Impressing by means of the flesh

Alan James / Croagh Patrick     Pilgrim Sunday

In Galatians 6:12, 13 we find four marks of false teachers to be on the look out for.

The first is that they are out to impress, Paul suggests that part of the motive the false teachers have for insisting on circumcision is that they are out to impress people by means of the flesh. They know that for some circumcision will be difficult and so in a rather fleshly way they insist on it as a means of impressing people.

This is something to watch out for with false teachers. They insist on one fleshly requirement or another partly in order to impress people. They insist on a certain period of fasting or of vigil or wearing certain clothes or speaking in tongues or some other marker that is simply a fleshly act designed to impress people.

To take two examples. On the last day of July in Ireland, people climb the mountain Croagh Patrick barefoot in an act of devotion, mass being celebrated at the summit. Or even more extreme, every Easter in the Philippines certain men will flog themselves with whips and even get themselves crucified (usually without actually dying). Such acts of the flesh are designed ultimately to impress people. What devotion! What commitment! Don't be fooled.

No hybrids

Do not make the mistake of thinking you can have a hybrid sort of Christianity. You know how these days you can have a petrol or diesel car or you can have an electric one but then you can also have a hybrid, petrol and electric. The false teachers were arguing for a hybrid form of Christianity. You may be able to have a hybrid car but a hybrid Christianity will not work. If it is based on law at all then it will be all law and Christ and grace will be pushed out.

Don't sell your get out of jail free card

Galatians 5:1 Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. And yet that was the very thing that the Galatians were in danger of doing. Many of them were tempted to listen to the false teachers with their promises of a higher level of Christian life but what they were offering would only curtail the freedoms that they had entered into. It would lead them to be back under the law which does not bring freedom.

It is a little like someone who has been addicted to gambling or to alcohol and who has managed to turn from their addiction. Usually such a person cannot simply live the way they have done in the past. They need to take care in all sorts of areas – the people they spend time with, the places they used to go to, the way they deal with problems, etc. In a similar way, the converted person needs to make sure that they do not put themselves in a position where they are likely to become slaves to sin once again.

Or think of someone who has been deep in debt but has managed to pay off what was owed or has accepted bankruptcy and has started all over again. What if that person is tempted to take on a fresh load of debt? They are in danger of ending themselves up in the same situation as before. Believers are like those who have had their huge debt of sin paid. They must be careful not to end up in the same sort of situation all over again by doing what the false teachers were suggesting and thinking that circumcision was the gateway to progress in the Christian life.

Never forget that the believer is essentially free. He has been given a get out of jail free card (like in Monopoly) by the Lord. He must not be tempted to surrender that card by thinking that a religious ritual of one sort or another can take him forward as a Christian. We are sons of God not slaves.

Christ all the way

Gaatians 5:3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. When you start to rely on something like circumcision or baptism or confession or prayer then you are opening the door to a completely different way of thinking about salvation. You are basically saying that you think that you can be saved by law, by obeying certain rules. Now the way the law works, you have to obey everything it says. You cannot pick and choose what you are going to follow. You cannot say, I like circumcision but not keeping the ten commandments; I like church on Sundays but not the other commandments. No, if that is the way you want to go it has to be a total obedience.

Say you were going to a place and as far as you could see there were two ways to get to it – the one way was a straight road leading all the way from your city to your destination and the other a route that went along back roads and lanes and involved catching buses and trains. You could not start on one route and then suddenly switch to the other. You would have to choose your route and then stick to it. There would be no room for chopping and changing. And so with being a Christian – you cannot begin with circumcision and then turn to Christ – you must begin with Christ, go on with Christ and end with him. Christ all the way.

Is passing the entrance exam enough or not?

Imagine you wanted to study medicine at a certain university. Imagine you made enquiries and they said that as long as you pass the entrance examination then you can go to that university to do medicine and say you passed the entrance examination. "I'm in!" you think. "I'm okay". But then they say, yes, but you also need three A*s at A level or you need to be interviewed as well to see if we like you or whatever. That would not be right. Either passing the entrance examination is enough or it is not enough. The false teachers in Galatia were saying, yes, faith in Christ saves but there are these other things you need to do as well. There is a plus. The truth is either Christ is enough or Christ is not enough.

How are you saved? By Christ or by Christ plus something else? We must know it is by Christ alone.