Is Christ of Value to You?

Galatians 5:2-3

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.

There are many different religions that do it. The Roman Catholics (especially those pre-Vatican II), the Muslims, and the Mormons are just a few of the faith systems that do. Even some Baptists are falling into the same traps as many other false religions (more on this Monday). What I'm speaking of is the belief that there are certain works which one can do, or should do, in order to make oneself right with God. If it is a trip to Mecca or baptism as an infant, throughout history different groups have either completely relied on works, or added to the Gospel additional items.

For the first century Jews it was circumcision. A group of Jewish believers who followed Paul around were constantly making trouble for him by teaching the new Gentile believers that they had to be circumcised in order to truly be saved. Can you imagine what difficult news this must have been to the poor men in Galatia? Imagine if you will, a family who decides to join a church. They walk down the isle on Sunday morning (it's an SBC church) and the pastor hands them a new member information card. As they fill it out at first the answers come easily. Name, Age, Children's names, and then it hits: Date of circumcision! WHAT! I mean, I understand churches being careful about who they let join, and I'm even OK with new member courses, but you have to have an operation in order to join this church! That must have been a hard pill for these men to swallow-- But they did none the less. And circumcision became a common practice among these believers.

Enter Paul stage left. These were his spiritual children who have been corrupted by these Judaizers, and he hits them with some strong words: If you're going to make circumcision a requirement of the Gospel, then you can't stop there; you have to obey the whole law.

You see there are two ways to make right your relationship with God. One is to trust in what Jesus did on the cross and believe that his death paid for your sins. The other is to obey the law. All of it. Perfectly. (By the way, number two is impossible!)

And now we find ourselves 2000 or so years later, still trying to add little works to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We shouldn't smoke, drink, cuss, or chew. We shouldn't speak in a prayer language. We shouldn't (insert legalistic mumbo-jumbo here). But the truth of the matter is this: If we are going to add works of any kind to the Gospel, then we must be willing to follow the letter of the law perfectly in order to make our relationship right with God. Otherwise (and don't miss this) Christ will be of no value to you at all.

I wonder, of how much value he is to you?