The Tricky Line of the Gospel
In the churches in Galatia the gentile Christians are feeling compelled and pressured to act like Jews in order to be a true or real part of the church.
In there defense... I can see how they would buy into this. In learning the story of God's work in Jesus they have, no doubt, be introduced to the Hebrew Scriptures and been shown the ways in which God has been long at work in and through the Jews. It seems reasonable to conclude that if God has been so invested in this particular people group for so long than perhaps the truest and best way to be a part of God's work and God's people is to become like a Jew -- I mean Jesus was a Jew, all the first Christians were Jews.
But Paul will have NONE of this!
Earlier Paul reminded the Galatians of his rich and active participation w/ his Jewish heritage... no one was more zealous for these things Paul says of himself.
However, Paul says, what we have seen in God's coming to us in Jesus is that our Jewishness is not of any advantage in being made a part of God's people through Jesus. In fact he says, what Christ has shown us is that using the Jewish traditions and ways to get to God... this is completely bankrupt and of no use in rightly connecting us to God.
It is through Jesus and him crucified that we are brought close to God.
And so the question comes... "If being Jewish is of no advantage and we all find ourselves in the position of being like "gentile sinners" doesn't this seem to suggest that Christ promotes sin? I mean if the law is of no value to us at this point than doesn't that seem to tip the scale towards doing whatever you darn well please?"
"NO!" Paul says.
Isn't this a tension we feel in church all the time? Doesn't it seem that most of the time when we welcome some one into God's family for the first time we now conceive our goal to be to make them as much like us as we possibly can?
It's as if we say, "Okay now your in and in order to stay in now you need to start acting a lot nicer, hanging out at more reputable places, getting out of bed at inconvenient times on your weekend to come to this building, you've got some habits you need to drop pretty quick, and well you could use a hair cut too!"
And very quickly we've made the Gospel into something that has very little to do w/ Jesus crucified!
It's become all about being a model citizen -- polite and well adjusted.
And our intentions are REALLY very GOOD! If we don't operate this way, we say, people will think they can just do whatever they want. They'll think that because Jesus just loves to save sinners they can just continue to be who they were before Jesus, they can keep the same friends, habits, hangouts, and haircuts.
What bothers Paul at this point... and should bother us too, is that for the sake of discipleship we are changing the gospel. In order to have people that act the way we agree is best we are teaching and condoning ways of living that seem to make the cross meaningless and God's grace an optional part of life in Christ.
Paul will get around to addressing how it is the the gospel of Jesus being crucified for sinners actually does work wildly in transforming groups of people to live radically different lives... but it's a tricky line we have to walk. One that forces us to hold Jesus and the cross at the center of it all and doesn't let us move quickly onto some kind of polite moralism.
Created almost 2 years ago
