[Machine transcription]
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Brothers and sisters, looking at St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians, this morning is the
text.
Please be seated.
I doubt that anyone likes to have unnecessary burdens put on them, and that’s what was going
on in the Galatian church that Paul writes this letter to, that their leaders were teaching
that more than just faith in Jesus was needed to be accepted by God and to be forgiven of
your sins, the people also had to obey religious rules like not eating certain foods, observing
holy days, and that men had to be circumcised.
First, verse 1, Paul calls that teaching a yoke and likens it to slavery.
A yoke, of course, is put on an animal to pull things, it’s a burden, it’s like slavery.
And this kind of burden that they were teaching, the Christian worldview, we call that the
law.
law, things that God requires of us to be accepted by Him, to be forgiven of our sins.
But fulfilling the law is not required because Jesus has fulfilled that law.
He obeyed the law perfectly by not breaking it, not sinning, and giving His life on a
cross to pay for our not keeping the law, and to forgive us, and to free us from that
law requirement. The Christian worldview, we call that the gospel. And Paul writes
to the Galatians pretty angrily in his letter about this law teaching because
the people were actually fallen for it. Again, he calls it a yoke of slavery. And
isn’t that what the law really is? It’s authority and control and restriction
and something impossible to obey completely.
In other words, a burden.
That’s what the church was trying to be,
the leaders were trying to put on the people.
Before we get too critical of the Galatians,
I mean, they were falling for it.
They were falling into this obedience of the law
and not on the gospel.
Before we get too critical of them,
really, there’s times that we can be no different than that.
I mean, sometimes people actually like the law.
We like it because we think that by following it we have some control, we have some authority.
It doesn’t seem like so much of a yoke if you think that you’re obeying the law or not
doing too badly at it anyway.
I mean, look at the list in verse 19.
You can look at it and say, yeah, I take a couple of hits, you know, on some of those
things here, but overall, I’m not too bad.
I mean, at least I haven’t murdered anybody.
I mean, there’s other people that are worse than me, I’m not so bad.
In fact, I’m doing pretty good.
I mean, you look at that other list there in verse 22, love, joy, peace, yadda yadda
yadda.
Hey, I’m doing pretty good with those, and I love my neighbor, I’m not so bad.
The law can make us proud, and we can point to ourselves and say, look God, I’m doing
what you want me to do, I’m doing what you want.
I mean doesn’t that doesn’t that count for something? I’m doing the law
That should help me get into heaven, right?
Yeah, Jesus died on the cross for my sins and my faith in him gives salvation
But but I want some control. I want to be part of the process. I
mean after all
Hard work is often rewarded and people who pull themselves up by their bootstraps. They’re admired today
we like the law because we like the idea of being involved in our salvation
having some control in it having some some say in it the idea that by keeping
the law we can contribute to our forgiveness from breaking God’s law and
sitting against him I like to call this shake-and-bake theology okay now some of
you know what I’m talking about.
Baby boomers, you know what I’m talking about,
with Shake and Bake.
It’s a product for cooking chicken.
Basically, it’s this coating,
you put it in a bag with the chicken,
and you shake it, and then you bake it.
That’s what the name says here.
Well, in the 60s, the 1960s,
there was a TV commercial for Shake and Bake.
It had a little girl and her grandma
who were making some,
and they serve it to the family,
and the family loves it,
they praise grandma for it and the little girl she proudly proclaims and I
hailed yeah it’s on YouTube actually yeah and I hailed yeah you see but
trying to help in salvation by keeping the law it just means doing more and
more see trying to help in your salvation by by doing the law it’s it’s
like this to be forgiven for breaking God’s law you have to keep the law and
then you have to try harder to not break the law it’s it’s an endless cycle of do
that’s how you can really sum up the law in one word do it’s a yoke of slavery
Paul calls it, trying to help in your salvation by thinking you could obey the law.
It’s just an unnecessary burden on yourself.
Don’t do that, Paul says.
And somewhat angrily, again in his letter, he’s saying God has something better.
Jesus sets you free from that.
I mean, again, in verse 1 where he says,
yeah, it’s in here somewhere, yeah, there it is.
For freedom, Christ has set us free.
Don’t submit again to the yoke of slavery.
Salvation is not in keeping the law,
but in Jesus keeping the law.
Verse 13 is what he said there.
He said it’s on this page. Yeah, for you were called to freedom
brothers and that you were in in verse
Where is it there?
24 those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with his passions and desires
See what what you do in the law has been crucified
You’ve been set free from that
Don’t do that, Paul says.
It’s not in you keeping the law.
It’s in Jesus’ keeping the law.
It’s in His suffering.
It’s in His crucifixion.
It’s in His death and resurrection
and His ascension.
It’s in His paying the price.
It’s in His forgiveness.
It’s His doing, not yours.
That’s the gospel.
Paul says, don’t focus on the law.
You need the gospel of Jesus.
The gospel is the good news of salvation.
Obeying the law and that burden and that yoke
and that slavery, that’s bad news.
It’s an endless cycle of do when, in fact,
you can’t do it and you don’t have to.
You don’t have to help your salvation.
In fact, you can’t because Jesus has done it all.
In fact, that’s one way we can describe the gospel in one word, is done, it’s done, done
by Jesus.
In the gospel, we don’t proudly point to ourselves, we proudly point to Jesus and say, He’s done
it all for me.
And Paul wanted the Galatians to see this and get their focus off of the law, get it onto
the gospel.
he says don’t let yourselves be yoked or burdened he says the burden of salvation
it isn’t on you it’s on God it’s on Christ we can’t perfectly obey the law
no matter how much you try or how much you do it ain’t enough but Jesus can he
did and he does look at the law like this there’s nothing that you can do
there’s nothing that you can do that can make God love you more than he already
does and he did that in Jesus it’s not in the law it’s in Jesus keeping the law
and dying because you can’t and that could be a burden of trying to keep the
law but maybe that’s not your burden maybe more of your burden is not keeping
the law. You’ve broken it. Maybe you’ve broken it pretty hard, pretty bad. And
that yoke of guilt and shame over your sins that you committed can be really
heavy. You look at that list in verse 19, you don’t look at it and say, yeah I’ve
just done a couple of those. You look at it and say, man, yeah, guilty as charged.
And you feel like you’re pulling this yoke, dragging that guilt and shame all through
your life, well, there’s good news for you.
I mean, really, you’re better off than the people who are trying to obey the law, because
the good news is for you, there’s gospel.
Matthew chapter 11, Jesus says some beautiful words.
He says come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I’m gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls
He says for my yoke is easy and my burden is light in Jesus
He takes the yoke off of you
He’s taken that yoke of your sins on himself
The burden of sin isn’t on you.
I like to say it this way.
It kind of sounds funny and kind of a bit, I guess, quippy,
but the yoke’s not on you.
Every time I try to be serious, this is what happens.
The yoke’s not on you, it’s on Jesus.
He took it from you, died with it on the cross.
You don’t have to drag it around.
Your sins are forgiven.
He’s taken them on himself and died with them.
no matter no matter what you’ve done no matter how guilt or shame inducing they
may be think of it this way there’s nothing you’ve done that will make God
love you less because of Jesus Paul says don’t be burdened by that yoke Jesus
doesn’t want you to carry it he can does Paul says don’t be burdened by that yoke
don’t submit to that slavery you don’t need that burden nobody’s putting it on
you except you.” Paul says, get rid of it. And speaking of Paul, St. Paul Lutheran
Church, Jesus Deaf Lutheran Church, here we are today, not feeling burdened but
joyful, welcoming a new shepherd today who will proclaim law and gospel for us.
we we end our vacancy as we started joyfully Lutheran as we move into a new
time a new era of great opportunities for sharing the law and gospel with
people in this city people you know who are were burdened by the yoke and
slavery of sin. Let’s do it. Amen. Now may the peace of God which passes all
understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
