RE-formed into Christ
Reformed • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewThe Galatians, like many of us, need to be reformed in Christ - having faith in Christ's work and not our own.
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Welcome
Reformed - being called back and reshaped by God.
As I was studying it occured that this lesson addressed much of my personal experience. Happy birthday to me.
Part of my story
Came to Jesus at a young age, believing...
Jesus was real.
You ought to follow Jesus.
Jesus takes care of your sin problem.
As I continued to grow up, the sin in my flesh became more and more apparent to me, and I began to believe...
Jesus took care of my sin in the past, but I had to take care of my current sin now.
Jesus didn’t have to do very much in the first place because I wasn’t that bad - I thought I was meeting him halfway.
I should generally be able to manage most of my sin problems on my own power.
I continued to be an active part of the body, doing good works but ALSO putting on a mask to present myself better than I really was. I...
Had a big, pervasive sin problem in my life.
Was lying to myself that I was fine. When I wouldn’t believe that lie, I...
Was racked with guilt that I didn’t do enough good things.
Was racked with guilt because I did too many bad things.
Feared for my soul.
I grew to have a very similar problem that the Galatian church had.
Let’s remind ourselves about the Galatians,
They were believers taught by Paul
But were later influenced by some false teachers who taught Jesus, but required more than Jesus.
Jesus - AND
Paul declares the gospel in his greeting in Gal 1:3-5
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.
And then immediately says in Gal 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—
What the gospel is and what it isn’t (Gal 1:4)
who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
But I believed this different gospel. I believed Jesus - AND
Maybe it’s the American pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. Maybe it’s a desire to please God.
yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Justified = made right
But “faith in Jesus?” What about Jesus? What Paul said above - the one who gave himself for our sins to deliver us.
By believing that my works earned my justification or that my works helped Jesus justify me was a false gospel. It is a false belief in what Jesus did. It minimizes Jesus. And that is not a subtle distinction - it is very wrong. Paul would say later in his letter...
You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.
I was so convicted I had my sister make this sign.
Paul continues to explain this error through his letter when he comes to this:
Galatians 4:19 (ESV)
my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!
The Galatians were already believers but Paul had to endure childbirth with them again. Bring them back to Christ again… until Christ was formed in them. This word for “formed” is not really used as a metaphor - that it would be LIKE Christ is shaped in you. “Formed” here carries the connotation that Christ could be outwardly sensed - that others could detect Christ in you with their five senses.
The Galatians had already come to Christ when Paul taught them, but now they needed to be reformed.
I had been a Christian for some time, but I was in need of reformation.
That reformation - that justification - comes in the same package as when we first came to faith - total faith in Jesus Christ, that he is who he said he was - God in the flesh - that he did what he said he did - completely deliver us from our sins through his death.
So the key to that justification is faith. How do I do faith right? Is that just believing?
We often think of the words faith and belief as strictly head knowledge, but in Galatians, that’s not how Paul uses them. Inherent in his use of those words is action. If you truly believe, you will act a certain way. If you really have faith, you will act accordingly. No one flips a light switch unless there is a belief that it will turn on a light. You only flip light switches because you have faith that they will work when flipped. Likewise, if you believe that Jesus really did deliver us completely from all sin, then you will live in spiritual freedom and peace - a peace that isn’t dependent on the amount or quality of your good works. A freedom that is unwavering in spite of your sin. Gal 5:1
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
This doesn’t mean that the presence of sin on this earth goes away. Our flesh will still have a sin problem until the resurrection, but the spiritual problem of sin isn’t on you - it’s on Jesus.
Yes, keep leaning on Jesus.
Yes, keep dying to self.
But your efforts in those regards are only to lay hold of the blessing of freedom Christ has already given you - not to earn it.
I thank God that he worked a reformation within me so that I could say with Paul,
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Do you need reformation this morning?
Does your spiritual peace come from your own efforts or from Jesus’ efforts? Your efforts will fail - Jesus’ will not.
Are you believing the wrong gospel? Do believe that Jesus needs your help? That it must be Jesus - AND?
Remember, we are justified by faith in Jesus’ complete work of deliverance - not his partial work.
We are about to sing a song about our faith in Jesus being the victory that overcomes the world. If you want to rededicate your faith to the right gospel - if you want that peace - while we sing there will be members of our prayer team that will be glad to pray with you about that or anything else you wish. Do that now as we stand and sing together.