The Only Ground To Stand On

Intro: Theme/Topic (What’s the problem, the question, etc.)

You know the feeling.

You’re sitting in a waiting room. Your folder is on your lap. Your résumé is inside — polished, updated, every accomplishment carefully worded. And in a few minutes, someone on the other side of that door is going to open your folder, look at your record, and decide: Are you enough?

Maybe it’s a job interview. Maybe it’s a college admissions board. Maybe it’s a scholarship committee.

But wherever it is, the feeling is the same.

You rehearse your answers in the car on the way there. You mentally inventory every qualification, every experience, every achievement you can point to.

And underneath all the preparation, there’s this question you can’t quite shake: Is it enough? Have I done enough?

And it’s not just interviews, is it? We do this everywhere. We perform for approval. We curate the version of ourselves that we hope will be accepted.

We do this all the time on social media. With our employers. With our friends. Even in our families.

We are constantly assembling a record — a résumé of our efforts, our goodness, our moral track record —

and we’re holding it out and hoping it’s enough for the people who matter most to say, “You’re in. You’re accepted. You’re okay.”

But here’s what I want you to consider this morning. What if the interview isn’t with an employer or a school or a committee? What if it’s with God? Because the Bible says this day is coming.

You will stand before the living God, and everything will come down to one question:

What is your standing before God based on?

Not what church you attended. Not how moral your life looked from the outside. But what are you actually standing on in that moment?

What will you stand on when you stand before God?

That’s the question the Apostle Paul presses into in the passage we’re going to look at today. He’s writing to a group of Christians who are being tempted to add to their résumé before God —

To take the gift they’ve been given and supplement it with their own religious performance.

And Paul says to them, with the full weight of his apostolic authority: that will destroy you.

Let’s read the text together. Galatians chapter 5, verses 1 through 5...

If you need to use a pew Bible, you’ll find today’s text on page 1157. Once you’re there, please stand with me if you are able and follow along with me as I read...

Galatians 5:1–5 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

This God’s Word!

Prayer

Father, we stand on Your Word this morning because they are the words of life. Holy Spirit, work through Your Word to make us wise, to revive our souls, and to increase our joy in knowing Jesus.

Intro: Formal (give context to passage, setting the scene, big idea)

We took a week off from Galatians last week for our missions emphasis Sunday.

We’ve been working through Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches though since May. And the whole letter has been building to this moment. Paul has spent four chapters making his case —

From Scripture, from the Galatians’ own experience, and from his own apostolic authority —

That we are made right with God… by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Not by works of the law. Not by religious performance. By grace through faith. Period.

And now, in chapter 5 verse 1, Paul takes everything he’s argued and drives it home with one of the most important sentences in the entire letter: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

That’s not a suggestion. That’s a command from an apostle. And it answers the question we raised just a moment ago.

What will you stand on when you stand before God?

Paul’s answer — and this is the main idea I want you to carry with you today — is this:

Because we will all stand before God one day — stand firm in the freedom of Christ, not on your own efforts.

That’s it. That’s what Paul is saying. And to help us feel the full weight of that, we’re going to walk through this passage in three movements.

The Ground You’ve Been Given. In verse 1.

The Ground That Won’t Hold. In verses 2 through 4.

How to Stand Your Ground. In verse 5.

So let’s begin with verse 1...

The Ground You’ve Been Given

Everything Paul has argued for four chapters comes to a head right here in verse 1. If you wanted the entire letter to the Galatians in one word, here it is:

FREEDOM.

The purpose of Christ’s work is freedom. Not self-improvement. Not a moral upgrade. Freedom.

But freedom from what?

Last time we were in Galatians, Paul used the story of Hagar and Sarah to make a stunning point — that Hagar’s son, born from human effort, represents the slavery of self-reliance.

And in a shocking move, Paul tied that slave woman to the Mosaic law itself.

But Sarah’s son came by God’s promise — and that’s where freedom lives.

So when Paul says Christ has set us free, he means free from the entire system of relying on our own moral or religious effort to be right with God.

For the Jews, that system was the Mosaic law. For the Gentile Galatians, it was their former life of paganism. And they were now being pressured to trade their freedom in Christ for the shackles of the Jewish law.

But here’s where Paul’s argument confronts all of us — not just first-century Galatians.

Most people today assume the job of religion is to call people away from immoral living and into a life of virtue and moral restraint.

And this is why so many people don’t think they need Jesus or the church — Because they already see themselves as basically good people. They already have virtue and moral restraint.

But this tragically misses the whole point of Christianity. Because the purpose of faith in Christ is not to make you nice — it’s to set you free and make you new.

And here’s why self-reliance is slavery — whether it comes in a religious package or not. Because anything finite that you build your life on will enslave you.

When circumstances threaten to take it away — fear. When circumstances keep it from you — anger. When you fail to achieve it — despair. And even if you get it — pride. Because you did it in your own strength.

Today, you are enslaved to whatever you rely on to tell yourself, “I’m okay.”

So to the person here today who doesn’t think you need God because you’re already a decent person — Paul says that self-reliance is its own slavery.

And to the religious person who thinks God will accept you because you’re trying really hard — Paul says that’s the same bondage in different clothes.

This is what Christ has set us free from — the entire system of attempting to earn our standing before God.

And He did it by doing what none of us could…

He satisfied every demand of the law that we failed to keep. He bore the curse that we deserved by giving His life for ours on the cross and rising again on the third day. And then He gives us His righteousness — His perfect record — as our own.

Remember back to that interview scene? Now imagine the interviewer opens the résumé folder with your name on it — and inside is a perfect record.

Every qualification met. Every standard exceeded. But you didn’t do any of it. Christ did — and He credited it all to you.

That’s what the gospel does.

This means you no longer have to strive to prove your worth to God, because Christ gives it to you freely as a gift received by faith.

And if you’ve never received this gift — Jesus invites you to come and stand on this ground today. The only ground that will hold you on the day when you stand before God.

You can receive this by faith right now by calling out to God from your heart and telling Him something like this:

God, I’m weary and exhausted from trying to earn your approval. Thank you that Jesus did everything you required — for me — and died and rose again to pay the debt I owed. Forgive me, set me free, and make me new because of the work Jesus did for me. AMEN!

If you prayed something like that — you have been set free and made new. This is the glorious ground you’ve been given.

————

So what now? Paul says “therefore” — stand firm. Hold your ground on this freedom — freedom purchased with the blood of Christ. And don’t ever go back to the miserable slavery of self-reliance.

So Christ has set us free — that’s the ground we’ve been given. But what happens if we step off that ground?

This is where Paul goes next and he gives us one of the most sobering warnings in all of Scripture.

The Ground That Won’t Hold

Remember back in 2021, the 12-story beachfront condo in Florida that partially collapsed killing 98 people?

The foundation had been deteriorating for years and engineers issued warnings to the owners.

From the inside everything looked fine. But then in a moment, it all gave way.

Paul is issuing the same kind of warning here. And he does it with the full weight of his authority when he says, “Look: I, Paul say to you…” And, “I testify again…”

This isn’t a pastoral suggestion — This is Apostolic testimony!

Paul is playing the role of the engineer standing in front of the building saying: Don’t go back inside!

Paul gives three warnings here — each escalating in intensity…

First in verse two, he says, “If you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.”

And this is not about the physical act of circumcision — It’s about practicing it as a requirement for a right standing before God.

It’s about adding it to your résumé as something you must do for God to accept you.

And you could substitute anything in its place:

Church attendance, Tithing, Bible reading, Serving in ministry, Being a good parent, Keeping your moral record clean —

The moment any of these becomes the basis for why God should accept you, Paul says you’re standing on ground that won’t hold.

And Paul makes the consequence crystal clear — If you do this, Christ will be of no advantage — Not less of an advantage. ZERO!

And notice — Paul doesn’t say Christ IS of no advantage. He says Christ WILL BE of no advantage. He’s pointing us forward to judgment day.

On that day, if your standing is built on your efforts at all, then Christ’s work does you no good!

It’s like walking into that interview with two résumés. The moment you put your résumé next to Christ’s on the table, His résumé disappears.

Because you can’t supplement grace with your own effort.

You either stand on Christ’s record or yours.

Next, Paul escalates by adding another warning…

He doesn’t want anyone to miss this. If you rely on circumcision or any other religious merit, then you’ve signed up to keep the entire Mosaic Law! — All 613 of them!

And you can’t take it piecemeal. — You don’t get to pick and choose the ones you like.

You must keep the entire law. Perfectly. — That’s the deal!

And Paul already told us this earlier in this letter in Galatians 3:10

Galatians 3:10 ESV

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”

And James drives the same nail…

James 2:10 ESV

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

This is the exhausting math of self-reliance. The standard is… Everything. Perfectly. Always.

This is the slavery Christ has freed us from in verse 1… Aren’t you glad, church?!

Next, in verse 4, Paul gives the most severe consequence yet…

If you try to make yourself right with God by your own religious self-effort, Paul says you are severed from Christ and have fallen away from grace!

This is not just a crack in the ground — It’s the entire thing giving way!

And for Paul to say, “Fallen from grace” — understand that he’s not talking about falling from morality into sin — He’s talking about falling from grace into law-keeping. The direction of this fall is the opposite of what most people assume!

Paul’s point is that you cannot stand on two different grounds — With a foot on Christ’s work and a foot on your own performance.

You either have all His benefits or none of them.

Grace and self-effort are mutually exclusive systems of justification.

Now, before we move on, I can’t ignore the serious question that verse 4 raises:

Can a true Christian Lose Their Salvation?

— Short answer: No!

Because if we cannot earn our salvation by our behavior, we cannot un-earn it by our behavior.

The rest of Scripture is so clear on this. We can have absolute assurance that we are saved and always will be.

This is one reason the Apostle John wrote his first epistle:

1 John 5:13 ESV

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

And Jesus gives us this great assurance in John 10:28

John 10:28 ESV

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

No one — That includes you! You cannot snatch yourself out of Jesus’ hand.

So, if this is true, then how are we to understand Paul’s warning here if it’s not possible? —

And I know many of us carry the weight of someone we love who once professed faith and has walked away…

Here is where 1 John 2:19 is helpful — talking about those who have left the faith…

1 John 2:19 ESV

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

The point is that true believers will always continue in the faith — not always perfectly, but persistently.

But again, if a true believer cannot be severed from Christ and fall away from grace, why does Paul waste his voice warning them? Or is he being disingenuous with these warnings?

This is the best explanation I’ve heard…

These warnings are a means of grace and are not disingenuous. They function like road signs that keep us from going off the highway.

A sign that says, “Bridge out ahead” isn’t lying. If you kept going you would be in real trouble. But the warning itself is what keeps you from driving off the edge.

So it is with Paul’s warnings — they are a means that God uses to keep His people in the faith.

So, if it were possible for a true believer to abandon grace for law-keeping — this is exactly what would happen…

You would lose everything.

So, if this warning troubles you. That is a good thing. Because the very fact that this warning alarms you is evidence that the Spirit is at work in you, keeping you on the road.

So, the ground of self-effort doesn’t crack — it collapses.

Christ is no advantage. The whole law is required. You’re severed from Christ and fallen from grace.

But Paul doesn’t leave us standing in the rubble. In verse 5 he turns and paints a picture of what it looks like to stand on the ground that will hold — and it looks nothing like striving.

How To Stand Your Ground

Standing your ground begins by looking forward to what we are promised on that final day when we will stand before God — The hope of righteousness.

Now we need to rescue this word “hope” — because in English, hope usually means uncertainty. Like saying, “I hope it doesn’t rain today.” But biblical hope is nothing like that…

Biblical hope is: feet planted NOT fingers crossed!

And here’s what we’re hoping for — Here’s what’s been promised to us:

That one day we will stand before God —

blameless, accepted, and welcomed into the presence of Christ!

Today in the present — right now — God has declared us to be right with Him because we have Jesus’ résumé.

This is the justification we have today — That when God looks at us, He sees the righteousness of Christ and our standing with Him is secure.

But if we’re honest, we feel a real tension between who God declares us to be and who we actually are.

Because while God declares us righteous — we are not yet fully righteous in our daily lives. And we still struggle.

And this is the promise that we hope for — that on that final day when we stand before God, He will complete in us what He has already declared us to be!

And what is true of us legally will be true of us actually!

And here’s what this means for us and why it’s so beautiful — Because for the person standing on Christ’s record — You will not dread the last day with fear — you will eagerly look forward to it!

And we won’t anxiously wonder if we’ve done enough…

But on that day — when we stand before God and He opens the résumé one last time — what He declared to be true about you, He will make actually true in you. And what we saw only by faith, we will see in full.

Now Paul shows us that this is what we eagerly wait for.

But this waiting is not passive — not like killing time in the waiting room until your name is called.

And it’s not anxious — like pacing the room hoping for good news you’re not sure is coming.

This waiting is the posture of someone who already knows the outcome with certainty!

The verdict has already been given — and you’re just waiting for the day when everyone else gets to see it.

Waiting is something we practice. And we practice it when we meditate on and reflect on what is already ours in Christ.

And as we do this, our actions begin to align with reality — not to earn our standing, but because our standing is already secure.

We set our minds on who we are in Christ, and our hearts and behaviors will follow.

This is what standing firm actually looks like in real life. It’s not white-knuckling your way through the week. It’s waking up and reminding yourself: the ground beneath me is Christ and it’s not going anywhere.

So, standing your ground is an act of faith not an act of willpower!

Now let’s look at the power and the instrument we’re given to do all of this.

First, everything Paul just described, The confident hope… The eager waiting… The daily standing —

None of it is self-generated. The power to stand firm comes from outside of you — From the Holy Spirit!

The Holy Spirit is the one holding you on this ground.

The Spirit is the power. And faith is the instrument — the way we receive everything the Spirit gives.

Because, faith is a receiving posture NOT an achieving posture — You don’t earn a gift, you open your hands.

And this is what this looks like on Monday morning.

It means your standing before God doesn’t depend on whether you had a good quiet time this morning or lost your temper last night.

It means you don’t wake up calculating whether God accepts you based on yesterday’s performance.

It means the Spirit holds you on the ground that Christ purchased for you — and faith is simply trusting that He does.

This is how you stand your ground — not by trying harder but by trusting deeper!

Conclusion/Response (Gospel & Repent/Believe)

Because we will all stand before God one day — stand firm in the freedom of Christ, not on your own efforts.

To the person who has been striving and exhausting yourself to try to earn God’s approval — you can rest. Because the ground has already been laid for you by Jesus! So stand on it!

To the person who has been coasting on being a decent person — that ground will never hold. So, come stand on the only ground that will!

To the believer who struggles with assurance — the Spirit in you is the proof. The eagerness you feel for Christ — even when it flickers, is evidence that you are standing on ground that will never give way.

The ground you’ve been given is the finished work of Christ. It held at the cross. It holds today, and it will hold on that final day when you stand before God.

Stand firm, church. And don’t ever let go of this freedom.

Prayer

Father, we confess that we are prone to wander from this freedom. We confess that we so easily turn back to our own efforts — trusting in our own goodness, our own performance, our own résumés — as though what Christ did wasn’t enough. Forgive us for the arrogance of thinking we could add to what your Son has already finished.

By your Spirit, help us to stand firm this week. When we are tempted to earn your approval — remind us that it has already been given in Christ. When we are tempted to measure our worth by yesterday’s performance — anchor us to the righteousness that is already ours and will one day be made complete.

Teach us to wait eagerly — with feet planted and hearts confident — for the day when we will see what you have already declared to be true.

We ask this in the name of Jesus, whose record is our only ground. Amen.

Closing Song: My Faith Has Found a Resting Place

Closing Words:

That song says it all — “My faith has found a resting place, not in device or creed.” Not in your résumé. Not in your performance. But in the One who lived and died and rose for you.

That’s the only ground to stand on.

Final Gospel Appeal:

Before I send you out, if you’re here today and something stirred in you during this sermon — maybe for the first time you realized you’ve been building your life on your own efforts and you’re exhausted — I want you to know that Jesus’ invitation is still open. The ground is still here. You don’t have to clean yourself up first. You don’t have to add anything to your résumé. You just come — empty-handed, by faith — and receive what Christ has already done for you. If that’s you today, there will be some people up front here after the service who would love to talk and pray with you and help you that that first step of trusting Christ as your Savior.

Next Steps:

And for all of us — whether you’ve been walking with Jesus for fifty years or five minutes — faith that stands firm doesn’t stand still. It grows. So let me encourage you to take a next step this week.

Maybe that’s joining a small group where you can study God’s Word and walk alongside other believers.

Maybe it’s following Jesus in baptism — going public with the faith you’ve received.

Maybe it’s pursuing membership here at FBC and locking arms with this church family.

Or maybe it’s stepping into a place of service where God can use you.

Whatever that next step is, we want to help you take it. You can fill out our Next Steps form right now by tapping your phone to the tag in the pew in front of you, or scanning the QR code on screen.

Missional Charge:

Now church, as you leave this place — remember that this gospel is not just for you.

It’s for your neighbor who thinks they’re too good for God.

It’s for your coworker who is quietly exhausted from trying to hold it all together.

It’s for the friend who has given up on religion because all they’ve ever known is performance and shame.

You know the freedom. You stand on the ground. Now go and invite someone else to stand on it with you. Because the same Christ who set you free is still setting people free.

Benediction: Jude 24–25

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

Church You Are Sent!