Perhaps
you heard a few years ago of the pharmacist
convicted of diluting the medication he was dispensing to
the cancer patients under his care. Instead of getting the full strong dose they needed to combat
their cancer and cure their disease, they were getting a
half-dose – not enough to do the job.
The results were what you would expect.
People died – because the one responsible for their
treatment did not give them the treatment they needed.
You
probably became angry when you heard about what this pharmacist
was doing. There
was no question that his actions were unethical, to say the
least, and reprehensible beyond description.
Well maybe you can understand how St. Paul felt when he
heard that some “false apostles” were infiltrating the
churches of Galatia with a different gospel.
These so-called apostles were preaching that if the
Galatians wanted to be real Christians, they needed to observe
the Jewish Law; Christ plus works is what they preached. Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection would only take
you so far. You had
to cross the finish line under your own steam.
Paul’s
response to this is recorded for us in the Epistle to the
Galatians, from which we’ll be reading over the next five
Sundays. In
today’s first selection from this epistle, Paul told the
churches of Galatia that he was dumbfounded that they were
deserting the pure Gospel of grace that He had preached to them
and turning to a different gospel – which
in reality was no gospel at all.
You
foolish Galatians! Paul addressed them in chapter three.
Who
has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly
portrayed as crucified for the forgiveness of your sins? Plainly St. Paul was in agony that the churches of Galatia
were being led astray from the saving truth of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ.
Because
of His faith in Christ, Paul would allow nothing to adulterate
the message of Good News that God reconciles sinners to Himself
and forgives them only for the sake of His crucified and risen
Son. Paul
wouldn’t tolerate anything which suggested that we fallen,
sinful human beings contribute in the slightest way to our
salvation. Paul
would say that it doesn’t matter what authority the preacher
may claim to have – if he preaches anything other than Christ
alone as the ground of our salvation, he is a liar and deceiver.
Like
Luther after him, Paul proclaimed the Good News that we’re
saved from sin, death and hell by God’s grace alone, taken
hold of by faith alone. Forget
this notion, Paul would say, that God will accept us if we try
our best to be good. Forget
the idea that if we manage to keep God’s commandments most of
the time, then God will forgive us and welcome us into heaven
when we die. If
righteousness could be gained through observing the law,
Paul wrote, then
Christ died for nothing. You and I can’t work our way
into God’s good graces. It
wouldn’t be grace if we could, for the term grace
means “God’s undeserved
kindness”. According
to the Bible, the only thing our works deserve is God’s
eternal condemnation in hell.
That’s
because God demands of us 100 % righteousness, in thought, word
and deed. Absolute perfection, each and every day of our lives. But
as our Lord tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, a bad tree
cannot bear good fruit. And
since all of us are corrupted, afflicted and infected with
original sin, from our
conception, bad trees is what we are.
We fallen creatures can’t produce any work remotely
approaching the perfect righteousness God demands of us.
It’s as unattainable for us as it would be for me to
step outside tonight and expect to land on the moon if I jump
high enough. All
our righteousness is as filthy rags, the Scripture says.
What that means is that even our best acts fall woefully
short of that absolute perfection God demands of us.
If that’s the case then telling someone they can be
saved by their works isn’t Good News.
No, it’s the worst news of all.
But
that’s exactly the false message St. Paul reacted against so
harshly in his epistle to the Galatians – this damning
doctrine that our salvation is dependent, at least to some
degree, upon what we do. That’s
the damning doctrine Martin Luther challenged when he preached
that God receives us because He is good and gracious, and for
the sake of Jesus’ death on the Cross welcomes sinners into
His family. If God
saves us because of our works, then we’re in a heap of
trouble. Our works
don’t measure up to God’s exalted standards of
righteousness. Scripture
says that if we stumble over just one of the commandments,
we’ve broken all the commandments. That’s bad news for us!
However, if we’re saved by the righteous works of Jesus
Christ, that’s an entirely different matter.
That’s Gospel! That’s Good News!, that God freely
forgives, accepts, and welcomes sinners solely because of the
holy life and the innocent sufferings and death of His Son.
Is
it any wonder then that Paul warned the Galatians to accept no
other Gospel than the one he had preached to them?
Paul did so in the harshest language imaginable.
He said that if anyone – even an angel from heaven –
were to come to the Galatians preaching a Gospel contrary to
that which Paul and his associates preached, then let that
person be under God’s curse.
Now these days such language would be viewed as the
height of political incorrectness.
To speak harshly of another person’s sincerely held
religious beliefs – that’s a no-no.
But
Paul would say that we aren’t saved by our sincerity.
We can be sincerely wrong.
Adam and Eve were sincere when they listened to the
serpent and ate the fruit of the forbidden tree.
Esau was sincere when he sold his birthright for a bowl
of stew. Judas was
sincere when he betrayed our Lord for thirty pieces of silver.
The false apostles who came to the Galatians preaching a
different gospel were likewise sincere. But they were all sincerely mistaken, deserving of
condemnation, for their sincerity wasn’t anchored in a right
faith in God. Sincerity
does not save us. Jesus Christ alone saves us, forgives us,
makes us acceptable in God’s sight by His holy, precious blood
and His innocent suffering and death.
Faith
therefore looks to Jesus Christ alone and sees in Him all of
God’s mercy, righteousness, grace and salvation, freely
bestowed upon our fallen human race by a loving heavenly Father. Not Jesus Christ plus my good works. Not Jesus Christ plus anything I can do, add, or contribute,
be it my decision, my commitment, my dedication or
sanctification. God declared Abraham righteous before he had
done any works. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Abraham had faith in God. Faith is the empty hand
of a beggar stretched out to take hold of the largesse of a
king. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy Cross I cling.
The
Holy Spirit gave this faith to little Morgan Grace Moose this
morning when she was baptized.
Her sins were washed away and she was united to Christ,
her Savior. She was
made a new creation in Christ.
And it all happened by the grace of God.
Chris and Danyel, let her middle name always remind you
of God’s marvelous grace that welcomes us sinners for the sake
of Jesus Christ alone. Like the centurion in today’s Gospel
reading, you and I aren’t worthy to come to Jesus.
But because He has taken away the sins of the world by
His suffering and death on the Cross, He is not ashamed to come
to us.
This,
dear friends, is the Gospel of grace that St. Paul so ardently
defended in his epistle to the Galatians. This is the Gospel God’s servant Martin Luther proclaimed
and taught to reform the western Church nearly 500 years ago.
But what about today? Are
there different gospels abroad today that threaten to subvert
the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ and thereby draw us away from
the grace and mercy of God? Are there false preachers and teachers who set before us
another gospel that, ultimately, would leave us in our sins?
Yes,
there are numerous false gospels out there.
Francis Rossow, professor emeritus of our St. Louis
seminary, identifies one of these for us. It is the “indifferent gospel” of a secularized society,
which considers all religious beliefs as equal.
This indifferent gospel says that all belief systems are
equally viable – except, of course, orthodox Christianity
which exalts God’s Word as the final authority, and Jesus
Christ alone as the
one Mediator between God and Man. The
adherents of this indifferent gospel have no tolerance for the
Gospel of Jesus Christ because of its claim that in Christ alone
are we sinners reconciled to God.
Of course, the indifferent gospel says that sin doesn’t
really exist, and even though no one is perfect if they try
hard, god will accept them.
Who needs Jesus; just be sincere in what you believe, do
your best, and that’s good enough for the god of the
indifferent gospel.
Professor
Rossow says this way of thinking has even crept into the
Christian Church. How
many upstanding members of churches have come to believe that
there is no such thing as absolute truth, that tolerance of
other beliefs is more important than being convinced of the
truth of God’s Word? How
many church members think that because the times have changed,
God has therefore changed, and the demands of His Law have
changed – that God no longer takes His commandments seriously,
and has gotten beyond this rigid insistence that all who come to
Him must come through faith in His Son?
How many churches have forsaken the Gospel of Christ
crucified and resurrected, the call to repentance and faith, and
reliance upon the Means of Grace to convert and give new life to
sinners, in favor of an entertaining, non-offensive message that
tickles the ears and ultimately damns to hell?
What a tragedy! What
a travesty! What would St. Paul say?
That’s
the way it is when the Church tolerates a false gospel.
That’s the way it is when the Church adulterates the
pure Gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected, with
anything that compromises or contradicts that Gospel.
People die – eternally.
There is no other Gospel that saves except the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, who
gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil
age. We
sinners need the pure medicine of the Gospel, which is
administered to us in the preaching of the Word of God, in the
life-giving waters of Holy Baptism, in the pastor’s
absolution, and in the Lord’s Body and Blood given to us
sinners to eat and drink. You
and I need the strong medicine of the Gospel, and the Church is
the hospital where that medicine – Christ Himself – is
dispensed. Don’t
take a sugar pill when you need serious medicine.
And don’t settle for anything else than the pure,
life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ.
There is no other Gospel that saves.
In Nomine Patris. . .
