FREED BY GRACE
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· 32 viewsGod’s pleasure in you is not based on your performance for Him.
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FREED BY GRACE
I want us to walk through the book of Galatians. The reason why I want us to walk through Galatians as a faith family is because this is a book that was written specifically to address the centrality of grace in the church, and to counter legalistic tendencies that were creeping into the church.
FREED BY GRACE
This letter is written to some young churches who were just beginning to grow which made them susceptible to the Adversary. Satan will move while God is moving. He will bring in discord, doubt, and division.
FREED BY GRACE
As we surrender our lives and His church, more and more to His cause, our Adversary will twist the very core of the gospel that we celebrate.
FREED BY GRACE
We must head Peter’s warning
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
We want to be able to recognize the gospel, the true gospel, and recognize when a false gospel is being preached. That’s what the Galatian church was not doing. They were becoming susceptible to a false gospel that undercut the very foundation of grace.
Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—
and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
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—
not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
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.
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel.
For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.
And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;
nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.
But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.
(In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)
Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.
They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”
And they glorified God because of me.
BACKGROUND
The gospel started spreading, and as it spread, more Gentiles...more and more Gentiles were coming to faith in Christ...non-Jews, Gentiles, coming to faith in Christ. There was a big discussion, “Well, if Gentiles are coming to faith in Christ, then when they come to faith in Christ, do they need to follow all the Jewish rules and all the Old Testament rules, regulations, and rites? Most notably, do they need to be circumcised?”
But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
We don’t know for sure if Paul wrote Galatians before this happened in Acts 15 or afterwards, but we know he’s addressing this group of people, these “some men”, these Judaizers who were teaching that you needed to be circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses in order to be saved.
BACKGROUND
In Acts 15 decided that circumcision contaminated the gospel.
Acts 15:8 (ESV)
And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us,
and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.
Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?
But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
So, what the church decided was, “No, grace is the only way that we’re saved,” and they sent out a letter to all of these Gentile believers saying, “It’s by grace alone you’re saved. You don’t have to be circumcised in order to be saved, also.”
FREED BY GRACE
Judaizers were basically legalists. What they taught is in many ways alive and well today. I’m convinced that really every single one of us, every single Christ follower in this room, in some sense, is a recovering legalist.
FREED BY GRACE
Whether or not we like to admit it or not, secretly, we think that there is something we can do in order to please God and be approved by God, or be accepted by God. Secretly, we think that if we have spent good time in prayer and in Bible study this week, that we come, and we sit in our seats tonight, and God is pleased with where we are.
FREED BY GRACE
However, if we’ve not prayed like we should, or we haven’t studied the Bible, or we’ve really wandered in some different areas of our life, that, in some sense, God is not pleased with us. This is a performance-based kind of faith that is really legalism, and I want us to make sure we know what legalism is, so we can call it when we see it, but also, I want us to be careful that we don’t call something legalism that’s actually not legalism.
Legalism Defined ...
Working in our own power.
This is part of what the Judaizers were teaching. They said, “Believe in Christ, and then you put your natural ability forward, and you begin to obey these different laws or rules or regulations. So, it’s Christ and what man brings to the table. You trust in Christ, and then you do these things.”
LEGALISM REPACKAGED
Now that you are saved here is what you must do (spiritual disciplines) in order to please God (maintain your salvation).
SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES ARE NOT ABOUT MAKING YOU PLEASING TO GOD. THEY’RE ABOUT MAKING GOD MORE PRECIOUS TO YOU.
THE GRACE THAT SAVED US IS THE GRACE THAT WILL SUSTAIN US.
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Working according to our own rules.
The Judaizers were taking the new covenant and they were bringing in rules and regulations from the Old Testament, adding on. God had established a new covenant with His people, and the terms of that covenant are explained here in the New Testament. What they were doing was they were adding the rules and regulations from another covenant and bringing it in here.
Working according to our own rules.
We do the same thing when we add rules and say, “Well, you need to do this, or this, and this, and this in order to be accepted by God,” that are not outlined in the New Testament. Now, I want us to be careful because whenever we talk about commands that we do have in the New Testament, and we say, “We need to obey these commands,” that’s not legalism; that’s Christianity. It’s the core of the gospel, but you have to be careful not to add our own rules, working in our own power, according to our own rules.
Working to earn God’s favor.
Third, this really the heart of legalism: working in order to earn God’s favor. The key thought in legalism is that if we do certain things, that we will have favor before God; we’ll have credit before God. It’s what the Judaizers were saying: “The more these rights or rules or regulations that you follow, the more credit you have before God.”
Working to earn God’s favor.
“Well, if I...if I pray more, if I study the Bible more, and if I do these things in my Christian life, then I’ll have favor before God, and if I don’t, then He’ll be disappointed with me.” The startling truth of Christianity is this:
God’s pleasure in you is not based on your performance for Him.
The legalist in us rises up with that and says, “Surely there’s something I’m supposed to do. I don’t just sit back.” However, the reality that the gospel teaches is that God’s pleasure in you is not based on your performance before Him. This is what Paul is so adamantly talking about in Galatians 1. He goes so far as to say, “
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
How does Paul address this performance-based mentality that creeps into our minds and our hearts? I want to answer to that question with two fundamental truths...primary, elementary in some ways, but glorious truths about the gospel that obliterate legalism.
Legalism Destroyed ...
The gospel is free.
So, we’ve got legalism defined; now legalism destroyed. Two truths: truth number one, the gospel is free; the gospel is free. Now, this is where we’re going to camp out in verses 3, 4, and 5. I want you to listen to what Paul says. The very beginning, he starts,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
Grace the root of our salvation and peace is the fruit of our salvation.
What Paul is saying is that the gospel is free, salvation is free, mercy is free.
God’s pleasure in us is not based on our performance for Him. Instead, God’s pleasure in us is based on His performance for us.
Let that soak in.
God the Father has initiated our salvation.
Let me show this to you. What does God do in grace in the gospel? Number one, God the Father has initiated our salvation. It says down at the end of verse 4,
who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
“...according to the will of our God and Father.” God, by His will, has designed the gospel to be completely dependent on His grace, on His initiating our salvation.
For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.
This is what Paul talks about in verse 13. I want you to hear how he describes what he was doing, and then how he switches to describe what God did. Look in verse 13. Paul says, “[For] you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.”
God the Father has initiated our salvation.
Paul was the one who was taking people and making sure that they were killed or hurt, suffering because of their faith in Christ. This was what Paul did, and then he says, verse 14,
And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
He says, “I was doing all of these things, and then...” listen to this transition in verse 15,
But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
I love this picture. Paul says, “I was doing all of these things, but it was no match for the pleasure of a gracious God who invaded by life.”
God the Father has initiated our salvation.
Don’t miss it. Paul had not gotten to the point where he was dissatisfied with Judaism and was looking for something else. Paul was intensely following Judaism, intensely persecuting the church, and when he was in no way seeking a gospel, the gospel sought him. Isn’t that a great picture?
God the Father has initiated our salvation.
This is good news. Not one of us was seeking God; He sought us. Not one of us is in this room right now because of our own merit, because of what we earned to get here. We are here because mercy came running to you and me, because God in His grace has pursued us. That’s good news; the gospel is free. It is a picture of a Father who initiates a relationship with us and pursues after us.
This is too good to be true.
For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel.
This gospel is not invented by man.
This gospel is revealed by God.
The gospel message, in and of itself, is completely contrary to the pride that grips all of our hearts; the idea that a perfectly holy God would become a man and live a perfect life on this earth, so that He might die on a cross for rebellious sinners who have worshipped other things instead of Him. So that anyone, no matter how deep or dark their past, no matter how willful and deliberate their rebellion was...anyone who simply trusts in Him would have eternal life and be reconciled to Him forever.
This gospel is revealed by God.
You don’t...you don’t make that up. This gospel is not invented by man, it’s revealed by God, and Paul is saying, “If we abandon this gospel, we abandon God.”
God the Son has accomplished our salvation.
What has the Son done? God the Father is the initiator of our salvation; God the Son has accomplished our salvation.
who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
You might underline that phrase there in the beginning of Galatians 1:4, “who gave himself for our sins.” That is the core truth of the gospel, that salvation is not about what man can do, but salvation is all about...all about what Christ has done. Christ has done everything that is necessary for our salvation. He has given Himself for our sins, on behalf of our sins, in the place of our sins; the same word that’s used over in Galatians 2:20; Galatians 3:13. Christ has done everything necessary for our salvation. He has accomplished it for us.
We malign the gospel when we add to grace.
Now, what you had was the Judaizers who were saying, “Yeah, Jesus died on the cross. Yes, you need to believe in Him, but you also need to do these things,” and they were completely undercutting the significance of the death of Christ on a cross and what happened there by adding to it. This is where we have to be careful. We malign the gospel when we add to grace.
We malign the gospel when we add to grace.
Don’t think that the Judaizers just came on the scene and said, “Hey, just want you to know, we’ve got some false teaching we’d like to bring into the church right now, and really, we should be condemned for what we’re about to say, but maybe you’ll believe it. You need to do this, and this, and this, and this, in addition to believing in Christ in order to be saved. So any takers?”
We malign the gospel when we add to grace.
That’s not the way they approached this picture. It was subtle, in the same way that, well, you’ve got a lot of pictures of cults overtly doing this in our culture today, but also how this creeps into the church and the legalistic ways we talked about adding to grace, saying, “Trust in Christ and do these things, and as long as you trust in Christ and do these things, you’ll be acceptable before God.” Whenever we say that, whenever we add to grace, then we malign the very foundation of the gospel.
We malign the gospel when we add to grace.
When you contaminate the gospel with just a little bit, you poison the whole picture; you contaminate the whole picture. We cannot undercut grace by adding one shred to it, not one shred of human work in order to be accepted before God. The gospel does not tell us to believe in Christ and do these things in order to be accepted before Him. The gospel says,
You’re acceptance before God is based solely on the performance of Christ on a cross for your salvation.
We misunderstand the gospel when we cheapen grace
Now, that immediately opens up the gospel to accusation of lawlessness. “Well, if we don’t have to do anything, then that just means we’ll live however we want; people will live however they want.” They were discrediting Paul and his gospel on that grounds, and yes, grace like this is risky. This is where we need to remember, we malign the gospel when we try to add to grace; we misunderstand the gospel when we cheapen grace.
But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
What you’ve got is Paul talking here about how grace, first of all, is not cheap. It cost Christ His life on a cross. He gave Himself for our sins. However, not only is grace not cheap, but grace is changing...life changing...life transforming. You look in verse 14, Paul’s talking about Peter and some others and the way they were acting. He says, “When I saw...” listen to this phrase, “...that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel...”
We misunderstand the gospel when we cheapen grace
Did you catch that? There is a life, a way of living, that reflects the truth of the gospel, such that when the gospel is there, it automatically changes the way of life. So, your life can’t be the same when it’s been penetrated by this gospel of grace. It’s not that you’re adding to grace in order to be accepted before God, but it’s the grace that makes us accepted before God that radically changes the way we live.
We misunderstand the gospel when we cheapen grace
This is where...let’s be honest, this is where things get really confusing in the New Testament, because we hear this truth, that it’s only by grace that we’re saved, and nothing that we do, but then we hear Jesus saying, “If you do not give up everything you have, you cannot be my disciple. Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, then you’ll have treasure in heaven.”
We misunderstand the gospel when we cheapen grace
In John 15, He says, “You are my friends if you do what I command.” If we didn’t know these words were coming from Jesus, we’d probably label Him a legalist. “What do you mean we have to give up everything we have; we have to do this and do this?”
These aren’t two different gospels; they’re one gospel in the New Testament.
There’s not Jesus’ gospel, and Paul’s gospel, and Peter’s gospel, and James’ gospel. There’s one gospel here. What we need to realize when we come to these passages in the New Testament is that these authors are addressing specific contexts, specific audiences.
These aren’t two different gospels; they’re one gospel in the New Testament.
Paul is writing here in Galatians to a people who were adding to grace. So, we’re going to see him emphasizing this picture of grace alone; saved and freed by grace alone. James is writing to people who were claiming to have faith, but had turned a deaf ear to the poor and needy, and he says, “What’s the deal here? It doesn’t add up.” To use the phrase from Galatians 2:14, “You are not acting in line with the truth of the gospel.” So, how do we avoid cheapening grace and adding to grace?
WE MARVEL AT THE GOSPEL WHEN WE TRUST GRACE.
What Galatians is going to help us to do is to marvel at the gospel by trusting in grace, and the key word there is “trust.” Trust in grace...faith. Faith is the key between God’s grace and our salvation. Faith itself is a gift that God gives us, and this is what makes the whole picture good news and gospel. So, the gospel is free. It is wholly, completely, totally by grace.
THE GOSPEL IS FREEING
God the Father has initiated our salvation, and God the Son has accomplished it in the cross. The gospel is free and freeing.
who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
He gave himself on a cross for our sins. Why? To rescue us from the present evil age. This is a great word, this picture of rescue. It’s the same word that’s used there, from slavery in Egypt...freed from their slavery. What are we being rescued from? The present evil age.
THE GOSPEL IS FREEING
Now, this word, this word for rescue, is not just being...to be delivered from, but it also means to be delivered from the power of something. The picture that Paul’s given us here is that we’re rescued from this present evil age, this world that we live in and all of its ways that are contrary to the Word.
THE GOSPEL IS FREEING
The gospel of grace is a gospel of rescue, where you are free, and you don’t live like the world lives any more, and you don’t think like the world thinks, and you don’t love what the world loves, and you don’t indulge in what the world indulges in, because you’re freed from that; you’re rescued from that. You’re not in bondage to the ways of this world any more; you’ve been freed from that to live completely different.
THE GOSPEL IS FREEING
This is what Paul is going to talk about, especially in Galatians 5 and 6. He’s going to show us how God puts His Spirit in us, and it’s a Spirit of freedom that frees us to live the presence of Christ in us, according to the ways of Christ, speaking the words of Christ, and thinking the thoughts of Christ.
THE GOSPEL IS FREEING
The gospel is freeing. By His grace,
The gospel frees us from sin in this world.
from sinful attitudes, actions. Values that we used to live in, that we used to be in bondage to, we’re now free from. “We’re not just freed into nothingness,” Paul says. “We’re freed into Christ and the presence of Christ in us, now moving us to experience His life on a day-by-day-by-day basis.”
The gospel frees us from sin in this world.
Christian, if you are struggling with sin, persisting in a particular sin that you just can’t seem to get out of, I remind you, you are freed from that sin. You’re freed from the power, rescued from the dominion of that sin. It does not have dominion over you any more.
The gospel frees us from sin in this world.
By the power of Christ in you, and the grace of Christ in you, not based on your ability to work really hard when you leave and try to overcome that, but based on the power of the grace of Christ who has conquered that sin on a cross, you are free. You’re free from guilt from sin. There’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death. You are free from any kind of defeated Christianity. There’s no such thing; we have grace. Every moment we have grace.
We are free to share with this world.
The gospel’s free, and it’s freeing. By His grace, we are free from sin in this world, and by His grace we are free to share with this world. Paul comes to verse 5, and he says, “to whom be glory, forever and ever. Amen.” I want you to go with me over to verses 15 and 16. I want you to see this. I want you to see how God’s saving Paul was not intended just to affect him. Listen to verse 15. Paul says,
But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;
Then, he says, “in order that,” purpose clause. Why did God reveal Christ to Paul and to you? Paul says, “in order, that I might,” what? “Preach Him among the Gentiles, among the nations.” I want you to see here in this little phrase, hidden away in the middle of Galatians 1, the blessing of God connected with the purpose of God.
We are free to share with this world.
Why was Paul saved? Why did God shower such astounding grace on Paul? He did it for a reason. Why? So that Paul would be a proclaimer of grace to the nations. Not so that Paul would sit back in a seat in a church auditorium the rest of his Christian life, soaking in grace.
We are free to share with this world.
He had received grace for a reason, for a purpose, and that was to preach grace, to proclaim grace to others...good news to others. It was private revelation for public communication.
We are free to share with this world.
You are free by the grace of Christ. He has forgiven you by His grace, and there is nothing you can do to earn pleasure before Him, because He is pleased in you based solely on your identification with Jesus Christ. “He has taken your sins and removed them as far as the east is from the west,” “He remembers your sins no more.” “He cleanses you of all unrighteousness,”
We are free to share with this world.
“He makes you a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, who once did not have mercy, and now you have mercy.” “You have mercy, not based on your desire effort, but based on the desire of God and the effort of God.”
We are free to share with this world.
He has pursued His way to you, mercy has come running to you, and you are free. By His grace, you’re free; this is good news. It is the best news in the world, and it is the only way we can have peace before God, by grace. By grace, and grace alone.