Imagine
living in a time when travel pretty much consisted only of walking, boat, and horseback (or other beast of burden). You travel many miles on foot, risking your
health and even your life, bringing the good news, the gospel message of Jesus
Christ to a mostly pagan and barbaric country.
You convert many to Christianity there and start a number of churches
along the way. Your message has been
clear and direct, mincing no words, yet, spoken in love. Before you leave this faraway land, the
churches there are showing a lot of promise.
Ok, great. But you find out some
time later that the teaching for which you risked so much, and fought so hard
to share, has been twisted in a manner that voids
the whole message and puts their souls at stake!
Such was the
situation in the Apostle Paul’s case. On
his first missionary trip, he traveled through the region of Galatia, preaching
the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, Who (mercifully) came to pay
the full penalty for our sins. But the
message got distorted somewhere along the way. Paul’s famous question to the saints in
Galatia jerked them back into reality… “O
foolish Galatians, WHO HATH BEWITCHED YOU, that ye should not obey the truth,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among
you?” (Galatians 3:1)
No New
Testament epistle has a stronger message than the one to the Galatian
churches. Paul states that the message that
he first brought to them is, and always will be, the true gospel. He says that if
ANYONE (including himself) would preach a different gospel, that messenger is cursed:
“But though we, or an angel from
Heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto
you, let him be accursed. As we said
before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than
that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8-9)
Sobering
words! But what was it, exactly, that grieved
Paul so much? What was this other gospel
that had crept into the Galatian church?
It was the message of the Judaizers.
It was simply a message that accepted Jesus’ work on the cross for
salvation, but also added something else
to it. It was salvation “by faith plus works.” The works that the Judaizers added were
circumcision and the Law of Moses (Acts 15:1, 5). Ok, so what’s wrong with adding the Law of
Moses? Wasn’t this law directly from God,
and therefore the ultimate guide to righteous works? Absolutely.
And wasn’t the Mosaic Law summed up in the Ten Commandments? Indeed it was. And did not Jesus, Himself, condense all
these even further into only two commandments, i.e., love God and love your
neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40)? So,
what’s the big deal? What could possibly
be wrong with any work that would fit in the category of these two
commandments?
The fact is,
ALL good works fall under this category.
So, nothing is wrong with the Mosaic Law itself, it’s the fact that it
was added to the cross. Therefore, any
time we try to add good works…. any good
works…. to the work of the cross in
order to be saved, we are saying that Jesus’ work was just not quite
enough. But there is only ONE work that
can save us… and it is HIS work, HIS suffering, HIS paying the penalty on the
cross. We can do nothing to add to our salvation at any point in our Christian walk. In fact, if
we even try to, we are insulting Him and we are cut off, we are severed from Christ and fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4)! We
have deserted Jesus for another gospel (Galatians 1:6)! Any mixture of God’s grace and man’s works to
be saved is fatal.
But the
error of the Judaizers is not just a problem of the past. We have many today who claim to be
Christians, yet who strongly embrace this evil doctrine. The Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and
even many Protestant churches all claim to believe and trust in the work of
Jesus, yet try to add some type of work(s) to the cross in order to be saved. This creates a false gospel. It may be water baptism, it may be speaking
in tongues, or perhaps performing the “moral aspects” of the Mosaic Law,
helping your neighbor, giving to the poor, becoming a martyr (dying for your
faith), etc., etc. All these things can
be good, but they cannot be trusted in
to save us, even partially. They cannot
contribute to our justification.
Salvation is a gift, and you
don’t work for a gift (Romans
4:4-5). There is no amount of
suffering or work that can be “added to” Jesus’ work for salvation. To add even one of these works is to say that Jesus did not completely pay the
penalty for our sins (John 1:29; Hebrews 9:12; 1 John 2:2). This is blasphemy. No wonder Paul was so severe with the
Galatians.
Are we
claiming that Christians should not do good works? No, we are not at all saying that. But we should simply do good works out of a
love for God, and in appreciation for what Jesus has done. And we will be rewarded for our good works
which are done in the right spirit. The wrong attitude would be, “I am doing
these good works to help my chances of getting into Heaven.” But if Jesus’ suffering and death on the
cross wasn’t enough BY ITSELF, then surely nothing could save us.
Put your
faith, your trust, in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone. Don’t put yourself
under the curse… don’t be a Judaizer.
http://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2010/08/sola-fide-revisited.html
