Even in 2015, Christians have to be alert to what some Christian leaders teach. Adding rules to the grace of Jesus, making some rituals a special path to blessings beyond just living faith in Jesus, using Old Testament Law to add to New Testament grace is still alive today and needs to be resisted so we can all walk in the freedom Jesus gives us in the New Covenant

1. Gal. 3:1-6
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes
Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one
thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by
believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means
of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?
Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I
ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by
the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also
Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Paul is addressing legalism in the Galatian Church.Legalism is a
“gospel plus” distortion and deviation of Christianity that is
difficult to disprove as it is usually mixed with sound evangelical
doctrine. Legalism, which teaches that a person’s justification [being
made right with God] and/or sanctification [becoming holy like Jesus]
depends upon a person’s efforts and obedience to church rules, is
an enemy of the gospel of grace.
Legalism is one of the favorite weapons of the enemy. He loves to
get Christians to be legalistic, for then he has destroyed their enjoyment of
the Spirit and ruin a vital, active, and growing Christian group.
That is exactly what happened in Galatia, and is what drew forth the this
scathing letter to the Galatians from the Apostle Paul. Legalism
destroys the freedom Jesus died to give us with our life in the Holy
Spirit! Legalism denies the all-sufficiency of the grace of Jesus for us.
Legalism says we need to add something to what Jesus did to be
right with God and to receive God’s blessings.
Galatians: Freedom of the Spirit Vs. Bondage of Human Laws
Galatians is about legalism versus Jesus, law versus grace.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do
not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Gal 5:1)
Jesus came to set the captives free from sin, death, the devil and the
curse of breaking the OT law.

2. Jews and Gentiles were set free to enjoy the salvation and blessings of God
as free gifts by God’s grace. No one needed to earn salvation or
sanctification. The grace of Jesus working in us would provide
both salvation and sanctification as we walked daily with God in
humble, child-like dependance on Him for all our needs by he
leading of the Holy Spirit in us.
“But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had
sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus,
in order to bring us into bondage.” (Gal. 2:4)
In every age, followers of God have struggled with what we will call legalism
and legalism’s child, works righteous. Both tempt people to a human
rule or ritual as an addition to or substitute for a living relationship
with the most relational Being in the universe: God! God hates such
practices.
Church and individual have frequently repeated the foolishness of the
Galatians. In all our Christian activities, it is easy for us to miss what
matters most to God, love for God and love for our neighbor
(Matthew 22: 37-40)
In every culture, the gospel will be clothed with some cultural
traditions. Whether we like it or not, we all depend to some extent on
Christian tradition. The problem seems to be that we do not realize this
reliance. Consequently, there is the ever-present danger that what
some call “principles”, or “essentials of the faith”, or “dogma”,
become legalistic rules and the basis of a performance-based
false Christianity.
This weakness in our human nature is why there have been several
movements in Christianity over the centuries that have put believers in
much unbiblical bondage: legalistic rules about clothes, makeup, food,
drink, sex, gender, forms of prayer, ways to do baptism, ways to hold
services, etc.
There are Christian or pseudo-Christian groups today that have what I
would call legalistic rules: no use of musical instruments in services,
women must wear head coverings, women cannot speak in church, spiritual

3. leaders cannot marry a wife, missing a Sunday service is a serious sin,
drinking any alcohol is a sin, etc. Some people want to have lots of
rules and they become vulnerable to cults--like Jim Jones, JW’s
and Mormons.
1955: Miss Sunday church and go to hell if not confessed to a priest before
you die. Still valid today!
Quakers: Must quake. Shakers must shake ( and not marry). “Weepers” &
Shouters in China churches.
Go online and find recovery groups for several legalistic religious groups,
mostly cults.
There is a persistent tendency in the human race to systematize
everything, including relationships.
Humans want to organize our information, derive principles and
implement those principles to control our environment and lives,
including the relationships we have. Fundamentally, people want to
control as much as we can, including our relationship to God.
William Barclay explains:
There are churches which are more concerned with correct ritual than they
are with living vitality. A church is in danger of death when it loves
systems more than it loves Jesus Christ. The more control we
have, the safer we feel and the more personal pride we derive from
being in control to some degree.
Anything that makes us feel out of control or makes us feel too dependent,
too humble will be resisted to some extent. Adam & Eve proved that
was true--along with most of their descendants since then. They had
everything--beautiful, healthy bodies, no taxes, no lawn to mow, no
mortgage, no diseases, no biting insects or animals to fend off, no hunger or
thirst. They lived in Paradise, took daily strolls with God through a
beautiful garden...and yet, they still wanted more control over their
lives. God had given them only one law...and they broke it!
So, when Jesus tells us that we must become like little children to get
into the Kingdom of God, People tend to resist living like very dependent,

4. vulnerable little children before God who promises to provide everything
for His children if they will just trust Him.
People prefer to have some control over our relationship to God. We seem
to be uncomfortable losing our adult control of ourselves and our
adult pride as adults who have some power to do earn what we
get from God. Being little children is too humbling and too passive for us.
We more more control of what happens in our relationship with God.
So, when God says we can be saved only by receiving the free,
undeserved grace that can come to us through Jesus, we can feel
nervous and uncomfortable since that free grace takes away our
ability to control or earn it--both of which we normally prefer.
This is our sin nature, our “flesh” that the NT talks about that fights our
spirit’s desire to live in complete dependence on God as little children.
God says, “Jesus has done all we need on the cross to be saved and
to live a righteous life before God. The grace of the Lord Jesus is
sufficient for all of life on earth and in heaven. Period!” Deep down,
many people do not like that arrangement.
In different ways, we try to add to the “finished work” of the cross. We
want Jesus + something we do--some ritual, some religious
activity, some rule, pattern, system or habit that we do that we
think will improve on or insure the blessings Jesus won for us on
Calvary.
Jesus emphasized that human tradition can never have the same
authority as the Word of God. He forced people to look beyond the
cultural and the traditional to find the essential core of God’s Word. The
apostle Paul said to the Galatians that fellowship with God is a trust in
Christ that works through love: “The only thing that counts is faith
expressing itself through love.”(5:6) Extra biblical rules may seem
spiritual, even helpful and necessary, but given too much emphasis
become death to life in the Spirit, and to the individual freedom to
which God has called us in Christ.
For the Christian, obedience is to the indwelling Holy Spirit, not
to the letter of the law, or religious rules. As Paul has it,“Not of the

5. letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2
Corinthians 3:
The Main Issue Is A Heart Changed By God’s Grace.)
Given that human nature is basically the same in every generation, all
Christians should beware of replacing inner spiritual reality with
outward religious ritual.
The danger with all religious rituals and institutions is that they
often acquire a life of their own. Whereas once they blessed
people, later they oppress people. What for one generation may be a
test of truth and a means of blessing may become an idol and a hindrance
to another generation.
Jesus & Paul were not necessarily against traditional religious and cultural
practices. They both respected their own Jewish culture. But they both
opposed confusing religious traditions with God’s NT Word and making
them compulsory for NT believers.
For example, in the OT God commanded Moses to make a bronze figure of
a snake and set it on a pole, so that anyone bitten by a snake need only look
at the bronze serpent and he would live (Numbers 21:4-9; ). Centuries
later King Hezekiah of Judah destroyed the bronze serpent because the
people had made it an idol (Nehushtan) and gave it superstitious respect (2
Kings 18:4).
Judaizers
Paul fought this Spirit-filled Jewish Christian group tooth and nail.
They demanded that Gentile Christians observe the Law of Moses,
including ritual observances such as special days, kosher foods and
especially circumcision. The influence of this group was evident in the
churches of Galatia, (Galatians 5:11-12; 6:13), Philippi (Philippians 3:2-3)
and Colosse (Colossians 2:16-17). In effect the Judaizers, or “those who
belonged to the circumcision group” (Galatians 2:12), required a Gentile
to become a Jew before he could become a Christian, whereas Paul
argued that salvation was based on faith in Christ alone.
Today, some people believe that practicing Jewish rituals, traditions or
celebrating Jewish holidays will win them blessings and favor with God.

6. There is nothing in the NT to suggest that. In fact, the opposite is
taught by Paul:
“Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we
may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer
under a tutor.” ( GAL. 3:24-25)
“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with
regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath
day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality,
however, is found in Christ.” ( COL. 2:16-17)
“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus
Christ.” ( JOHN 1:17)
According to the Bible, the law was given to show us that we are
sinful ( Romans 5:20; 7:7; 3:20, Gal 3:23-25). But the grace of God was
given to turn us to God (Ephesians 2:8-10).
GRACE
Grace doesn’t make demands. It just gives.
And from our vantage point, it always gives to the wrong person. We see
this over and over again in the Gospels: Jesus is always giving to the wrong
people—prostitutes, tax collectors, half-breeds. The most extravagant
sinners of Jesus’s day receive his most compassionate welcome.
Grace is recklessly generous. It doesn’t use sticks, carrots, or time
cards. It doesn’t keep score.
As Robert Capon puts it, “Grace works without requiring anything
on our part. It’s not expensive. It’s not even cheap. It’s free.”
It refuses to be controlled by our innate sense of fairness, reciprocity, and
evenhandedness. It defies logic. It has nothing to do with earning,
merit, or deservedness. It is opposed to what is owed. It doesn’t
expect a return on investments. It is a liberating contradiction between
what we deserve and what we get.

7. Grace is unconditional acceptance given to an undeserving
person by an unobligated giver.
It is one-way love. “God will not love you any more in 500 years
than He does now.”
Do not strive to earn God’s favor but live to please Him as a way
of saying thank you to HIm for the unlimited favor He has
already given you.
"Grace is the empowering Presence of God enabling you to be who He
created you to be, and to do what He has called you to do."
Bill Gothard has suggested "Grace gives us the desire and the power that
God gives us to do his will."
“...for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His
good pleasure” ( PHIL 2:13)
PAUL ADMITTED THIS OF HIMSELF:
“For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am
what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored
even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. ( 1
COR 15:9-10)
Therefore, in the New Testament:
GRACE REPLACES LAW
INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD REPLACES RITUAL
FREEDOM IN THE SPIRIT REPLACES THE BONDAGE OF THE LAW
THE REALITY OF JESUS & INDWELLING HOLY SPIRIT THE TYPES
AND SHADOWS OF OT RULES AND RITUALS.
QUESTION: Ask God what, if anything, are you doing that is not of grace
but it rather of works, of legalism to earn God’s favor in any way.