The Foolishness of Legalism, Galatians 3:1-14

A few months after I became a Christian, I was in the airport in San Diego, California, and a young man approached me with a handful of literature. I told him I was a Christian, and he said, “oh, I believe in Jesus; if it weren’t for Jesus, I’d be dead now.” He didn’t explain what he meant, but I assumed that he was a Christian and took some of his literature. I later discovered that he was a member of a group called the Children of God. Over the next several years I encountered these people many times: all over the United States; in various parts of Europe, and even in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The Children of God were started by a man named David Berg. Berg’s father was a Christian and Missionary Alliance pastor, and for awhile Berg served as a pastor in that denomination. But in 1950 he had a falling‑out with church leaders and resigned. After that he became embittered and had a growing distaste for organized religion. Berg believed God had a special destiny and mission for him, and started calling himself a "prophet for this generation." In 1968 he moved to Huntington Beach, California, with his wife and four children and began a small community there. Early in 1969 he was convinced that an earthquake would soon destroy the California coastal cities, so he and about fifty followers left for Arizona. In Arizona they disrupted church services and condemned organized churches; they saw themselves as prophets. Members of the group began wandering through much of the United States and Canada staging demonstrations and urging others to join. By this time they were completely alienated from churches, and they took the name "Children of God." Berg called himself Moses David (The Handbook of Texas Online).

Berg believed that God had a special destiny for him, that he was a prophet for his generation. He was convinced that all the other churches were off track, and that God had given him a special message for the day. Early in the history of the Children of God, David Berg started cheating on his wife. The universal testimony of Scripture and the Church is that this is the sin of adultery, but Berg had rejected the Church and saw himself as a prophet, so rather than repenting of sin, he received a revelation telling him that he was to leave his wife and stay with his mistress. He even had a theological explanation for the significance of the change. From this point, Berg and the Children of God fell into deeper and deeper deception, and the later history of the movement is truly repulsive.

Paul tells the Galatians that they are being foolish, but he doesn’t mean that they are simply too stupid to see what they are doing. He’s accusing them of wrongdoing. The word he uses has a moral, as well as an intellectual, element. The word “indicates a folly which is the outgrowth of a moral defect” (Vincent, Vincent’s Word Studies of the New Testament, vol. 3, p. 110). Foolishness in Scripture generally has this moral overtone. A fool is someone who is trying to live in God’s world as if God didn’t exist (“the fool has said in his heart, there is no God,” Psalm 14:1). A fool is someone who is trying to rebel against the very fabric of his existence, who’s trying to live in ways that are fundamentally at-odds with the way we were created. A fool, in Scripture, is someone who’s bent on self-destruction, but it’s not because he’s stupid and doesn’t know any better. There’s something attractive about this foolishness, some short-term benefit to be gained. David Berg gets to go on living like he wants to and can still call himself a prophet. The Bible calls this sort of thing foolishness, but it’s not innocent.

Remember that the Galatians have been listening to false teachers, who are trying to persuade them of a different gospel. That’s the whole reason that Paul has written this letter. The Galatians haven’t given in completely to this new teaching, but they are in danger of doing so. The whole tone of this letter suggests that the situation is very serious. He wants to know, in verse 1, who has “bewitched” them. They’ve come under the delusive power of false doctrine.

Paul addresses the problem of false teachings in other places. Listen to these words from 2 Thessalonians: “The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned” (2:9-12). There are two steps in this process: 1) they reject the truth, and 2) they come under the power of delusion. David Berg rejected the authority of the Church and of Scripture, then he increasingly came under the power of lies. I suspect that if he could have seen, in the early days of his ministry, where he was going to end up, he’d have been horrified. False teachings gain power over us when we reject the truth, and the longer we persist in this direction the less we’re able to free ourselves from deception. Paul wants the Galatians to know that what they’re doing is foolish. It doesn’t make any sense. In turning back to the law, they’re trying to go against God Himself. And the longer they persist in this direction, the more they’ll come under the power of deception. The lies they’re listening to will lead them, by small steps, further and further from God.

The first thing to notice is that this false teaching is inconsistent with the way God began His work in their lives. That’s the point in verses 1-5. The idea comes across clearly in The Message: “Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message for you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t’ smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it?” Salvation is a work of God; it’s not something we accomplish by our determined efforts. The Galatians had recognized this and had experienced the saving power of God’s Spirit. But now they’re going in a different direction and are trying to carry on by their own efforts. Paul is saying that this is absolute insanity. If they didn’t have the ability to begin the process, what makes them think they can now carry it through to the end? Listen to verse 1 in The Message: “You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the Cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.” What they’re doing is insane; it makes no sense at all. God began a work in their lives, and now they’re trying to take things into their own hands. They think they’re capable of completing what God began.

Of course, they might object that Paul was all wrong to begin with, that, yes, it’s true they are going in a different direction, because the things Paul taught them were wrong. They might argue that Paul has gone off track, that he’s part of a sect, that he is the one who’s undermining the work of God. So Paul’s next point is that the direction the Galatians are going is inconsistent with God’s work in Abraham. This is a serious charge; the false teachers at Galatia are Judaizers, people who are telling Christians that they need to become Jewish proselytes and live under the Old Testament law. If they’re at odds with Abraham, they’re in serious trouble, because the whole nation of Israel looked to Abraham as their spiritual father. Paul shows that Abraham wasn’t made right with God by obeying the law; he quotes from the Old Testament to prove it: “Just as Abraham ‘believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,’ so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham.”

The Galatians are being deceived and manipulated, so one of the things Paul calls them to do is to think. The false teachers are seducing them, appealing to their feelings; the way to resist this is to think seriously about Scripture. So Paul quotes this passage from Genesis 15:6: “And [Abraham] believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Paul is saying to them, “listen to what this verse is saying. It’s saying that Abraham was counted righteous because he believed God. Even Abraham himself didn’t earn his salvation by obedience to the law.” When we hear something that strongly appeals to our emotions, when we feel ourselves powerfully drawn by any particular teaching, it’s always wise to stop ourselves and think about whether this teaching is consistent with God’s Word. The Galatians weren’t using their minds, and they were leaving themselves open to deception. I often think of these words by A.W. Tozer in this context: “we would do well to cultivate a reverent skepticism. It will keep us out of a thousand bogs and quagmires where others who lack it sometimes find themselves. It is no sin to doubt some things, but it may be fatal to believe everything” (“In Praise of Disbelief,” in The Root of the Righteous, p. 119). The direction the Galatians are going is inconsistent with God’s work in Abraham; if they’d pay careful attention to what Genesis says about him they’d see this.

But there’s one more step in Paul’s argument. The Galatians are trying to turn Christianity into a legalistic religion. They still want to be called Christians, but they also want to make themselves acceptable to God by obeying the law. So Paul tells them that the direction they’re going is inconsistent with the work of Jesus Christ. Living under the law leads to nothing but bondage: “And that means that anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. Scripture backs this up: ‘Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the law.’ The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way” (The Message). Living under the burden of the law, trying to make ourselves acceptable to God by our obedience, leads to nothing but failure and bondage. The law shows us that we are guilty of sin, but it doesn’t do anything to remove our guilt.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of freedom. Listen to these words from the Song of Zechariah, this prophesy that John the Baptist’s father gave when his son was born: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty savior, born of the house of his servant David.” They’ve been living in bondage, and now God has come to set them free. Then, the song ends this way: “In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Jesus Christ came to deliver us from bondage, and the Galatians are twisting the gospel into a message which will once again bring them into bondage. It’s just the opposite of what Jesus came to do.

Here it is in The Message: “Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the Cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse. And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that Abraham’s blessing is present and available for non-Jews too. We are all able to receive God’s life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing – just the way Abraham received it.” Jesus has taken our curse upon Himself and has set us free from living under the burden of legalism. We’re acceptable in God’s sight, not because we’ve kept His law, but because Jesus kept the law perfectly and then endured the punishment for our disobedience: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”

Legalism is foolish, because it’s contrary to everything God has done for us. Why are we so often attracted to it? Why do we so easily gravitate towards legalism? At least part of the answer is that legalism enables us to take some credit for ourselves. The gospel says our situation is so bad that our only hope is God’s offer of free grace. The gospel treats us as spiritual beggars: we come to God with empty hands and receive His offer of grace and mercy. Legalism enables us to make a contribution; maybe it’s not much, but at least we’re able to do something for ourselves. It appeals to our pride.

The problem is that it puts us in a position that can’t possibly be pleasing to God. God has made us new creatures by giving us His Spirit, but when we turn to legalism we’re saying “thanks for getting me started; I’ll take it from here.” We’re also cutting ourselves off from God’s people. Abraham himself “believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and everyone since that time has been accepted in the same way, by receiving God’s free gift of mercy and grace. And we’re cutting ourselves off from Jesus Christ, who became a curse for us, because when we turn to legalism we’re saying that He died for nothing. We start out thinking we’re going to please God in our own way, and we find ourselves completely cut off from Him. We set out on our own, thinking we’ll be free, but we end up in bondage to sin, and in bondage to the question of whether we’ve been obedient enough. 

 The gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of freedom. “Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself.”  Here it is in the hymn "My Hope is in the Lord": “My hope is in the Lord who gave Himself for me, and paid the price for all my sin at Calvary. Not merit of my own His anger to suppress. My only hope is found in Jesus’ righteousness. For me He died, for me He lives, and everlasting life and light He freely gives.” 

Crucified with Christ, Galatians 2:11-21

In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis, four children crawl into a wardrobe in their uncle’s house and find themselves in another world, called Narnia. They end up staying in this world for a long time and become kings and queens; but when they return to their uncle’s house in England they find that no time has elapsed. All their adventures in the land of Narnia have taken place in only a few moments of time in this world. In other books of the series the children return to Narnia and are known as Kings Peter and Edmund, and Queens Lucy and Susan.

In the final book of the series, The Last Battle, Peter, Edmund and Lucy return to Narnia for the last time. And while they’re there, someone asks Peter, “‘If I have read the chronicles aright, there should be another. Has not your Majesty two sisters? Where is Queen Susan?’ ‘My sister Susan,’ answered Peter shortly and gravely, ‘is no longer a friend of Narnia.’ ‘Yes,’ said Eustace, ‘and whenever you’ve tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says ‘What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children’” (pp. 134-35). Susan had really been with them in their adventures, but now she doesn’t want any part of it. She’s “no longer a friend of Narnia.”

I’ve known a lot of people who made a good start in the Christian life and who traveled some distance following Jesus Christ, but then have turned away. Some of them become disillusioned and turn away, some dry up over time and just drift away. But the end result is the same. Once they were followers of Jesus Christ, and now they’re not. They’re no longer friends of the kingdom of God.

This hasn’t happened yet to the churches of Galatia, but Paul is concerned that they’re headed in that direction. They’ve been listening to false teachers who are undermining the true message of the gospel, the gospel that Paul received directly from Jesus Christ. So Paul, very early in the letter, says this: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel” (1:6). They’re headed in a direction which will lead them away from Jesus Christ; if they keep going in this direction, they’ll no longer be friends of the kingdom of God.

We saw, in the first half of this chapter, that the Galatians probably thought they were aligning themselves with Peter, the apostle to the Jews. So Paul shows them that this is not true at all, that he and Peter both preached the same message. He wants the Galatians to know that if they were to visit a church in Judea they’d hear the same gospel that Paul preached. And now, in the second half of chapter two, he shows that Peter himself fell into an error very similar to the one the Galatians are struggling with. But when Paul confronted him about it, Peter accepted Paul’s rebuke. This leads into a discussion on the centrality of the cross in our lives as Christians. The problem with the Galatians, and the problem with Peter in the story Paul tells, is that they’ve gotten sidetracked from the cross of Jesus Christ. They’re focusing on what they can accomplish in obedience to the Law, rather than joyfully accepting what God gives freely through the cross of Jesus Christ.

The first thing to notice here is that great spiritual experiences don’t prevent us from getting off track in the future. Peter had been there at Pentecost when the Spirit was poured out on the Church; through his preaching that day over 3,000 believers were added to the Church. A few weeks before Pentecost, Peter had denied Christ three times, because he was afraid of the authorities. But at Pentecost he became a bold witness, and afterward we see him boldly testifying to the resurrection and refusing to be silenced. A little later, Peter had been arrested, and Herod’s intention was to have him put to death; but Peter was miraculously freed from the prison.

But all these experiences didn’t prevent him from getting off track. “But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him publicly, speaking strongly against what he was doing, for it was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians, who don’t bother with circumcision. But afterward, when some Jewish friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore because he was afraid of what these legalists would say. Then the other Jewish Christians followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was influenced to join them in their hypocrisy” (New Living Translation). He fell into the same weakness he had shown at the trial of Jesus, denying the truth because he was afraid of other people. And because of his prominent position among the believers, others were led astray by his example. Great experiences are no guarantee that we won’t get off track in the future.

The second thing is this: humility and the willingness to accept correction will prevent our errors from becoming permanent. Listen to how Peter refers to Paul some years later, in his second letter: “Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him” (3:14-15). “Our beloved brother Paul.” Peter and Paul are engaged in the same work, and Peter wants those receiving his letter to pay attention to the things Paul has written. When they were together in Antioch, Peter was the chief of the apostles, and Paul, who didn’t even become a Christian until after the ascension of Christ, rebuked him publicly. It would have been easy for Peter to say, “who do you think you are, correcting me in public like this?” But he accepted Paul’s rebuke; it enabled him to get back on track. He wasn’t concerned about maintaining his image; he wanted to follow Jesus Christ till the end, and Paul’s correction helped him. So rather than being filled with resentment, Peter accepted the rebuke and came to love Paul as a “beloved brother.”

We all get off track at times and need correction. But there are two things which are especially deadly, and which can cause our errors to become permanent. The first thing is avoiding fellowship with those who are likely to confront us. Peter got off track, but he continued in the fellowship of the Church, and it was there that he was corrected. It’s in the Church that others in the body will notice that something is wrong, and it’s in the Church that we can find help to get ourselves back on track. One of the first signs that something is wrong is that a person starts avoiding fellowship. (That’s one reason sporadic attendance is so dangerous; you’re not getting the help you need in your spiritual life, and because you don’t attend regularly anyway it takes awhile before people notice that you’ve stopped altogether.)

The second danger in this area is pride. It’s a hard thing to accept correction from someone else. We always want to defend ourselves. We may cry out to God and confess that we are miserable sinners, but when another person confronts us about a specific area of sin in our lives we don’t seem so ready to confess. It hurts our pride, and it’s difficult to swallow. But this pride is dangerous, and if we allow it to continue growing it will destroy us. I don’t doubt that Peter was tempted by pride when Paul confronted him; surely he was tempted to put that upstart in his place. But Peter humbled himself and accepted the correction. Humility and the willingness to accept correction will prevent our errors from becoming permanent.

This leads to the last point: the crucifixion is central to our ongoing relationship with God. The cross is absolutely central to our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ. Paul says, about himself, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” It’s important for us to remember this. When Paul came to Corinth, he said this about his ministry: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Not “Jesus Christ risen from the dead,” although he did preach the resurrection. The central focus of his message was “Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

When we look at our Christian lives only in terms of the Resurrection and Pentecost, we tend to have unrealistic expectations. We forget that self-denial and suffering are central to our redemption. We expect our lives to be filled with success and easy victory. I’ve heard people boast about living in “resurrection power.” Surely things will go well for us; after all, God is our Father and we are King’s Kids. The One Who has given us the Spirit possesses all power in heaven and on earth. Then, when things start going wrong in our lives we wonder what’s happening. Is it because of a lack of faith or because there’s unconfessed sin in our lives? Or maybe God just isn’t taking care of us.

I often think about Mary in this context. The angel Gabriel said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, said to her “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.... And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord” (Luke 1:42, 45). Mary had extraordinary faith, and when Gabriel told her what God was going to do, she responded, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (v. 38). She had great faith; she submitted to God’s will; an angel told her the Lord was with her and that she was highly favored; and then Elizabeth, speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit, told her she was blessed among women. Her response is a model of how we, in the Church, are called to respond to God: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

And where did all this get her in the short term? She was suspected of cheating on Joseph, to whom she was betrothed. When Jesus was about to be born, with all the physical and emotional turmoil that goes with the end of a pregnancy, she and Joseph looked all over Bethlehem in vain for a place to stay, then finally had to settle for a stable. The offering she and Joseph brought when they presented Jesus in the temple showed that they were poor, that they couldn’t afford the usual offering. Shortly after Jesus was born, they had to flee for their lives to Egypt. And then, when her Son was grown, this Son who had been miraculously born, she had to watch Him being flogged, crowned with thorns and mocked, and then crucified. Is this what it means to be highly favored with God? Yes, in the short term. Of course, that’s not the whole story, but when we’re in the middle of things it’s easy to lose our perspective and forget about the great things that are coming in the future. Next time you’re tempted to think that God has abandoned you, that He’s not taking care of you, think about Mary. She was highly favored by God, but suffering and grief had a prominent place in her life.

The Galatians have forgotten the centrality of the crucifixion. They’ve gotten sidetracked from the cross of Jesus Christ. They’re focusing on what they can accomplish in obedience to the Law, rather than joyfully accepting what God gives freely through the cross. They’ve become self-confident, trusting in their ability. Paul wants them to know that the Law does nothing but point out their sin; it brings them into condemnation. Their only escape from the condemning power of the Law is in the cross of Jesus Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ.”

A.W. Tozer described very well what it means to be crucified: “The...cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down the road had already said good-by to his friends. He was not coming back. He was going out to have it ended. The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing; it slew all of the man, completely and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with its victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when it had finished its work, the man was no more. The race of Adam is under death sentence. There is no commutation and no escape.... God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again to newness of life.... God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death. It stands always on the far side of the cross” (Man, The Dwelling Place of God, pp. 43-44).

The cross cuts across every area of our lives. It brings to an end all our self-effort to save ourselves: “because no one will be justified by the works of the law.” Our relationship with the Law has been ended by death; we’ve been “crucified with Christ.” But the cross also brings to an end our right to do whatever we want with our lives. One of the criticisms the false teachers leveled at Paul’s gospel was that it leads to loose living, that if people are accepted by the grace of God, apart from the works of the Law, they’ll just continue living disobedient lives and expect God to accept them by grace. But Paul everywhere says this is false. “For through the law I died to the law” not so that I can do whatever I feel like doing, but “so that I might live to God.” He’s been set free to live in obedience to God. His old life is finished. He’s now living on the far side of the cross. The Galatians have forgotten all that and are trying to get back to the old arrangement, forgetting that in Christ they have died and are risen to a completely new way of life. They are beginning to live as if “Christ died for nothing.”

On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit was poured out upon people who were finished with their old lives. They were crucified with Christ, they had died to the law so that they might live for God. Their lives were no longer their own, because they had been bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. The Spirit doesn’t empower us to carry on with our selfish lives, just doing what we want and asking Him to bless and empower us. The Spirit empowers us to continue living in the light of the cross, to humble ourselves when we receive correction from others, to do what God is calling us to do, whether we feel like it or not, to be willing to endure hardship and loss and difficulty in the name of Jesus Christ, who went to the cross in our place. As we do this, we’re able to say, with Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”