GALATIANS : THE GOSPEL OF GRACE 4.”The Faith Factor”

Readings: Psalms 42 & 43, 1 Kings 19:1-15, Luke 8:26-39, Galatians 3:23-29
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, June 23rd, 2013

A printable PDF file can be found here

There is a popular TV show called the 'X' Factor. The 'X' factor is that hard to define attribute that marks the difference between somebody who is simply a talented performer, and somebody who has an innate ability to stand out from the rest of the crowd. What exactly it is, can be hard to put into words, but people recognize it when they experience it.

This morning I don't want to talk about the 'X' Factor' but about what I'm calling the 'Faith Factor' – something that I believe can give to our lives an indescribable difference and offer us opportunities for our lives that we had never before dreamed possible.

I claim no originality in telling  you about the 'Faith Factor'... I am completely indebted to the apostle Paul and his letter to the Galatians which in our passage today talked about the difference between having a religion that was all about what you could or couldn't do for yourself, and a faith that is based upon what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

 At the start of our passage Paul is talking about the laws that Moses had given to the people of Israel; the ten commandments and all the other things written down that flowed from them. Paul approved of the laws. They surrounded and protected the people. They created boundaries that created a sense of safety and gave an idea of right and wrong.

But in the church he had helped start in Galatia, things had got out of hand. After he had left them, some teachers had come and along and told people that simply believing in Jesus and being baptized wasn't really enough to be truly acceptable to God. They also had to take on a whole load of the customs of the Jewish people such as circumcision, and observing special holy days and not eating certain kinds of foods.

Paul had been born and raised as a Jewish person and he loved their laws and customs. But since his life had been turned around by his encounter with Jesus, he realized that the thing that set Christianity apart from the religion he had been brought up with, was the Faith Factor. He could see that if the church in Galatia was led away from the teaching he had given them about faith, then they would lose the freedom God had given them in Christ.

As well as the 'X' factor, there is also a program on TV called 'Fear Factor'. Paul recognized that there had been a time in his life when his religion was not about faith but all about fear. He had been so fearful of disobeying God's laws that it led him to persecuting the early church because he thought they were destroying and perverting true religion.

Then, whilst on a road to capture some Christian's, he had a blinding vision of Jesus, that changed his views for ever.  One of the monumental changes in his life was that religion became for him no longer a matter of doing things to earn the love of God, but about doing everything in response to the love and grace he had received from God.

If you turn the 'X' in 'X' Factor' on it's side, it makes the shape of a Cross. ( + ).  It was as he realized what Jesus Christ had done for the world, at the cross, that Paul became transformed. Later in his letter to the Galatian church he writes them, “But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14). If we wanted to say with TV illustrations, we could say that because of the X Factor (that is the cross factor) ... Paul moved away from the 'Fear Factor' and became a proclaimer of the 'Faith Factor'.

He talks of how, before faith came, he had been 'imprisoned and guarded' under the law. If you are in prison, you are in a fearful place. If you are living under a guard, then you are not living free! He talks about the law as a 'disciplinarian'. Such a term offers me the image of a cruel, boarding school head master, a despot, rather than a nurturing teacher.

For some people religion can be about fear. They believe that they need to 'do' something, bring up their lives to a certain standard, in order for God to love them. They feel a need to find practices and  make offerings and in some way discover ways to justify themselves before God or repay God for the wrongs they have done. They come from a place of fear, not of faith.

Because they are coming from a place of fear they have to find ways of separating themselves from others. The only way they can accept themselves, is to say, “Well I know I'm not all that and a bag of chips, but at least I haven't murdered anybody or robbed a bank. At least I'm not as bad a person as so and so.” They find it hard to accept other people as equally being loved by God as much they are. Why? Because they are struggling to accept that they themselves are children of God, not because of what they can do, but because of what God has done for them, in Christ, upon the cross.

Again, in our reading this morning; verse 25 “Now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith'. We can understand therefore why he was becoming so upset at those teachers who were coming along to the Galatian church and telling them; “No! Your faith isn't enough! You need to do this and do that, not eat this and observe the other! Otherwise you can't be real people of faith like us!” They were being offered the 'Fear Factor' when Paul wanted them to be changed by the 'Faith Factor'!

He then talks to them about baptism. Verse 27 “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ”. I like the way the Message Bible trans-literates this verse. “Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ's life, the fulfillment of God's original promise.”

Baptism, whether it be as a child or an adult, is associated with new beginnings. Martin Luther used to preach to his congregations about 'living into their baptisms'. Eugene Petersen pictures that well, in the Message, as he talks about moving from a fresh start to a position where you are putting on a whole faith wardrobe. In other words, in Christian life, we have never arrived. We are to 'keep on keeping on', keep on growing in grace and love and hope.

Paul could see that returning to a religion of 'do's and don'ts' that gave people comfort by designating them as 'true insiders' and everybody else as 'definite outsiders', was not growing towards maturity but taking a huge step backwards. It was a step that failed to grasp the enormity of what Jesus had achieved through His death on the Cross. At the Cross Jesus had broken every barrier down. The old had gone, the new had come. The gospel author's speak of how at the moment Jesus died the curtain in the temple was torn in two, and the gateway for all people of all faiths and all generations became opened to the holy presence of God.

So Paul writes in his next verse “There is no longer Jew of Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (verse 28).

One of the things that made the life of Jesus such a scandal to His religious critics was that He refused to play by the rules of who was 'in' and who was 'out' in the Kingdom of God. Sometimes they suggested He was hanging out with the wrong crowd. Samaritan women by wells, tax collectors who hid up trees, lepers who you were supposed to avoid. He gave far too much significance to the life of people who didn't matter. Little children. Sick people. Unbalanced people. Demon-posessed people.

And on top of that He just wouldn't stick to the really important laws. Like not eating grain on the Sabbath day.  And not praying at the proscribed time of day. And He had a disturbing habit of answering questions with questions that made you question what you were asking in the first place.  He may say all the right things, but... really... He had to pay more attention to the social barriers that were in place... instituted by God no doubt... for the protection of our privileges and to keep the wrong sort of people in the wrong sort of situations they deserved.

Even now, I think we fail to grasp just how radical this statement is. That we are all one in Christ Jesus.  That, because of what Jesus has done on the Cross (the X-Factor) , we don't have to question if we belong to God, or be afraid that we don't belong to God (the Fear Factor) but are called to live our lives in such a way that all people, regardless of religion (Jew or Greek), social standing (slave or free) or gender (Male or female) can experience the Faith Factor. We are called to live our lives in a way that all people come to understand that they are children of God, whom Jesus died for and in whom the Holy Spirit of God can work with transforming, renewing and energizing effect.

Our passage closed by Paul telling us (verse 29) “If you belong to Christ, them you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise”. Paul wants us to understand that what I'm calling the 'Faith Factor' had been part of God's plan right from the start. That the faith factor was something that had been transforming peoples lives as long as people had been hearing and responding to the call of God.
Abraham had it.  Joseph had it. Moses had it. David had it. The prophets preached it.

He talks about all of us being the inheritors of the promises of God. What are the promises of God? All we need to do is open our bibles and read about them! The greatest promise of all is that if we trust our lives into the hands of the life and love of Jesus Christ, then through God's Holy Spirit, God will guard us, guide us, comfort us and lead us.

God will lead us to see our own lives as places where God's promises can come to reality. God will lead us to see others through the loving eyes of Jesus, to see that there are no barriers to the actions of grace, to see all people as those whom He welcomes to be part of the family of God.  God will lead us to embrace Kingdom lives that have the 'X-Factor' – that factor which can be hard to put into words, but people recognize it when they experience it.

So with Paul I encourage you to make the Faith Factor a defining feature of your own life. Don't slip into the mistake of thinking religion is about 'who's in and who's out' or about 'do's' and 'don't's'. We are saved by grace though faith in what Jesus has done for us. We are called to grow into our baptisms and enable others to see that, they too are welcome, in the family of God!

Rev. Adrian J Pratt B.D.