The last few sections I've been preaching on have really challenged me, and I believe our congregation, in our understanding of what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be a follower of Jesus. The point that Paul makes over and over again, in different ways is that it is not possible to be a follower of Jesus and follower the law at the same time. He is telling us that we can't be under both the new covenant and the old covenant. There is no compromise between them. As soon as we try to add a little bit of Old Testament law to grace, it stops being grace.
This is really shocking. I'll tell you why.
The Deception of Legalism and Moralism
In many in the North American churches (and in many churches far outside North America) there is a tacit assumption that the way we make people more moral is to make sure they understand and follow the will of God as expressed in the Bible. That is to say a central purpose of Christianity, after "getting people saved," is to make them behave by teaching them rules.So we tell them: no sex outside of marriage, don't do drugs, dress modestly, use decent language, etc. We're also told to read our Bibles, pray, go to church, be nice to each other, tithe and give money to good causes, and try to help people in need (among other things). For many, many people this is what it means to be a Christian: doing all the right things and not doing any of the wrong things.
Here's the problem: This is not what Jesus taught, nor not what the New Testament teaches. Here's another problem with that approach to making people behave: it doesn't work.
Legalism and moralism are immensely appealing to people - especially to religious people (I'm not using the word "religious" in a merely pejorative sense.). People who want to get right with God and stay right with God, want to know what to do to achieve that goal. So they either take on this legalistic/moralistic approach themselves, or they are taught this by those who have some skill in linking this impulse with selected Biblical passages. The more sophisticated ones will say that they are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, but still live as if it's still all up to them!
Paul refers to following the Old Covenant (the law of Moses) as slavery under the elemental spiritual forces* of the world (Galatians 4:3). What does he mean by that? Taking this in context in Galatians and in Colossians where the term is also used, Paul is (basically--sort of) telling us that the law of Moses is based on the way this world works. The law of Moses is structured to take into account the spiritual nature and the spiritual powers of this world, to restrain evil and promote goodness. (It would take a whole other and quite technical blog-length post to explain that in greater detail.)
The problem with the law of Moses, particularly the way the Judiaizers were teaching it in the Galatian churches, and the way the Pharisees were teaching it in Judea at the time of Christ, is that law-keeping is all about what people can do in their own strength. Legalism and moralism are no different, even if they don't hang specifically on the law given through Moses: it's still all about following the rules to get right or stay right with God.
If you aren't shocked enough yet by this total rejection of the Old Testament laws (along with legalism and moralism), a little later in the same chapter, Paul says that following these laws is no better than paganism! In verse Galatians 4:8, Paul reminds them that the Galatian Christians used to be pagans, and then asks them in the next vers why they are turning back to those weak and miserable forces (Galatians 4:9 - same Greek term here as in verse 3), by turning to the Old Testament law! This is jaw-dropping to anyone with any sort of theological awareness.
How are paganism and legalism the same? They're the same in this: both put humans in charge of creating and maintaining our relationship with God.
Who's Your Mommy?
There's this sort of strange passage at the end of chapter 4 that has had many people scratching their heads - and for lots of reasons! Paul uses allegory to reinforce his point that the way of the law and the way of grace are diametrically opposed to each other. Let's be clear that Paul is not claiming to have "the correct way" of understanding the stories of Hagar and Sarah. He's using the story as a sort of symbol of what he's talking about.Paul's message here is clear (even if his methodology isn't): we have an "either/or" situation here, not a "both/and" situation.
Paul has already talked about the law of Moses as something that enslaves (Galatians 3:23; 4:1, 7). He uses the story of Ishmael and Isaac's birth to point out the differences between following the law and following the Holy Spirit (a point he develops more in chapter 5).
The son of the slave woman was born according to the flesh (Galatians 4:23). If you know the story in Genesis 16 you know what Paul is talking about. (In fact, I think it's why Paul uses this story to make his point.) Abram and Sarai were sitting around the camp fire one night and Sarai suggests to Abram that he should sleep with her slave girl Hagar so she could have a family through her. Abram, being the selfless husband he is [clears throat], agrees and Ishmael is born. They saw their problem, looked at their resources and created a solution (that turned out to be another problem later). They didn't consult the Lord, they just acted. (To be fair, the Lord had not yet told Abram that Sarai would be the one through whom He would fulfill His promise to make him a great nation.)
The point Paul is making is that Abram and Sarai acted according to the flesh: they did it themselves, in their own strength, without God's help. If we want to know what Paul means by "the flesh" this is a key passage to help us understand that.
Whenever I do something on my own, because I have the skills, resources and strength to do it, and do it in a way that I don't need God to do it, I'm living out of the flesh. The flesh is that part of me that acts without God. I might do good things, I might even do those things for God, but if I do it without His help, His strength, His guidance and away from (or just not needing) His presence, I'm acting out of the flesh.
In 1Peter 4:11 Peter says ...if anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides. We not supposed to serve in our own strength, even if we know how to do it, and know it's something God wants us to do. No, we are only to serve with the strength God provides. We sometimes serve merely in "yesterday's strength," (competence) and like the Israelites in the desert find that yesterday's manna has gone bad. (It's okay. God will help us fix it later.)
What Paul is telling us is that law-keeping, legalism and moralism are all living according to the flesh - that is, in our own strength and without God's help. Even if all our rules come straight out of the Bible, it is a deadly form of spirituality, because it puts us in charge of creating or maintaining our relationship with God. We have to do it ourselves, and whenever we fail we believe that we are automatically out of God's favor. Theologically speaking, we see ourselves as being in Christ only if we can "keep up the good work," and separated from Him every time we sin. This, my friends is a lie from hell.
In contrast to the child born out of, and into slavery, is the one born of the free woman and into freedom. Paul identifies her as the Jerusalem that is above (Galatians 4:26). That is, our mother is heaven, and we are born, not according to the flesh, but through the Spirit (Galatians 4:29). If we are children of the free woman, then we are free just by who we are. We don't have to try to be children of heaven, because we already are (see also Galatians 4:6-7). If we are sons and daughters of heaven--sons and daughters of God--we are always in God's favor, because our sins are all covered by the blood of Jesus. They're covered all the time, not just when we're doing "better than average" in our wak with God.
The slave woman and her offspring are opposed to the free woman and her offspring (Galatians 4:29), and so we who are free are to get rid of the slave woman and her son (Galatians 4:30). I take this to mean rejecting legalism as a way of life, not the people who were teaching or following it. There are legalists and moralists who oppose living by the Spirit, and see it as dangerous. I've heard them say so. But there's also a legalist and moralist inside me that thinks so too: it's my flesh trying to look spiritual without giving up being my flesh.
So, How Do We Live Christian Lives, If Not by Rules?
Paul answers this question in many ways throughout Galatians, and I'm not going to recount all of them here. One of those answers is in Galatians 2:20 ...it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Another is something Paul says of us who are in Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ (Galatians 3:27). And there are other answers he gives to this question, though a legalist or moralist would pass them over as not being a real answer.I want to take a look at this astounding statement by Paul in Galatians 5:6 - The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Really? The only thing that counts?
In Romans 13:10 Paul says, Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. What he tells us there is what Jesus told us: all law-keeping boils down to loving God above all and our neighbor as ourselves. If we simply love God and people, we're in the will of God. To follow the law means we have to stay focused on the hundreds of rules. To follow the way of Jesus, the way of love means we focus on God and people.
Paul will go on to explain further how to do this: ...walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). Through the Spirit we are made more loving toward God and each other. Through the Spirit, all in us that legalism and moralism seeks to restrain is instead transformed.
In as much as we are following the Holy Spirit (who we receive by grace, not by being perfect!), we are not under the law of Moses, or any other religious rules (Galatians 5:18). This is because the Spirit only leads us to good places and in good ways. So pay attention to the Spirit Who already lives in us!
As we live by faith in and in faithfulness to the three Persons of the Godhead, and express that in our love relationship with them and the people in our lives, we are living the Christian life. It's not always easy, but it really is this simple.
The question this all turns on is this: Do we trust the Spirit to do His job in us - including helping us know how to keep in step with Him?
If not, we'll take charge of our own spiritual walk through rules. If we do, we'll seek to deepen our understanding of Him and our relationship with Him so that our life in Christ tomorrow will be better than our life today, and our life the day after, better than tomorrow.
Legalism would have us walk a tightrope. Living by faith expressing itself in love is walking a path wider than our feet. If we stumble on the tightrope, we're doomed. If we stumble on the path, we get up, dust ourselves off, and follow the Spirit in taking our next step.
We're already loved. Stop living as if we still have to earn it.
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*elemental spiritual forces: NIV 2011. NIV 1984 has "basic principles" (see also Galatians 4:9 and Colossians 2:8, 20). There is a great deal of difficulty in handling the Greek phrase here (τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου - ta stoichea tou kosmou). The term "stoichea" had a wide range of meaning at the time Paul wrote this, and so there is a wide range of understand about precisely what Paul meant in using the term, and what the Galatians would have understood him to mean. I encourage you to do your own research, if you're led to do so. I explain how I understand that phrase as I continue.
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