All the Way

Passage: Galatians 5:1-12

One of the problems the Apostle Paul confronts regularly amongst members of his church is legalism. Paul, and a majority of his fellow Christians, grew up within religious communities that placed a high value on rules. These religious rules served two purposes. The first was ensuring that practitioners were right with God. The second was establishing criteria for who belonged and who didn’t. As they’ve adapted to a new religion and a new way of relating to this God, members of Paul’s church have had difficulty figuring out how the rules fit.

Paul preaches a Gospel that insists that one gets right with God not by rules but by the blood of Jesus Christ. Moreover, membership in this new religious community is not established by outward signs but by a change of heart – the realization that one needs a Savior, and the recognition of Jesus as that Savior. For a people accustomed to measurable criteria, however, this new way of relating to God seems way too ambiguous.

So Paul keeps running into people who insist on the old rules and rituals; the old stamps of approval. In Galatians 5 Paul lays it on the line. He says, “Fine. You want to be sticklers for the law? You want to insist that your brothers and sisters follow it to the letter? Start with yourself. Everyone has their favorite rules. Everyone knows the rules that one can obey most visibly. Forget about the stuff everyone can see. Make sure you’re following every rule. Even the ones only God can monitor. If you’re going to go with the Law, you have to go all the way.”

Paul recognizes that the Law of God operates as a whole. One cannot claim to be obedient to the Law if one is not obedient to the Law in its entirety. To those who require circumcision, Paul says, “Why stop there? Go all the way. Require perfect obedience to the whole Law. But only do so after you’ve mastered it yourself.” Paul adopts this rhetoric not to dismiss God’s Law, but rather to point out its inadequacy as a means of salvation. Paul is not maligning people who strive to live in obedience to God. Paul is simply pointing out the grave error of those who use the Law to try to prove that they have a superior claim to the love of God.

Religious people have always been quick to shape their communities and routines around rules. Those rules can and do find their way to the heart of our identities and practices, such that without great care they can replace the essence of our faith. At the heart of our faith is a Gospel that reminds us: we get close to God not by the rules but by the blood of Jesus Christ; and our place in God’s heart has everything to do with the state of our own hearts. God welcomes those who recognize their desperate need for a Savior. God allows those who think they can do it on their own to go ahead and try.