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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christians' armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Why Jesus Plus Anything Fails

Cut Off From Grace By Law

Faith Working Through Love

Modern Versions Of Works Salvation

Obedience As Evidence Not Entry

The Gospel Reminder And Closing

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All right, day two, Galatians chapter five. We're going to pick it up in verse two. Paul says, Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. In other words, again, in the church at Galatia, some Judaizers had moved in, and they were teaching the church that belief in Jesus, life, death, and resurrection was not enough to save you. You had to add this religious ritual that was a symbol of God's covenant with the nation of Israel, that you had to be circumcised first in order and in addition to what Christ has done for you. And so what Paul is saying is that if you accept that, if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage of you. Because what you're saying to him is when you pushed up on your nail-pierced feet and says, It is finished, you did not completely finish the work. You did not fully redeem me, you did not fully pay for my sin. Now I have to do something to add to what you are doing. And so if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. Then he says in verse 4, you are severed from Christ. This is an intentional pun. The word here severed means to be cut off. And so again, we're going to talk about this tomorrow, but this phrase is a little offensive and a little vulgar. What he's saying is, if you think it's Jesus plus anything, then you have completely missed everything about the gospel. He says you are severed from Christ. You who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. This word here, I've told on it about 10,000 times, the word faith is pestuo. It doesn't just mean to believe that, it means to believe in, to put your whole trust into the reality that when Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for you. Now, there are a lot of churches today, not just the Galatian church, there's a lot of churches today that teach a version of works-based righteousness. They teach that Jesus plus some other activity of you is what determines your right standing before God. So when Paul says, For through the Spirit by faith we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness, that talks about a right standing before God. That's what it means. So here's what this means: it is not Jesus plus your baptism. Your baptism is an outward expression of the reality that you have been saved. It's not faith plus baptism that saves you. It's not faith plus some expression of a gift. It's not faith plus speaking in tongues that makes you saved. If that were the case, then Jesus didn't do enough. And listen, for the Catholics, it's not faith plus communion. That's not what it is. Communion does not put you in a state of grace, and then you can receive grace. That's not what it is. That grace is a free gift of God that is given to us by the person and work of Christ, period and dot. It's not faith plus confession, it's not faith plus penance, it's not even faith plus obedience that equals salvation. It's just faith. We are saved by grace through faith, not of our works. Now, obedience is not a requirement for salvation. Obedience is evidence that salvation has actually happened. So ask yourself, where in my world am I beginning to believe some false gospel? Because if I add anything to the equation of salvation other than my faith in Jesus, that when he died on the cross, somehow that counted for me, then essentially what we are doing is we are cutting ourselves off from the gospel. And in so doing, we are cutting ourselves off from the abundant life that we would have in Christ. So let me just remind you, and if it sounds like we're repeating this a lot, it's because I'm just reading the book of Galatians. And so Paul over and over and over is going to remind us and remind us and remind us of the gospel. Why? Because the gospel leaks out of our goofy little heads. That we have to consistently remind ourselves that when it comes to salvation, Jesus plus nothing equals everything. May you put your faith, your hope, your trust in Christ's finished work and in that alone. And then may your faith in him compel you to some other things that grow your relationship with him. Again, these things that we do are not prerequisites to our salvation, they are a result of the reality that Christ has saved us.

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Amen. Stay sharp.