Faith Expressed Through Love
Galatians 5:1-6
Dr. Howard Hendricks, one of my mentors at Dallas Seminary, used to remind us students that, “The Bible wasn’t written to satisfy our curiosity, or to make us more intelligent sinners; (he said) it was written to change our lives.”
Life change is the ultimate goal of all biblical preaching and teaching. It was Paul’s goal whenever he wrote an epistle to a struggling church in the 1st century. Life change is the goal behind the great purpose statement for the Bible… “16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” This is nothing more or less than a detailed plan for a changed life. That’s why God breathed His word to us.
We’ve been going through the book of Galatians verse by verse for several weeks now. We started with Paul’s defense of his apostolic authority (ch 1-2), then we covered Paul’s doctrinal presentation (ch 3-4), And now we’ve finally come to the application section of Paul’s letter. This is the part of the epistle where everything we’ve been studying is finally applied to the daily lives of believers in Jesus Christ. This is where the rubber meets the road.
The question raised by the church at Galatia is this: how is faith in God to be expressed? The Judaizers answered that question with appeals to the Law—be circumcised. But Paul tells them the true mark of genuine faith is not adherence to a set of rules or rituals, it’s love. Genuine faith is shown by the way Christians love one another. It sounds like the epistles of John, doesn’t it? But it’s the voice of the Spirit of God heard throughout the Bible saying, love one another. We’ll see that Paul begins this application section of his epistle with an appeal to love one another.
Open your Bible to Galatians chapter 5. We’re looking at the first six verses this morning. In honor of God and His word, let’s stand for the reading of these verses.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
[Prayer] In this practical section of Galatians, God tells His people exactly how He wants us to express our devotion to Him. If you want the world to know that you love God and are rightly related to Him through Jesus Christ, don’t do it with a religious veneer. Frankly, the unbelieving world doesn’t care if you or I attend church or not. They care about the way your belief influen-ces the way you interact with them and the rest of society. In other words, your relationship with God isn’t based on keeping certain traditions, or reading a certain translation of Scripture, or being part of a certain denomination or fellowship. It’s not even entirely based on what you say you believe—after all, the Pharisees had a great creed, but their private lives were wretched.
Verses 1-4 of chapter five teach us that…
I. What you really believe is demonstrated by the way you live (1-4).
Listen again for the difference in these verses between external religious protocol and authentic Christian lifestyle. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”
Now these are powerful words that pack an emotional punch. There were some people in Galatia who had become so religious, that their lives no longer resembled Christianity. Paul wrote, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” I remember hearing Chuck Swindoll say, “That sounds like a Yogi Berra line.” For what other reason would you set someone free than for freedom? Well, it wasn’t obvious in Galatia. They had been set free to return to bondage. So Paul reminded them to “Stand firm and don’t let anyone burden you again with a yoke of slavery.”
For them, slavery was a return to flesh-driven religion. The Christless effort to justify oneself was represented by the rite of circumcision. This rite had much more meaning (or baggage) for Jewish Christians and other 1st century believers than it does for us. It just doesn’t mean the same thing to us. But to Christians who had been influenced by the Law of Moses, circumcision was a symbol that represented the whole Law. So when Paul refers to “letting yourself be circumcised” he’s referring to the idea that a person could keep all the requirements of the Law by submitting to certain parts of it. Paul said the Law is an all-or-nothing deal. If you’re not a Christian, then by all means, live out the external rituals of your bondage—be circumcised! But if you have been set free by Jesus Christ, then do not submit to a religious yoke of bondage.
The real question is: Are you trusting Christ… or are you really trusting in your religious rituals? By keeping these rituals and expecting to be justified because of your works, you have alienated yourself from Christ and have actually fallen away from grace. Religion comes from a word meaning to constrain, to restrain, or to tie back. It’s a word for bondage. It’s the opposite of freedom… and this is what Jesus offers us. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”
The allure of legalism is that it comforts our flesh to rest in its own strength—to feel we’re contributing to our own salvation in some way. The Judaizers of Galatia want Christians to believe that we’re missing something if we don’t practice the Law with its rituals and demands. They want us to think we can be more spiritual and more pleasing to God than Jesus Himself. But that’s the error of legalism. Nothing can make you closer to God than the merit of Jesus Christ. And to add anything to the finished work of Christ is to subtract from the gospel.
So Paul says (v. 4), by the very act of trying to be justified by the Law, you have been alienated from Christ. That verb translated “alienated” or “severed” when followed by a preposition means separated or loosed. That’s how offensive Christless religion is to almighty God, it’s like the church saying, “I want a divorce from Jesus.” The Law becomes a mistress, and the believer who trusts in the Law commits spiritual adultery against Jesus. He says, “You’ve fallen away from grace”. Fallen comes from a verb meaning “to lose one’s grasp on something.” What does this mean for Christians in Galatia… or America? First of all, let me point out that the issue here is not one of security. He’s talking to Christians about the right way to express their faith. He’s contrasting the way of Law and the way of grace as a means of being justified by God.
In other words, he’s saying (as he did in chapter 3), “You foolish Galatians! You were already saved by God’s grace. Now live in God’s grace. Don’t try to complete with the Law what was started by grace!”
Warren Wiersbe writes: Certainly he is not suggesting that the Galatians had “lost their salvation,” because throughout this letter he deals with them as believers. At least nine times he calls them brethren, and he also uses the pronoun we (Gal. 4:28, 31). If they were not believers, Paul would have told them plainly that was the case (as he told the Judaizers). Galatians was written to straying Christians who had lost their focus, not their salvation. In chapter 4, he boldly states, “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father’”. If his readers were unsaved, Paul would never have written those words.
As Christians, it is possible to have a good motive with a bad method. The Galatians wanted to
be the most complete believers they could possibly be, but the method they chose (under the Judaizer’s influence), was legalism. To be “fallen from grace” means “fallen out of the sphere of God’s grace.” You can’t mix grace and Law. If you decide to live in the bondage of Law, then you cannot live in the freedom of grace. What we believe shows up in the way we behave.
It’s important to watch the way we live, because what we really believe is demonstrated by the way we live. It’s true that we all still battle the old sin nature. (Amen?) But it’s also gloriously true that He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. The faith that justifies is the same faith that sanctifies. If your living is wrong and out of line with the teaching of God’s Word, then you need to reexamine what it is that you really believe. Beliefs beget behaviors… right and wrong; good and bad. So what does true freedom-loving Christianity look like when it’s put into practice? He tells us…
II. True believers live waiting for righteousness with an attitude of loving kindness (5-6).
That’s the second point of this passage. He covers this in verses 5-6. Hear it again, 5 But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
The life of faith is a life of waiting. Not only is it a life of waiting, it’s a life of hoping. We wait for this righteousness through the Spirit. Not only that, but we eagerly [NIV] wait for this righteousness through the Spirit. Eagerness describes the manner of our waiting.
The only thing that can eclipse our eagerness for the allurement of sin is a superior eagerness for righteousness. The only thing that can overcome our fleshly eagerness to conform to external religious demands and rituals is a superior eagerness for righteousness. Only the Holy Spirit can put this superior eagerness, this hope, within our heart. And you have it by faith. It’s already yours… by faith. The flesh is strengthened by a weak faith; but faith is strengthened by a crucified flesh.
If you want to grow in spiritual eagerness for righteousness, then starve the old sin nature and exercise your faith. Spiritual growth is hard work; that’s why very few people do it. That’s why we don’t live in a world of spiritual giants. But when you do determine to obey the Spirit of God and to grow in righteousness, your life will become a beacon for lost souls, like lost ships looking for a lighthouse through the fog. There’s a quality that is attractive and real.
Now when this righteousness is real, it will express itself in a certain way. Paul wrote in verse 6, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
In other words, being righteous in fellowship with Jesus isn’t about the rules you keep and the head knowledge that makes a legalist so proud… it’s about faith expressing itself in love. One way we might examine our faith is by asking the spiritual question, how’s your love life? He says the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love. That’s agape. If it’s not of faith, then it doesn’t count for righteousness sake. And if it’s not in love, then it isn’t of faith. Faith deals with people through love. Sometimes we must act on love even when we don’t feel that loving; we can only do this by genuine faith. The flesh says “No Way!” But faith says, “I must!”
In his book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote,
“Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. [But] If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.”
C.S. Lewis says faith acts before it “feels”. That’s because true believers live waiting for righteousness with an attitude of loving kindness. If you really want people to see your faith, show them your love. If you want the church to recognize your spiritual growth and maturity, don’t quote us your creed; show us your love. When a Christian believes this, the results are amazing.
At a high school in Dallas, a junior girl named “Marti” learned first-hand what it means to express her Christian faith in love toward another student. She was popular… she was cute, athletic and involved in several extracurricular activities. Her grades were well above average; in fact, she was in consideration for the honor roll. At lunch, she sat with her friends, both male and female at the popular table… with other bright and beautiful students. Marti considered herself very blessed and she was. But she was also a girl of genuine Christian character. You would be wrong to think that just because she hangs out with the “in” group that she was stuck up or snobbish. No, she was genuinely humble and wanted to honor her Savior at school.
So when Marti saw Rebecca in her afternoon economics class, she knew that silent disregard was no longer the Christ-like option. It had been awkward all semester in that class. Being kind to Rebecca in front of her friends was hard. You see, Rebecca was not with the “in” crowd. She never really fit in with the other girls at school. Her hair was a mess. She only had about three outfits that she alternated from day to day. She wasn’t athletic and she struggled academically. She was quiet and painfully shy… her blemished skin trying desperately to hind behind think framed glasses. Other high school students avoid such students like lepers, for fear of being socially contaminated and cut off from their own friends. The stakes seemed so high.
But Marti knew Rebecca outside of school, they both attended the same church; they both heard the same truth… and they both loved the same Jesus. Marti knew that Rebecca’s parents were somewhat indifferent to the church and that she often came in late and had to sit alone.
So Marti started expressing her faith in love toward Rebecca at school. At first, it was hard because they never spoke to each other. But after that initial contact in the economics class, the door for friendship was cracked open. Everyday, Marti would go out of her way to say something encouraging to Rebecca; and over time Rebecca began to open up with other students as well. They never became “best friends”. But it made high school just a little more bearable for one hurting student because another student took her faith to school. She expressed her faith through love. Christianity is more than something we just believe on Sunday… it changes the way we live and love for all the todays, and tomorrows, of our lives.
Through Galatians, God is telling us to take our faith to school; take it to work; take it on the road; take onto the athletic field; take it to where you live. Is there someone in your world of work or in the community who needs a special word of grace and love from you? Probably so. Faith acts out love even before it feels. That’s because true believers live waiting for righteous-ness with an attitude of loving kindness. That’s God’s Word for us today. Let’s pray.
(c) Charles Kevin Grant
2003