Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV)
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Dear Friends in Christ,
Though I’ve never been to Germany before, I’ve been told that if you ever spend the money to go there, one place that is definitely worth visiting is the former Nazi concentration camp known as Dachau. While you can see from the picture on the screen that it certainly lacks the natural beauty that you’ll find in other parts of Germany, it contains a degree of ugliness that we all need to be reminded of from time to time. And that is the ugliness of sin, the ugliness of what happens when man loses his moral bearings and begins to think himself better than others. Official records show that some 30,000 deaths occurred in that concentration camp, but since few records were actually kept back then, it has been estimated that as many as 200,000 people were murdered within the confines of those walls.
Well, on the cast iron gate that leads into Dachau, you will find 3 German words that greeted those who entered it back then and that remain to this day. Here’s a picture of that gate. Note the 3 words: ARBEIT MACHT FREI. That basically means your work will make or set you free. Now we know that to be a lie, don’t we? The work that those prisoners did inside of that camp certainly did not set them free. And when those who survived were finally liberated from that death camp at the end of WW II, they did not celebrate the work that they had done there as though it had somehow secured their freedom. Rather, they celebrated the work of their rescuers. They applauded the ones who actually had set them free.
Shouldn’t we do the same? For haven’t we been rescued, not by our hard work, but by our great God? And yet examine the teachings of other world religions, as well as the beliefs and convictions of many people who call themselves Christians, and you will find little strains of this lie that says your work will set you free. Your work will save you. Your work will make you right with God.
The Apostle Paul constantly ran into this kind of thinking in the congregations he dealt with. For example, some of the Philippian Christians believed that they were saved by God’s grace, but not by God’s grace alone. They trusted the work of Christ, but not just the work of Christ. Instead, they promoted and adhered to a doctrine that we’re going to be looking at today, the doctrine of legalism. Legalism seeks to add something to the completed work of Christ. And in the case of the Philippians, they wanted to add the Jewish rite of circumcision as a prerequisite for salvation.
This morning as we celebrate the Reformation, we are reminded of how the church in Martin Luther’s day was telling people that they needed to add indulgences to the work of Christ. Indulgences were pieces of paper that the Pope authorized to be sold back then, the purchase of which would supposedly guarantee the buyer of the forgiveness of sins.
Now we modern day Christians may not teach Jesus plus circumcision or Jesus plus indulgences to make us right with God, but we do occasionally teach Jesus plus something else. Like Jesus plus church attendance. “I know my mom is in heaven because she went to church every single Sunday.” Or how about Jesus plus evangelism? “How many people have you won for Christ?” Or Jesus plus heritage. “I’ve been a Lutheran all my life. My parents were Lutheran. My grandparents were Lutheran. My great-grandparents came over on the boat from Germany. So I know I’ve got a special spot reserved in heaven for me.”
Legalism…it’s the doctrine of Jesus plus. Legalists don’t dismiss Christ. They just don’t trust Christ completely. They may trust Christ a little. They may even trust Christ a lot. But they don’t trust Christ alone to save them.
And because of that, the Apostle Paul reserves some of his strongest rhetoric in his epistles for the legalists of his day. We’ve already mentioned the Philippians who insisted that you had to be circumcised to be saved. Well, in Phil. 3:2 Paul of them: “Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.” Ouch! Can you hear the intensity and the intolerance in his tone of voice? Why the bared fangs, Paul? Why the red-hot ink flowing from his pen? I mean, Paul was anti-adultery, but he didn’t call adulterers names. He was opposed to homosexuality, but he never blasted the gay crowd with a verbal blowtorch like he does with these legalists. He preached against drunkenness, but I can’t find anywhere in his epistles where he called drunks dogs. Now why is that? Why is Paul so stridently opposed to this doctrine that teaches Jesus plus instead of Jesus alone?
I can think of 3 simple reasons. Let’s call them 3 problems with legalism. First of all, legalism makes light of our sin problem. Legalism says, “Sure, sinning is bad, but it’s not so bad that we can’t fix it ourselves.” Legalists live in a state of denial. They do not understand that when it comes to sin, we are all spiritual POW’s, just as helpless as the ones who once occupied the halls of Dachau. We are in the same situation that 33 miners found themselves in 9 years ago when they were trapped for 69 days nearly a half mile underground. But thankfully there were workers above ground who labored tirelessly day and night to drill those holes that could first of all get supplies down to them. By the way, among those essential supplies were 33 Bibles, one for each of the trapped miners. But the rescue workers did not stop with that. They continued to drill a larger hole that would allow a specially designed capsule to be lowered down to the area where the miners were so that one by one they could be brought up out of what could have very easily become a death chamber for all of them. And when that drill finally broke through and the choice was presented to those men to either stay down there or go up to the real world again, not a single one of them opted to stay. Not a single one refused the help that was sent their way. Not a single one said no to the one and only way out of that potential rock tomb.
Now I know what some of you are thinking, “Why would they? After spending 69 days a half mile underground, separated from family and friends, in less than desirable conditions, why in the world would any of them refuse such help?” I think heaven must ask that same question about us an awful lot. Angels must wonder, “Why are those human beings so stubborn? Why do they refuse God’s help? Why do they pass up a salvation that has already been purchased and won for them by Jesus on the cross?” I have to confess that I find myself asking that question a lot lately. And maybe one reason why people either ignore or pass up God’s offer of salvation is because they don’t realize how bad off they really are, spiritually speaking. That from heaven’s perspective we’re worse off than those trapped miners were.
Now if you don’t believe that, listen as I share with you, using different translations of the Bible, some of the phrases that Scripture uses to describe us outside of a relationship with God through Christ. Rom. 7:11 says we are “stone dead.” Eph. 2:1 says “you were dead in your transgressions and sins.” Eph. 4:18 says “Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him.” (NLT) So by nature, we are spiritual POW’s who do not have a leg of righteousness to stand on. But thankfully, Christ does not abandon us. He doesn’t forget about us. Instead, you know what he does? He leaves his throne in heaven behind and descends into our dirty, imperfect, and sin-filled world so that he can provide the means whereby we can be lifted out of our own private hell-hole and enjoy the kind of life he wants us to have.
Then another problem with legalism is that it insults God. By thinking that we sinful, imperfect human beings can somehow add something to the already perfect and completed work of Christ, we mock God. We in essence stand at the cross of Christ and say, “Great work, Jesus. Sorry you couldn’t finish it, but that’s ok. I’ll take it from here.” Can you think of any greater insult that we could possibly give our Savior than that? I can’t.
And then one more problem with legalism is that it makes a mess out of us. It just wears us out. Nobody understood that better than Martin Luther. Living the life of a monk, fasting for days on end, depriving himself of proper physical care, whipping himself, spending hours in the confessional booth – all of these were things that Luther tried to do himself in his attempt to appease the wrath of a holy God that he knew he deserved because of his sins. But all they did was leave him spent and exhausted until finally the Holy Spirit opened his heart to understand the true meaning and message of the Gospel. And when that happened, for the first time in his life, Luther felt the shackles of legalism fall off of him and he felt free, free to serve God not out of duty or obligation or fear, but out of love and with a joyful spirit. Once he came to grips with all that Jesus Christ had done for him, Luther felt compelled to follow and obey him not in order to be saved, which is what the legalists do, but because he already was saved. It was his grateful response to all that Jesus had done for him.
Now, having said all of that, having looked at the problems of legalism, why is it that so many people embrace legalism so much? Why do they feel as though they have to somehow play a part in their own salvation when in fact the Bible says they can’t? Well, perhaps it has something to do with this word: BOAST. We like to boast about our accomplishments, don’t we? We like to put them on display for all to see. Kind of like a trophy I earned when I was in the 8th grade. Every year there was a basketball tournament that involved 12 area Lutheran schools. And every year at this tournament they had a free throw contest. Each team would pick one of its players to shoot 25 free throws, usually determined by a contest that would be held in practice, as was the case with our team. Well, during my 7th grade year I had represented my team in this contest and really embarrassed myself, making only 12 of 25 free throws. So the next year when I earned the right to represent my team again, I practiced and practiced and practiced. I spent hours over at the outdoor baskets at our school in all kinds of weather trying to perfect the art of free throw shooting. And it paid off. The night of the contest I made 21 of 25 shots, which was enough to win. And what I won was a trophy, a trophy that I proudly displayed in my bedroom at home, then in my college dorm rooms, then in Marilyn’s and my first apartment and then even in my first office as a pastor. Today that trophy lies at the bottom of a box somewhere in our basement. But oh how proud I was of that accomplishment. And oh how proud we would be if we could somehow add something to what Christ has already done for us and our salvation. But we can’t. The work is done. It’s complete. Or as Jesus said from the cross, “It is finished.” That’s why Paul says in our text for today: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God – not because of works, lest anyone should boast.”
Let me close then with a great statement of faith I came across some years ago that I’ve always thought would make a great epitaph on a tombstone. It goes like this:
Upon a life I have not lived,
Upon a death I have not died,
Upon a resurrection I have not accomplished,
Upon Christ’s life, upon Christ’s death, upon Christ’s resurrection,
I stake my whole eternity!
May you do the same, my friends. May you do the same. Amen.