Part Four

Okay, I feel kind of bad for telling you all how awful you are in my last post. Some of you may think that I am being too harsh. So I want to take just a second to talk to you about my thoughts, and why thinking you are “okay” is a stumbling block on your eighteen inch journey.

Paul said in Galatians 5:2, “Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.” Why would he say that? And how in the world could anyone say that Christ would not be an advantage to you in any way ever? The answer is in why the people wanted circumcision.

Get circumcised.  What a weird thing for God to ask a grown man to do in order to become one of God’s people. I can imagine the talk of the camp on that day. In Genesis 17 God says, “Every male among you shall be circumcised.” Can you imagine being Abraham that day? Going back to the fellas you’re traveling with and saying, “Uh… guys… I have some bad news. . .” I mean why that? By all means, cut anything but that! So what is God getting at here? God wanted to remind the men of Israel every day that they were set apart, that they were different. And God wanted to do it in such a way that they would never forget. And they didn’t.

Fast forward a couple of thousand years to Paul’s day. No longer was circumcision only an identifying marker of being set apart. It had become a status symbol; a symbol of being an Israelite. But even more importantly it was a way the Israelites identified themselves as “saved”. It was believed unless you were circumcised you were not saved. It was believed, and this is important, what you do determines your standing with God. So Paul writes against this. Why? It seems like a pretty good idea. God said do it, let’s do it. If circumcision is part of being a “Christian”, whatever that means, then let’s get to cutting! But Paul says if the Galatians take the circumcision, Christ is of no use to them.

Like the Israelites then, Christians today still debate this, Faith+ ______= salvation. And what people put into that “blank” matters. Is it faith + works? James alludes to that. Is it Faith + baptism? Faith + church attendance? Faith + not watching rated R movies? What is it? This matters! If we are to add something to our faith then we need to know what that is so that we can do “That”.

There is no “That”. Paul’s point is precisely that there is no “That”. Follow me.

If there is a “that”, then we rob the cross of Christ of its power. If we are somehow saying that something in us is good enough, then we are saying Jesus + our good stuff = our salvation. “What is the problem with that?” some may ask. LOTS.  First, the obvious, where is the line? What I mean is how do we measure (Robbing Andy Stanley) “How good is good enough?” And even if we have a standard of how good good enough is what if we can’t maintain good enough? How many good works in a week make me good enough? How many times a year should I go to church to be good enough? How many times a day should I pray, read my bible, repent of my sins. . .That’s the first problem. The second is more complex.

I have a confession. I like to do just enough to get by. I know, I know. . . it’s not a very good trait to have, and I fight against it all the time. It just seems to be a waste of time to me to keep going once you have achieved the purpose. If my goal is to vacuum the floor then once that is done why do more? Why move the furniture? If my goal is to write a paper and the requirement is 15 pages you can bet I will not write 16. Like I said, not a good trait, but one I have nonetheless.

BUT, (I capitalize for emphasis) if it’s something I like, or see value in I am ALL IN. Not only will I maintain the standard, I will go above and beyond. If you remember part two where I shared about my CrossFit journey you will remember an example of this. In the name of getting better at CrossFit I would do two workouts a day. Measure my food. Eat only the best foods I could find, even if it meant not eating at certain events until after I left. I saw the value in CrossFit, so I went far beyond what it took to just be healthy.

Another example would be marriage.  Do you want your spouse to do just enough to get by or do you want him/her to be “all in”.  I know what I prefer!  I’m so glad when my wife married me she went past just the standard. What I mean is she went past “I do” into something more significant. She went to dedication no matter what, because that is love.

So let us apply all that. God does not want your “goodness” to be a part of salvation because first of all you are not good. Paul says, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” There is nothing that you can do fleshly, that is good. Some may argue, “I do good things all the time!” I reply to that, why do you do them? To feel better about yourself? To combat karma? To be better than the other guy? So is that “good”? In short God does not want our good works to be based on getting out of hell. “I better do this if I want to avoid bad things in my life.”  Our good works are not a part of your salvation but they do come from your salvation. (I will come to good works next post, don’t freak out. I believe that Christians above all should be doing good works, just not motivated from merit but motivated by demerit. I will explain further next post.)

Second of all, and I think more importantly, God wants all of us to not just do enough to get by. Christians have always been notorious for wanting the “thing”: rules, boundaries, “that”, whatever you want to call it.  That is why we love books that give us, “Five ways to a better marriage”, “Six ways to financial freedom.”  Show me where the “line is” and I will get there. We want to get a close to that “line” without going over it. We want to know how close we can get to sin without actually sinning. We love three point sermons with plenty of application because we want to know what to do to get God on our side. God does not want to be “on our side; He wants to consume our lives. He wants to be our everything.

Finally if you point to your goodness, you end up comparing yourself to everyone else. Look at the Pharisee and the tax collector parable. “I thank you God that I am not like this tax collector.” In other words I may have some bad things but at least I am not like him. Is that godly? Does that bring glory and honor to our God? No. It does not. It serves increase our pride and hurt our fellow humans. And really, the standard of goodness is not those around you but God Himself.  It’s relatively easy to find someone to compare ourselves to who will make us feel better about ourselves.  But who wants to compare themselves with Jesus?  Anyone?  Anyone?

So back to the original Scripture, “Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.” Paul is saying, “You are not setting your goal high enough.” Paul is saying, “If you accept circumcision you are going to miss Christ.” If we depend on “that”, you fill in the blank, and it is anything but Christ, then we miss Jesus and all that he has for us. Paul knew, just like I know, if we “settle” for the outward signs of Christianity, we will miss the inward transformation that Christ has for us.

Please feel free to comment to these posts so I can clear up anything you may have questions about. Thanks.