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Skip Heitzig: And I found Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Period. I discovered Galatians 2:10: you are complete in him. That means you have enough. If you have Jesus, you have it all. He is all you need. If you meet the real Jesus, have a real encounter with him, it's all you need.

However, from that moment on throughout my life, I started meeting people who would tell me, "Oh no, you don't have enough. You need more. You need a second blessing from the Holy Spirit or you're going to be a subpar person." Or like the one guy when I lived in Huntington Beach who walked up to me with a white robe, long hair and a white robe. I'm thinking Jesus has come.

He looks down on me and he goes—this was his question, not "Hey, can I share with you the four spiritual laws?" or "Hey, do you know about Jesus?" He said, "Hey, let me ask you a question. Do you eat meat?" "What?" "Do you eat meat?" I said, "Yeah." He goes, "You're not saved if you eat meat." That was his message. Really? So now I feel bad because I just had a McDonald's cheeseburger.

Then several years later, I was starting this church and I remember meeting a guy, well-meaning guy but very intense, very spiritual, who told me because I didn't pray as much as he did, "You only pray that much? I pray more than you and I'm not a pastor; you're a pastor. And how many times do you witness to unbelievers? I witness way more than you do."

So I just felt every time I'm around this guy, I'm not enough. I need to do what he's doing or I'm not really in. I wasn't doing enough. But I discovered legalism contradicts the gospel and contradicts my experience. Third thing legalism contradicts is logic. Verse 3: "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain?"

In other words, do you Galatians really think you can improve on this? You think your weak, imperfect, sinful flesh can improve on what the Holy Spirit has begun in you? He's appealing to their minds, asking them to remember and to think and to therefore draw a logical conclusion. Legalism contradicts logic. You began your Christian life with faith.

You trusted in Jesus, you received the life change through the Holy Spirit, and now you think you can add to it by works? Now I need to push the pause button. I need to bring a tone of balance. I need to strike a balance here. James chapter 2 tells us that a faith that does not produce works is not saving faith. Notice how I put that. You're not saved by works, but a faith that doesn't produce works is not legit.

He said, "What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but does not have works? Can that kind of faith save him?" So works, that is fruit—the fruit of the Spirit—gives evidence that our faith is genuine. That's the balance I want to strike. But back to the text. You had a spiritual beginning, don't have a fleshly end. If your salvation is by faith, then your sanctification is by faith, not by works.

By faith. It will produce works, but it's what the Holy Spirit does. Philippians chapter 1, verse 6: "He who has begun a good work in you," I love this, "will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." You know what that means? It means God will never give up on you. He will never stop working on you until Jesus comes. I hope you think that's good news.

I do. I love the fact that God loves me so much that he won't give up and stop working on me till Jesus Christ comes. God will never look at you and say, "You're beyond hope. I'm giving up on you. I've invested so much in you and this is it." He'll never say that. Nor will he say, "Well, I started this thing but you got to finish it."

No, he begun a good work in you, he will complete it until the day of Christ. When you came to Jesus Christ, it's as if he's hung a sign over your life. And the sign reads "Under Construction." You are under construction. And he will not take that sign down until you are glorified in his presence. Now you don't feel that way necessarily. Some of you feel like that guy made me feel, like you're not doing enough, you could do more.

I get that. We all get discouraged. You're discouraged at your own life. I sometimes get discouraged at my life. I have imperfections and as I said last night, my wife is in the service, I said, "I know my imperfections and that lady there also knows them." And I think she even said amen. But for you to look at your life with all your imperfections and think you're not doing enough, and I get that, and to make a conclusion based on what you now see is sort of like going into an artist's studio who's working on a masterpiece but he's midway through the painting.

All he has or she has on the canvas is blotches of this color and that color and you look at it and go, "Really? That's your masterpiece? A kid could do that. I'm not impressed." That's because you are not seeing what the artist is seeing. In the mind's eye of the artist, he or she sees a masterpiece, a completed project. You're only seeing it partway done. You're only partway done.

You are still under construction. God has in mind the masterpiece and he will continue working on you until the day of Jesus Christ. Holiness is not a light switch. "Well, if I do this one thing and then... holy." Flip on the light. It's not. It's a process. "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?" Then, "Have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain?"

He's saying, "Don't you remember the hardships that those Judaizers persecuted you with and gave you grief with when you committed your life to Christ? Remember that. You went through a lot." Then he mentions verse 5: "Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Just as Abraham," now he's quoting, "believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness."

"Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, 'In you all the nations shall be blessed.'" Why does he bring up Abraham? Because if there was one relationship Jewish people were proud of, it's the fact that they were children of Abraham.

They thought they were saved because they were in the lineage of Abraham. So Paul goes all the way back to Genesis 15. Remember the story when God says, "Abraham, come outside. Look up. What do you see?" "I see stars." "Can you count them? If you can count the stars, that'll give you an indication of the number of people that are going to come from you and Sarah. So shall your descendants be, like the stars of the heaven."

Now what was odd about the promise God gave to Abraham is Abraham was 85 years old, had no son, his wife was infertile and incapable and now really old, so ain't going to happen. And yet God says, "Gonna happen." And this is what it says: "Abraham believed God." He looked up, heard that and go, "I believe that." In Hebrew, it's strong. He said amen.

So here's the 85-year-old guy. "Abraham, you're going to have a lot of kids." "Amen!" He believed. That's all it took. He believed God and God accounted it to him as righteousness. It means to put to the credit side of a ledger. It's a banking term. I'm going to credit to your account perfect righteousness. You are righteous just because you believe.

So question: How was Abraham saved? By circumcision? By baptism? By legalism? By believing. He was 99—he did get circumcised, by the way, at 99. Ouch. He was 85 when he believed God. He had been saved 14 years before he ever went through a ritual of circumcision.

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Guest (Male): When you give today, you'll receive Reconnecting with Family, a powerful book from Pastor Skip that addresses the pressures families face today and offers practical, scripture-based guidance for navigating life together with grace, wisdom, and hope. Your gift helps extend the reach of Connect with Skip Heitzig, connecting more people and families to God's unchanging truth. Request Reconnecting with Family when you give $50 or more at connectwithskip.com/offer or by calling 800-922-1888. Now, here's more from Pastor Skip.

Skip Heitzig: There are guess how many religions are in the world? How many would you guess? About 10,000, that's sort of the going collective number. 10,000 religions. 85 percent of all people on the earth say that they are an adherent to one of those 10,000 religions. Actually, there are really only two religions in the world. They can all be summed up by two.

Two different approaches to God. Number one, the religion of human achievement. "I do this, I do that, I will practice that, the other thing, and I will therefore earn favor with God." That's the religion of human achievement. The other, and this is the gospel, is the religion or the approach of divine accomplishment. That is the religion of works, this is the religion of his work, his finished work.

Legalism contradicts his work. It contradicts the gospel, it contradicts experience, it contradicts logic and it saps the joy out of your life. It drains vitality, it reduces life to a list. "I did this, check. I did that, check. Okay, I'll do the other thing, check." And here's the ironic thing about legalism. Legalism doesn't make people work harder.

It makes people give up. Because they say, "I'll never, ever keep it all. I could never do it all." So Paul is warning the Galatians, don't be fooled by the spell, the charm of these legalists. But now I want you to see what he calls the legalists. You think Galatians was tough? Watch this. Turn over two books to the book of Philippians. I like to say flip to Philippians.

Philippians chapter 3. Flip over there to Philippians chapter 3. That's the joy letter, remember that? He's in prison, he writes this letter. But he also gives them a warning. And he calls legalists some pretty dicey things. Philippians chapter 3, verse 1: "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Ready? Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the mutilation."

What does he mean by mutilation? Circumcision. Because he says, "For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." He says beware of dogs. What does that mean? Was this a sign you hang up for the mailman? Beware of my dog, he's going to get you. No, it's a pejorative term, it's a derogatory term.

Orthodox Jews called Gentiles dogs. And they got the term out of Deuteronomy 23 where it refers to a male cult prostitute. The scripture says, "You shall not bring the wages of a harlot nor the price of a dog to the house of the Lord." When Paul uses the term, he meant men whose teaching distorts the gospel, people who are adding to the gospel. Dogs. Why? Because you're burdening the people.

Why are they burdening the people? Because the Bible says if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart, you will be what? You'll be saved. What do I got to do? Believe. There's got to be more. Burden. Dog. So legalists are scavengers number one, that's what he says about them. They're scavengers. Number two, legalists are evil, but they think they're good.

He calls them evil workers. They're telling people, "Oh, you got to keep good works." That sounds good, right? Do good things. Paul says not if you're telling people to do good things in order to be right with God. If you think you're going to earn something with God, what you're basically saying is Jesus' work on the cross is not good enough and you got to fix it. You got to add to it.

It's called bootstrap religion. It's the religion of pride. You're glorifying people, not God. So legalists are scavengers, they're evil but they think they're good. Third thing he says about legalists is legalists are destructive. Because he says, "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation." Listen, circumcision was an outward sign that spoke of inward change.

It symbolized the cutting of the foreskin of an eight-day-old male child was a symbolic gesture to symbolize I'm cutting out of my life being dominated by the flesh. I'm going to be dominated by the spirit and not the flesh. That's what it meant. But by the time of the New Testament, it was nothing more than a formality. So Paul uses a very harsh word here. It calls it mutilation.

And that's a word that described pagan religious mutilation. Let me remind you of a story. 1 Kings 18, remember Elijah and the prophets of Baal has a contest? "Okay, I'll meet you guys at Mount Carmel and we'll have a battle of the gods. Whoever God you call on your god, I'll call on my god, whoever answers, he's God." They go, "Deal."

So Elijah gets out there, he's just a bold character. He gets out there and there's 450 prophets of Baal and one Elijah. And they start praying, the false prophets start praying, being very sincere, praying to their god from morning till noon. And Elijah thinks, "I'm going to have fun with these guys." Because they're just talking into the air, there's no god. That's a fake god they've come up with.

Fake news. But they're praying. So he taunts them. He goes, "I think you guys should pray louder. Maybe your god is on vacation. Maybe your god is using the toilet." I kid you not, that is the actual Hebrew translation of your god is busy or occupied. He's relieving himself. I mean, he is just mocking them. And then the Bible says this: as soon as he taunted them, they took out knives and cut themselves as was their custom.

That's pagan religious mutilation. That is the word that Paul uses here to describe circumcision. Here's what he's saying. Circumcision, if you think it's going to save you, is no better than ritual mutilation done by pagans. Wow. Let me give the gospel in two words. Ready? Two words. Substitutionary atonement. You owed a debt you couldn't pay, he paid the debt you owed.

Substitutionary atonement. Here's the gospel in four words: Christ in my place. Christ in my place. That's the gospel. You add anything to that and you have what he's talking about. Hey, don't add anything to the gospel, dog! That's what he's saying. "Well, yes, you need to receive Jesus but you have to be baptized." Dog! "Well, you need to accept Jesus Christ but you also need to stop smoking." Dog!

Now I sincerely hope if you're a smoker that you stop. I do. It's bad for your health, it's bad for everybody else around you. There's so many things that are bad for you, but it won't keep you out of heaven. Adding anything to the gospel is wrong. Jesus loves you the way you are. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. He loves you the way you are, but he loves you too much to leave you the way you are.

If it's real, sincere, saving faith, there will be life change. If there is no life change, there's been no salvation. There's been no saving faith. Let me conclude by the remarks of the great Eugene Peterson, who is now in heaven. He wrote this: "There are people who do not want us to be free. They don't want us to be free before God, accepted as we are by his grace. They don't want us to be free to express our faith originally and creatively."

"They insist that all look alike, talk alike, and act alike. Without being aware of it, we become anxious about what others will say about us, obsessively concerned about what others think we should do. We no longer live the good news, but anxiously try to memorize and recite the script that someone else has assigned to us. We may be secure, but we will not be free." I want to be free.

Now if you are the person that always has a tendency to be legalistic and perfectionistic, let me give you a few quick hints. Number one, know the gospel. You have to know what the gospel is. Just know the gospel. Number two, stop seeking the favor of everyone. "I got to make people like me and I'm always going to say things to make people like me because I want people to like me."

I get that, we all want—we don't want people to hate us. But if you're always pleasing people, Paul said you can't be a God pleaser. You can't be a servant of Christ. So live to please him and he accepts you, you're his child, he's working on you, he wants to clean you up and make you holy, but stop trying to seek the favor of everybody else. It's just a bad thing to get into.

Number three, resist a pass/fail mentality. So many people go through life, they do things every day. "I failed today. I passed today." And they have a little merit system going on in their heads instead of, "I'm accepted by Christ, I'm his child. Yeah, I mess up sometimes, I do good other times." Resist the pass/fail mentality. And then number four, be honest.

If you disagree with someone, be honest, talk it out, don't hide it. When you fail, be honest. Repent of it if you need to. There's one group of people in your life that will call out your hypocrisy and knows your hypocrisy better than anybody else. They're called children. Your kids can spot it. So you blow it, don't say, "Well, you know, I'm the parent and I'm holy and you have to learn." If you're wrong, to say, "You know, I'm wrong. That was bad. I'll do better by God's grace." Living that kind of a way under God's grace is being free. So don't go for being secure as much as being free.

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