Text: Galatians 5:1–6
Date: October 30, 2022
Event: Reformation Sunday, Year C
Galatians 5:1–6 (EHV)
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not allow anyone to put the yoke of slavery on you again. 2Look, I, Paul, tell you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3I testify again to every man who allows himself to be circumcised that he is obligated to do the whole law. 4You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law are completely separated from Christ. You have fallen from grace.
5Indeed, through the Spirit, we by faith are eagerly waiting for the sure hope of righteousness. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters. Rather, it is faith working through love that matters.
Does Jesus have Value for You?
I’ve had the same conversation more times than I can count. Mostly here in California, but it even happened a couple of times while we were in South Dakota. And it always goes the same. I meet someone new—maybe a barber or a clerk at the post office or someone waiting to visit a loved one in a hospital or care facility—and we get to talking. Nothing major, mostly small talk. But in the course of that conversation it comes up that I’m the pastor of a Lutheran church. And the same question comes so reliably that I can almost finish the sentence for the other person: “Oh, Lutheran? Is that like Christian?”
For those of us who have been Lutheran for a long time, the question seems silly given the confessional Lutheran church’s narrow, scriptural focus on Jesus as Savior. But it makes sense that people would wonder or be curious. Especially around here, the only exposure they may have had to anything “Lutheran” might be driving by a church with that word on its sign. So it’s a good question, and one which usually leads to very quick sharing of the gospel message.
Being Christian (that is, believing in Jesus as Savior) is far more important that being Lutheran. But the reality is that, perhaps especially on a day like Reformation Day, we can get a little out in front of our skis with misplaced priorities of what is truly important. And in our Second Reading for this morning, we’ll see in what Paul writes why reformation is not just for a church at a given time, but that reformation is for our hearts all the time, because the things that pull us away from Jesus are more subtle and insidious than we would like to believe.
The letter to the Christians living in region of Galatia is likely the earliest of Paul’s letters, probably written sometime in the late 40s AD. Paul had started many of the churches in that region during his first missionary journey. But, after he had been there and then moved on, some other teachers came into the region and started teaching a distorted gospel which Paul says in the opening of this letter was really not another gospel at all (Galatians 1:7). To fully understand what Paul is talking about in our reading from chapter 5, we need to understand the root problem these Christians were dealing with.
Teachers came into this region of Galatia whom have come to be known as “Judaizers.” Their message was pretty simple. They taught that Jesus was great and necessary, but in order to actually benefit from what Jesus did for you, you had to keep the Old Testament laws as well. This is the reason that circumcision looms so large in our reading, because these congregations would have been predominately gentiles who would not have had the custom of circumcision. But now they’re being taught that in order to be saved, you must follow this law that requires circumcision. And at this, Paul is furious. In his introduction to the letter he said: If we or an angel from heaven would preach any gospel other than the one we preached to you—a curse on him! As we have said before, so I now say again: If anyone preaches to you any gospel other than the one you received—a curse on him! (Galatians 1:8-9).
What was the gospel, the good news, that Paul had preached to the Galatians originally? That Jesus is the Savior. Now, of course, that sounds reductive, but it’s true. Jesus it the Savior—full stop. That was Paul’s message to the Galatians. When Jesus lived his life, he did so perfectly, but he also did it in our place. When Jesus died on the cross, there all of my sins and your sins were laid on him. He suffered the hell that we deserved to release us from our sins. We have freedom from sin because Jesus lived, died, and rose from the dead. Jesus’ work has set us free from any punishment that we deserved because Jesus did it all for us.
This work of Jesus becomes ours through faith that God gives. God grants us faith, trust, to hold fast to the truth that Jesus died for us. Notice we don’t earn this or pay anything for it. All of it is a gift from God. Paul explained to the Galatians: We know that a person is not justified [that is, declared not guilty or forgiven] by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law (Galatians 2:16).
So this is the issue that Paul has with what these false teachers are saying. They were teaching that Jesus alone was not enough. You needed to do something to be worthy of his forgiveness. You needed to dedicate yourself to him by outward works so that you can earn a spot in this family. That teaching undermines the whole of what Jesus did! We know we can’t save ourselves, but if we start following the thinking that we need to do a little bit of something to be worthy of Jesus, then we are trying to do things to save ourselves. Doing that is what Paul describes in our reading as allow[ing] [some]one to put the yoke of slavery on you again.
And while the Judaizers’ focus may have been primarily on circumcision, Paul is clear that if you want to start doing something to earn your forgiveness, you cannot pick and choose which things to do and follow. He said, “I testify again to every man who allows himself to be circumcised that he is obligated to do the whole law.” And if you then have to follow the whole law to be saved, well then, Jesus becomes utterly worthless: if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you.
That is not the path to heaven. We cannot earn our way, even by a minuscule percentage, because God demands perfection. And if we are anything short of perfect, we doom ourselves to hell. And we are all far, far from perfect. Trying to be saved by the work we do means Jesus has no value to us anymore.
But this mindset was not unique to these false teachers in region of Galatia at the time of Paul. In fact throughout all of human history, people’s thoughts and hearts have assumed that they need to do something to be right with God. Nearly every religion in the world is based on it. Our legal system is based on it (do something wrong? Do something good or uncomfortable to make up for it). Even our human relationships are, at times, based on it. How many times have you done something that hurt someone in some way and then you scrambled to try to figure out what to do to make it up to that person?
So it’s no surprise that at the time of the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church had fallen head-over-heels in love with this teaching. Like the Judaizers, Rome taught that Jesus had a great deal of value, but he only did so much. You needed to add your works to what Jesus did if you hoped to be saved. Maybe that meant attending masses, special prayers, or the thing that finally woke Martin Luther up to this distortion, the selling of indulgences. Indulgences were pieces of paper that when purchased supposedly forgave the sins of the purchaser or the one for whom they were purchased. What a flagrant offense to the truth of Jesus’ forgiveness!
Not much has changed. Rome’s teachings today have not really changed. Much of American Christendom focuses you on yourself for comfort—how strong your faith is, how much you believe, how emotional you are when you consider your faith. In fact, much of Christianity today seems to focus people on everything possible except Jesus. Other religions use Jesus’ name but only preach a message of works. In all of these systems, despite what lip service they may give to Jesus, he becomes completely worthless when my good works are trying to be factored into the equation. I can’t put it any more strongly or clearly than Paul did: You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law are completely separated from Christ. You have fallen from grace.
And it’s not just those people over there. It’s not just people in other churches. On a day like Reformation Day perhaps we gloat a little bit. “Those foolish teachers in those other churches teach the wrong thing. But I’m Lutheran! I know the truth!” And in that moment, don’t we also cross the line? Don’t we also put our hope in something other than Jesus? Aren’t we putting our hope in our “Lutheraness” rather than Jesus? How quickly and insidiously this happens. How craftily Satan would lead us to put our confidence in ourselves rather than where it belongs—only with God.
Again, the Reformation was not just something that was needed at one time and place. We recognize that our hearts, daily, hourly need to be reformed by God’s Word to refocus us not on ourselves but again on Jesus and on Jesus alone! We need God to remind us that Jesus not only has value, but he is the only thing of value eternally. Who cares about your denominational ties or your history? If Jesus isn’t valued above all else, everything else is worthless.
In our Gospel, Jesus reminded us that if he sets us free than we are truly free. And that’s what he did. No matter what we’ve done or what misguided notions we’ve had, Jesus came to be our Savior—to completely free us from sin, death, and hell. He did that by living a flawless, perfect life under God’s law in our place and crediting that life to us. He did that by completely taking all of our sins on himself and paying their horrific price when he died on the cross. He proved all of this by rising from the dead to show that it worked. We are free from sin because Jesus has conquered it completely.
So the value that Jesus has is not one of mere helper. He’s not just a guide for our path in this life. He doesn’t just embolden us to be better. He frees us from sin completely, without our intervention at all. Jesus is our Savior and there is no other.
What is the role of good works then? Paul said, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters. Rather, it is faith working through love that matters.” It might have been tempting for the Galatian Christians who rejected this false teaching to start feeling pretty good about themselves. “Well, I didn’t let myself get circumcised, therefore I am better.” And, again, in that moment they have the exact same problem as those who tried to follow the law to be saved had. They looked at something they did or didn’t do as reason for confidence before God. So Paul is clear the it doesn’t matter if you’re circumcised or not. What matters is faith working through love.
Faith is trust in the promises of God. Faith that trusts that Jesus is the Savior can’t help but express itself. The expression of that faith is what we would call good works. But the motivation behind them is different than what the Judaizers were teaching. These are not good works done trying to earn God’s love; these are good words done because God has already loved us. These are not works done trying to pay off our sins; these are works done because Jesus has already paid that debt we owed. We do good works to thank God, not to earn anything with him.
In the end, we shouldn’t really care if people understand what a “Lutheran” is, although it is a heritage that many of us cherish. It doesn’t matter if we or someone else are members of a church called “Lutheran.” What matters is that people know who Jesus is because he is the one who has completely and freely set us free from sin by his life, death, and resurrection for us. He broke the yoke that sin had placed on us and freed us to be with him forever in heaven. Trying to add our work to his work devalues him completely. But valuing Jesus means trusting in him completely for the forgiveness of our sins and the certainty of eternal life with him.
So on this Reformation Day, let’s not recommit ourselves to simply being “Lutheran.” Let’s recommit ourselves to the gospel message that makes being Lutheran valuable at all. Is Lutheran equivalent to Christian? By Paul’s words, most certainly yes. Let’s commit ourselves to valuing Jesus, not our own works. Let’s commit ourselves to sharing Jesus with those who don’t know him yet. Let’s commit ourselves to resting in Jesus’ freedom that he freely gives, and thanking him for that free gift today and always. Thanks be to God! Amen.
