“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou were cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” Revelation 3:15-18 How weary the Holy God must be with this society of churchgoers. Man’s religion with its superstitious ritualism is ever increasing as true religion and experimental union with Christ is decreasing. While the Lord God demands a pure heart and unfeigned lips to appear before Him, poor deceived wretches robed in their hypocritical rags go about their ceremonial labors from Sabbath to Sabbath convinced in their blind minds that by “their works” they are accepted with God. There are only two religions in the world, the religion of works, and the religion of sovereign grace. There aren’t any others, although there seem to be thousands. Throughout history, God’s religion of divine grace has been opposed by Satan’s religion of works and self-righteousness. The book of Galatians, 5:1-6 defends the doctrine of divine grace over the doctrine of human achievement. For every man who has lived, salvation boils down to this simple question: “Do I magnify my own achievements, or do I humbly bow beneath the grace of God and magnify the Lord Jesus Christ?” In Galatians five Paul emphasized the ministry of the Holy Spirit because it is the Spirit who makes the life of faith work. A life of faith would not work any better than a life of legalism if it weren’t for the indwelling Holy Spirit who empowers us. The Galatians were set free from their pagan legalism when they believed in Christ. Later the Judaizers came along and tried to put them back into the bondage of legalism by requiring them to keep the Jewish law. Paul says, “Stand fast, wherefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (V.1). Oh my dear fellow worm, be not deceived! A man is not accepted for who he is or what he has done; he is accepted for who Christ is and what He has done. And he is so accepted only as he repents of what he is and what he has done; and only as he embraces, relies on, rests and trusts fully in the finished atonement of Jesus Christ. It is Christ alone who came and fully did the will of God as a substitute for fallen sinners.
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