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August, 2025 (Vol.59-No.8) |
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Preached by Dr. Gene Scott on October 14, 1990 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh… Galatians 5:13 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 1st John 3:9 I MAY HAVE SHATTERED SOME PEOPLE’S image of Martin Luther, the great reformer, when I quoted him as saying that harlots, tax collectors, and sinners have a better chance of getting into heaven than legalists who rely on their works. Nevertheless, you ought to ask yourself: are you relying on your works for your salvation, or are you relying solely on God’s work of grace? It makes no difference how much you might surpass others in your ability to approximate conformity to God’s law. God’s grace is a gift. It is unmerited favor, which He gives in response to your faith. Faith is 90 percent courage or raw guts, and 9 percent tenacity or endurance. The remaining 1 percent of faith consists of all those other “superspiritual” things that you might hear preachers preach about. Some people have ignorantly said that I preach an “easier” gospel, but nothing could be further from the truth. The way of faith is not easy; it takes courage. God likes courage, and He does not like cowards! It is okay to be fearful at times. Cowardice and fearfulness are not synonymous. Cowards give way to their fears, but men and women of faith are like David, who said to the Lord, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” It takes courage to utter the words “I will trust.” It requires reaching down and grabbing hold of your innermost being. I have defined faith as an Action, based upon Belief, and sustained by Confidence in God’s word of promise. Those are the ABCs of faith. I am still preaching on Galatians 5:1, but I need to lay a foundation for today’s message. The Greek word translated “faith” is pistis. It is derived from the verb pisteuo. The definition of faith is easily distorted if it is not undergirded by its verbal sense. The English language waters down the meaning of faith by using such words as “belief” and “believe” because belief involves only the mind. The word “belief” has been given a dignity it does not deserve, because it conveniently neglects the necessity of an action. “Faith” and “belief” are not synonyms. Since faith requires an action, I often use some coined words to represent the sense of the original Greek words. Instead of using the word “believer,” I say that the person who performs an act of faith is a faither. And instead of the word “believing,” I use the word faithing. People would be less confused about the meaning of faith if they would stop equating it with belief. Belief is only one part of faith. Faith also involves the will and the emotions, for you must act with sufficient confidence to sustain your faith. If I were a philosophy teacher in ancient Greece, I could use the word pisteuo without making any reference to the things of God. I would teach my students that pisteuo is a vital activity of mankind, and that you cannot survive or function without it. All of our voluntary activities are consciously or subconsciously based upon some belief that is sustained by confidence. By that definition, it takes faith to get out of bed in the morning. You might not think about it, but you expect your feet to land on the floor and not the ceiling. That expectation was most likely developed through experience. You did not have to learn the theory of gravity in order to get out of bed. I would teach my students that no one has a choice not to act in faith; your only choice is the object of your faith. You can decide that something is true enough to give you confidence to act on it. I call that “hanging your body” on what you believe. Until Jesus came, that would have been a sufficient definition of the Greek word pisteuo. The Bible says, “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son..” I believe that the “fulness of the time” included the fact that Jesus was born in a day when the Greek language dominated the world. Greek is a much more precise language than Hebrew or Aramaic. I believe that God reached into the stream of the Greek language, grabbed the word pisteuo, and made it His own. Now, the only faith that saves is an action based upon a belief in God’s faithfulness to His word, sustained by confidence in His own nature. Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent; hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” When God promises to do something, He will do it. What He speaks, He will make it good. God told the prophet Jeremiah, “I will hasten my word to perform it.” As a magnifying glass can concentrate the rays of the sun, God will concentrate all of His strength to cause His word to come to pass. Confidence in God’s word lets you hang your body on His promises. The Bible says, “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.” Although God’s word is forever settled in heaven, our circumstances might not yet be in conformity with His word. You will come to a crossroads: you have the choice of letting your circumstances defy God’s promise, or you can reach up, grab hold of His word, and declare, “I’m not letting go!” Your faith then becomes the catalyst to activate God’s promises. In the beginning, God spoke, and nothing became everything. One day, He will speak and create everything anew. God was, is, and shall be forevermore. A man or woman of faith decides, “I will grasp God’s word and hang on to it, no matter what my circumstance looks like. And if I die still hanging on to His promises, I will be translated instantly into the realm where there is no friction between circumstances and ‘Thus saith the Lord.’” Until that time comes, if the whole world is against God’s word, then you will take your stand against the whole world. That is the kind of action God chose to identify as faith. Only faith in God’s promises will result in God’s planting His life in you and giving you life eternal. Any other action, no matter how meritorious its object, does not qualify as biblical faith. Faith has no “neutral gear.” Either you are going forward in faith, which is pistis, or you are going in reverse, which is apistia or “unbelief.” Your object of faith might be considered good or bad if evaluated ethically in the human, horizontal frame; but it is only saving faith if it is focused on a promise of God. Obviously, we do not want to be thought of as being in the same camp as a notoriously evil person like Adolf Hitler. But our salvation is not tied to our relative ethical performance, that is, our goodness and badness as measured by mankind. From God’s view, there is only one thing that saves eternally. Good behavior might have its rewards here on earth, but it does not do a thing for us with regard to eternity and our relationship with God. Only the activity of faithing, acting on a promise of God, assures us of the gift of God’s Spirit and eternal salvation. I am not saying that our behavior is unimportant, or that it is not worth pursuing any goals designed to help mankind. I also do not mean that anyone should become an antinomian. The word “antinomian” comes from the Greek word for “law,” nomos; hence to be “antinomian” essentially means to be “against God’s law.” Antinomians use the message of grace as an excuse to abolish all moral restraint. Paul, Peter, and Jude all had to combat people who made the preaching of grace an excuse for sin. The so-called antinomian controversy frequently rears its head in the church. One prominent antinomian was Anne Hutchinson, who divided colonial Massachusetts. As in Paul’s day, there are people today who believe that since works gain us nothing in eternity, we should sin all the more in order that grace may abound. Paul said in Galatians 5:6, “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” This verse was controversial during the Reformation. Catholic theologians interpreted it to mean that even Paul had to concede that works of love must undergird faith and are required for salvation. But that is an incorrect interpretation, as I will demonstrate when I teach on that verse later in this series of messages. I will also teach on what Paul called “the lust of the flesh.” Depending on the manuscript you use, there are several different versions of Paul’s list, which is not exhaustive. But lest you think that any behavior is acceptable before God, read Romans 1 and the Sermon on the Mount. Those passages should terrify you, and it is obvious that some people need to be terrified. Every preacher of grace, from Paul to Luther to today, has had to deal with the problem of the message of grace producing license. I have the greatest respect for Bond Bowman, who was the pastor of Brightmoor Tabernacle in Detroit, Michigan, and a man of integrity. Many years before I became a pastor, he lamented to me, “I know that the message of grace is the right message; but when I preach it, my congregation takes advantage and turns it into license. Then I must preach on the law to get the people back in line!” And I thought to myself, if I ever became a pastor, I would dare to give God the chance to change people, without my creating a temporary “corral” to hold people in captivity to the law. I would never use my pulpit to condemn a congregation into insensibility until I could start over and teach grace, in the hope that somehow God would transform the people before they shipwrecked themselves again. I am camping out on the closing passages of Galatians 4 and the opening of Galatians 5 in order to hammer the law into its needful death, so that no one tries to resurrect it as the cure of antinomianism. Paul will go on to say in Galatians 5:13, “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh…” The life in the Spirit is the antidote to antinomianism. Not once in the history of the church has any church fully transitioned through this stage. Luther was not able to make this transition, and neither was Paul. Understand that the only thing that saves is faith in a promise of God! Faith is like plugging an electrical cord into an outlet, which causes God’s “current” to flow. God’s power flows to the faither when he hangs his body on God’s word with the courage to keep hanging on no matter what. The man or woman of faith is “plugged in,” if you will, to God. God’s presence is real whether you feel anything or not. He is always there, and no one can control His Spirit. Jesus said, concerning the workings of the Spirit, “The wind bloweth where it listeth…” But God’s Spirit dwells in you the moment you act in faith. At that instant, God gives you the gift of salvation. He seats you in heavenly places with and in Christ, who is already there. God also performs a judicial act of imputation. When Christ died on Calvary, our “old man” died with Him. Figuratively speaking, God now puts on the “spectacles” of Jesus Christ and looks at us as though we were Jesus. That is the meaning of justification: God takes you as though you were “just like” Christ. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to you, and God now covers you. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word translated “mercy seat” is kapporeth. It comes from a word that means “to cover over.” That is essentially what the word “atonement” means: God provides a covering between you and His law that was fulfilled in Christ. Beyond the judicial act is the born-again, life-changing experience. You do not have to feel any strange sensations. The Resurrection is the factual basis for our faith. If you can believe that the risen Christ could go right through the rock that sealed His tomb, why would it be hard to believe that God can place a deposit of His own life in you? God spoke and created everything. His word holds all things together. If you can believe that the same life that raised up Jesus from the dead could enable His regenerated body to pass through locked doors and ascend into heaven, then you should not have any trouble taking the next step and believing that God can place a deposit of Himself in you. God’s life was withdrawn from man when Adam sinned. There was a barrier between God and man because of man’s sins: man was barred from coming to God. Man was walled away from the tree of life by cherubim with a flaming sword. God had no access to us without being inconsistent with His own nature. But by His own voluntary act, He broke the barrier; He ripped it apart, which was symbolized by the veil of the temple being torn from top to bottom when Christ died. Now, on the basis of Christ’s finished work, God can place a deposit of His life in us. The life that was withdrawn in the Garden can now be restored to man. The moment you connect with God by faith, He places this deposit of life in you. That life in you makes you a dual creature; you are a new creation in Christ Jesus, although your old man is still present. The new life is capable of affecting your whole being. By analogy, you cannot see radiation, but if you carry radioactive material, your very cell structure will change. God places a part of Himself in you. That new life is God’s gift because of your faith that defies every circumstance. Faith is what keeps you in contact with Him. No one can sever your relationship with God as long as you remain connected to Him by faith. The book of Hebrews says you remain God’s house the same way you became His house, by continuing acts of faith. God’s Spirit maintained in you will change you. God’s Spirit cannot sin, which is why 1st John 3:9 says, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” The new life in you is incapable of sinning, but there is still the old life in you, which is dominated by the desires of the flesh. Paul says that these two, the Spirit and the flesh, are at war with one another. They are “dug in,” like soldiers in trench warfare, for a fight to the finish. But the outcome is predetermined: if you allow God’s life to stay in you, the desires of the flesh will be displaced and the new life will bring forth fruit. You cannot obtain that fruit by effort or coercion, any more than you can make a tree bear apples by shaking the tree. Fruit comes from within; it is a natural outgrowth. Spirituality, by definition, is “the expressions of the Spirit.” The spiritual person is “the Spirit’s person.” When God’s power is in you, it will change you; you cannot keep it from changing you as long as it remains. You might ask, “What if my outward behavior indicates that the new life in me is not doing much?” That means you need to renew the connection. This is a tragedy of the church. People will do the necessary act of faith to get the Spirit in them, but they worry when they see slow growth, particularly when there are so many “buzzards” looking on who demand immediate results. So they panic and try to force the fruit into themselves from the outside, instead of re-invoking the steps that keep God’s Spirit renewed and outflowing. How do you receive the Spirit? It is a simple act: Christ is formed in your heart by faith. Christianity has always had a problem when it tries to conform to Aristotle’s logic. According to Aristotle, a certain thing cannot both be and not be at the same time. To say it differently, suppose we have a premise we call “A.” According to Aristotle, “A” cannot be both “A” and “not A” simultaneously. Yet, the Christian faith starts out in defiance of Aristotle’s logic. Christianity declares that Christ is man and not man at the same time; He is God and not God at the same time. Thus, in Christ, we have “A” and “not A” at the same time, all the time, every way. The deepest truths Jesus taught are paradoxical: You live by dying; you become first by being last; you become great by being the least; you receive by giving. In essence, you go up by going down. That does not mean you go down in order to be lifted up. It means you go up by going down: it is a concomitant simultaneous happening. You do not consciously think about going up: you go down and God lifts you up. Aristotelian logic confuses things by trying to make Christianity logical when it is paradoxical. The church became confused when it tried to wed itself to Greek philosophy. The church has forgotten that people do not become righteous by trying to be righteous. You receive God’s righteousness by seeking something else, or more accurately, by activating a different track. You become righteous by faithing: we do the faithing; God produces the righteousness! So when your righteousness wanes, instead of feeling guilty and condemning yourself, find an object of faith in God’s word. Get out on the “front lines” of faith by acting in courage on a promise of God. Forget about “your” righteousness. The more righteous you become in God’s sight, the less you will be aware of the change. Although I have repeatedly told people that they do not have to change to come to this church, there are many in my congregation who would testify that they have changed. Indeed, they were surprised by how they have changed. But they did not try to change. Rather, they changed in spite of themselves! Many in my congregation left the traditional church; and when they first came to this church, they had not been to a service in more than 10 years. Hallelujah! Thank God that He is saving souls, and we are not merely transplanting saints from one church into another. At the close of Galatians 4, Paul described how the church at Jerusalem under the leadership of James, had essentially resurrected the law from Mount Sinai. The legalists in Jerusalem were very much like the legalists in our day, who establish their own “Jerusalem” and then proceed to impose their interpretation of the law on Christians. Churches make up new rules and then say Christians must keep them in order to be saved. Paul compared that behavior to Abraham’s fornicating with his wife’s servant, Hagar, and producing Ishmael! Paul said that these things are allegorical. Hagar represents Mount Sinai, and Sinai answers to the “Jerusalem which now is,” and they produce children of bondage. Then Paul said that we are the children of the free, as Isaac was. Isaac was born as a result of Abraham’s faith in the promise in God. Isaac’s birth was a miracle. It could not have happened by human effort. Paul then drew a conclusion that no church has accepted to the present day: then as now, the children of bondage cannot live in the same house as the children of the free, because they will persecute the children of the free. In a previous message, I pointed out what I believe to be an error in the chapter division in our Bibles. The first verse of Galatians 5 should be the last verse in Galatians 4, because it is the conclusion of Paul’s line of thought. Paul said, in essence, “What shall we do to those persecutors? Throw them out!” Those who derive their righteousness from conformity to Mount Sinai cannot live with the children of the free. Then Paul declared, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty,” or the freedom, “wherewith Christ hath made us free…” That should have been the close of Galatians 4. The preaching of grace produces new life. It also allows us to meet the challenge of license and antinomianism. You can learn to distinguish between righteousness and legalism, and you can come to the understanding that God was not limited in His revelation of righteousness. The law was only one expression of His righteousness. God is consistent with His word and with the law incarnate in Christ, who fulfilled every jot and tittle of it, and then was nailed to the cross. The law became alive in Christ and then died on that cross. That is why Paul said in Romans 1:16-17, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth…For therein is the righteousness of God revealed,” or literally, “For there in a righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith…” It is a righteousness that has power in it, the dynamite-power of God unto salvation. There is a righteousness that God works in us, if we can understand its source. I do not quarrel with the traditional church over the results of righteousness; rather, I strongly oppose their idea of the means of obtaining righteousness. My fight is against those who would impose a new set of rules from Mount Sinai on the church, in order to persecute people and bring them into bondage, instead of liberating them into the life and power of God. The practice of faith connects you to God; He alone has the power to change you. That is why I love the old hymn, “I’m So Glad Jesus Lifted me.” I want this church to be lifted up by Jesus, not pulled up by me or by any other preacher, and certainly not pulled down! Reprinted with permission from Pastor Melissa Scott  While Galatians addresses the churches in the Galatian region and focuses on the core Christian doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus Christ, rather than by adherence to the Mosaic Law, it is more than ever relevant to today’s church. It emphasizes that salvation is a gift received through faith, not earned through works or religious rituals like circumcision. Paul defends his apostolic authority and confronts the Galatians for being swayed by false teachers who promoted legalism. The book also highlights the importance of living a life guided by the Holy Spirit and bearing the "fruit of the Spirit," such as love, joy, and peace. The only fruit that matters in your Christian life is not the so-called “fruits” achieved by your works. Jesus taught that love, both for God and for others, is the most important commandment; and if you have love, then with God’s guiding Holy Spirit, everything else will fall into place. The study of Galatians could be never-ending. Dr. Scott taught extensively on this book and we could continue with his messages for several years to come. But we’re ending our series on Galatians with this message. 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