Turning unto Law-Works
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. It is passing strange that, after we have come to know salvation by grace, we could turn back to the beggarly elements of salvation by law-works. This many are doing today. History truly repeats itself. The Spirit of God certainly told us of the Galatians to warn us against stumbling at the same stumbling block.
The Galatians knew how the Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for them, that He might deliver them from this present evil age. They knew that Christ was crucified, and that they were saved by His Blood; yet they insisted in returning again and again to the beggarly elements, whereby they were placed under bondage.
They became not only legalists, but they stressed observance of days, and months, and times, and years. They desired to establish themselves under Judaistic rites and ceremonies, all of which had been done away in Christ Jesus. They seemed to think that they would merit much by a slavery to past ceremonials.
Is there now among our churches any bondage of this kind? Are saints who regularly sit at the Lord's Table in remembrance of His shed Blood and broken body in danger of looking to the rites of the church, or to the works of their hands, as necessary to complete the redemption they have in Christ Jesus? When ordinances are made adjunct to Christ's finished work on Calvary, and a part of Christ's redemptive plan then Galatianism is in full force.
We go further and say that when anything besides Jesus Christ and the Word of God is placed as a feature of eternal life, and leaned upon as a hope of Heaven, there is a return to the folly that entered Galatia.
Here we must add that we believe that many, very many, throughout Christendom, are leaning on church rites and their own good deeds as the basis for their hope of eternal life.
Young and old, men and women, in many churches, and in many denominations, believe that the initial work of Christ on Calvary must be confirmed by the continued work of church fidelity and holy living, in order to make salvation sure.
I. GOD SENT FORTH HIS SON (Galatians 4:4-6)
1. All the purposes of God run on schedule time. We are now facing the marvels of the incarnation; of Christ sent forth from the Father and becoming flesh. This, like all other events in the Divine chronology, came to pass on time. It came not one moment ahead of time, and not one moment behind time. It was when the fullness of the time had come, that Christ came.
Even so it was with everything that was connected with the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. Each step was not alone in fulfillment of God's plan, but each occurred on time. He died at the going down of the sun, on the day of the Passover; He rose on the day of the Feast of the First Fruits; He ascended exactly 40 days after His resurrection, and 10 days before the Feast of Pentecost. Thank God He is coming again on schedule time, and will not tarry.
2. God sent forth His Son, Christ came to earth not merely with the Father's sanction, but under the Father's directive will. That was not all every day of His 33 years on earth, He spent doing the will of Him who had sent Him. Not once did He deviate one iota from that will. In Him there was no shadow of turning. He could truly say, I came to do My Father's will, and when He was about to return to the Father, He said, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do."
3. Christ "made of a woman," How marvelous was this; and what condescension. He who took the rib from the man and made a woman, was Himself made of a woman. Yes, "He humbled Himself" when He became flesh. However, that which was humiliation to Him, was Mary's glory. Blessed was she among women, because God chose her to be mother to Christ. As mother, Mary gave to our Lord a body, and He became flesh.
4. Christ was made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law. Being found in fashion as man, He went a further step in His humiliation, and became obedient to death, even the death of the Cross.
We are overwhelmed with praise as we see Him steadfastly setting His face toward that hill lone and gray, known as Golgotha a place of skulls. He came to die, and He died. He came to become a sacrifice, a substitutionary sacrifice, and He died, the Just for the unjust; He came to bring us to God, and He brought us to God. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
II. WE ARE SONS, NOT SERVANTS (Galatians 4:5-7)
1. Christ in coming found men as servants, under Law. That Law was written in commandments, which hung over men with its terrible penalty, pronouncing death; for man had broken the Law, was not in subjection to it, neither indeed could he be.
What a pitiful lot was man's shut up under the Law, and helplessly condemned to death. Not one ray of hope was in His sky; not one way of escape was possible: He was lost, lost, lost.
2. Christ came under the Law, fulfilled its just requirements, paid its full penalty, took us out from under its curse, and then raised us from the position of slaves, and made us sons. Galatians 4:5 says that this was a purpose of His being made flesh: "That we might receive the adoption of sons." What depths of grace and of glory lie hidden in this purpose of the Father, as He wrought it out through the Son.
(1) We are no longer slaves mercilessly driven by the Law to certain death. We are in Christ, free from the Law, and from its tyranny. We are not under bondage. We are not fetter-bound by chains we cannot break. Christ has opened the prison bars and set the captives free.
Did the Lord pronounce that we were cruelly and unrighteously condemned? Not at all. He distinctly said that death was the wages of our sins. Had He thought that the requirements of the Law, or its penalties were unjust, He would not have made them as He did.
What the Lord did say was that He took the curse of the Law for us. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He took the stripes that were our due. He came under the Law to redeem us from it.
(2) We are sons now, awaiting our adoption, or placing, as sons. As sons we have all the privileges of sonship. We may come into His presence with gladness and with full assurance of faith; we can reckon ourselves as heirs of God, and as joint heirs with Christ. We are no more strangers, no more aliens, but we are members of the Household of God. As sons, we are no longer slaves, or servants. We now cry, "Abba, Father." We now have His Spirit dwelling within us. Happy is the lot of a son, and great is his portion.
III. WHERE IS THE BLESSEDNESS OF OLD? (Galatians 4:13-16)
1. The saints at Galatia had, at the first received Paul with gladness. They despised not his bodily affliction. They received him as an angel of God, yea, even as Christ Jesus. They delighted in the message of grace which he proclaimed. Thus they came to know God, or, rather, to be known of Him.
Those were blessed days and hours of fellowship and of gladness, filled with joy that belongs to those who have come to Christ and have found in Him a full and free salvation.
2. The saints at Galatia had now gone back to "beggarly elements." They desired to be once more in bondage. They left the strength of the Gospel of grace and its assuring blessedness, for the old yoke of Law-works.
These Galatians even placed themselves back again under bondage to the Law. They began to observe days, and months, and times, and years, according to Jewish religious rites.
Paul kindly but emphatically said "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain."
3. The saints at Galatia were asked to remember the blessedness they once knew. This blessedness was now gone. It was sweet and precious to them while they were safely sheltered in grace; but now that they had gone back to the old order of Judaistic bondage, they were entangled again in a joyless and hopeless formalism.
We stop to ask many saints of today who seek salvation by the law-works route (which is not a route to salvation) if they are happy. They too are sitting under the Ten Commandments, a churchianity with its demands; while around them is flashing the lightnings and thunderings of Sinai. They do exceedingly quake with the fear of being ultimately lost through some inadvertent lack of ceremony or form, or by some unintentional departure from the demands of the Law.
Yes, we may weep with Paul. They are under bondage. They are running a race, looking unto themselves: forgetting, withal, the finished work of Calvary, and leaning upon the works of their own hands.
They know no peace, because the flesh cannot keep the Law; neither can the saved soul, walking according to the flesh, please God. Beloved, where is the old-time blessedness they once knew? We plead with them to fix their eyes again on Christ. If we live by Him, let us walk in Him. Let Him be the All and in all.
IV. PAUL'S TRAVAILING FOR THE GALATIANS (Galatians 4:19)
1. Paul reminded the Galatian saints of how he had once travailed for them as He preached the Gospel of saving grace to them. It was a ministry of heart with the Apostle. It was not a cold orthodoxy, proclaimed with an air of scholarship, and of profound self-knowledge that dominated Paul's spirit as he preached the Word. Paul loved men. He loved his message. He travailed for those who sat under his ministry as one travails to bring forth children.
Thus may we be real soul winners. The man in the pew does not need an icy deliverance of truth, be it ever so correct in theological deliverance: he needs a truth borne upon the wings of a burning sincerity and longing for souls. Paul could say that he had great heaviness of heart. God gave us this passion for men; a passion which travails in their behalf.
2. Paul reminded the Galatians that he was travailing for them the second time. He was travailing until Christ should be formed in them. They had become not alone law-centered, and self-centered; they had left their first love.
It is always true: as we turn some phase of salvation by works, which centers itself in legalities, or religious rites, or self-attained righteousness, we get away from Christ.
Now Paul travails in birth once more, until Christ shall be formed in these Galatians. Paul would not center the affection or the redemptive hopes of the Galatians in himself, or even in his message; he would center it in Christ. Paul not only wanted to center them in Christ; he wanted Christ centric in them.
3. Paul reminded the Galatians that he was in doubt of them. Why the doubt? The Apostle well knew that salvation was in Christ alone. Therefore, even though they had once known Christ as the Saviour, Paul was in doubt as to whether, after all, they had truly so known Him?
Had they truly known Him, how could they so soon be turned away from Him; how could they so soon be enlisted under the flag of false teachers, who stood for a gospel which was not the Gospel. They had run well for a season, but that was when he was there, and there was no one to hinder. Now that these troublers had come, they were carried about by the winds of men's doctrine, and its cunning craftiness had bewitched them.
When we, in our day, see so many people who are members of something, and who follow after some church forms of worship; when we see so many who seem to know no more of the Gospel than a certain form of service, we are in doubt of them.
V. SEEKING TO GET UNDER THE LAW (Galatians 4:21)
We wish now to have a heart-to-heart talk with those who desire to get under the Law. Galatians 4:21 says, "Ye that desire to be under the Law, do ye not hear the Law?"
1. Let us see if we can catch the voice of the Law. What saith it?
(1) The Law saith, he that doeth the Law shall live by the Law. That sounds well and good. What does it mean? It means, simply stated that if we would be saved by the Law, we must keep the Law, God described such an one when He said, "Thou that makest thy boast of the Law, through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God?" In another place God says, "Whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." Thus we ask the would-be-saved-by-the-Law people, Do you keep the Law?
(2) The Spirit saith, "What the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh." The Law could not save because the flesh of man was so corrupted by sin that it could not keep the Law. When the Law entered, sin was not put away; the rather, sin abounded.
Thinkest thou that if righteousness could have come by the Law, Christ would have died? Never. God did not put His Son to death upon the Cross unnecessarily. Because there was none other name (even the name of the Law) by which sinners could be saved, Christ died.
(3) The Law saith, "That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." It also saith, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Then the Law standing over a guilty world, adds its sentence, "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Such is the voice of the Law. Shall mortal man seek to justify himself by the Law? Nay, the Law condemns him. Man is judged and found guilty by the Law.
2. Let us ask, Would you desire to get under the Law? If so, you desire to get under death. If so, you desire to shut yourself up in a darkness that is deep and eternal. If so, you desire to set sail in a ship that can never take you to port.
What, then, doeth the Law? As a schoolmaster it drives you to Christ. It confesses its own saving helplessness, it announces itself incapable of doing more than making sin exceeding sinful; and then it cries: "But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested." Where? How? It is manifested in Christ, by faith; for Christ's Blood can save, and Christ can justify.
VI. ABRAHAM'S TWO SONS, ISHMAEL AND ISAAC (Galatians 4:22-23; Galatians 4:28-31)
1. Ishmael, the son of the flesh, tended to bondage. The mother of Ishmael was Hagar, Sarah's bondmaid. Because she had no son, Sarah decided to help God out; and thus she gave Hagar to Abraham for wife. The result was that Ishmael was born. Ishmael, however, was not of faith, neither was he the fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham. The bondmaid, Hagar, stands for no less than Mount Sinai which is in Arabia, and for the Jerusalem which now is.
2. Isaac, the son of Sarah, was the son of promise and of faith, and he stands for the liberty and the freedom which is in Christ. Isaac was a representative of the Jerusalem that is from above. He came after the Spirit, and not as Ishmael, after the flesh. He bore the name Isaac, which means laughter and joy. He was the child of grace and not of Law.
3. Ishmael and Isaac caused contention and conflict. There was no common ground on which they could abide in peace with each other. As it was then, so it is now: "He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit."
The Book of Galatians brings all this out again, when it reads: "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."
What does this mean? Even this: there is an antagonism between salvation by the Law, and salvation by grace. The two cannot dwell together. They are contrary the one to the other.
The tendency of the legalist is always persecution of the adherent of grace. The reason is that their hopes are different; their mode of salvation is different. They find no common ground upon which to approach God. The one boasts in the flesh, the other in God; the one says, "I do it"; the other says, "God did it." The one pleads his own merits, the other pleads the merit of Christ and the Blood.
4. Ishmael had to be cast out of the home of Abraham. Two cannot walk together except they be agreed. There is no ground of fellowship between Law and grace. What the Law could not do, grace does. Wherein the Law worketh wrath, grace worketh life and peace. What then? If we accept grace, we of necessity reject the Law as a Saviour.
VII. MOUNT SINAI OR THE NEW JERUSALEM (Galatians 4:25-27)
1. There are two great finalities in the outcome of "Law" and of "grace."
(1) The Law starts at Mount Sinai. It gendereth to bondage, and it answers to the Jerusalem which now is. It is only necessary to go to the Jerusalem that now is, to behold the failure and collapse of the Law as a method of approach to God. Jerusalem is wrapped up in ceremonies, and forms, and legalities. It is altogether foreign to that spirit of love which is gendered by the grace of God. It has lost the meaning of the sacrifices, which were built upon grace. It has substituted works for faith, and religious rites for heart experiences.
(2) Grace starts at Mount Calvary. It gendereth freedom, and centers in that Jerusalem which is from above. It leads to life and light, rejoicing and righteousness forevermore.
Grace is the author of all that is good. It tells of liberty as well as of love; of peace as well as of pardon; of rejoicing as well as of righteousness.
Grace is the fulfillment of every legal requirement of the Law. We would not for one moment teach that grace lends liberty to the lusts of the flesh. This is far from the teaching of the Word. It would be a great error to think that Isaac the son of love, the child of promise, and the product of grace, lived a lower life than Ishmael, the son of bondage. The very opposite is true.
Any man under the Law fails to keep the Law; however, every man under grace fulfills the Law, for the simple reason that "love is the fulfilling of the Law." It is the fulfilment of the Law, not to obtain justification, but upon the basis of justification obtained. Grace keeps the Law because the God of all grace, who is the perfect fulfilment of every demand of the law, indwells the life that is saved by grace.
Jesus Christ was made under the Law, and He fulfilled the demands of the Law. When we come to Him, His life is made manifest in us. It is for this cause we read that grace teacheth us to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world (Titus 2:11-12).
The conflict between the Law and grace is a conflict of achievements, of results, of salvation. The law utterly fails in these achievements because it is weak through the flesh. Grace conquers, and fulfills the Law, because it creates a new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
He who is after Ishmael uses the Law as steps through which he mounts to glory and eternal life. He who is after Isaac accepts salvation by grace, through faith, and finds within him a new life, unctionized by the Spirit, which brings in a love that is the fulfilment of the Law. This new life climbs the steps, not to get saved, but because it has salvation; not with effort, but without effort as a result.
AN ILLUSTRATION
After holding an open-air service in a mining village one of the workers, handing round tracts, said to a woman beyond the allotted span. "Well, is it all settled now?" Her reply was typical: "A' well, me laddie; if we dinna wirk oot oor ain salvation there's nae another'll dae't for us; but, eh! we're gled tae see you; when'll ye be back?" "Not by works.