Galatians 1-2 Law and Salvation

Opening Questions:

“I have felt like God was disappointed in me because I hadn't prayed enough.”

“I have wondered if I've done enough for God to accept me.”

“I've tried to control something because I was afraid of what would happen if I let it go.”

“I've known something wasn't good for me but kept going back to it.”

It is so hard not to feel this way sometimes. I’m right there with you.

Salvation is breath of fresh air, not a bag of suffocation!

We often have such a distorted and wrong view of God.

That God is a angry God that made a bunch of rules to suffocate our lives and make things so difficult for us even impossible. We think God is waiting to smite us for our failure.

This view of God puts a lot of pressure on us to be perfect. And listen, that kind of pressure is suffocating. We almost feel like we are forced to make a decision to be saved because we know we don’t want to go to hell but at the same time, we don’t want to follow Jesus because it’s a suffocating lifestyle and he’s a mean, unfair God. That is not the Gospel.

If this is your view of God, I totally understand some hesitancy and resistance to following Jesus as Lord.

We are going to talk about the relationship between the law and salvation but ultimately I want you to know that Gospel is actually a breath of fresh air, if it isn’t, it’s a false gospel.

Galatians 1:1–10 “Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by 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 the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling 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 what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him! For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

But Paul says the danger is that there are people distorting the gospel of Christ.

God being an angry God and kill joy is a false understanding of His Goodness and how good the ‘Good News’ really is.

Easy Believism. He’s only preaching this easy gospel to boost his following and gain more popularity to have more power and influence. The gospel that Paul preached was just too good to actually be true.

To understand why the ‘good news’ is so good let’s talk about the law really quick.

Galatians 1:13–14 “For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I intensely persecuted God’s church and tried to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.”

The Law

The law was a set of 611 commands given to the Israelites when God made a covenant with his people to save all people through them. He knew all along that this would be an impossible covenant for us to fully keep which is why we need a savior. These commands were to help guide Israel into a better life and protect them from evil and give them a way to have forgiveness in that time of history.

But… the law does a couple of things. It points forward to Christ Hebrews 10:1 “Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year.”

and… reveals our weakness to live up to perfection. Romans 3:20–24 “For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

So that feeling of God just making a bunch of rules, waiting for me to slip up and smite me because I can’t keep them is actually a very natural reaction to the reality of life.

That is the reason why the ‘Good News’ is so good. Because it is a gift to have all of the sin and failure reconciled for.

Back to the story of Paul in Galatians

Then he had an encounter with Jesus and everything changes. He realizes that what Jesus did was a grace given to all people, no matter their past or family.

Galatians 2:6 “Now from those recognized as important (what they once were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism)—they added nothing to me.”

He calls out Peter for not being true to the gospel

Salvation

Galatians 2:15–16 “We are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners,” and yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.”

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Salvation is breath of fresh air, not a bag of suffocation!

Our sins past, present, and future are completely paid for by Christ’s divine sacrifice for us.

There is nothing you have to do. Take the pressure off.

You don’t have to do anything to keep earning his love!

Romans 5:8 “But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.”

John 3:16–17 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Closing

You can search the world your whole life for every pleasure or what you think is good but it will never compare to the breath of fresh air a life fully surrendered to the Lord will bring.

No ‘good’ in this life will ever compare to God’s goodness and faithful love toward us.

No love in this world could ever compare to God’s love for us.

Ecclesiastes 1:1–3 “The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem. “Absolute futility,” says the Teacher. “Absolute futility. Everything is futile.” What does a person gain for all his efforts that he labors at under the sun?”

Ecclesiastes 1:14 “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.”

A fulfilled life only comes in a relationship with Jesus

John 10:10 “A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.”

One of the biggest signs of a spirit filled life is Joy

Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.”

Discussion Questions

When you hear the word “Christian,” what do you think people sometimes assume they have to DO to be a good Christian?

Read John 10:10. Jesus says He came so that we could have “life…in abundance.” What do you think Jesus means by that? How is His way of living actually different from what the world says will make us happy?

What is one area of your life where you feel pressure to perform, be perfect, or prove yourself? How would it change things if you really believed God’s love for you wasn’t dependent on your performance?

If you truly believed that God already loved you, had forgiven you, and wasn’t waiting for you to mess up—how would that change the way you live this week?