Tag: legalism

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Galatians Devotionals

Turning away from God

legalism vs. grace

I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel… (Galatians 1:6)

When we hear the words “turning away from God,” I think the first thing that comes to mind is going back to a life of sin, like the prodigal son.

Certainly, when people do that, they are turning away from God. But that’s not what Paul is talking about. The danger for the Galatians was not going back to a life of sin. The danger was turning to a life of rules.

In this case, they were being told they needed to get circumcised and follow all the ritual laws given to the Jews which have no connection to true holiness (Colossians 2:20-23).

Those laws were just temporary things meant to point them to Christ and prepare them for his coming (Galatians 3:19-25).

As Christians, our focus should be on God, not the rules. “What is God doing around me and in me? Where is the Spirit leading?”

Focusing on the rules tends to be very self-focused. “Am I measuring up?”

A life of grace is God-focused. “God is so good! His love and grace are incredible! Where is he going? I want to be where he is! I want to join in with what he’s doing.”

So let’s not turn away from God in order to follow a life of rules. Rather, let’s walk with him joyfully, led by his Spirit, moment to moment, day to day.

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Galatians

Severed from Christ, fallen from grace

Galatians

I don’t know about you, but I think most people looking at today’s title would think, “Wow! What terrible thing must a person do to be severed from Christ and fall from his grace.”

In fact, we often use that phrase, “fallen from grace,” in society today for people who once used to be seen as honorable but who fell into utter disrepute because of something they did.

But the whole context of this passage is not murder, or rape, or bribery, or some other such vice. Rather the context of this passage is legalism. By trying to become righteous before God through keeping the law, we become severed from Christ and we fall from his grace.

Paul wrote,

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.

Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. (Galatians 5:2-3)

In other words, it’s all or nothing when it comes to the law. If you are determined to become justified before God through the law, it doesn’t stop at circumcision. You have to go all the way and keep every single law in the Old Testament or you’re not going to make it.

It’s also all or nothing in the fact that if you are determined to be justified before God through law, Christ’s death has no value to you at all.

It’s not like the Judaizers were saying, that Christ plus works equals righteousness before God. It’s either obey the law perfectly, or put your faith in Christ and have his righteousness credited to your account. There is no in-between.

That’s why he tells the Galatians,

You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:4)

The word “alienated” in the NIV is translated much more harshly in the ESV. It says you are “severed” from Christ.

Basically by turning to the law to make yourself righteous before God, you turn your back on Christ. You’re telling him, “I don’t think your work on the cross is enough,” and in doing so, you spit on all his suffering that he endured there.

Some people such as the Mormons teach, “By grace you are saved after all you can do.”

But Paul clearly states that by putting any faith in your own works, you actually fall away from grace, not put yourself in it.

Paul then says,

But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. (Galatians 5:5)

I believe here that Paul is talking about how the hope that we have, that though right now we struggle with sin, the day will come when we will be made righteous not only in our legal standing before God, but in reality.

In Romans 8:23, Paul talks about how we groan while we are in this body, longing for the day when we will receive our new bodies.

Why? For one thing, we will no longer face sickness or death. But I think the other thing is that once and for all we will be free from sin in our lives.

That’s the righteousness we hope for. And anyone who has that hope will not indulge in sin. Rather, they will live day by day trying to please the one who saved them.

Not because they have to earn their salvation. But because they’re rejoicing that they have already received it.

And so Paul says in verse 6,

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6)

How about you? Are you still trying to earn God’s favor in your life? Is that why you’re trying to do good things?

Or do you believe that God has already made you righteous in his sight, and look forward to the day when you will be made perfect? And is it from that belief that you love God and want to please him?

How are you living your life?

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Galatians

How to lose our joy (and blessing)

Galatians

You can really see how perplexed Paul is with the Galatians in this passage (actually going all the way to verse 20).

When he had first come to the Galatians, he had had some sort of physical problem, and yet, though it caused no small inconvenience to them, they still received him with great joy.

Why? Because of the gospel that he had preached which set them free from sin and brought them new life. Having heard the message and received it, they were filled with God’s inexpressible joy and a deep sense of his blessing.

So filled with this joy were the Galatians that it overflowed in their love and concern for Paul such that they were willing to do anything for him. Paul said,

I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. (Galatians 4:15)

But having been infected with the teaching of the Judaizers, everything had changed. All their joy was gone, and now they looked at Paul with suspicion.

They wondered if he had really told them the truth of the gospel. They wondered if he had perhaps left something out that could actually keep them from salvation.

So Paul asks them,

What has happened to all your joy… Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? (Galatians 4:15-16)

The word “joy” there is translated “blessedness” in the ESV and “blessing” in the NASB. But however you translate it, the Galatians had lost a precious gift God had imparted to them upon their believing in Christ. How?

By returning to religion. By making their salvation a matter of their own works and their own efforts and causing the cross of Christ to lose its value to them. (Galatians 2:21)

The same thing can happen to us. When we make our Christian lives all about “keeping the rules” of religion, we lose our joy and our blessing. Instead, we start straining to earn God’s favor.

And in the process, one of two things inevitably happens.

Either we become proud because we are “succeeding” in our efforts (as if someone could actually earn God’s favor by their works).

Or we become utterly depressed and despairing because we realize it’s impossible to keep the rules perfectly.

Either way, we lose the blessing and joy of God in our lives.

But when we realize that our salvation is by grace alone, it does two things. It keeps us humble and it keeps us grateful.

We are humble because we realize that we did nothing to deserve God’s favor in our lives. We see that all we deserved was God’s condemnation but how he has showered us with his grace and mercy anyway.

More, we become filled with joy and gratitude at this grace and mercy we have received. As a result, the blessedness that comes from Christ flows not only in our lives but through our lives touching the people around us.

What kind of life are you living? One of pride? One of defeat and despair? Or one of blessing and joy?

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Matthew Matthew 23

Loopholes

loopholes

I’ve mentioned before the different problems of legalism.

Here we see another problem. People who are legalistic tend to try to find loopholes. They may keep the letter of the law (as they see it), but try to find ways to avoid keeping its spirit.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law were masters of this, and we see an example here that Jesus brings up.

The law said that you were to keep oaths that you made to God. But these men made all kinds of rules of what that actually meant.

If you said, “I swear by the temple,” you weren’t bound by your oath, but if you said, “I swear by the gold of the temple,” you were required to keep it.

If you said, “I swear by God’s altar,” you weren’t bound by your oath, but if you said, “I swear by this gift on the altar,” you were.

And Jesus points out the utter fallacy of this way of thinking.

It is the temple that makes the gold holy, not the reverse.

It is not the gift that makes the altar holy; rather, it’s the altar that makes the gift holy.

Lest the Pharisees try to squirm out from under that concept, he goes on to say that if you swear by the temple, you’re swearing by God who dwells there.

And if you swear by heaven, you swear by God’s throne and by God himself.

What was Jesus’ point?

Just do what’s right.

When God said, “Keep your oaths that you have made to me,” the point wasn’t that it’s okay to break your oath if it isn’t made in God’s name.

While keeping your oaths is certainly important, the real point was that your word is important. If you say you’re going to do something, do it.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law focused on “oaths to God” rather than “keeping your oath.”

In so doing, they “strained the gnat,” in making rules on what “oaths to God” meant, and “swallowed the camel” by consistently breaking their other oaths. (Matthew 23:24)

How about you? Do you have a heart that truly wants to please God and do what’s right? Or do you have a heart that only does so grudgingly, and is always looking for loopholes?

You cannot please God by claiming to find loopholes and slipping through them in your daily life.

Let’s get rid of that kind of attitude.

Rather, let’s do what we know in our hearts God has told us to do.

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Luke Luke 11

The problem with legalism

Luke

From blasting the Pharisees, Jesus turned to the teachers of the law. Why?

Jesus told them,

And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. (Luke 11:46)

In this one verse, we see the problem with legalism.

First, it loads people with guilt without any remedy in sight.

The experts of the law actually made things more difficult than they had to by adding rule upon rule to the law of God.

When, for example, the law said that you shouldn’t do work on the Sabbath, these experts made countless rules on what “work” actually meant.

For example, women couldn’t wear jewelry on the Sabbath if they went out because it was possible they might take it off for some reason and carry it around with them. And of course, “carrying a burden” was prohibited on the Sabbath.

You also had to be careful how far you walked. If you walked too far (just over half a mile), you were breaking the Sabbath.

There were literally hundreds of such rules on top of the laws that God had given. And if you broke any of them, you were considered a “law-breaker.”

People today may not have the hundreds of additional rules that these teachers of the law did, but how often do we see people put restrictions on others, not because the Bible says it, but because they personally feel it’s wrong.

“Don’t drink” (as opposed to, “Don’t get drunk”).

“Don’t watch movies.”

“Don’t dance.”

All of this leads to the second problem, a judgmental attitude. The idea that “You are not a good Christian because you don’t keep these rules.”

Along with that comes a prideful attitude because, “I keep the rules.”

But often times, while they “keep the rules,” they forget what the Pharisees did: mercy, justice, and love. They think they’re righteous, but in God’s eyes, they are as much a stench as the Pharisees and teachers of the law were.

But perhaps the worst problem with legalism is that all it does is tell you what is right or wrong.

It doesn’t have the power to help you do what is right or wrong. It only judges you when you fall. The result is people who feel the hopelessness of trying to keep all these rules.

The people in Jesus’ time were totally weighed down by these rules of the teachers of the law, and yet, if they asked the teachers of the law what to do when they failed, all they would be told is, “Do better.”

Which is, of course, no help at all.

Even if you get rid of all the additional rules, and stick only to the law Moses gave the people, it still doesn’t have the power to save you. In the end, you end up like the apostle Paul, saying,

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24)

But unlike the people of Jesus’ time, Paul had hope. He said,

Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Legalism can’t save you. The Law can’t save you. But Jesus, through his death on the cross, can. He took the punishment for our sin, and so Paul could say,

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

So let us cast aside legalism and the feelings of pride and condemnation it leads to.

Rather, let us turn to Christ and his cross. And through it, not only will our sins be forgiven, but we will find the power to live the way God intended.

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Matthew Matthew 11

Learning from Jesus

Matthew

I’ve got to admit, after graduating from university, I never had a real desire to go back to school and get my master’s degree or anything like that.

Looking back on it now, if I had to do it over again, I might do it.

But going to school can be tough. Homework, exams, and of course, tons of reading.

Yet, Jesus does call us as Christians to go to school. No, I’m not talking about going to seminary or Bible college, although God may very well call you to go there. But Jesus is calling us to enter his school.

He said,

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. (Luke 11:29)

This was actually something that many rabbis said when calling students to study under them.

What do we learn in Jesus’ school? We learn who the Father is. Jesus said,

No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (Matthew 11:27)

So many people want to know who God is, but don’t know how. How, after all, can you get to know an invisible God. It’s impossible…unless he is revealed to us.

And that’s what Jesus does. He teaches us what the Father is like. More than that, when we look at the life of Jesus, we see what the Father is like. As Jesus said,

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9)

When we see the character of Jesus, we see the Father’s character. When we hear the words of Jesus, we hear the Father’s words as well.

We also learn from Jesus how God intended us to live. And how God intends us to live goes far beyond obeying a list of dos and don’ts.

That’s what the Pharisees had. They lived by their lists of dos and don’ts. But so many people in trying to follow them, got weighed down by them.

Instead of finding God’s love and grace, they found condemnation. Instead of finding freedom, they found themselves bound up by all these rules that they couldn’t possibly keep.

But Jesus tells us,

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

Jesus isn’t about rules and regulations. He’s about drawing near to God. He’s about loving those around us.

And when we are weak, he strengthens us. When we lack wisdom, he gives it to us. When we fall, he picks us up. When we are discouraged, he helps us to keep on keeping on.

Because of this, his teaching is not burdensome. It sets us free.

What is the requirement for entering his school? A humble heart. A teachable heart. Things that the religious folks of Jesus’ day didn’t have, but Jesus’ disciples did.

That’s why Jesus said,

I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. (Matthew 11:25-26)

How about you? Are you ready to join Jesus’ school? Are you ready to learn from Jesus?

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Luke Luke 6 Mark Mark 3 Matthew Matthew 12

What grieves Jesus

The gospels

This is one of those stories where each of the gospels gives us a little piece of the puzzle to what happened. Here’s my take on the whole story taking into account each of the stories.

Jesus was in the synagogue, and he sees a man there with a shriveled hand. But he also notices the scrutiny he’s getting from the Pharisees and teachers of the law, and he knows that they’re waiting to see if he will break their rules concerning the Sabbath and heal the man. (Mark 3:1-2)

So Jesus deliberately calls the man to come up, and as he does, the religious leaders ask,

Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? (Matthew 12:10)

Jesus, as he typically does, responds to the question with a question of his own.

I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? (Luke 6:9)

This was of course an unanswerable question for these leaders. They would have sounded stupid if they had said it was wrong to do good on the Sabbath or to save a life. How can you dishonor God on the Sabbath by doing good and saving lives?

But if they had said it was lawful, Jesus would have said, “You’ve just answered your own question,” and immediately healed the man.

On the other hand, there was no way they could say it was lawful to do evil or destroy life on the Sabbath.

So in the face of this unanswerable question, they remained silent. For as the old saying goes, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”

Luke tells us that Jesus looked around the room for an answer, but Mark adds a bit more information in chapter 3 verse 5. He says,

He looked around at them in anger…deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts (NASB — “hardness of heart”).

So Jesus probes them further, saying,

If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?

How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! (Matthew 12:11-12a)

In other words, “You are willing to help your sheep if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath? Which is more important, a person or a sheep? And if people are more important, how can you accuse me of breaking the Sabbath when I heal a man?”

So Jesus concludes,

Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:12b)

He then healed the man.

The irony of all this? Jesus had asked them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to save life or destroy it?”

And right after this event, on the Sabbath, the religious leaders started plotting to kill Jesus. (Mark 3:6)

But the verse that strikes me is Mark 3:5. That when Jesus saw these leaders’ hardened hearts, it grieved him.

They were so hardened by their legalism and by their traditions, God’s word and truth could not penetrate their hearts. Even when they had to know deep in their hearts they were wrong (as proven by their silence), they would not admit it.

How about you? You may not be as legalistic as the Pharisees, but are there areas in your life where you’ve hardened your heart to God?

You’re doing something wrong, or your way of thinking is wrong, and God has spoken to your heart and shown you your error and your sin, and you know you’re wrong. You know you need to change.

But instead, you cling to your old way of thinking. You cling to your sin. This kind of hardness of heart grieves God.

It grieves him because he wants so much better for you. It grieves him because by refusing to repent, you not only hurt him, but you hurt yourself, and those around you.

Let us have hearts softened to him. Receptive to his word. May we not bring grief to Jesus who died for us, but let us bring him joy.

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John John 5

Blinded by rules

John

Rules are a good thing. It tends to put order where there is disorder. This is true in the classroom (where I teach), it’s true in our households, and it’s true in society.

But rules can be harmful when people forget that the rules are not there simply for their own sake. There are reasons for rules, and if we forget the spirit of them, we can get into trouble.

What’s worse is when we start making up rules to keep us from breaking other rules.

What do I mean? To take a very modern example, God says, “Don’t get drunk, instead be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:18)

Throughout scripture, especially in the Proverbs, you see warnings against getting drunk. Why? Because when you get drunk, you’re no longer in control of yourself. Even more importantly, God no longer is in control in your life.

But some people put a rule around the rule. “Don’t drink alcohol at all. If you drink, you might get drunk.”

Now that rule around the rule is not bad in itself. I basically avoid drinking myself for that very reason (not to mention the fact that alcohol doesn’t taste very good).

But it becomes bad when you start criticizing others for breaking the rule around the rule.

That’s what the Pharisees were like, and you see it in their keeping of the Sabbath. You had the rule: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” (Exodus 20:8)

In short, “Don’t work on that day.”

What was the spirit of the law?

First, to take some time to focus on God.

Second, to learn to trust him to provide for you by working only six days a week instead of seven (as the Israelites did when they were slaves in Egypt).

And finally, to relax. Let your body rest.

That was the spirit of the law.

But the Pharisees and teachers of the law built all these rules around the rule.

They had restrictions on how far you could travel or how much you could carry on the Sabbath.

They also had restrictions on doctors. If it was the Sabbath, they could only help someone if they were dying. And even then, they could only help to the point that the person could survive until the end of the Sabbath.

But by putting in place all these laws, they forgot the reason for the commandment and placed burdens on the people that God never intended.

Further, they criticized anyone for breaking their rules, rules that God never gave the people.

Not only that, they became blinded to what God was doing because of their fixation on rules.

You see that in this passage.

They see a man walking with his mat (breaking the rule against carrying “a burden.”)

“You’re working! What are you doing working on the Sabbath?”

“Well, the man who healed me, he told me to pick up my mat and walk.”

Translation: “If this guy had the power to heal me, he must have the authority to tell me to carry my mat.”

Now two things to note here. First, the Jews probably didn’t recognize this man at all as a person who had been disabled for 38 years. They only noticed him when he broke their rules.

How often are we that way? We totally ignore the people who are spiritually needy around us and only notice them when they break the rules.

Second, even when they realized what had happened, they were so focused on the breaking of their rules, that they couldn’t see the incredible thing God had done for this man.

Instead, all their focus was on finding out who broke the rule for healing this man. And when they found out it was Jesus, they persecuted him.

That’s the danger of being too focused on rules. We fail to see the needs of the people around us, and we also fail to see what God is trying to do around us.

How about you? Are you blinded by rules?

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Luke Luke 5 Mark Mark 2 Matthew Matthew 9

For God to use you

The gospels

One thing that the religious leaders always seemed to be trying to do was to pit John the Baptist versus Jesus. And John’s disciples fell for it every time.

First, these leaders pointed out to John’s disciples that Jesus was baptizing more people than John. (John 3:25-26)

(I should say that it’s not certain whether it was a religious leader that did this, but I think it’s a good guess.)

Then here in this passage, they have John’s disciples questioning Jesus as to why he and his disciples didn’t fast as they did.

Why did the Pharisees and others do this? Probably to rob Jesus of his credibility. John the Baptist, after all, did point to Jesus as the Messiah.

I don’t think it’s coincidence that Jesus brought up the illustration of a wedding. John did the very same thing earlier when told about Jesus baptizing more than him.

John said he was like the best man in the wedding, while Jesus was the bridegroom. Perhaps in using this illustration, Jesus was trying to remind them of that.

John was gone. He was in prison. His work was done. Yet for some reason, his disciples maintained their loyalty to John, and apparently weren’t interested in going after Jesus as Andrew and one other disciple of John had done. (John 1:35-40).

Jesus told them, “John told you I am the bridegroom. Why should people fast and mourn while the bridegroom is there? When the bridegroom leaves, there will be plenty of time for that.

But now is not the time for fasting and praying because I am here. When I leave, that will be the time to be fasting and praying.”

Then he told them a parable, talking about patches and wineskins which the people then could understand easily, but are a little difficult to understand in our day.

But think about it this way, if you put a brand new piece of denim to patch up a pair of old jeans, what will happen if you wash it? The denim will shrink, and ruin the jeans.

Nowadays, people put wine in bottles, but in those days, they used goatskins to make bottles for wine.

As the wine fermented, the skin would expand, so if you ever put new wine into an old wineskin, the wineskin would burst because it had already expanded, and could expand no further.

What was Jesus telling John’s disciples (and for that matter, the Pharisees that were looking on)?

Basically, he was saying, “God is doing something new. I, the Son of God, am here, and I am reaching out to the lost and dying. I’m building a kingdom that will last forever.

But you are like the old wineskins. You are so in love with your old ways, that God can’t use you.”

For the Pharisees, they were in love with all the laws and regulations. To them, that was the most important thing, not people.

As a result, they were looking down on the very people God was trying to save. They were more interested in sacrifices and religious ritual than saving people.

For John’s disciples, perhaps they fell too much in love with their teacher. They forgot what John’s purpose was. It wasn’t merely to baptize people or to call people to repentance. It was to prepare the people for Jesus and get them following him.

But instead of going to Jesus, even after John was gone, they missed out on what God wanted of them.

God was pouring new wine, the work of the Spirit, through the ministry of Jesus. But John’s disciples were clinging to the teachings and practices of John, and saying, “The old is better.” (Luke 5:39)

How about you? Are you open to the Spirit’s work in your life? Or are you clinging to traditions? To legalistic righteousness? Or even to things that were important and effective in their time, but whose time has passed.

In order for God to use you, you need to constantly be watching for what he is doing now, and joining in with his work, even if it’s different from what you’ve done in the past.

Are you an old wineskin, or a new one?