Galatians 5:2-6

This morning I am going to begin by reading three scary statements:
1) Christ will be of no value to you at all.
2) You… have been alienated from Christ.
3) You have fallen away from grace.

All three of these statements are found in the Bible. Wow, “Do you mean something could happen where Christ is worthless to me?” All three of these statements are found in Galatians. “Are you saying that I could end up alienated from Jesus?” All three of these statements are found in one paragraph. “I could fall away from his grace? Those are scary statements.”  All three of these scary statements are found in Galatians 5.

Galatians 5:2-4   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. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 

Playtimes over.  Paul is getting serious.  Look at the first 4 words of this paragraph in Greek: Ide evgw Pau`lo~ levgw
-Ide –  Look! Mark my words! Indeed!  Behold! Listen!
- ego – I
- Paul, myself
-Lego - Speak
What we are about to hear is important.  This is serious.  Pay attention. The Galatians were on the verge of loosing it all.  Playtimes over, Paul is getting serious.

This paragraph, these three verses, immediately raises a series of questions of FAQs; Frequently Asked Questions. 
Can you fall from grace? 
What would you have to do to fall from grace?
How can I prevent being alienated from Christ? 

This morning I want to answer these three questions. These sound pretty serious. We are going to explore Galatians 5:2-6 and look to see if falling from grace is possible. 

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Through out this year we have been working through the letter of Galatians; exploring our freedom in Christ.  This morning we come to the part of Paul’s letter where he gets down to the real issue; the real reason he is writing; the presenting problem; Gentile circumcision!  These Gentile Christians, whom Paul had brought to Christ and freed from pagan worship and introduced to the forgiveness, and salvation and the Holy Spirit, were on the verge of being circumcised. They were contemplating being circumcised. 
 
They were being pressured by a group of Jewish agitators who believed in order for them to be in the family of God they should be circumcised.  As long as they were not, they weren’t really a part of the historic family of God which began with Abraham.  As long as they were not part of the family, then these Jewish Christians would not fellowship with them.  They would not share the Lord’s Supper with them.  They were not completely right, until they were circumcised and they would not sit at the table with them. 

These agitators were also concerned about the Gentile’s behavior.  They were still behaving like pagans. They needed the Law of Moses in order to learn how to live right!  Obviously, these Gentile Christians wanted to be more like Jesus and wanted to share the supper with their Jewish brothers; maybe it was the right thing to do, be circumcised and then follow the Law.  What could be wrong with doing both of those?  After all, circumcision and the Law were both God-things, after all.

I can relate to their dilemma, can you?  I want to be a part of a loving fellowship of people who accept me.  I want to be more like Jesus, too.  I would be willing to do whatever it took to accomplish both those objectives.  What should they do?  Well, Paul tells them; straight up. 

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Galatians 5:2-4   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. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 

Notice the four things that would happen if the Galatian Gentiles allowed themselves to be circumcised. 

1) Christ would be of no value anymore.  These Gentiles believed in Jesus. They had turned away from their paganness and accepted Jesus; his death, his resurrection, they had been baptized into Christ, the Spirit had worked spectacular miracles in their lives, they were doing great as Christians.  But if they did the circumcision thing then all that was gone.  Wow, why? 

2) They would be obligated to obey the whole law.  Have you ever wondered why God initiated circumcision in the first place?  It is an odd thing.  It is like “Cross my heart hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.”  When a person makes an oath it is to say there are consequences to breaking the oath.  Circumcision was symbolic.  If a person did not keep the entire Law of God then they would be cut off from God!  Paul is saying if you do circumcision it is like saying, “Cross my heart hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.”  You have to keep all the Law. 

3) You are alienated from Christ.  The actual Greek here can be translated cut off; cut like circumcision.  The NRS says, “You have cut yourselves off from Christ.”  The opposite would actually happen.  Instead of being more acceptable to Christ they would actually cut themselves off from Christ. 

4) Fallen from grace.  Is there a scarier phrase?  Why? All they wanted to do was be a part of the fellowship and be a little more like Christ.  How could following the Old Testament command of circumcision and the Ten Commandments lead to such dire consequences?  To fall out of God’s grace, seem a little excessive? Why would these four things happen if they are circumcised?  What is the big deal?  Why such dramatic language?

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Perhaps we need a metaphor here. Everyone likes metaphors? It is like choosing a restaurant.  Tanya and I, being both connoisseurs of fine cosine, often debate between Taco Bell or Wendy’s. The conversation often goes like, “Where do you want to eat?  Where ever you do.  What do you feel like?  I don’t know.  Hamburger or tacos?” At that point we are at a crucial juncture.  If we decide we feel more like tacos and go to Taco Bell that will lead to a certain set of choices, like a number 7; chalupa. But once we get to Taco Bell there aren’t any hamburgers.  You can’t change your mind and do hamburgers. 

Once a person makes the decision to rely upon ceremony or rules or rites or anything, to be more like Christ, they have made a choice that will lead them to a place where there are no hamburgers. Let’s call them Graceburgers. 

Here is the thing, Christ/Faith is sufficient.  It is sufficient for salvation.  It is sufficient to for fellowship. It is sufficient for sanctification, a big word for being more like Jesus!  What circumcision would have done to the Galatians would be to stop relying upon the power of the death of Jesus.  The death of Jesus brings salvation, but it also brings with it sanctification, through the Spirit, and creates fellowship with God the Father.   

If these Gentiles allowed themselves to be circumcised, they would fail to rely solely upon the cross.  It is saying I want the forgiveness of the cross, but I don’t trust the cross for my righteousness; I don’t trust the cross for the grace to work within me to make me more holy. I need more if I am going to have fellowship!  For Paul it is an all or nothing thing.  You either have Christ/Faith or you don’t. You cannot partially trust.  I trust you to some extent.  No!  You either trust Jesus, or you don’t really. 

You are either eating Taco Bell or Wendy’s.  Once you decide to go to the Taco Bell there are no more Graceburgers.  It sets you on a course of actions that leads away from complete dependency upon Christ.  It leads you away from Christ/Faith and ultimately away from his grace.  Did that metaphor help?  

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Christ is all you need.  Christ’s Spirit is alive and should be at work in you. Christ’s Father has declared you his sons and his heirs.  That is the ultimate fellowship.  Now let’s think about FAq #3 - How do I stay with Christ?  How can I avoid being cut off from Christ?  How do I get the Graceburgers?  Look at the rest of the paragraph.

Galatians 5:5-6  But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Graceburgers have three elements:

1) Meat: Through Christ/Faith we eagerly await, through the Spirit, the righteousness which we hope.  Christ/faith is all sufficient to make us righteous.  We have been justified in Christ and are saved, but righteousness, being more right, being more like Jesus, sanctification, also comes through Christ/Faith. It is looking ahead to the future. It is the expectation of being righteous.  We are saved by Christ but, then through his Spirit in our hearts he begins to work on our rightness.  Do you have that hope?  The expectation, that anticipation, that hope to make us more like Christ? When we put our Christ/Faith in the power of the Spirit, he leads us toward sanctification!  That is the meat!

2) Fixin’s: Circumcision or not doesn’t matter.  Those things aren’t what are important to the burger.  There are things in our Christian walk which we may like, which give us comfort or even encourage our dependency upon Christ. But they are no essential to having a burger.  Where we need to be careful is when we begin to say the condiments are more important than the burger. When we begin to rely upon the ketchup instead of the real burger, we could loose our burger.  

I spend a lot of time thinking about what would be our equivalent to circumcision.  Obviously, we are not tempted to use circumcision for religious purposes.  I don’t know if we have a direct equivalent.  Here I think is the bottom line.  Anything that may hinder us from total trust in the sanctifying power of Christ’s blood could be our circumcision. 

What are our tendencies when we are faced with a problem?  How do we respond to issues that may hurt our fellowship?  We tend to want to come up with a plan.  We want to figure it out.  We want to use our smartness.  We want to formulate a strategy.  If I am having a problem, then I must come up with a solution.  I am speculating here, but if we use our own ingenuity instead of listening to the Spirit, could we in fact be relying upon that rather than the Spirit to make us righteous. 

Once again let me say, we are talking about the condiments; stuff that in itself is neither good nor bad.  Perhaps our smarts are okay, as long as we don’t mistake them for the burger. 

But let me challenge you to think about yourself for a moment.  In your efforts to be more like Christ, to handle sin, to be more incorporated into the body, what do you rely upon?  What are you tempted to put on your burger?  Be careful.  The whole concept, here, is trusting the Spirit for our sanctification. 

3) Bread: What makes a really good burger is, not only the meat, but the bread.  Am I right?  What does Paul say? “The only thing that counts is Christ/Faith expressing itself in love.”  The meat is trust, the bread is love.  Real faith is energized by love.  The Greek word which the NIV translates as “expressing” is  evnergevw energeo.  Christ/Faith is energized by love.  Our Christ/Faith is powered by a loving fellowship. Our Christ/Faith is infused with power by the love we share with each other.

Wow, is that amazing. If you want to do something about your Christ/Faith, if you want to learn to depend more upon the Spirit, if you want to depend less upon your own smarts, if you want to grow in sanctification, then love each other.  That is why our fellowship is so crucial. Our love for each other is the plug which gives the juice for our Christ/Faith.  It makes our faith vibrant.  If you are having problems with being more like Christ, then love someone. If you are needing to trust Christ more, than love someone.  If you want to get rid of a problem in your life, then pick someone you don’t like and do something loving for them.  This is such an amazingly God thing, you know I couldn’t have made this up! 

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love; why?  Because it makes the Graceburger so good!  Our church and the love we share with each other is the power that keeps us going. Can I have a… wow? 

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FAQs:
Can you fall from grace?  Yes
What would you have to do to fall from grace? Replace the sufficiency of Grace with anything else.  If Christ/faith is not sufficient for you, you are in danger.  You may end up at Taco Bell.
How can I prevent being alienated from Christ?  Eat the Graceburger; total trust in the Spirit with love-energized faith and be careful with the condiments. 

It is all about Christ/Faith.  We must trust Christ/Faith for our immediate salvation, our continued sanctification and our love-energized community.    

Los Alamos Church of Christ
July 12, 2009