Christian is as Christian does.

I've been having a great time in the book of Galatians – I’m leading our seniors through it once a month. They love having a young guy sounding the horn for faith alone; I love hearing their stories of hard-learned lessons of what following Christ looks like in one’s fifties, sixties, seventies, and even in one’s eighties. I love hearing them articulate that many whom they were raised to see as their enemies (e.g., Roman Catholics) aren't. I love hearing them explain that some Christian practices need to change, and are based more on traditions than on the clear teaching of the Scriptures.

Most recently we spent some time in the last bit of chapter 4. There, Paul compares the children of Hagar and Sara and Hagar (Ishmael and Isaac, respectively) to illustrate two ways we try to approach God: by the flesh (i.e., human effort, willpower) or by faith in God’s promises. In reading this chapter, it occurred to me that the ‘big idea’ that’s so easy for us to miss is that Christian is as Christian does. No, that doesn’t come from a deleted scene from Forrest Gump. It’s Paul’s point here.  

²¹ Tell me, those of you who want to be under the law, don't you hear the law? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman. ²³ But the one by the slave was born according to the impulse of the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. (Gal 4:21-23)

Why does Paul tell a bunch of Christians that gaining eternal life isn’t about the works of the Law? Because he wants them to make a choice. Just before this was written, the Galatians were being thrown into confusion by some who wanted them to go back to obedience to the Law of God as a basis for their justification before God. They argued that Paul was crazy, and that only observance of the Law, including the circumcision of new converts, was acceptable to God. Here in ch.4, Paul argues that the way of the flesh cannot achieve what it tries to. They have to make a choice now between putting their confidence in God’s promise, fulfilled in Christ, or in their own flesh:

³⁰ But what does the Scripture say? Drive out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never be a co-heir with the son of the free woman. (Gal 4:30)

In other words: there’s really no choice. All the willpower and human effort in the world can never save you.

For a typical evangelical, that seems like a no-brainer. But Paul says it anyway, because Christian is as Christian does. In other words, whatever Christian ‘team’ we claim to be on is really irrelevant; it’s the pattern of our living that matters. You can go to a church that teaches that salvation is by faith, and you can claim to believe it yourself, but the proof is in your lifestyle.

Many of the most legalistic people I know are very orthodox in their beliefs, and they look down on Roman Catholics as though they’re as hopeless as the devil himself. When I’m not careful, I can easily fall into legalism: confessing evangelically, but living legalistically, as though God should be impressed by my rule-making and rule-keeping, and He should be less impressed by those who don’t observe the same rules as me.  That’s why Paul’s letter to the Galatians is so important for us all: it reminds us that the real test of one’s faith isn’t in their profession of faith, but in their demonstration of it. The one who claims to believe in salvation by faith, but lives a legalistic, judgmental lifestyle is really no better off than the person who is at least honest enough to admit that they believe God should save them because they’ve never killed anyone and they did their best.  

What I and my friends need to be reminded of is that Tom the evangelical legalist is really in no better a position to inherit eternal life than Dick the nominal Catholic who lacks assurance of his salvation, but is hopeful that God has forgiven him because he did all his sacraments, and tried his best to keep his nose clean. Harry, who is spiritually interested but not a professing Christian looks on from the outside and doesn't see in these two one guy who obviously “gets it” and one who is hopelessly lost. Harry sees two guys who have nothing great to offer him or the world.

We’re not saved by our understanding of  salvation by grace through faith. We’re saved by grace through faith. And if that’s true, a couple of implications are stunning, if not uncomfortable:

First, it’s possible to believe truth and yet to not have been transformed by it. Lots of those who we would consider ‘born-again’ don’t trust that Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross was enough to secure their acceptance with God; instead they trust that their rule-keeping impresses God enough that He accepts them.

Second, it’s possible to have a cleansed heart but a confused mind. I've known lots of Catholics (most, sadly) who didn’t claim to understand what is meant by atonement, propitiation, justification, expiation, etc., and didn’t know their five Solas, but some of them nevertheless put me to shame by their faith-filled lives. They’re not guys like Harry, but people who really think Jesus is the big deal, even if they feel too insignificant to claim a relationship with Him. They’ve banked everything on the goodness and promises of God. That doesn’t mean that there’s another way, or that all Catholics are ‘saved’ – but it makes me hopeful that there are some who’ve been saved by faith even without knowing it.

And so Paul’s summary at the end of ch.4 is really important. It’s not  a new command to do something different, but a reminder of good news they heard a long time ago, but which they’ve forgotten:

³¹ Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. (Gal 4:31)

Remember what you are, and live like it. Christian is as Christian does.