​Don’t Get Tricked out of the Treat

October 31st often reignites an ongoing conversation among Christians regarding Trick or Treating.   Whether you are in the “No way!  Not under any circumstances!” camp or the “It’s free candy! What’s the big deal?” camp or somewhere in between, the argument often overlooks a much bigger issue. 
 
October 31st is not just Halloween, it is also Reformation Day.  500 years ago this October 31st, a young monk and professor posted 95 statements for debate on the community bulletin board (the church doors) in Wittenberg, Germany.  His name was Martin Luther, of the Augustinian Order.  That event sparked the movement known as the Reformation.  What lay at the very heart of it is a simple and profoundly important question:  “What is the gospel?”  In Luther’s Day, the abuses that fired up that question were these:  Can a person, by buying an Indulgence from the Roman Catholic Church, actually purchase release from the penalties due his or her sins?  Is the righteousness that the sinner needs in order to enjoy God’s favor and get into heaven something the sinner produces? Were there certain people who were way more holy than they needed to be for their own salvation, whose overflow of good works can be credited to sinners?  Is Jesus alone the righteousness that we need to stand before God?  And what role does faith play in all of this?  Do Christ’s benefits flow to the sinner by faith alone, or must good works also be combined with faith in order to be saved?    
 
Those questions were not new in Luther’s day.  They were around in days of the apostle Paul, too.  The Christians in the Galatian churches had heard the gospel – believed it, too.  That gospel was proclaimed against the backdrop of the law which clearly said that peace and God and eternal life were impossible if based on the good works of the sinner.  God’s minimum standard is perfection which, of course, no sinner can claim.  But the gospel announced God’s favor and grace expressed, established and extended to the sinner by the finished work of Jesus.  It’s why Paul wrote this in Galatians 3:  “...those who rely on the works of the law are under a curse.  For it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who do not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.’ Clearly, no one is declared righteous before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’  The law does not say ‘by faith.’ Instead it says, ‘He one who does these things will live by them.’  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.  As it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’ He redeemed us in order that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that we would receive the promised Spirit through faith.”  (Galatians 3:20-14)   The gospel is God’s treat, freely given, announced to the sinner because Jesus has already purchased it in full and by his life, death and resurrection put it into full effect.
 
But Christians in Galatia, like so many in Luther’s Day and in ours, were being tricked out of that treat.  The tricking came from two sources:  man’s own law-based opinion about salvation, and from false teachers who promoted that view.  This “other gospel” says that faith in Jesus is a fine thing, but if you do something to offend God (sin), then it is entirely or mostly or a little up to you to fix that.  The reason why so many in Paul’s day and Luther’s day and our day get tricked by that is because it seems like it is the way all our human relationships works. But our relationship with God is different.  God knows that we sinners will never be able to meet his minimum standard of perfection no matter what we do.  And even if we could get to a level of conduct where we stopped sinning, that would not erase all our sins committed before that point.  Jesus performed the righteousness for us which could not and God credits that to us.  Jesus became a curse for our sins in our place and God now considers those sins punished.
 
Paul opened his letter to the Galatian Christian with a sincere and urgent warning that is as valid for us today as it was for them:  “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ, for a different gospel, which is really not another gospel at all.  There are, however, some who are trying to disturb you by perverting the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven would preach any gospel other than the one we preached to you – a curse on him!”  (Galatians 1:6-8)
 
Look to Jesus and his finished work alone.  Let your good works be a willing thank you note written with your life for that gift, but don’t get tricked into thinking that your good works are the check you are writing to purchase what God has already given you in Christ.  Don’t get tricked out of the treat!