Did Christ Die for Nothing?

“…if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” - Galatians 2:21

This verse has been rattling around in my head over the last several days. After reading Galatians a few times and considering the world around us, I think I understand Paul more fully. 

Lately I’ve seen variations of the phrase, “What Would Jesus Do?” being thrown around on social media. It was popular a few decades ago, inspired by a book written nearly a century before called, “In His Steps,” by Charles Sheldon, but the campaign was started by a youth minister in Michigan in the early 1990s. 

Many of us who came of age during the “What Would Jesus Do?” movement took that question seriously. We believed, and still do believe, that being a Christian means that our lives should reflect the life of Jesus. We know we’re not perfect, but we ask the question. We try.

But, how are we supposed to know what Jesus would do?

Read the Bible! The Bible says…

Hmmm... Well, the Bible tells me what Abraham did. Would Jesus do what Abraham did?

The Bible tells me what Judah did. Would Jesus do what Judah did? 

Would Jesus do what Moses did? How about Joshua? David? Absalom? Esther? Peter? Paul?

Am I supposed to follow them or Jesus? 

Am I supposed to follow the Bible or am I supposed to follow Jesus?

That might sound like a nonsensical question, but I’ve come to believe that it’s at the heart of the division within Christianity we see today.

Many, many people have been taught that the entire Bible speaks with one voice, the voice of God, and that Jesus is subordinate to God and therefore Jesus is subordinate to the Bible, which because it speaks clearly and without error, it is to be followed. This is what it means to have a “high view” of the Bible. 

There are others who were taught to follow Jesus and to model their lives after him. In this view, the Bible is not a flat text, but is alive and speaks with many voices and perspectives. These Christians have a “high view” of Jesus and view the Bible as subordinate to him.

Then, there are many who have been influenced by both, particularly as churches in the latter group used children’s and youth curriculum, and adult Bible studies, that taught the theology of the former, and were left not knowing what to think.

For many years, I was in this last group - conflicted and confused. I’m not anymore. After spending years praying, studying, and discerning, I have come to understand that to subordinate the teachings of Jesus to the rest of the Bible, to the Law, is to reject him as Messiah.

This was what Paul was addressing with the Galatians: if they were going to insist on keeping the law, then Jesus died for nothing.

If people like Peter were not willing to dine with the gentiles, then Jesus died for nothing. 

When the teachings of Jesus are set aside in favor of the law, then Christ died for nothing.

When we refuse to love our neighbors because of the law, because “the Bible says…” then Christ died for nothing.

Salvation does not come from the law, or the Bible, we are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. Through Jesus, the unclean have been made clean; there is no distinction anymore. It is finished. All you have to do is believe that it’s true. 

This was the radical message of Jesus. Not that I have been saved or you have been saved, but that God has declared all things clean.

That is the radical message that many do not want preached today.

Do you remember when Princess Diana went into the AIDS clinic and shook hands with a patient without wearing gloves? She knew that she could not contract the disease through simple contact, and she acted on that knowledge to restore the man’s humanity. It was scandalous.

Under the law, all kinds of things made people unclean, and the unclean were cast out to the margins of society because their uncleanness was considered infectious. Jesus went to those people and offered his hand. Then he didn’t wash them! It was scandalous.

Jesus did not abolish the law, he came to set us free from it. He declared that the thing that made people unclean was not infectious. He ate with sinners because he did not recognize them as unclean.

Yet, when someone comes along and says, “Actually, the Bible says that those people are unclean,” we do what Peter did and we stop eating with them, because it’s true, the Bible does say that some people are unclean. But, Jesus says they’re not. This is the inconsistency of Scripture.

We are faced with the same choice that Peter and the Galatians had: will we follow the law or will we follow Jesus? They are two different paths.

If we choose to follow the law, then Jesus died in vain.

My upcoming book series, Faithful Resistance: Seeking the Way of Jesus Together, is an invitation to have difficult conversations about the Bible and what it means to follow Jesus.

Click here to stay caught up on the Faithful Resistance movement.