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June, 2025 (Vol.59-No.6) |
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Preached by Dr. Gene Scott on September 30, 1990 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ… Galatians 2:15-16 THE APOSTLE PAUL DECLARED AT THE OPENING of Galatians 5, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Understand that the gospel of salvation requires total separation from the traditional works of the law. In one sense, it might seem like I am preaching the same thing every Sunday. That is essentially what Paul did in his letter to the Galatians: he repeatedly said the said thing in different ways, revealing the truth like a multifaceted diamond. For over 1,900 years, the traditional church has entrapped Christians to legalism; but there is no salvation available to those who try to attain it by their works. You cannot please God by trying to conform to a list of rules. I have been rereading the works of Martin Luther and John Calvin, and I cannot believe how far the Protestant church has removed itself from the thinking of these two great reformers. Luther was in Germany; Calvin was born in France and ultimately moved to Switzerland, where he carved out the foundation of that nation. I believe that if they were alive today, they would be applauding the message I preach. Yet many preachers in the traditional church, who claim to be Protestants, are offended by this message. Luther said it is better to be a tax collector or a harlot than a self-righteous legalist, because at least tax collectors and harlots know that their works will not get them into heaven. Like the publican in Luke 18, the harlot, knowing her standing before God, can only cry out, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner,” and she will receive His grace. In contrast, the self-righteous legalist is not only a sinner, but he also fools himself into thinking that his spiritual stature, in comparison to the tax collector or the harlot, makes him a better candidate for heaven. And thereby his spiritual pride and ignorance bar him at the door of entrance. Luther’s Works: Lectures on Galatians are compiled from his lectures published in 1519 and 1535. Although the first edition of Luther’s collected works appeared in the sixteenth century, it took many years before they began to be widely available, significantly within the last hundred years. Let’s read Luther’s own words: Therefore those who wish to be justified and made alive by the Law fall further short of righteousness and life than do tax collectors, sinners, and harlots. These latter cannot rest on confidence in their own works, which are such that they cannot trust that they will obtain grace and the forgiveness of sins on their account. For if the righteousness and the works done according to the Law do not justify, much less do sins committed against the Law justify. Therefore such people are more fortunate than the self-righteous in this respect; for they lack trust in their own works, which, even if it does not completely destroy faith in Christ, nevertheless hinders it very greatly. On the other hand, the self-righteous who refrain from sins outwardly and seem to live blameless and religious lives, cannot avoid a presumption of confidence and righteousness, which cannot coexist with faith in Christ. Therefore they are less fortunate than tax collectors and harlots, who do not offer their good works to a wrathful God in exchange for eternal life, as the self-righteous do, since they have none to offer, but beg that their sins be forgiven them for the sake of Christ. As strongly as I have proclaimed this truth, I do not think I have been as bold as Luther. God never intended the law to be kept. He knew that only one Person in history would keep it: His Son, Jesus Christ, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” As God’s fail-safe plan in the counsels of the heavens when the worlds were conceived, Christ stepped forth and volunteered to become our kinsman and redeem us from our sin. God’s plan was conceived long before He gave the law. It occurred long before He gave Abraham the promise of his blessed seed, which was also based upon God’s choice and His plan. The law of Moses served only as a temporary schoolmaster, governor, and tutor. It was given to drive us to understand that we are sinners in need of God’s help, in order that we might appropriate His grace by trust and faith. The law itself states that the man who performs it will live it, and will thus have life eternal. The man who keeps the law will stand justified before God by his works. But again, the law was never intended to be kept! Luther said, “The Law was not even given with the purpose that it should justify, but that it should disclose sin, frighten, accuse, and condemn.” The law was given to bring us into bondage under its yoke until we should yearn for escape. We see the Door of escape, which is Christ. By faith, we enter in through the Door and receive grace and peace. When all of Luther’s efforts had failed to relieve his conscience from a sense of sin, he heeded the advice of his mentor, Johann von Staupitz, and began to look to the Bible itself. Luther first began to lecture on the Psalms, then on Romans, and later on Galatians. He was heading toward a public collision with the church that he had hoped he could reform, rather than leave. He would ultimately lecture through Galatians a second time. Luther’s teaching on Galatians became the mainstay of his ministry and the foundation of the Reformation. Calvin also had a great scriptural exegetical ability, but you can compare his commentaries to Luther’s and recognize that Luther was gripped by a greater depth of insight. They both declared the same truth; and while Calvin may have said it more succinctly, Luther declared it with a greater passion. But both men were set free by God’s word. To answer any critic who thinks my doctrine falls outside of the historically theological stream of the church, I would point out that the babel that surrounds us in the modern church world is out of sync with the historical church. In his commentary on Galatians 2:15-16, Luther said, “‘We are righteous,’ says Paul, ‘inasmuch as we are by nature Jews, not sinners, like the Gentiles: but it is a righteousness of the works of Law…’” Luther is very accurate in his application. Many people were brought up in a church where they learned traditions, rules, and laws before they ever met Christ. When you grow up in the church, you want to feel like you are at peace with God. Therefore, the natural man finds affinity with a list of “do’s and don’ts.” We want to know what it means to be good as opposed to being bad. So we are by nature like the Jews, who were the custodians of the law par excellence. They thought they could be justified before God by doing the works of the law. So Luther went on to say: And by this righteousness no one is justified before God. For this reason we, too, like the Gentiles, consider our own righteousness as dung and seek to be justified through faith in Christ – we who are now sinners along with the Gentiles and are justified along with the Gentiles, since God “made no distinction between us and them,” as Peter says in Acts 15:9, “but cleansed their hearts by faith.” But because this passage seems absurd to those who have not yet become accustomed to Paul’s theology, and because even Saint Jerome [the translator of the Vulgate] wearies himself no end trying to understand this, we shall expand the comments we began to make above about the traditions of the fathers. Among the extant authors [that is, among those early writers whose works were still available] I fail to find anyone except Augustine alone who treats this thought in a satisfactory manner; and even he is not satisfactory everywhere. But where he opposes the Pelagians, the enemies of God’s grace, he will make Paul easy and clear for you. Above all, therefore, it is necessary to know that there are two ways in which man is justified, and that these two ways are altogether contrary to each other. In the first place, there is the external way, by works, on the basis of one’s own strength. Yet, isn’t “the external way” what most churches practice in regard to salvation? They might talk a lot about Jesus and salvation by grace, but most of us who were raised in the traditional church were taught the way of works. In a previous message, I spoke of my goals for the children in this church. Jesus said that except you become as a little child, you cannot enter into His kingdom. Children already have trust. Their parents should teach them to trust God. I want the children in this church to have their minds opened. I do not want them exposed to a legalistic doctrine, which will cause damage that a future preacher must struggle to undo. I do not want the children in this church to think they are Christians simply because they have learned to keep a list of rules. When I criticize “the external way,” I am not implying that people should abandon all righteous works. It is a mistake to confuse ethics with righteousness. We should not confuse God’s righteousness with the relative ways of operating in the human sphere, some of which are better than others. I do not think it takes much imagination to accept the fact that the relative ethical goodness of leaders is important, especially on matters that count, such as respect for human life. Regardless of your political leanings, it should be obvious that there are ethical distinctions between leaders, and that a totalitarian dictator is at a lower moral level than most of our political leaders. Adolf Hitler was a worse man than Winston Churchill. Now, there are some people who would question that statement. They claim that Churchill allowed the bombing of a city in England rather than reveal that a Nazi code had been cracked, and that his tragic choice resulted in the loss of innocent lives. I believe that this allegation is false; but even if it were true, I am quite sure Churchill and his fellow leaders would have agonized about such a decision more than an evil dictator would have. So in the human sphere, there are people who behave relatively better than others. I do not want anyone to think I am denying that; Luther did not deny it either. Again, he said, “There is the external way, by works, on the basis of one’s own strength.” Those are good deeds performed through one’s own willpower. Concerning this external way, Luther says: Of such a nature are human righteousnesses which are acquired by practice (as it is said) and by habit. This is the kind of righteousness Aristotle and other philosophers describe – the kind produced by laws of the state and of the church in ceremonies, the kind produced at the behest of reason and by prudence. For they think that one becomes righteous by doing righteous things, temperate by doing temperate things, and the like. This is the kind of righteousness the Law of Moses, even the Decalog itself [that is, the Ten Commandments], also brings about, namely, when one serves God out of fear of punishment or because of the promise of a reward, does not swear by God’s name… A modern-day legalist might also include “does not smoke cigars or drink beer,” although Luther did not say that. He said: This is the kind of righteousness…when one serves God out of fear of punishment or because of the promise of a reward, does not swear by God’s name, honors one’s parents, does not kill, does not steal, does not commit adultery, etc. This is a servile righteousness; it is mercenary, feigned, specious, external, temporal, worldly, human. It profits nothing for the glory to come but receives in this life its reward… People can receive glory in this life for their good works, and I think that is well-deserved. There are people whose deeds have brought them respect and recognition in this world. I think Mother Teresa deserves honor. I admire and respect the character of my good friend, Lod Cook, who is internationally recognized for his philanthropic activities. He embodies his small-town Louisiana ethical system, which he learned from his parents in a day when values that had a Christian basis were taught. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. You can gain things on this earth by doing things the right way, and there is a sense in which truth and right win out. No one is arguing against that. Honesty has its own rewards. I seriously doubt that a marriage between two liars will last very long. But there are different standards of honesty in this world. No one knows what truth is. In one sense, Pilate’s question “What is truth?” is still unanswered, because Jesus is the Truth, but has yet to be seen in His glory. There is nothing more prideful than someone whose vision is so limited that they think they possess the whole truth simply because they discovered a few little facts, when that was all they were able to find. I used to caution missionaries who were preparing to go to Latin America that they should not take their Puritan value system with them. I would tell them that the Latin Americans have a different value system than ours, and you must not judge them. This is especially true regarding familial relationships, where a father might lie to protect his own son. In our Puritan-influenced value system, if a father were a judge presiding over a trial of his own son, he would be expected to judge his son even-handedly. But I am not so sure that is the right thing to do. When I study ethics and values in the philosophical sense, I think that the Latin American mindset might be better, where friends will stand together, and family will stand together at all costs. Contrast that with the Puritan judge. Before he judges whether his son is guilty or innocent, he will carefully consider the facts presented by the prosecution and the defense. Yet, who knows whether the prosecution has truthfully presented the facts, particularly with the way our judicial system operates today. But in certain cultures, you would never tell the truth at the expense of your friends and family. I am reminded of an old seminary question that went something like this: If a murderer comes to the door demanding to know the whereabouts of one of your family members, should you tell them the truth or should you lie to protect your family? After all, according to the legalists, you will go to hell for telling a lie, because there are no liars in heaven. So what do you do: save your own soul or save your family? It is a stupid question. Your works cannot take you to heaven. Luther described all human attempts at righteousness as “a servile righteousness,” saying: It is mercenary, feigned, specious, external, temporal, worldly, human. It profits nothing for the glory to come but receives in this life its reward, glory, riches, honor, power, friendship, well-being, or at least peace and quiet, and fewer evils than do those who act otherwise. This is how Christ describes the Pharisees and how St. Augustine describes the Romans in the eighth chapter of the first book of The City of God. Strangely enough, this righteousness deceives even men who are wise and great, unless they have been well instructed in Holy Writ. In short, the gospel sets you free. We are separated from works, once and for all, and are told to “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” What is that yoke? The law. Do you understand that living in this message of freedom puts you on a wartime footing? No church or individual Christian will survive unless they understand that what they are being delivered into requires them to be on full-time alert: “Stand fast therefore!” Paul used similar language in Ephesians 6, when he exhorted the Ephesian Christians to stand against the wiles of the enemy, saying, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We are at war. You have not been set free to complacency. Martin Luther said that Satan, the flesh, and the world all combine into a superhuman power. All these forces are arrayed against you to bring you back into bondage! That is why I exhort you to remain faithful in your commitment to the gospel. Be faithful in your giving, and be in church every Sunday. Your presence testifies to an onlooking world that you value this message of freedom. I am not teaching a new message; I am teaching a foundational Protestant reformer’s message. The reformers faced the threat of death to bring this message to us. If you think it is hard to deal with the traditional church with its psychological pressure against the message of freedom, imagine living in the sixteenth century, when the price of preaching this message was death on the rack by the Inquisitors. The battle to restore the message of the gospel was gained by a militant church that learned to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had set them free. They threw the legalists out, instead of attempting to marry them. It takes the same dedication today. I expect this congregation to stand fast with me as we take this message to the world. It is a time to act in faith, which is 90 percent courage. Do you understand that this message is not only as old as Paul, but it is also the message that brought forth the Reformation? The church is again in need of reformation. The church periodically slips back under the yoke of bondage, and God has to raise up voices and a people to set His church free. That is why this church exists. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free!” Reprinted with permission from Pastor Melissa Scott  Galatians 2:15-16 "We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners..." This is a section of a speech which, Paul tells the Galatians, he made to Peter (Cephas) in Antioch. At issue was the urgent question of whether the gentiles Paul was converting to belief in Jesus Christ had to first become Jews—and undergo circumcision—before being accepted into the fellowship of The Way. Peter and the church in Jerusalem that he represented at this time were convinced that they did. Paul insists that "if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose" (Galatians 2:21). The purpose of the law, to Paul, was to guide us to the point at which we are ready to understand and embrace the spiritual truth that Jesus taught and demonstrated: our innate Oneness with the Divine. Once we accept that truth, obedience to the law is no longer necessary. In essence, Jesus “fulfilled” the law through his message and demonstration. We don't “earn” our way into the new consciousness that Jesus describes as the kingdom of heaven by meticulously obeying the dictates of the law, but by embracing our spiritual truth. Blessings! Rev. Ed The above is a partial commentary from “Unity” @https://www.unity.org. The organization is located in Unity Village, Missouri. | Return Home | Current Wingspread | Wingspread Archives | Contact Us | |
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