Can Bible-based self-improvement send you to hell?

The headline message of many churches is: Come to church. Be transformed.

It sounds fine on the surface. And there is some truth to it—because the Gospel does transform us.

But if we confuse this effect of the Gospel with the Gospel itself, Galatians gives us a huge warning.

In 3:3 Paul asks:

³ Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

The Christians in Galatia were not blatant sinners. They didn’t deny Jesus. In fact, the opposite was true: They affirmed the importance of faith in Christ. They were earnest people who wanted to live for him.

But, they became focused on personal transformation. So, they added the Law to free forgiveness in Christ.

They believed that although salvation began with grace, the Christian life moved forward by living under the Law.

Paul rejects that in the most shocking terms in chapter 1:

⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—… ⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Now in chapter 4, Paul gives his clearest critique of legalism:

1) We want self-improvement religion
2) But the Law only makes you a slave bound for hell
3) God’s promise makes you an heir and preserves you through opposition

So first, 1) We want self-improvement religion, v. 21:

²¹ Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?

Now in Galatians, Paul critiques four ways that they desired to be under the Law:

The first was by using your obedience to assure yourself that God is in a good mood with you.

In 5:4 he says: You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law

The second is relying on your own effort to improve:

In 3:3 he says: Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Third by using external practices such as ceremonies to please God, maintain faith, or grow in godliness:

In 4:10 he says: You observe days and months and seasons and years.

The fourth is by using anything about ourselves to define belonging to God’s people:

In 5:2 in says: Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

We’re going to focus on the second.

Back in v. 9, Paul said that trying to improve ourselves through more effort belongs to the basic religious instincts of the whole world—we all feel this:

how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

And he explains it here in vv. 22-23:

²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. ²³ But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.

Back in the book of Genesis—why did Abraham end up with two sons?

In chapter 15, God repeats his promise to Abraham, that God will give him a son—and Abraham struggles with it because it’s not reasonable.

² But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³ And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”

Now, while God did give Abraham faith through this promise, he was both righteous and a sinner. He believed God’s promise, but some doubt and struggle remained.

So, Abraham and his wife poked holes in the Word, probing for exceptions and loopholes.

And while God had promised Abraham would father a child, he hadn’t yet explicitly said Sarah would be the mother.

All of us are constantly trying to find excuses and reasons for why we should take matters into our own hands, ch 16 says:

Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

So, Abraham took the slave girl Hagar as a concubine. That is what Paul is pointing to, here in Galatians 4.

And the story shows us why We want self-improvement religion:

Abraham had started by believing God’s promise. But, waiting, patiently, with no idea how or when God was going to deliver, proved to be too much.

God’s promises are not reasonable. They don’t make sense to our rationality, or our experience.

And so, Abraham wanted to “help” the promise come true, by finding what looked like a loophole, which allowed him to take control of the situation.

The promise you have today is that you are freely forgiven in Christ. God will preserve you in this, until Christ returns and makes everything new.

This promise, to us, is not reasonable.
“So what if I’m forgiven? What about my life now?”
“When will Jesus actually return? What about the wait?”
“What about the problems I have? The things I struggle with?”

And so we, like Abraham, want to “help” the promise along. Simply being forgiven, being loved, doesn’t feel satisfying. We want to be better. We want to be impressive.

I certainly daydream about that. Faced with discouragements and opposition, I often find myself praying to God “Change me!” “Make me better.” But, not for God’s glory—for mine.

A desire to be perfect, be fantastic, be impressive. I, just like everyone else, want self-improvement religion

But the problem with that is Paul’s second point: the Law only makes you a slave bound for hell, vv. 24-26:

²⁴ Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. ²⁵ Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

Hagar and Sarah are two covenants, two Jerusalems, which are two churches, two religious systems.

The Jerusalem from above is the religious system of free promise, forgiveness and grace.

The present Jerusalem is the religious system of law, trying harder, and earning your way forward.

The Galatians started by the Spirit, but want to be perfected by the flesh.

This doesn’t mean they look like terrible and sinful people. It means they look very religious, are very earnest, and are trying really, really hard.

To be perfected by the flesh, means to “help the promise along” as Abraham did. To look for loopholes, or gaps, where you can take control, and try and make things sure and certain for yourself.

The other errors in Galatians are really just different expressions of this same thing:

Looking at my own faith or obedience to assure myself that I am chosen, so God is in a good mood with me.

Relying on external practices like ceremonies to please God, maintain faith, or grow in godliness.

Or relying on things I do, or things I avoid, to give me confidence that I belong to God’s people.

But when you and I try to help God’s promises along, we only bind ourselves again as slaves to God’s Law.

And Paul warns the Galatians that people who do this won’t inherit God’s promises as children and heirs.

To not inherit means to be judged according to our works. And those who are judged by works will only end up in hell.

Don’t try and help God’s promises along by trying harder. “walk by the Spirit,” Paul will later say in 5:16 “and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

To walk by the Spirit means to walk in the direction and power of the Gospel.

Refuse to secure yourself, improve yourself, or prove yourself. Do you see something in yourself you don’t like? Don’t “try harder”—look at Christ’s forgiveness.

Do you see something lacking in yourself you want? Don’t “try to add it”—pray and wait for God to deliver.

Don’t try and win God’s approval. Don’t soothe your self-doubt with self-examination. Don’t try to feel better by:
—recounting things you did well in the past
—comparing yourself to others in the present
—or promising yourself you’ll do better in future.

The Law only makes you a slave bound for hell.

So, as much as you might want to change, secure the future, or make ourselves sure: Don’t fall back again into rules, trying harder, and grading yourself.

Because—and this is Paul’s third point—you can be assured that:

God’s promise makes you an heir and preserves you through opposition

In v. 27 Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah:

²⁷ For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labour! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.”

At this point in Isaiah, it seems that those who rely on false religion have won.

The successful people are those who have power, and they wield that power. And power is what the Law promises.

In the movie Lord of the Rings, the characters are trying to destroy the “One Ring”: a source of incredible power that corrupts all who use it.

It is often considered a metaphor of sin—but it is a far better metaphor of legalism, of the Law.

Most of the characters who are tempted by the One Ring want to use it for good.

At one crucial moment, Boromir, a man used to fighting evil, says: “Give Gondor the weapon of the enemy. Let us use it against him!”

To which Aragorn, a wise leader who shuns personal glory, says: “You cannot wield it! None of us can. The One Ring answers to Sauron alone. It has no other master.”

The Law—the principle of legalism—is tempting because it would seem to give us power. And we want to use that power for good.

But the Bible calls the devil Satan—the accuser—because the Law is not our weapon—it’s his.

You cannot wield it against him—none of us can.

And those who do wield the law, who do use legalism, will indeed have power in this life. Paul goes on in vv. 28-29:

²⁸ Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. ²⁹ But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.

People shaped by legalistic religion will always persecute and oppose those who rely only on God’s promises.

It was the case since Abraham. It was the case in Galatia. It is the case today. It will be until the end of time.

But, vv. 30-31:

³⁰ But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” ³¹ So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

Who you are, and your future, don’t depend on you at all. They only depend on Christ.

Keep looking at him.

Hear the Gospel again and again. Come to church. Read the Bible. Receive Absolution. Take the Sacrament.

Trust that God’s forgiveness is real. You don’t need to fix yourself, or change yourself in any way.

Refusing the instinct to secure yourself through improvement. Be patient. Let the Spirit do his work. He will produce love within you. You can trust him.