This short book of six chapters is mighty to the pulling down of the strongholds of the self-righteous and is the Magna Carta of Christian liberty. Our nature is so bent on justifying ourselves with our own works that even though I teach the truth faithfully and praise it mightily, I still fight with this beast daily. Even this morning as I planned on making a beginning of writing this introduction to this excellent treatise against works-righteousness, I was sorely tempted to put it off until I had cleansed myself of becoming angry moments before I was to begin typing. Our bent toward wanting to get well before we go to the Physician is mighty indeed!

Paul had visited Galatia and had established a church there, only to leave and find out a short time thereafter that they had fallen from the faith; they had been led away from the truth of Christ to a false view of Christ by false teachers who taught them they had to ALSO do the works of the Law to prove they were Christians. Paul said (1:6), "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from (deserting) Him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel." I beg you to understand, lest your souls should ever desert the One True God, that it is EASY to defect from Christ and that Satan, that angel of light, will provide you with another gospel to ease your conscience and to pacify your reason; there is another gospel and its teachers take millions to hell with them because they can make this other gospel shine so brightly before the masses. Why is this? Because "another gospel" appeals to the flesh and reason of man; it encourages a man to work, measure up, strive, contend, and conquer in the name of the Lord. Flesh and reason don't want to be as weak, helpless, impotent and as uninvolved in their salvation as God ordains.

I Corinthians 10:12 declares, "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." Ephesians 6:12 states that our "struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places." Do you really believe your will, your decisions, your good intentions, your desires toward godliness and your lists of dos and don'ts are any match whatsoever against Satan and his mighty kingdom? Do you not see that Satan leads most people to hell on a road paved with good works, good intentions, good desires, good lists? Tell me, have you ever heard of any religion who advocated to its followers to get up in the morning and be as bad a person as possible? Is there a group of people anywhere in the world that does not try to be better all the time? Do you believe that just adding the name "Christ" to this tendency and calling it the "Gospel" makes one a true disciple of Christ?

Reason, the devil's whore, is most uncomfortable with the true righteousness which comes truly from Heaven because this heavenly righteousness is PASSIVE and reason is deeply offended by passivity; reason wants to do; it wants to be involved; reason wants to bring glory to man. But Paul in this blessed book of Galatians teaches us that it is a miracle for a Christian to ignore the Law and live before God as if there were no law. While a true Christian declares that Christ is the Author and Finisher of faith, reason brags about free will, our powers and our works. Reason loves the Law because doing and not doing makes sense to reason, while receiving something for not only nothing, but even less than nothing does not make sense and offends the human spirit. Reason argues, "If I am so indebted to God because of my sin, I must do something to atone." This is nothing less than creating "another gospel" for itself.

In the whole spiritual world there are only two forces at work: there is Law and there is Gospel. Second Timothy 2:15 says, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately (rightly dividing) the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness." The main, and essentially ONLY division of Scripture is Law and Gospel. A person handles the Word deceitfully—divides improperly—when he or she changes the Gospel into another list of dos and don'ts, assuming the Gospel is something one can do, decide to do, will to do. The Jews, who were so terrified of the whole scene of God giving the Law, that they begged Moses to protect and shelter them from it. Still they foolishly declared to Moses, "All the Lord says we will do." Yet their entire history teaches nothing other than how they FAILED to do what they promised. If the Jews could not keep the Law after seeing such inspiring events and being led by such a godly and meek man, how can ANYONE believe that it is within our nature to keep the law, any promise to God? Can you not see how disrespectful it is to God—pure blasphemy—for us to turn what is supposed to be "good news" into another list of dos and don'ts? Can you not see how determined our nature is to raise itself up on its haunches? Please tell me, where is the good news of the Gospel if I must work to measure up? This is nothing but bad news, not to mention the blasphemy of turning Christ into a second Moses! Paul has the honor of Christ foremost in his mind, but he also knows and understands that only grace—the Gospel—brings true peace to the conscience.

Reason strives to have a good conscience by doing good—living in accordance with one's standards. But any honest person must admit that this "good conscience" is only temporary—it lasts only for awhile and must be continuously maintained by additional doing and striving. Paul is trying to teach the Galatians that the only way to have Christ is to have Him in one's conscience; that is, the ONLY thing that belongs in the conscience is Christ, NOTHING else—certainly not laws, expectations shoulds and mustn'ts. Paul told the Galatians that Christ "gave Himself for our sins." If Christ gave Himself for the removal for our sins then where is the good news that we have to measure up, strive, do this and don't do that to be a Christian or to be a good Christian? You must be very careful not to follow your nature and your reason in this matter of salvation because it is very easy to get hooked into another gospel, which is nothing but doctrine of demons. You must accept the fact that it is impossible for you not to look at YOUR work instead of looking ONLY to Christ and His work. And the fact that some will take this "easiness" as an excuse to live any way they desire does not make the truth wrong: it is just another way Satan has of deluding some, for Satan has many devices and as Solomon states, "God made man pure but man seeks out many devices."

Paul tells us in Romans 7:14 that we are "sold under sin," and Isaiah 53 :6 teaches us that God has laid on Christ our iniquity. Paul is driving home the truth of these verses to the Galatians that there is NOTHING we can do to aid our salvation one iota. Paul is repudiating the human tendency to want to be pure and sinless before approaching God and to approach God as a counterfeit sinner, that is, one who really has no real sense of sin. Sure, they admit some sin, but relatively few and will certainly not allow another to point out others. They make for themselves a neat little list of dos and don'ts and feel pretty good about themselves so long as they fulfill their list. But to see real sin, to feel real sin is beyond them. They have no idea of what Isaiah meant when he said "all our righteousness is as filthy rags." They don't have a clue that their so-called love for God, honor for Christ, zeal for the Word is a sham and self-serving and pure rebellion against God's way of laying our iniquity on Christ.

You must be on your guard NEVER to believe you even begin to fulfill and obey the Law of God; the only way the Law of God is fulfilled in you is through Christ, as Paul states in verse 4, "according to the will of God our Father." John 1:13 makes it plain that we are not born of God by the will of man; no man can ever make a decision for Christ, rather, the Spirit draws us through means—the Word connected to water, bread and wine. But this so offends reason that God would use something so lowly and seemingly insignificant, beneath God and certainly beneath us to bring us into His kingdom. But what is foolishness with man is the great wisdom of God; can you think of a more effective way for God to continually remind us of our impotence, ineffectiveness and helplessness than by the continual humility it takes to submit to simply believing the truth about Baptism and the Lord's Supper?
Paul states that "they pervert the Gospel and trouble you" (1:7). False teachers were teaching the Galatians that works must be added to faith; in this case they were teaching them that they must be circumcised. It seems so trivial to the human mind to affirm works, but it is pure blasphemy to seek to add works to salvation, simply because it is not what God wants, but reason sees no way to extricate itself from sin other than by works. Paul is so zealous about this matter that he twice within two verses says that "if even an angel comes to you with any other doctrine, let him be ACCURSED." Paul is absolutely zealous to teach and affirm that the Christian is totally FREE in Christ, and that the Christian conscience must be maintained by ONLY FAITH, but again, it goes against human nature to simply look to Christ and turn its gaze from works.

Paul explains to them (v. 10) that the false teachers were seeking their favor, but Paul was not; the false teachers were seeking favor by bringing to them a message that resonated with their nature—WORKS! But Paul was seeking only the favor of God and that he would not be God's servant if he added works to the message of faith. Paul was trying to get them to understand that the false teachers hated him for condemning their works and worship. John sheds light on this dynamic by saying (John 3:19) that "men love darkness rather than light." You must believe the Word and live in fear of your nature, always believing that your nature always is prone to revert to loving error rather than the truth of God; I beg you not to become complacent in this matter.

Of course human nature is often fooled by zeal; if someone comes along who is sincere and zealous in what they believe, people are more prone to follow them. But Paul uses his former zeal as a Jew as proof that zeal is not the acid test of faith because he was "more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions" (1:14). In fact, Paul uses the fact that God had "set me apart, even from my mother's womb" (1:15). Do you hear this. BEFORE Paul had done any works whatsoever, either good or bad, God set Paul apart to reveal Christ in him. GOD CHOOSE PAUL BEFORE HE WAS BORN, knowing not only that Paul would do great evil, but also do great and eternal good. Paul's being chosen by God was not based on Paul's works and deserving, but on the choice of God. In the same way God has chosen you, through Baptism, so long as you trust His promise in Baptism and not your own works, zeal, decisions, good intentions, and efforts to have a good conscience based on what you do and what you leave undone. SALVATION IS OF THE LORD.

In chapter two, verse 4, Paul points out the burr under the saddle of the false teachers; "false brethren came to spy out our liberty." It may sound insane but man hates liberty; man wants to be in bondage to something other than God; man truly believes he can measure up to Law; human nature feels better about itself when it has pulled itself up by its own bootstraps. But Paul said that he did not give into the bondage of these false teachers for "even an hour." Paul simply would not allow the heretics to add works and merit to salvation. Keep in mind that while Catholics openly add the merit of works to salvation, Protestants do this far more craftily; they do it by separating salvation into two parts, salvation and sanctification. They are saved by faith but they must do much to help the Spirit in the process of sanctification—they must always be working to become better, more holy, more disciplined, more zealous, more submissive, more humble, and act more like Christ. They simply cannot allow true, simple faith to work itself in them as God ordains; they must have faith in accordance with their own opinions; faith must work itself out in them the way they see fit. Consequently their consciences are full of works, they have no enduring peace of conscience and they have fallen from Christ. They just refuse to believe that reason has the Law as its object instead of Christ: "This I have done' this I have not done." Faith has only Christ as its object: "What has Christ done?"

Another argument Paul uses to try to bring back the Galatians who had so soon fallen from Christ is the fact that God shows no partiality. God does not look at the honor, the saintliness or the authority of man; rather, as in the case of Saul and David, God made it plain that God looks on the heart and sees which heart has true faith embedded within. This seems so cruel for God to reject the outstanding appearances of Ishmael, Esau, Judas and Saul, but only the spiritual man sees the Divine Mask. God hides Himself behind weakness and behind the things that the world does not value.

In 2:12 Paul explains why Peter fell after the pinnacle of Pentecost—"he feared the circumcision party." By nature no one wants to stand alone, to resist those of high standing, to confront those of high degree. But Peter, who one might think would never again want to deny Christ AGAIN, did just that and Paul "withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed." Peter was injecting scruples into their conscience where ONLY FAITH must be if one is to remain with Christ. And this instance was about eating meat, something far below the Jewish importance of circumcision. There is no way of knowing how many teachers deny Christ simply because they are afraid of the leaders of their party; they do not want to be "without the camp." But Paul asks the probing question, "Do I seek to please man or God?" Paul was content with the dimness of faith (I Cor. 13:12) but human reason wants an obvious, outstanding and vibrant faith which they manufacture by doing and leaving undone.

Paul also accuses the false teachers of not being "straightforward about the truth of the Gospel." My father has often talked about the way preachers in his background would speak out of both sides of their mouths. They say "faith, faith," but then they add, "do this, do that." It left him searching for the true and proper way to please the Lord until he finally almost gave up altogether in despair; in fact, their teaching almost killed him. They taught him that he had true faith but that he also had to measure up. This is what Paul means here when he says that they had the Gospel without the truth of the Gospel. Paul is saying nothing more than Christ said, "Many will come in my name." Please don't wait for a false teacher to say, "I am not preaching to you the whole truth, but my version, my opinion of the Gospel." NO! They only say they have the Gospel, but Paul teaches us that they only have their version of the Gospel-a pretense. They have no understanding of how much spiritual peril and misery they cause when they add faith to works. They don't want to do what is right and proper, that is, to separate the Law from the Gospel by an eternity; to separate works from faith as far as the East is from the West. They don't want to understand that the Gospel is a rare experiential guest in the conscience but that the Law is a constant companion. It is one thing to say one has true faith in the conscience and quite another to truly experience its simple peace and quietness.
Paul explained how Peter "compelled" them; this is a wonderful word that fits false teachers. False teachers ALWAYS compel. O, they may do it in a soft-sell fashion, but the compunction is there—always there. They always have a code you must live up to to prove you have true faith; there is always some work, some list, some expectation. They don't have a clue to what Paul meant when he said in IICor. 11:2: "I betrothed you to one husband." Who is this one husband? Christ. What is the vehicle for betrothment? FAITH.

Chapter two, verse 16, Paul comes out with it and exclaims, "A man is not justified by the works of the Law." Justification is a right standing with God and justification includes the whole process of sanctification—one cannot split salvation up into parts; salvation is an indivisible whole, all of which is of the Lord. But reason is always working to find someway to give human nature credit and an avenue to do what its will is already set out to do—bring glory to itself rather than to God. And you must NEVER think you are immune from this great evil within your nature. Surely you are aware of such thoughts as these: "I can run my life without God"; "Why has God been so cruel to me?"; "How do I know there really is a God?" Human nature just does not like the fact that God is unimpressed with all its works, its best-looking religion and worship; this is just too much crow for our nature to eat. Look at all the good works Paul did, yet he proclaimed in I. Cor. 4:14, "No man can accuse me, but I am not thereby justified." Paul was not about to give his works any credit whatsoever. Why? Because he understood that a Christian only looks to Christ and desires his works to go unnoticed. A Christian follows the advice of Christ, "Let not your right hand know what your left hand is doing."

False teachers and their followers are all around you, they surround you just as they surrounded Noah before the Flood; and they will resist you and try to convert you just as they resisted Noah and tried to convert him to their false religion, all of whom you must resist steadfast in the faith, not your works. You must admit and confess that you do not like what the Law is trying to prove, that you are an evil tree; the Law was given not for you to use to impress yourself that you measure up to it, but to show you how short you fall from even beginning to measure up to God's standard of holiness. The Law is trying to convince you that your whole nature is bent on craving other gods, things to worship instead of the true God. The Law was given so that you might come to know yourself in truth and honesty, mourn your status and turn only to Christ; the Law was given to make us thirsty for Christ, not to make us feel good about ourselves. Why do you think Christ said, "Whoever lusts after a woman is guilty of adultery and whoever is angry with his brother is guilty of murder?" Christ was trying to show the self-righteous Jews how miserable they were even though they went to extraordinary efforts to keep the Law according to outward appearance. For this reason Christ called them whited graves; they made a good show according to the flesh, but just look inside the way Christ can and then you see their filthiness. And there is one way for you to know of your filthiness: Do you emphasize works? Are you focused on works? Are you addicted to doing good? If you do, or if you ever focus on your works, you can be assured you are smug, self-righteous and are robbing God of His glory. And further, you are deceiving yourself into thinking you are not as great a sinner as truly you are; you don't have the courage to see the depth of your sin because you don't have the courage of faith—true faith. Many will come in His name someday and say, "Lord, Lord, did we not do this and that?" but Christ will say to them, "Depart from me you workers of iniquity." Just adding the words "faith" and "Lord" to your works and private opinions about how to serve God will never make you acceptable to Christ. These hypocrites work and toil, but they work and toil in this life only to earn hell in the next. Their toil betrays them because Christ was quite clear when He said, "My yoke is easy and My burden is light." These are words the self-righteous will never understand because giving up their works for true faith just does not make sense to their reason and humiliates their nature too much.

Paul, in v. 16B states that we are "justified by faith, not by works, for works shall justify no flesh." John 3:6 states that "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." This means that EVERYTHING we come into this world with is flesh and Christ made it clear that the "flesh profits NOTHING." (Of course, this is a favorite verse of the heretics to discount the true flesh and blood in the bread and wine of communion because Christ said the flesh profits nothing; but Christ did not say His Flesh profits nothing—He was speaking of the flesh of man.) The very best in man is as dung in the sight of God; God is not impressed with our desire to worship Him if it is not the way He has ordained we should worship Him; God is not impressed with our desire to do good if it is for our honor and glory instead of His; God is not impressed with our love if it goes against His Word; God is not impressed with our will, good decisions and courage if it is opposed to His will and way; in short, God just is not impressed with even the very best in man because man can only use this "best" for ungodly purposes. And just adding the words "faith and Christian" to these best things in man does not mean you are a Christian; it only means you don't understand that you are an evil tree through and through and seek your own glory.

The great Job, that patient patriarch, said, "I feared for all my works!" Do you hear Job, one of the greatest saints in Scripture? He did not say, "I am afraid of forsaking God when I get angry, impatient, and resentful," but he said, "I FEAR FOR ALL MY WORKS." Job was most afraid when he did good because he knew his nature; he knew himself; he knew that he was most prone to forget God in the midst of doing much good, being impressed by it, blinded by it, and taken away from God by all his good works. He understood what happened in the garden, how Satan appealed to not only the baser appetites of Eve, not only the pleasantness of seeing, but ALSO AND MOSTLY the desire to be wise. Oh how we want to be wise apart from the wisdom of God. John 3:15 analyzes the garden scene and condenses it this way: "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of God but is of the devil." Do you see how tricky Satan is? Look how many people he gets to make a list of dos and don'ts or make them think they follow the List of the Big Ten, and blinds their eyes to spiritual pride—"the pride of life." They go through life being either secretly or openly proud of all the things they don't do, but miss the eternal pit of sin underneath the surface. They are nothing more than painted graves. Paul puts it this way in Romans 1:25, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator."

Paul keeps hammering at the Galatians: "But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then an agent/minister of sin? May it never be!" Paul is saying that either Christ takes care of sin and the Law or He doesn't; if Christ is just teaching us that we are sinners and sending us back to the Law then Christ is nothing more than an agent of sin; He is ineffective in dealing with sin. Either we are justified by Christ or we are not justified by the Law. False teachers turn everything around; they turn Christ into Moses and Law into Grace. It is important for them to delude themselves into thinking that when the Bible makes statements such as, "Do this and you shall live" (Luke 10:28), and "If you would enter life, keep the Commandments," that they can actually DO this; they don't see that verses like this are a taunt against our nature; NO! they are just like the Jews who boldly proclaim, "All that the Lord says we will do." Right. But the fact is, they can never do enough; there is always more to do; the ladder grows higher and higher; the expectations grow and grow until despair sets in. Of course, there are always a few who have a stiff upper lip and natural courage and strength who seem not to tire and despair of all the regulations and legalism, but be assured, if they would reveal the truth of their insides, they live in a quiet despair. If they were honest they would admit that they live in fear and are afraid of a "rustling leaf" (Lev. 26:36).

In 2:18 Paul tries to show them how ridiculous he would be if he rebuilt what he had destroyed; he was trying to convince them that he would be a faithless minister of the Word if he preached grace and freedom to them through Christ alone, and then turned around and demanded works from them. In fact, he becomes quite bold and calls grace a Law, for those who really need Law—grace is the only Law Paul knew: "I through the Law (of grace) died to the Law (of Moses)." Unless you are dead to the Law you do not live to God. The Christian conscience must be dead to the Law, that is, free from the Law, and must have no business with it. Therefore when you are terrified or saddened by a consciousness of sin, you must say, "I am not distinguishing properly. Into my conscience I am putting Law, which belongs in the flesh. Wake up, get up, and remember that you believe in Christ, the Victor over the Law and sin. With this faith you will transcend the Law and enter into grace, where there is neither Law nor sin. And although the Law and sin still exist, they have nothing to do with me." Of course, this is easy enough to say, but most difficult to do—spurning the Law and sin: "Law, what is to me if you make me guilty and convict me of having committed many sins? In fact, I am still committing many sins every day. This does not affect me; I am deaf and do not hear you. But if you really want to argue with me about sins, then go over to my flesh and my limbs, which are my servants. Teach them; discipline and crucify them. But do not trouble my conscience, which is lord and king; for I have nothing to do with you. For I am dead to you; I now live to Christ, where I am under another Law, namely, the Law of grace, which rules over sin and the Law." False believers cannot do this but are addicted to willing to do and be better; they must have an active faith.

Paul goes on to explain that he is "crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I." I beg you to NEVER assume you are crucified with Christ just because you call yourself a Christian, UNLESS you truly allow Christ to do EVERYTHING ALONE. Dad often talks about his cows and how they are so similar to humans in that they are so interested in anything new and different. We get so bored with what we see; how bored do you think we become with faith which we cannot see? We walk by faith, not by sight. At times when you feel least like a Christian, when you feel the least spiritual movement within you, when you feel like the heavens are brass and God does not hear your prayer, at these times you MUST understand and believe that you have a whole other life, hid with Christ—BY FAITH. During these times you must not look for some work to do, some flexing of your will, or your own opinion of what it means to walk by faith and be crucified with Christ. NO! These are times for total relaxation—times for you to HEAR—"This is My body; this is My blood, given to you for the forgiveness of sins." Do this and you are totally alive and well in Christ and you shall reign with Him forever. Turn to your own devices and wisdom and you shall live apart from Him forever no matter how much you protest that you are crucified with Him and walk by faith with Him.

Paul withdraws us completely from ourselves and our works; we are only truly alive with Christ when we are truly dead and liberated from the Law. Only Christ is your form, by faith, as light adorns a wall. If you divide Christ's person from your own you divorce yourself completely from Christ. A person who is not a Christian, truly, is just not comfortable with Christ, the Light, merely adorning us, but wants this "light" (which is actually their darkness) to permeate them through and through in such a way that makes sense to them. They just do not understand true Christian freedom and so either with their life or their words they slander true faith and freedom as Romans 3:8 reports: "And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say), 'Let us do evil that good may come?' Their condemnation is just." You see, false christians malign faith and the Word because being truly crucified with Christ and truly walking by faith just does not make sense to them and so they slander God's way, which, to them, just does not give the flesh—the will, mind and wisdom of man —enough credit and things to do and figure out.

Paul is speaking in great paradoxes here; he has a life; he doesn't have a life. He means to say that his life in the flesh, which seems so real and vibrant and which shall be completely done away with, is just and nothing more than a mask of his true and new spiritual life, which to the flesh seems so far away and insignificant—meaningless. Nevertheless this is his true life with which he, by faith, sees as true and eternal life, even though it is just the "firstfruits" of what his eternal life will be. I urge you, I implore you and I beg you with all my heart to be comfortable with these firstfruits of the Spirit. Firstfruits equal less than one percent of the harvest; they are what the people gave when the crops just began to come in and they were given before the tithe, which is ten percent of the harvest. Do not be a false christian and want, crave, and demand more than what the Spirit wants to give you—a very small portion of apparent deliverance from sin. When you demand and crave more than this small portion, invariably you will do just as the Galatians did and put yourself back under the Law, commandments, expectations, shoulds, musts, shouldn''s and mustn'ts. Why? Because these things draw attention back to the self and give the self a feeling of movement and something to boast about—but not before God, because when you do this you "nullify the grace of God" according to Paul (2:21).

"O FOOLISH GALATIANS," Paul chides with them. I hope and pray I never have to so chide you, but if I ever do I promise, so help me God, that it will come from the same spiritual zeal Paul had—a zeal striving for improvement and not setting his own mind at rest and a taking of revenge for being disappointed. He asks the Galatians, "Who has bewitched you" (3:1)? Paul is shifting the blame a little from them to the false teachers; this is why we pray in the Lord's Prayer not to be led into temptation. Satan is so marvelous in transforming himself into an angel of light whereby he truly tricks people into thinking he is very God of very God. And by what means were they bewitched? Simply by not believing the simple true of God that God has His own means of communicating grace to the individual and this means just is not by works. Romans 10:3 states that they "do not submit to God's righteousness." Again, God's way just does not make sense to them.

Reason is offended by such simple HEARING. Paul asks them, "Did you receive the Spirit through works or through the hearing of faith"? (3:2) Faith comes by HEARING, but true spiritual HEARING and LISTENING seems too trivial to the mind of man and too insulting to the will of man. Christ praised Mary because she sat listening to Him while Martha was up and around doing many things: "Thou art anxious over many things, Martha." Paul explains to them how foolish it is to begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh. In the same way, it is foolish to say one is saved by faith alone and then set about to concentrate on works. Do you really believe the Spirit needs your help? Have you not heard the Word: Abraham BELIEVED and this simple belief, this hearing, made him righteous before God—made him God's friend? Abraham looked past the weakness of his own flesh and that of his wife's and believed that God would do what He said—give him a child. In the same manner, we look past our weakness of faith and simply believe that God, through Christ, communicates to us grace, salvation, and sinlessness through attaching the Word to water, bread, and wine.

Whenever God proposes faith—check it out yourself—He always proposes things that are simply impossible and absurd to reason. When I give you communion this morning some or all of you will have thoughts such as, "How can this insignificant act grant me grace and eternal life? I am so unworthy, how can God expect me to make up for my unworthiness by such a simple act?" True, these are blasphemous thoughts, but remember that we have only the firstfruits of the Spirit; there are times when God's way, because of the weakness of our flesh, just does not make sense to our reason. Confess this as sin and eat in faith for God cannot lie and deceive us no matter how much our flesh resists. Do not stand in judgment on God's Word, but LISTEN. Look at what a fine and godly man Job was and even he was not brought to a place of true listening until he had been pummeled for forty chapters, then he said, "I thought I knew you, Lord, but I really didn't." Understand you are a living paradox; you are saint and sinner, but it feels like you are mostly sinner because God does not want to reveal the true depth of your saintliness, YET. NOW, he wants you to walk by true and genuine faith simply believing His Word and slaughtering your reason.

This slaughtering of reason, this renewing of one's mind according to the Word (of course, most so-called christians want to renew their mind by placing their reasonings and presuppositions onto the Word—their mind has not been renewed by the Spirit, but the Word has been reshaped according to their understanding. This is nothing else than fashioning an idol for themselves) is true Christian humility. You really and truly feel that there is sin in you and that on this account you are worthy of wrath, the judgment of God, and eternal death. Thus you are humbled in this life. Yet at the same time you remain in a pure and holy pride, by which you turn to Christ. Through Him you strengthen yourself against this feeling of divine wrath and judgment; and you believe that you are loved by the Father, not for your own sake but for the sake of Christ, your Beloved.

Again, Paul picks up his hammer against the false teachers: "All who rely on works of the Law are under a curse" (3:10). Surely you understand how much your very nature craves a works-righteousness: You do this or that and you get a star on your paper, a paycheck, or praise. But salvation is other-worldly and the principles of this world do not apply to those of the next world, no matter how much we try to force them. Salvation is a package deal and it is ALL of the Lord; salvation is of the Lord. Do you hear what Paul says? If you rely on the Law and its works for any part of your salvation, you are under a curse! Brian, if you ever return to the pagan ways of the Catholic Church believing you can earn your salvation via your works, you will have denied Christ and are under a curse, no matter how good and right you feel. If I, your pastor, ever return to the ways of my father and think that God is pleased with me or if I believe I am a better Christian because of the things I do or don't do, I have denied Christ and am under a curse no matter how much sense this makes to my reason and nature. This is what Christ meant when he said that "many take heaven by force (Matt. 11:12).

Elsewhere Paul tells us that we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. What is Satan's chief device? WORKS. Satan uses our nature and our repulsion at passivity to turn us away from Christ. Satan does not care if the whole world calls themselves followers of Christ, just so long as they really are not; that is, just so long as they think they must take an ACTIVE role in their salvation, rather than being PASSIVE. Satan does not want us to truly consider the "wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory, the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood" (I Cor. 2:7). Satan does not even care if great sermons are preached on verses like I Samuel 17:37: "And David said, 'The lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine (Goliath).'" Please don't EVER take any credit for anything in your life, much less your salvation. Do you believe these are idle words of David, is he putting on a false front of piety and humility? Or is he saying, believing, and living, SALVATION IS OF THE LORD.

Chapter three and verse eleven states, "The righteous shall live by faith." Again, these are not idle words, but must be properly reflected upon and dealt with honestly. What does it mean to live? What is life? Here is how I answer these questions. What animates you? What sustains you—makes you get out of bed in the morning? What do you thrive on? What energizes you, excites you? Or we could ask, "What is dislife?" What discourages you? What depresses you? What makes you wish you were never born? What saps your strength? Are not all people "alive" through their desire to experience what this world has to offer; what they want to accomplish; what they will; what they plan; what they want to achieve; what they want to obtain; what they want to feel; what they want to live for?

But Paul states that the Christian, the one who is righteous, lives ONLY by faith. So, is it fair just to attach words such as "faith" and "salvation" to basic human dynamics? Of course not! A Christian is one who is dead to not only this whole world structure but also to the very life dynamic within him. But this Christian does not fret that God still uses this life-force within him and does not completely deliver him from it, but this Christian constantly and regularly dies to this world daily within his heart. That is, he does not allow basic human dynamics to sustain him, energize him, control him. And what does it mean to walk by faith for the last 2,000 years? It means to look back at what Christ left us, His last will and testament-His body and blood in communion. We look back on this by faith that it is the true forgiveness of sins just as He said it was, much as the Old Testament saints looked forward to His coming and offered sacrifices to confirm their faith; we receive what Christ came to give us in the way He came to give It—the forgiveness of sins through the simple eating and drinking communion in faith.

Now Paul answers a question: "Why the Law?" (3:19) His simple answer: TRANSGRESSIONS. The purpose of the Law is to prove to us our inability in measuring up—not to make us feel good about ourselves. Jeremiah 23:29 declares, "Is not My word like fire? Declares the Lord, and like a hammer which shatters a rock?" Do you hear what God is saying? Our nature is rock-hard, so hard that even God's Word, a mighty hammer, seldom succeeds in crushing our nature. In Romans 7:13 Paul states that "through the commandment (Law) sin might become utterly sinful." LISTEN! The Law was not given to you to make you feel good about yourself and for you to deceive yourself into thinking you are in any way good just because you don't openly worship idols, murder and steal. The Law was given so that you would come to know that you DO DO these things in your heart, and if you don't believe this you are WORSE than those who do these things openly. Why? Because people who do these things openly readily admit their sinfulness and are easier to reach with the truth of the Gospel. This is what Christ meant when he said he did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

In 3:21 Paul says that "If a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would have come through the law." But this is not possible; thus Paul states in verse 22, "The Scripture consigned all things to sin so what was promised to faith in Christ might be GIVEN to those who believe." "ALL THINGS" Paul exclaims, are consigned to sin. Does this include your will? Your good intentions? Your warm feelings toward God? YES. And it especially includes the things you don't want to admit, but secretly live, that is, your desire to be praised, to have people say of you, "THERE HE IS!" "THERE SHE IS." "Look at them, are they not wonderful people who love God! If only I could be like them!"

Paul reminds them of their baptism into Christ: "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ" (3:27). But for hypocrites baptism just isn't showy enough, doesn't give enough credit to the individual—they want to brag about believing and valuing God's Word while at the very same time they ignore God's Word, God's plain Word, as Paul attests here, it is the simple act of being baptized, in faith, that places a person into Christ, and not any other work, decision, desire or intention. Paul calls this baptism a "washing of regeneration" (Titus 3:5). But because men of perverse and rebellious minds cannot see this washing and renewing take place and cannot imagine that God could grant something so great and precious as salvation without their merit and striving, they reject God's way out of hand. They don't stop to consider that God brought their physical bodies into this world without their help; He can also bring them into the spiritual beings into the next world without their help. Instead of simple believing God's Word, even though it does not make sense to human reason, they instead sear their conscience by replacing what God desires with things they want and desire. Like a branding iron searing the hide of a cow, burning the hide and leaving an imprint, so they burn out the Word of God in their conscience and leave their own brand of will-worship.

Paul continues to explain what happens when a person rejects the simple plan of God in baptism in 4:3: "So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world." What are the elemental things of this world? EVERYTHING WE ARE BORN WITH—including that which we esteem to be the best within us. Paul says that true sons of faith are not slaves to their laws, rules, and decisions for God, but simply cry out to God through the Spirit, "ABBA! FATHER!" (4:6). But the unspiritual man does not understand this (I Cor. 2:14) because he is spiritually challenged—undiscerning. Oh they think they know God's economy quite well, but they are blind leaders of the blind. I implore you to never fall into their trap of works, decisions, good intentions, and thinking your love and devotion are special. They emphasize their decision for Christ, their love and passion for God, while Paul says (4:9), "But now that you have come to know God, or RATHER to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?" I beg you to hear Paul well: anytime you reject baptism you secretly and in your actions will emphasize your movement to God and will be drawn away from God into laws and works no matter how much you believe, sincerely believe, you are making movement toward God with your acts of devotion and worship. ANYTIME you emphasize salvation as ACTIVE RATHER THAN PASSIVE, you have proven you never had the true Christ in your heart. I would be heartsick if this ever happened to any of you, not only because I want you to have the true Christ, but because you become double martyrs—you lose Christ in eternity and you not only lose Him now but also have a miserable existence. Why? Because you can NEVER DO enough works, keep enough laws, and worship God enough to have true peace in your conscience. There will ALWAYS be one more work to do, one more thing you should have done, one more guilt trip to take. If this would ever happen to you I would declare to you, "I am afraid I have labored over you in vain!" (4:11)

Paul reminds them that they would have plucked out their eyes for him (4:15) when he first preached to them the Gospel. He then asks them, "Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?" (4:16) Very few preach the pure and holy Gospel because there are very few who have the Spirit-courage to withstand the insults of men when you tell the truth. Be objective and honest, study the Word just a little, and you will find that the bulk of mankind, including the religious crowd, reject the Word and its Proclaimers, simply because It and They preach, "Your holiness means nothing; what is in you is purely perverse and needs total transformation; God does not need your works and self-righteousness." This is what Paul told the Galatians, and this is what they believed until false teachers came in and said, "Paul does not give you enough credit; there are things you can do in this matter of salvation; in fact, there are things you must do." This message appeals to the flesh/reason of man; and so the Galatians returned to the refuse of works like a sow wallows in the mud after a bath and a dog licks up its own vomit.

In the tradition of the Word, of Christ and of Paul, I am telling you in no uncertain terms that what is in you is pure refuse, unable to be used by God to add ANYTHING to your salvation. In fact, what is in you is a poison which if you drink and become full of, will ruin your appetite for Christ and take you to Hell even though you will convince yourself that you are quite on your way to Heaven. I almost revealed your sins in church the other week to make this point—now I will. Mom, when you gave Dad a hard time and were disappointed about where the gazebo was, you blasphemed the work of God; God gave Dad to you as an authority and for you to despise him in this way is pure wickedness, no matter how much you may think your opinion should count. Also, you not only fail to understand that these things are insignificant and should not be allowed to spoil the peace of a home, but you also fail to see the handiwork of God in allowing every aspect of the gazebo to progress according to His will. When you despise God's Work and will, do you suppose there is anything you can do to recapture His favor; can you ever go to church enough, be nice enough, do enough good works to make up for holding God's obvious and revealed will in low esteem and holding a gazebo in high esteem? When you despise His Work and will do you believe He is impressed with anything you can do to make up for this?

Before I continue with putting the rest of you on the spot, allow me to explain something; Scripture consigns you, all of you, each and every part and aspect of you, including and ESPECIALLY your "good" points, under sin. You are a sinner, covered by sin, plagued by selfishness, riddled with cancerous pride, and so perverted that you, yes you, are easily deceived not only by Satan but by your own heart that blasphemy is the high worship of God. For the few hours that Adam was pure and holy he had no thought for himself; his only focus was the Godhead; his only ambition was to know God; his only willfulness was to serve Christ; and his only joy was to fellowship with the Father and the Son. Since his fall from grace all Adam's powers, gifts, and God-likeness turned in on himself and this sinfulness, this poison of self-centeredness has been transmitted to every human being since Adam—except Christ. And Christ did not come because you just needed a little help or even a lot of help; He came because you were COMPELETLY HELPLESS. And Christ did not come so you could assume that just because you place the name "Christ" on your person you no longer have a corrupt nature. Your nature is still absolutely corrupt, prone to sin and given to evil. Of course, this is not true from CHRIST'S PERSPECTIVE, but from our perspective it is about 98% true. If you are not comfortable experiencing a rather insignificant change within you, then you do NOT know what it means to be a Christian.

This is what it means to be a Christian: to seek to know what the Ten Commandments really and fully mean and to mourn over your miserable failure to even begin to really and truly keep them; to be absolutely content with God's calling on your life so that you are fully involved in your primary calling as a spouse, parent, child, etc. and seek, crave, desire or strive for no other means to become "spiritual"; to properly hate this life so much that you would gladly, no, you seek to give up all you love here whether it be the pleasure of family, the fulfillment of a job, the passion of love, the sense of belonging, the desire to be known, and any honor, glory and prestige you may have gained; to gladly be consumed with serving only your neighbor and to gladly and effortlessly completely serve your neighbor, forfeiting any desires you may have for your body, your time, and your labor; and being a Christian means to seek to be filled with and by nothing else other than Christ—not food, not music, not love, not sex, not activity, not praise, not shopping, not the feeling of a job well done and not nothing. This is what Adam experienced for a few short hours; how close to you come to this? How much do you need Christ? What do you REALLY believe you have to offer Christ? Really, what good do you really believe lies within you?

Dad, I appreciate that you spend much time considering the Word of God and being taught by Luther, the greatest teacher since the Apostle Paul; but I hope you are aware that most anytime I see you with a book in your hand I also see it accompanied with a spoonful of peanut butter, tea, or a cigar. Can all the reading, praying and meditating in the world atone for the lust of your flesh? You should be concerned that the lust of the flesh is calling you to devotions and not devotion to Christ.

Christine, you are a wonderful mother; my father often speaks of your motherliness in glowing terms; he also regularly warns you not to trust in your dedication to your children, for this natural desire, which you enjoy submitting to, is from God Himself, created by God Himself, but will take you away from God, Himself. You must be careful to raise our children "heartily as to the Lord." Nothing can be given to the Lord save it dies of itself, just as a corn seed must die before it is raised to provision status. How do you know when you have died? When you see within your own being your true motivation to bring honor and glory to self, despise this, grieve over this, and look only to the Meal for atonement for this heinous sin. Yes! Motherhood, a gift from God can easily be transformed into devilishness.

Grandma Pat, can you ever make up for the grief you gave my father the many years to tried to convert you? Is there any work you can perform, any devotion you can conjure up within yourself, to atone for taking so long sharing communion with us? You despised the body and blood of Christ and broke the union of faith-how can you ever undo these things?

Joy, you are so loving, kind and giving; I hope you see you maybe are this way because you want to please man more than God; maybe you are afraid of disappointing man, displeasing man, more than honoring God. True faith casts out fear of man. Jan, I don't know you as well as my own family, but I sense you have a need to Lord over people with your Bible knowledge and spirituality. God has greatly used you in this family to encourage us, but does this atone for your human need to use religion to be superior to others?

Brian, how can you possibly believe you love and honor God when you are ashamed of your heritage—the heritage God placed you within? You want to achieve much but will all the achievement you can ever muster make up for the way you despise your background? Beth, if you healed all the people in Huntsville, would it make up for one cross word to your husband? Naomi, can you of your own strength ever make it up to God for having feelings that He abandoned you, would never find a man?

I trust you know I am comfortable talking so directly to you about true sin because I know none of you are openly—or secretly, I pray—living in a self-righteous manner. My goal, aim, and heart's desire, is to do all within my power and influence to make sure, by the grace of God, that none of us ever falls into pride's pit of self-righteousness. May Christ sustain us!

You must always look only to Christ, not to your faith, not to your opinions, and certainly not to your reason or your devotion! And how do you look to Christ? "THIS IS MY BODY, THIS IS MY BLOOD, GIVEN TO YOU FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS… TAKE AND EAT." You look at the WORD; ANYTHING else can and will be used by Satan to steal you away from Christ, and then you will be shipwrecked and I will have to worry that I have wasted my time on you, with no eternal fruit to show for it, for your sake. And if this were to happen, you would feel like I had become your enemy just as the Galatians treated Paul as an enemy (4:16) shortly after they would have plucked out their eyes and given them to Paul (4:15).

One main way Satan uses to lead us away from the Word is the flattery of man. You are going to have salesman try to sell you bright and shiny things your whole life; what is their best ally, besides the product? YOU! How do they get you? They flatter you just as the false teachers flattered the Galatians (4:17). A good salesman knows just which buttons to push with each individual, and so false teachers read their people and tell them what they want to hear. But this flattery is "to no good purpose," because it is used to take you away from Christ. Paul uses the phrase "by fair and flattering words" (Romans 16:18) to describe their tactics. "You don't really believe that salvation is so easy that all one has to do is believe that 'is' means 'is', do you. Then let me explain to one so intelligent as yourself why 'is' cannot mean 'is.'" These people are "wolves in sheep's clothing," (Matt. 7:15) no matter who they are or how much they claim to love Christ and His Word!

But now Paul really hits the mark, hits their true motivation: "that you may make much of them" (4:17). What do false teachers REALLY want more than anything, even though they try to hide their true motives behind false humility and false godliness? THEY WANT YOU TO MAKE MUCH OF THEM; they want to be seen; they want to be looked up to; they want to be esteemed; they want to be the spiritual master and guru. This is why Christ tells us to leave them alone, because they are blind leaders of the blind (Matt. 15:14).

But Paul was a good and faithful teacher which he proved by saying, "I am again in travail with you until Christ be formed in you" (4:19). Make no mistake about it, false teachers will cut you off at the knees, some sooner, some later, but they will dismiss you out of hand when you cross them. Not Paul. As long as there was hope of restoration Paul was willing to go through the agony of spiritual birth—AGAIN.

After Paul commits himself to the agony of birth again, he begins this process by explaining the most basic dynamic of true life—FREEDOM! And freedom is exactly what false teachers cannot stand, in the same way the Taliban cannot stand freedom. Paul states that "freedom is our mother" (4:26). Christ said that if the Son made you free you would be free indeed! Satan wants us to be ensnared by rules and laws; Christ came to set us free in all ways, but especially freedom in our conscience during this life. Dad and Mom often talk about how the fact that they do certain things makes it virtually impossible for their brothers and sisters to really believe they are Christians; they cannot stand the freedom our parents have in Christ—and frankly, even threatens me a little.

Paul uses an Old Testament illustration to make his point that bondage never produces a Christian: Abraham's wife, Sarah, by the leading of God, ordered Abraham to cast out Hagar, the bondwoman, whom Paul, in the New Testament, designates as a symbol for the Law. Even while Sarah was without children and the Bondwoman had children, the Scripture states, "Rejoice, barren woman who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not in labor; for more are the children of the desolate than of the one who has a husband" (4:27).

Do you hear this? Do you see how faith defies and affronts reason? You may FEEL barren as a Christian; but what are you to do? SHOUT and REJOICE! Why? Because you are fruitful—abundantly. Why? How? Because you look at the Word, only the Word, "Take, eat, for the forgiveness of sins," and simply believe this Word, despite all evidence to the contrary. You are going to be tempted your whole life by your own nature and those with whom you come into contact to make a greater showing according to the flesh; to look more like a Christian; to do things that a Christian should do; to strive to be more like Christ every day. But these are nothing more than Satan's strategies to take your focus off the Word and onto what you see—from faith to sight. I beg you to believe the Word is true and God will not lie to you—but He will test you.

"But I have not done anything good and am not doing anything now!" you say. Here you neither can nor must do anything. Merely listen to this joyful message, which the Spirit is bringing to you through the prophet: "Rejoice, O barren one that dost not bear!" It is as though he were saying: "Why are you so sorrowful when you have no reason to be sorrowful?" "But I am barren and desolate." "Regardless of how much you are that way, since you have no righteousness on the basis of Law, Christ is still your Righteousness. He became a curse for YOU. He has redeemed you from the curse of the Law (3:13).

Your flesh and those who love the flesh will always persecute you, just as Ishmael persecuted Isaac, the son of Promise. These things you must expect and not be confounded when hypocrites show off their beautiful, shiny life before your eyes—they have their reward, they have been seen. Christ said "he came to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!" (Luke 12:49) This "fire" burns within your pure faith in the Word and will ultimately consume everything that is false. Rejoice, O barren one! Paul says to "cast out the slave (Hagar/Law) with her son (Ishmael/persecutor). But how do you know who the slave is or when you are the slave? Easy. When you are preoccupied with works you are a slave, pure and simple.

Paul continues his favorite topic of freedom in chapter five: "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore in this freedom." Of course, false teachers, promise freedom, too, but as Peter states, "While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption." Pornography, sodomy, murder, and the like are mild forms of corruption; real and rancid corruption's root is at the very moment one takes the eyes off the Word; when this happens, anything can happen to anyone. The disobedient to the Word may walk around looking free, but this is a demonic freedom wherein they rejoice in their freedom to have their own opinions, contrary to the Word, and to follow the lust of their flesh, contrary to the Word. But this "freedom" is nothing more than a yoke of slavery, which we should not submit again to (Acts 15:10)

Paul emphatically states that if we submit to this false freedom, to this system of works, then Christ "will be of no advantage to us" (5:2). Sure, you cannot convince the self-righteous of this fact because they are blind by their lack of looking only at the Word. But if they would be honest, they would have to admit that Christ is little more to them than an angry judge, accuser and condemner. But they just won't be honest and follow their guilt and anxiety to its true and proper source-faithlessness! They are so convinced that works will quiet the conscience that they dismiss the true Christ out of hand—but they keep His name—thieves!

Paul reminds them that the Law is an indivisible unit; that is, you cannot pick and choose, you either keep the whole Law or you don't. If you don't keep the whole law, which is nothing more than a pure expression of love, then you are guilty and filthy before God. If you do keep the whole Law and always act in accordance with divine love, then you have no need of Christ. It just will not work for you to pick out a few portions of the Law to favor—not to mention the fact that people who do this refuse to see what their favorite laws really mean and how miserable they fail even in the ones they are most proud of. Again, I remind you of Job who feared for all his works—especially the good ones. When you are afraid God will cast you into hell for your good works, THEN you are close to the Kingdom of Heaven!

Paul becomes even more emphatic: "You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the Law; you have fallen away from grace" (5:4). If you want to use works, in any way, to help with your standing before God, says Paul, then not only will taking communion and thinking you have faith in Christ be of no benefit to you, but in actuality, you have severed yourself from Christ-the One you THINK you love and serve. You just don't stop to think how insulting and blasphemous it is to try to help someone who just does not need your help—especially God, Who knows that help from man is pure poison. Your whole motivation to help is nothing but poison coming from a poisonous system—the very you! Man wants to be conscious of righteousness in the same way he is conscious of sin; but this will not happen. Righteousness must transcend consciousness of sin and man must hope that he is righteous in the sight of God (5:5). That is, your, our, righteousness is not visible, and it is not conscious; but it is hoped for as something to be revealed in due time—you must cast yourself on the basis of the Promise and faith.

Paul then encourages them, endears himself to them, by reminding them that they had been "running well, but who hindered you!" (5:7) The irony here is that Paul tells them they were "running", but they felt they were only crawling and so were prone to the flattery of the false teachers; proper faith, from man's perspective, is a crawl; but from God's perspective, the Author of faith, we are running at amazing speed. Paul tells them that their impatience with the sense of crawling is not from Him who called you (5:8). Satan knows we want to make a show in the flesh so we can brag and have open and secret pride in our "following Christ." Satan does not care whether we follow Christ or not—just so long as it is not the true Christ of the Word and Promise. Satan would just as soon have us born with WWJD bracelets on every limb of our body, as long as we focus on Christ as an example and not as a gift.

Luther: "Scripture presents Christ as an example for us to imitate. But I will not let this Christ be presented to me as exemplar except at a time of rejoicing when I am out of reach of temptations (when I can hardly attain a thousandth part of His example), so that I may have a mirror in which to contemplate how much I am still lacking, lest I become smug. But in a time of tribulation I will not listen to or accept Christ except as a gift, as Him who died for my sins, who has bestowed His righteousness on me, and who accomplished and fulfilled what is lacking in my life."

Paul continues to try to win the Galatians back to the true Christ, the true Gospel, by teaching them that a "little leaven leavens the whole lump" (5:9). This is why it is so easy for me, as your pastor, even though I am not a skilled theologian, to make the jump from circumcision to television. What do I mean by this? I mean it does not matter whether you do something as major as being circumcised to become a Christian, or whether you don't watch TV thinking this makes you a better Christian—it is all the same blasphemy. A little yeast spreads through the whole batch of bread; once you embark on the journey of works, it ONLY takes you further and further away from Christ. Salvation is of the Lord.

Now Paul continues by telling them something they may not want to be reminded of: Christianity comes with a cross and to avoid this cross is to avoid Christ. And the cross of Christ CANNOT be misfortune that those of the world experience, such as a water heater going out or death. No! The cross of Christ is that which a true believer experiences strictly because of Christ and His Word. Paul said that he did not want the "stumbling block of the cross to be removed" (5:11). When is this removed? When we make the message of Christ sound like the message of the world; when we make Christianity sound and philosophically look like any other message of other religions. And what is their message? Willpower! Works! Decision making! Good intentions! Sincerity! Make yourself better! This is all leaven against heaven which does nothing but take us away from Christ! But when the truth of Christ is taught, that we are saved by water, bread and wine, then the cross comes and then we need to hear the words of Christ Himself: "Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me. Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matt. 5:10-12) Paul gets so worked up at those who try to avoid the cross and truth of Christ that he even says, "I wish those who unsettle you would mutilate themselves" (5:12). What this means in the Greek is this: "Why don't they go whole hog and cut all their genitals off-why stop with the foreskin?" And you should ask yourself the same question if ever you want to improve your standing with Christ even the smallest amount with the most tiny work: why not go all the way, be honest, and confess your true intention—Christ's work just isn't enough for me; I am going to crucify myself to make sure of my salvation!"

At the very end of this wonderful book Paul wrote pleading with us to stay in the true and genuine faith and not to turn to another "gospel," wherein Paul teaches true Christian freedom in Christ, he now wants to make sure, to the best of his ability, not to bring them back in the front door just to lose them out the back door. Paul has been stressing the freedom Christians have in Christ versus the bondage false teachers teach, so now, at the end of this epistle, he warns them not to desecrate this freedom. "You were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another" (5:13).

"An opportunity for the flesh" is all some so-called christians chase after; not only will they not be bound by true doctrine, giving full vent to their own opinions and the good feeling they have in having them, but they don't want to be bound by any social convention. This is why you can find about anything you want in Christianity; churches where you can shack up and still receive communion; churches for the queers; churches with too much laxity which exist mostly to make the rigid churches feel good about their discipline and presumed godliness; churches which sound more like political rallies; and mostly, churches which are in bondage to teachings which are not of sound doctrine. In these churches, so-called, you can be greedy, lewd, be proudful, self-absorbed, be preoccupied with playing the stock market and making money, just so long as you don't believe the truth. Again, what is the truth? "This is My body, this is My blood, given to you for the forgiveness of sins. There is no other way for you to honor me and be rid of sin, the guilt of sin, and a free conscience and mind."

I close with this verse from Paul's Galatians which almost single-handedly brought our father from spiritual darkness to the True Light: "For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to PREVENT YOU FROM DOING WHAT YOU WOULD" (5:17). A true child of God wrestles with the fact that God will not allow His children nearly as much spiritual victory as they desire; His children submit to this formula and content themselves with the Meal while at the same time not using this as an excuse to become worse. This true Child has one foot in the expectation of deliverance and the other in mourning for his sin—without despairing. The spiritual wisdom imparted by the Spirit through the Word of Promise teaches him that the feeling and fact of the sin which God leaves only creates a deep and deeper hungry for the Word and Work of Christ. As Luther says, "Hunger is a good cook."

The false christian does not understand this from Luther: "I remember my superior saying to me, 'More than a thousand times I have vowed to God that I would improve, but I have never performed what I vowed. Hereafter I shall not make such vows, because I know perfectly well that I shall not live up to them. Unless God is gracious and merciful to me for the sake of Christ and grants me a blessed final hour when the time comes for me to depart this miserable life, I shall not be able to stand before Him with all my vows and good works.' This despair is not only truthful but is godly and holy. Whoever wants to be saved must make this confession with his mouth and with his heart. The saints do not rely on their own righteousness; they sing with David (Ps. 143:2): 'Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for no man living is justified before Thee'; and (Ps. 130:3): 'If Thou, O Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who could stand?'"