THE REWARD OF FAITH

“See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand! Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they boast about your circumcision in the flesh.” Galatians 6:11-13.

This issue was so urgent for Paul that he even wrote this letter himself instead of using a scribe as he usually did. Apparently he was short-sighted, or he had some other eye problem that affected his eyesight. Some commentators believe that he had an eye disease which made him look unsightly, hence his comment in chapter 4:13-15.

As he struggled to pen his thoughts, he turned again to the men who were undermining the faith of the Galatians, and persuading them to take on the burden of a yoke God’s own people were unable to bear. Paul had walked that road himself and he knew how burdensome it was, and how glorious it was to walk in the freedom of knowing Christ Jesus and His forgiveness and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

These Judaizers, of course, had a hidden agenda. They knew the truth but they were dodging the offence of the cross. In Paul’s day, persecution came from two fronts. The Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah and turned their hatred on the believers. As an ambassador for Christ and in the forefront of the battle, Paul was prime target for their anger. They hounded him from city to city as he moved across the Roman Empire, using every excuse to take him out.

The Roman government and their representatives had it in for the believers because they refused to bow to Caesar as Lord. Nero, the crazy emperor during Paul’s time, used Christians as the scapegoat for his madness and invented more and more cruel ways to dispose of them, even killing them for entertainment in the great amphitheatre in Rome.

Whereas, in the beginning, the new “cult” of Jesus-followers was identified with Judaism and tolerated by Rome, later on the Jews dissociated themselves from the people of “The Way”. Rome tolerated the Jews and allowed them to practise their monotheistic religion but they rejected the Christians’ insistence that Jesus, not Caesar, was Lord and the Prince of Peace and Saviour. Christians were outlawed and killed for treason against Rome.

Hence these Judaizers who were supposedly followers of Jesus, remained under the umbrella of Judaism to protect themselves from persecution. To come out boldly and openly on the side of Jesus was suicidal. To proselytise and get a following of Gentiles for themselves was a protection against the anger of the Jewish religious leaders.

To follow the teaching of the Judaizers was to renounce Jesus and escape the offence of the cross in this life but, at the same it meant forfeiting God’s grace and the hope of eternal life. They could not have it both ways.

Having explained the implications of their actions, Paul was now calling on them to make a choice. If they chose Jesus, they would put themselves in the firing line for persecution and possible execution, but that was par for the course in this life. The reward of faith far outweighed the price they would pay for following Jesus.

These antagonists, according to Paul, were no advert for the religion they professed to follow. No one, not even they, were able to obey the law perfectly, yet they were insisting that their way was the way to God. Why believe them when their way did not work and never had worked, as the history of God’s people revealed? In the end, it was not their zeal for the law that drove them to seek a following but their cowardly desire to dodge persecution. Not only did they follow a false way themselves, but they also tried to drag others with them.

The way of the cross is the way of suffering, but the promise of God stands above it all as a beacon of hope.

“Now if we are children of God, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Romans 8:17, 18.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.