE. As the great hymn of the faith proclaims, “My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness … On Christ the solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.”

According to Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Galatians is one of Paul’s great letters. In it he forcefully proclaims the doctrine of justification (that is, right standing with God) by faith alone. Martin Luther, the Reformer, claimed Galatians as ‘my epistle.’ So wedded was Luther to Galatians, both in interest and in temperament, that, together, they shaped the course of the Reformation and, subsequently, all of history since 1517. Galatians has been called the “Magna Carta of Christian Liberty.”

Galatians has six chapters which can be divided into three main sections:

• Part One: A statement of the problem and a defense of Paul’s authority as an apostle, Chapters 1 and 2.
• Part Two: A precise explanation of the Gospel, Chapters 2 and 3.
• Part Three: Freedom in Christ/Life in the Spirit, Chapters 4 and 5.

Let’s dig into “Part One,” the persistent problem of religion. By “religion” I am referring to the power of religious traditions with or without Jesus, or what I famously refer to as

JESUS PLUS SOMETHING

Specifically, the problem in the Galatian churches was a re-introduction of Jewish religious practices, particularly circumcision, into the new Christian communities. As preachers like Paul carried the message of Christ the Savior outside the Jewish world of Palestine, many Gentiles became believers. This made Jewish Christians uncomfortable, because pagan Gentiles were not schooled in nor committed to important Jewish practices, particularly circumcision.

Yet salvation is either Jesus or religion. Not both in any mixture.

How serious is this problem, of mixing a little Jesus with a little of this and a little of that? Is it really such a big deal? Look at Galatians 1:6-9 and cringe:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel–which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

Let me point out a few things here. First, Paul jumps right to the point. His introduction and greetings (verses 1-5) are pleasant but terse. To say he is passionate about his concerns would be an understatement. He was smokin’ mad. “I’mastonished (shocked, according to the NLT) that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you …” In The Message it reads, “I can’t believe … how easily you have turned traitor.”

Wow. Are you hearing Paul? Feeling Paul? Does he give you a sense that there’s a serious problem in the Galatian churches? Well, what is it? Sexual perversion? Drugs? Rampant sin?

No, they are turning away to another gospel, which is really not the gospel. In other words, they are drifting to another way to be saved: Yes, you have to believe in Jesus, but if you are a Gentile, you have to be circumcised, too. As long as we put Jesus in there somewhere, it sounds like the gospel, but it’s fundamentally different. In fact, it’s not really the gospel at all. It’s not good news, the literal meaning of the Greek term euaggelion, translated “gospel.” The treadmill of human effort is bad news.

Only grace and grace alone is good news. Religion, that is, trying to please God in your own effort, is an impossibility. Your very best will never be good enough, and that’s bad news. Jesus plus something, in some ways, is even worse, a badder bad, because it sounds so Christian. I mean, you have to start with Jesus, right? You can’t go anywhere without him, right? He’s Lord and Savior, right? Yeah, but … but … but.

This is precisely the problem Paul is addressing in Galatians, and he calls it, note the harsh expression, a perversion of the Gospel: “Some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.” And how are they doing this? By telling Gentile Christians that, yes, you have to believe in Jesus. He is Messiah, Savior and Lord, but … But if you are really a Christian, you have to be circumcised, too. They “were teaching the brothers: ‘Unless you are circumcised … you cannot be saved‘ ” (Acts 15:1, emphasis mine).

These circumcisers were perverting the gospel, not by sin, not by “worldliness,” but by adding something to the absolutely finished work of Christ. As we will see later in Galatians, they were saying, in effect, that the saving work of Jesus on the Cross and in his resurrection was necessary for salvation, but it was not enough. To me, this is just short of blasphemy, as Paul suggests in Galatians 2:21:

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law [that is, human effort, doing good works], Christ died for nothing!

Christians believe that Jesus is everything. He’s my all in all. It’s Christ in me, the hope of glory. But when you believe in Jesus plus something, Jesus and his work for us becomes less than everything in exact and direct proportion to how much of something you add to Jesus. If my righteousness, my right standing with God, can be gained through Jesus plus human effort, then Christ died for nothing

This is why Paul fumes:

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you [grace alone, Jesus plus nothing], let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

Eternally condemned? Whew! People have told me that, if after I become a Christ follower, I persist in sin, or unbelief, I could … well … go to hell. Yet Paul is suggesting that you can “lose your salvation” by adding things to the good news of the finished work of Christ: Let him be eternally condemned. Whatever Paul means here literally, it’s a fact that unrighteousness is not nearly as bad as self-righteousness.

Incidentally, people have pointed out that the foundation of the Mormon religion, the Latter Day Saints, was an angel preaching “another gospel,” a gospel that certainly doesn’t leave out Jesus, but one that pushes him to the sidelines. You know, it’s the Church of Jesus Christ, but a Jesus that can only be fully understood through the Book of Mormon. Mormons are lovely people who speak openly of their faith in Christ … but … but … but …

Why is that we can so clearly see the legalism problem in “cults” like the Mormons, or for many evangelical Christians, in the unique beliefs and practices of the Catholic church? Yet we can’t see the problem of Jesus-plus-something in so many of our own circles. Maybe it’s because some people have large logs of legalism, while others of us have just little specks in the eye, you know, Jesus plus a little something.

So why is the problem so serious? Why such a big deal? Jesus plus something perverts the gospel, that is, it takes the “good news” of God’s unconditional love in Christ and throws the responsibility back on you, making relationship with God conditional (big logs), or somewhat conditional (little specks). And that’s not the Gospel – “good news.” That’s bad news!

Just because you don’t usually hear this stuff about salvation, it would be easy to think that I’m off my rocker. Or maybe I’m just making this up. Well, my good friend Paul faced the same skeptics:

I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:11-12).

Indeed, understanding salvation by grace alone requires something of an epiphany. As clear as Paul is on the subject, and as hard as I have tried to explain it, some people just don’t get it, won’t get it. They believe in Jesus, they love Jesus … but …

Years ago I was doing a short term international outreach with a friend of mine. On the long return flight, I discovered that, though he had been a Christian for a few years, some people had thrown him into confusion (to use Paul’s words). So I read him portions of Romans and Galatians–and shared the message of salvation by grace alone.

I’ll never forget the moment. Heaven was on his face as he said to me, innocently, “This is really good news!”

“Yes!” said I ecstatically. “It’s the euaggelion, the gospel!”

So, then, do you have to believe in Jesus-plus-nothing to be saved? No! That would be another subtle way to overturn Jesus-plus-nothing. I’ve had an unfortunately large number of Christians disagree with me (and the apostle Paul), but I have no doubt they are true believers on their way to heaven. Yet so many Christians are the neo-Judaizers. Yes, they’re saved, but to the extent they add things to Jesus, to that extent they are often hard on themselves and they are always hard on others, as we will see in Galatians 2:11-14.

Wrapping up the first chapter of Galatians, then, Paul recounts his “previous way of life in Judaism,” when he was “extremely zealous for the traditions” of his forefathers. But God called him “by his grace” and “revealed his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles.”

In other words, God chose an extremely religious man, a man deeply devoted not only to God, but to his own passionate self-effort to be everything God wanted him to be. God chose this man, saved this man and squeezed out of him every last ounce of self-righteousness (see Philippians 3:2-11). God specifically chose Paul to reach the Gentiles, people who had nothing in their hand to bring. No traditions. No good works. Nothing. People who have nothing fully appreciate and embrace Jesus plus nothing.

Christianity, then, was not Jesus Messiah added to Jewish tradition for the Jews, nor was it Jewish law and practice added to Jesus for the Gentiles. Salvation was and is by Christ alone.

(Next article: When you believe that our relationship with God is based on Jesus plus something, that “something” is nearly always a point of conflict and division.)

This is part 2 of my Galatians study. You may want to check out Galatians Part 1: Background and the Galatians Part 3.

What does it mean to be a Christian?

Ask your friends what it means to be born again, and you’ll get as many answers as you have friends.

In decades of ministry, after I spoke about the doctrine of salvation many times, people in my congregation, it seems, were still confused.

I don’t know if it was my failure to communicate clearly. Or the fact that people in church listen to many other voices talking about Christianity and religion and, as a result, believe a hodgepodge of this and that about God, Jesus and heaven. Or if people haven’t really read and studied what the Bible says about salvation, especially in Romans and Galatians.

Or maybe salvation, specifically salvation by grace only, is just so out of the box in a world enslaved by doing something to get something. Indeed, the apostle Paul refers to the “scandal of the Cross,” that there’s absolutely nothing you can do to please God and somehow earn your salvation.

People love to say, “The Bible says that God helps those who help themselves.” No, the Bible does not say that. Yet it seems people prefer the treadmill of self-effort, which is at the core of every world religion, except Christianity. Only the Bible offers a radical message of utterly unconditional grace–and the gift of perfect righteousness to make us right before God forever.

Paul says it this way in Romans 1.17,

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Religion says DO. Christianity says DONE. As the great hymn of the faith proclaims, “My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness … On Christ the solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.”

So just what does it mean to be Christian? How do you become born-again? What does born-again mean?

Or to ask the question another way, What is the “bare minimum” for salvation? What is “the least necessary” to garner the favor of God? What do you have to do to stay born again and not get yourself unborn again.

Let me stir up a little religious dust by asking the question this way: Can a person be a Christian if, let’s say, they smoke? They keep smoking?

A few years back a pastor friend of mine stopped by or church on Monday night. I took him around to see our facility. Outside one of our six buildings, a number of people were smoke. It was our recovery ministry, New Wine, something we were doing years before “Celebrate Recovery.”

My startled friend asked, “What’s that?! Who are those people?”

“Oh, that’s our smoker’s Bible study,” I replied.

What about drinking alcohol? Can Christians drink? Drink a six pack a week? Drink a six pack a day? Will you go to heaven if you die just before you drink the sixth beer on the wall?

What if you do drugs? Or watch R-rated movies? Or you used to do those things until you asked Jesus in to your life, but you start doing them again?

What about abortion? What if you “became a Christian,” had sex outside of marriage, and got an abortion? What if you got the abortion even though you knew it was wrong?

What if you are a “strong believer,” but you teach high school science, including evolution, not because you have to, but because you actually believe that evolution is the best explanation for the origin of life?

What if you were raised Catholic. In your twenties you had a personal encounter with Christ. Even though you were confirmed, attended mass, and knew about Jesus, something happened. Now you say you’re born-again. But you still attend your Catholic church. What do your non-Catholic Christian friends think? Are you really saved?

Or your friends who do not attend the “true” Church, the Catholic church, are they really saved?

What if you are a white, conservative Christian and you voted for Barak Obama? Or a Black Christian, and you’re a Republican? Can you be saved?

So are you laughing out loud, or gnashing your teeth because I’ve come too close to your sacred cow?

Did you know Billy Graham was harshly criticized, by Christians for giving the prayer at Bill Clinton’s inauguration? Rick Warren suffered similarly when he prayed at President Obama’s inauguration.

Here’s what I believe: Being a Christian is Jesus in your life plus nothing and that’s what changes everything.

I’m not just makin’ this up. It’s not just one more Christian guy’s opinion. I beg you not to dismiss me, because you “just can’t agree with my view.” Pleas, put your preconceptions aside and listen carefully, not to me, but to what the apostle Paul says about salvation in Galatians.

A Little Background

First, if you did not read “part one” (about the doctrine of salvation by grace alone in the book of Acts), you can find this study it in my previous e-news file on my website, www.garykinnaman.com. You won’t understand Galatians if you don’t understand Acts 15.

Nor will you understand Galatians if you haven’t read Romans. To summarize, Acts is the history of how the early church came to an understanding of salvation by grace alone. Romans is the only book in the Bible that actually explains salvation in a logical sort of way, and Galatians is Paul’s response to those who still don’t get it, including the apostle Peter! Galatians is the practical application of what Paul teaches in Romans.

I also need to say this: You can’t come up with a coherent idea of salvation by taking the whole Bible and throwing into a doctrinal blender. So many times, when I’ve taught what I will be teaching in this e-news, people have objected to my purist view of grace by saying, “Yeah, but _______.” You can fill in that blank with just about anything. Mostly, though, people fill it in with other Bible verses that seem to conflict with what Paul says in Romans and Galatians, or at least qualify his teaching.

“Yeah,” they say, “I believe what Paul is teaching in Galatians, but Peter says … but Jude says … but James says.”

But … but … but.

But hear this: Paul is the only writer of the Bible that takes on salvation by grace alone systematically–and he has to explain it to Peter, James and John. Just as we must use the New Testament to help us understand the Old Testament, so we must use Romans and Galatians as a starting point for understanding salvation.

OK … wait … you also need to hear me say this: Everything in the Bible is important, and everything in the Bible is instructive. Not everything in the Bible, though, is clear on how to have and keep a relationship with God.

Furthermore, when we study Galatians, we have to understand that Paul is not concerned primarily about the outcomes of salvation, that is, how we should live our lives as followers of Christ. Obedience. Discipleship. Yes, he gets to that in chapters 5 and 6, but you can’t leapfrog into the last couple of chapters of Galatians without first mastering chapters one to four. You will not understand sanctification (the process of working out our salvation) without first going through the door of justification (the moment we are made right with God forever).

In Galatians we will consider:

• The problem of religion, that is, adding to Jesus
• How serious the problem really is
• What happens to people when they have Jesus plus something
• Does this mean I can live like the devil?

According to Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Galatians is one of Paul’s great letters. In it he forcefully proclaims the doctrine of justification (that is, right standing with God) by faith alone. Martin Luther, the Reformer, claimed Galatians as ‘my epistle.’ So wedded was Luther to Galatians, both in interest and in temperament, that, together, they shaped the course of the Reformation and, subsequently, all of history since 1517. Galatians has been called the “Magna Carta of Christian Liberty.”

Galatians has six chapters which can be divided into three main sections:

• Part One: A statement of the problem and a defense of Paul’s authority as an apostle, Chapters 1 and 2.
• Part Two: A precise explanation of the Gospel, Chapters 2 and 3.
• Part Three: Freedom in Christ/Life in the Spirit, Chapters 4 and 5.

Let’s dig into “Part One,” the persistent problem of religion. By “religion” I am referring to the power of religious traditions with or without Jesus, or what I famously refer to as

JESUS PLUS SOMETHING

Specifically, the problem in the Galatian churches was a re-introduction of Jewish religious practices, particularly circumcision, into the new Christian communities. As preachers like Paul carried the message of Christ the Savior outside the Jewish world of Palestine, many Gentiles became believers. This made Jewish Christians uncomfortable, because pagan Gentiles were not schooled in nor committed to important Jewish practices, particularly circumcision.

You think people are emotional about abortion, evolution, the gay agenda? Or undocumented aliens? Or Obama Care? You ain’t seen nothing’. In the early history of the church, circumcision was the emotional issue du jour. Eventually, Paul was arrested for starting a major riot in Jerusalem, because Jews thought he was bringing uncircumcised people into the temple. (It baffles me how they would know that. I mean, I don’t think they had circumcision scanners).

Galatians, then, is about how salvation is not based on Jesus PLUS circumcision, or that matter, anything else. Galatians makes the case that my eternal salvation is based on

JESUS IN ME PLUS NOTHING.

Think about this: If we believe salvation is based on JESUS PLUS SOMETHING, what is that “something” going to be? And how much of that “something” is necessary?

And who is going to decide? The Baptists? The Mormons? Pentecostal Holiness? The Jehovah’s witnesses? The Catholics? Billy Graham? Benny the Hinn?

Salvation is either Jesus or religion. Not both in any mixture.

With this in mind, let’s see what Paul says about adding to the gospel, that is, the simple message that salvation in Christ alone … next month!

This is Galatians Part 1: Background. You may want to check out Galatians Part 2: What does it mean to be a Christian? and Galatians Part 3.

The early Christians were confused.

The Apostles were confused.

Peter.  James.  John.

The men who followed Jesus were confused about how to get saved and how to stay saved.  Can you imagine?!  The Apostles confused about salvation!  They weren’t sure if salvation was by grace alone or there was something else they had to do.

They said things like, Yes, you have to believe in Jesus to be saved.  You have to follow Jesus to be saved.  But ….

“But” is always Jesus plus something.

The Apostles were confused.  A lot of Christians are still confused.             Pastors.  Church leaders.  They’re confused!  You’re confused!!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A couple years ago, I was at the bank asking for money.  You probably know how painful that can be.  I’m not a Catholic, but getting a loan may be as close as I get to feeing what it’s like to go to confession.

The banker’s desk is oversized, maybe elevated.  And you sit across the marble slab in a little chair.  You chin is barely above the edge of the desk as you sit there quivering, gulping.

“So you want money,” the banker said to me firmly.

“Yeah,” I said weakly.  “But not that much.”

She saw in my application that I’m a pastor.  I made some joke about that, to which she responded even more firmly, “You have to be careful about that joking around.”

Smiling, I told her that I wasn’t worried about my relationship with God, that no matter what happened, I’d be going to heaven.

Ooh.  Not a good thing to say to a loan officer.  Looking at me fiercely, she pointed her inky banker finger  at my face and said, “You can never be sure you are going to heaven when you die.”

I didn’t want to argue the point, because I needed money.  But to find out why she would have said that, I asked her where she went to church.  “I’m Catholic,” she said.

Ok, this study of the book of Galatians isn’t about Catholics, but it is about people in every Christian community everywhere that think that doing good gets you to heaven, or at the very least, that you need Jesus plus doing something good.  Or not doing something bad.

This woman at the bank (and yes, it’s a true story), like so many other people, was confused.  But, hey, the Apostles – the original followers of Jesus! – were so confused about how to get saved and how to keep their salvation, they had to call a special meeting in Jerusalem.  What happens there is recorded in Acts 15:1-11 and provides a necessary context for understanding the book of Galatians.

Here’s the text from Acts 15, with my comments.

1.  Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Here we have it, very early in the history of the church:  Jesus plus something, in this case, circumcision.  Of course,

2.  This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.

There was a sharp dispute about grace and salvation, and the early church was not clear enough on the matter for these key leaders to know the “official” position of the Apostles.  This is remarkable, because some years have passed since Jesus ascended into heaven, and it’s not until we get more than half way through the Book of Acts that the early leaders of the church even raise the question.

So …

3. The church [in Antioch] sent them [Paul and Barnabus] on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria [down the east coast of the Mediterranean]  they told how the Gentiles had been converted. [Non-Jews came to believe in Christ, with no heritage of God's covenant and law]. This news made all the brothers very glad. 4. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

Christians in Jerusalem, essentially everyone in the fledgling church there, were very glad.  But …

5.  … some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.”

Let me repeat that:  some of the believers.  These confused people were believers, followers of Christ, likely baptized into the new community.  And some were still Pharisees!  I almost have to laugh when I read this:  believers who were Pharisees!  Not that this ever happens anywhere in the church today!

So they had to talk about it.  For a long time.  I have to believe their interaction was as hot as the August wind in the Middle East.

6. The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After much discussion Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?

This was an extraordinary moment, a turning point in holy history when the full light of the New Covenant dawned on the first Apostles, when the Old Testament fully morphed into the New.  These disciples, they followed Jesus.  They heard his message.  They saw him die on the cross.  They saw the empty tomb and the risen Christ. They believed.  They knew he was the way, the truth, the life … the only way of salvation … that no one could come to the Father except through the Son.  Yet they were not clear about the totality of the work of Christ until this moment …

11.  No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

This is the heart of the Gospel, the center point of New Testament teaching.  Everything in the Bible is important, but everything in the Bible orbits around this central revelation:  “It is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved.”

Certainly, we have to take everything in the New Testament seriously.  From Genesis to Revelation, God’s Word calls us to obedience, but not in order to become his children, or even to make sure we stay in his family, but because we are already his children.

Our eternal salvation, the perseverance of our faith, is based on Jesus plus nothing.  My eternal relationship with God starts and ends with Jesus in me plus nothing, and that changes everything.

Are good works important?  Yes!  But not get ourselves saved, or even to keep ourselves saved, but because we are saved.

Jesus doesn’t come into my life because he likes my good works.  Can you imagine God looking down on your pre-Christian life and saying, “Wow!  Now there’s a pretty person.  She certainly got my attention.  I think I need to bless her.”

No!  While we were still enemies of God, he loved us and send his Son to die for our salvation.  Jesus comes into your life when you are a sinner!  Good works don’t bring into your life.  Jesus in you produces good works, good fruit.  Good works are the outcome of Christ in you.  Christians are fruit trees, not Christmas trees.

Good works don’t save me.  Good works don’t keep me saved.  Salvation is a gift of God-grace-from the beginning to the end.  Paul writes,

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:12-13).

I don’t work for my salvation, or on my salvation, but I work it out, because it’s already in me.

Next e-news:  How Paul talks about salvation by grace alone in Galatians.