The Only Thing That Counts

Stand In the Place of Grace:

“Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (v1)

• We are not saved by religious rituals. Paul is contrasting the concern about circumcision and un-circumcision with a concern about faith and love.

• He is telling them that the religious ritual that was the sign of the covenant people in the Old Testament really doesn’t mean anything anymore spiritually. It has no spiritual value. In other words, to focus upon that ritual, which was so central to life in the Old Testament, is a waste of time. It is a distraction. It pulls you away from Christ.

• Consider for a moment what Paul is doing.

• He is talking about a religious activity, not athletics or recreation or leisure. It is part of their religion. It’s in the Bible.

• It is a tradition that has endured for centuries among the people of Israel. It dates back all the way to Abraham.

• This religious tradition distinguishes the people of Israel from all the other people on earth. It is the sign of their covenant with God, that they are the chosen people.

• And Paul is relegating this tradition to a matter of little importance. He is setting it aside. He is saying that they don’t have to do it anymore, that it really counts for nothing.

• When we think that we are saved by any religious ritual, whatever it might be, we have Fallen Away from Grace.

• The ladder that fell away from the house. The idea is not that we can fall from grace, be lost after we are saved. The idea is that we can forfeit the way of grace for the way of bondage to religious rituals, systems, and traditions.

• There is one place for a child of God to stand. It is in the place of grace.

 

Put On the Face of Grace:

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (c6)

• Weightier matters:

• He is asking them and us to consider the really weighty matters. The religious tradition is light compared to these weighty matters that are of first importance.

• Jesus pulled us toward what he called the “weightier matters of the law’: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24  You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel (Matthew 23:23-24).

• Paul sounds like Jesus here. Jesus talked about how the Pharisees spent so much time working out their tithe on the leaves of their mint plants. They were trying to be responsible, of course. But they were spending their lives on minutia.

• Calculate correctly. Life is a balancing act. You have all kinds of demands on you. You could get caught up in what you eat or what you drink or what you wear. These matters could consume you. But are they really your life? If you could clearly identify the weightier matters, the things that are of highest importance, you would want to do those, would you not?

• If you chose not to take care of these “weightier matters,” the more important things, then I would have to assume that you really do not consider them important at all.

• Faith should be expressed through love. It should be the face of love and the hands of love and the heart of love toward God and others.

• Faith is not generic here. This is not a suggestion that any old faith will do.=

• I heard a man say once that your “higher power” could be a doorknob if you wanted. Paul is using the word faith in its context. He has been talking about faith throughout this letter. It is faith in Christ of which he speaks. The word is used 16 times in this short letter.

• Its core meaning is in Galatians 2:16: So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

• Gal 2:20: “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.”

• Faith is the way that we relate to God. It is the avenue by which we are saved. Therefore, there is nothing in this world of more importance than your faith.

• This faith expresses itself. The KJV translates energio with “working.” The word means “to be operative, to be at work, to put forth power.” It also means to display one’s activity.

• Paul might have stopped right here. “The righteous shall live by faith” has been his theme. He might have said “the only think that counts is faith.”

• But he moves on. He adds the rest of this sentence because he is now talking about how faith operates in the daily life and decisions of the individual. Are you a person of faith in Christ? Then listen to how he completes this sentence: expressing itself through love.

• Love is not generic either. Our faith is in Christ, and our love flows from the one who “loved me and gave himself for me.”

• The first use of “love” in this book is Gal. 2:20 above. There he links two descriptions of Jesus Christ. He is the one who “loved me and gave himself for me.” These two descriptions are really one. “Gave himself for me” is another way of saying that he loved me. It describes HOW he loved me. And it describes HOW I am to love God and others. I am to give myself John wrote in I John 4:10: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” John learned this truth from Jesus who said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends” (John 15:13)

• Paul uses the word “love” (agape) four times in chapter five of this letter. This is the first instance in verse 6. He will later reference the Great Commandment (Gal. 5:14). So we know that he is speaking in the same vein as Jesus about love.

• Our love is to be a laying down kind of love. “Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16).

• We just celebrated Veterans Day. Veterans evidence an amazing devotion to their countrymen. They are willing to lay down their lives to keep us safe. That is a great devotion.

• Paul says that love is how faith is expressed. You would think that faith would work its way into words, and it often does. But what really counts? Faith working itself into love—that’s what really counts.

• Someone said that “love makes the world go round.” I think we can see that here that faith makes love go round.

 

Keep Up the Pace of Grace:

“You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?” (v7)

• Something or someone “cut in on you.” This is an interesting metaphor from the athletic competition of racing.

• My high school coach, Grant Tidwell, loved track more than any other sport. Track is the most fundamental of all the sports. It is the simple act of running. It requires no ball or basket or goal or even a special field. You can see how it would have been the first and the premier of the sports. The 100 meter dash remains the test for the fastest human on earth.

• In a pack of runners, someone can cut in on you. They can cut you off. They can keep you from winning the race by boxing you in and preventing you from reaching your full potential.

• That is exactly what trusting in religious rituals and traditions will do to you. You cannot reach your full potential. You cannot win this race you are running if you are sidetracked and cut off by faith in your own good works.

• You will be tempted all your life to take the emphasis off of grace. This is true because everything else is you working and earning God’s favor. This temptation is fundamental because we are prideful people.

Conclusion: What is the offense of the cross? It is the focus on Christ alone by faith alone in God’s grace alone.