Freed By Grace
Notes
Transcript
Freed By Grace
Freed By Grace
OPENING
New Series through the book of Galatians
title of this series is Freedom Through Christ
-great old hymn “I Will Sing of My Redeemer”
Sing, O sing of my Redeemer!
With his blood he purchased me;
on the cross he sealed my pardon,
paid the debt, and made me free.
The freedom we have through Christ, from sin and death, is a story that will never get old! It changes everything!
the title of today’s message is Freed By Grace (Galatians 1:1-5)
Each of Paul’s letters have been vitally important for the Church throughout the centuries. And, most likely, if I were to ask you what your favorite book of the Bible was, many of you would probably say one of Paul’s letters.
Paul wrote each letter in light of what was needed in a certain situation. He was writing at a specific time, to a specific people, for a specific reason. He wasn’t thinking, “Hey, I need to write another book of the Bible today.”
However, William Barclay reminds us that “a thing need not be a transient thing because it was written to meet an immediate situation. All the great love songs of the world were written for one person, but all the world loves them.”
Dolly Parton wrote the very famous song, I Will Always Love You, in 1973 as a farewell to her former partner and mentor, Porter Wagoner, when she decided to leave his show and pursue a solo career. Did you know that? It wasn’t even about a romantic relationship.
Of course, in 1992 Whitney Houston sang the song, because she loved her Bodyguard. So, the song worked at different times for different people!
and if you were of a certain age in 1992, you probably ...
In the same way, Paul didn’t write his letters, at the time, to meet the needs of the church through the ages, but what he wrote does in fact speak to believers of every age, including us today!
In the book of Galatians, Paul refers to people who opposed him in every chapter. What was the nature of this opposition?
They were people who claimed to be believers but Paul saw them as “false brothers”
They preached a “different gospel” which Paul saw as not gospel at all
Paul & Barnabas had been the planters of the churches in Galatia, and he was deeply grieved by the fact that some of the people were departing from the Gospel he taught them.
These Judaizers, (Jews who believed in Jesus), were adding to grace… saying the new Christians were off to a good start but if they wanted to progress as Christians they needed to be circumcised and follow the Law as it was revealed in the Old Testament. They basically needed to become Jews.
The Law and being a Jew, were ultimately special to these people. They believed the message of the apostles that Jesus was their Messiah. But they were not ready to let go of all their traditions and the things they held so dearly.
Paul is writing to state emphatically the terms by which a sinful person can be made right with God
So the first major controversy in the Christian world concerned this relationship between grace and law
The theme of Paul’s message to the Galatians was clear, there is only ONE way for man to be justified --- by his faith in Jesus Christ. Faith means trusting God and NOT relying on your own efforts.
Good works come out of the life of the believer, but they are the result of his becoming a child of God, not the means to become a child of God.
Because of this, the Christian is free from the technical laws of the Jewish faith, specifically circumcision and the following of the Jewish calendar
So here’s the question: Is Galatians applicable for the Church today? Obviously the exact problem is not an issue for us. There are no Judaizers bothering our ministry, trying to make all new believers become Jews before they can become Christians.
However, we will see that the basic issue of this letter is probably one of the most troubling issues in the Church today.
“Religion” has placed approval on some things and disapproval on other things. The tendency of many is to associate being a Christian with either the doing or NOT doing of these things.
In Galatians, Paul is teaching that man MUST be anchored to Christ by faith… period. This is the essence of Christianity.
the problem we run into is, this concept of GRACE, this concept of God making peace with humans instead of the other way around, is completely foreign to most people.
My buddy Willie who lives in India knows all too well how the rest of the world approaches God. In India there are idols, gods everywhere. In taxis, in homes, in places of business, on the streets. You can purchase a god in all kinds of places. People everywhere are bowing down and worshipping these gods. The people of India are uber religious, working as hard as they can to gain a right standing before God; yet they have no peace.
But it’s not just in India, humans all over the world, yes, even in America struggle to grasp the idea of God’s grace.
You see the Gospel is unique. It’s higher than the wisdom and righteousness of the world. Martin Luther says, “it (the gospel) teaches nothing but the free forgiveness of sins through Christ.”
Yet there is this nature inside of us that insists that we can earn our own way to God. Even admitting that we are saved by GRACE, there are still traces of this “performance attitude” that we struggle with. We think we can earn MORE of God’s favor by what we do or don’t do.
So if you haven’t already, turn with me to the book of Galatians. Our passage today is chapter 1 verses 1-5.
1 Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers who are with me,
To the churches of Galatia:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Here’s the main idea I want you to leave with today:
We cannot earn God’s favor through legalism, for the Gospel is free and freeing.
**repeat main idea**
Let’s begin by defining this word… LEGALISM
Legalism Defined
1. Legalism is Working In Our Own Power
Christ was at the forefront of the what the Judaizer’s were preaching. BUT, it was Christ PLUS man’s own effort. Jesus was just the starting point.
Even today in the church, you can sometimes sense this attitude in the idea that we are saved by grace, but we live the christian life in our own strength.... “now that Jesus has saved me, it’s up to me to grow in my relationship with Him.” THAT is legalism because it’s working in your own power.
2. Legalism is Working According To Our Own Rules
Throughout its history, the church likes to add rules beyond what God has already laid out for us when it comes to how we relate to Him and others.
I think Jesus was trying to be really clear when he said, “look, let me sum it up for you. Love God with all your heart, soul and mind and love all the people like you love yourself.” I think Jesus was saying, you’re going to have your hands full with those 2 things. if you can try to focus on those 2, everything else will take care of it self.
You can probably think of some of those “rules” or “traditions” you’ve heard others make or you’ve even made yourself. “Rules” that aren’t really included in Jesus’s message. THAT is legalism because it’s working according to your own rules.
3. Legalism is Working To Earn God’s Favor
sometimes we practice legalism to please other people, but the main idea is that by doing or not doing certain things, we will gain favor with God.
we think, “if I read the Bible, say long prayers, never miss a Sunday service, etc. then God is probably pretty happy with me.”
of course the flip side to that way of thinking is that when we don’t do those things, we think God is NOT please with us.
the unbelievable, surprising GOOD NEWS of the Gospel is that God’s pleasure is NOT based on our performance!!!!
This message, this Gospel must be defended. That’s what Paul is trying to do here in this letter to the Galatians. Legalism must be destroyed.
So how does Paul do that? How do we do that today? In our passage today we find 2 truths that destroy legalism. the first is this:
The Gospel is Free
Look at verses 3 and 4:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
Grace and peace:
Grace is one of Paul’s favorite words. He uses it 7 times in his letter to the Galatians and 100 times in all of his writings combined.
Right here from the very beginning of his letter, Paul is letting his audience know that God’s favor cannot be earned… THE GOSPEL IS FREE!
That’s what grace is. God’s love, mercy, provision and salvation are all FREE! They are not, in any way, based on your performance but on HIS performance.
this is so hard for us. we have a hard time understanding “FREE” anything.... much less free salvation and eternal life
if someone came up to you and said, “I just bought this brand new car, and I want to give it to you.” what would you think? “ok, what do you want from me?”
i mean my dad taught us early, “if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.”
but that’s not the way it is with God’s grace
And this Grace comes to us from both God the Father and God the Son:
look at vs. 3 again
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father
God the Father has initiated our salvation.
The Gospel is God’s idea. Grace is God’s plan and has been His plan since the beginning. God’s will is that His people will come to know Him through His grace.
Look at how Paul says this in Ephesians 1:4-6
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
GOD DOES IT!!
Paul says it this way in Romans 9:16
16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
Paul didn’t deserve grace or mercy. It pursued him! He was on his way to persecute Jesus and His followers. Grace found him.
The same is true for us. We don’t seek mercy. We don’t even know how to seek it. It seeks us and finds us. I love the lyric from the song we sang earlier, “Death Was Arrested,” that says “Alone in my sorrow and dead in my sin Lost without hope with no place to begin”
In our own effort, we can’t even begin to walk toward God
God the Father has initiated our salvation....
Secondly, God the Son has accomplished our salvation.
Grace and peace come not only from God the Father but also from our “Lord Jesus Christ.”
Jesus gave himself “FOR” our sins. This word “FOR” is an important word. Paul uses it here as well as in chapter 2 and chapter 3. Jesus gave his life “FOR” or “in the place of” sinners like us. He paid the debt we owed God “FOR” our sins.
So when we add anything to what Jesus did for us, when we add to grace, we actually lose grace altogether. it’s no longer free. we’re saying something else has to accompany what Jesus did for us in order for us to be saved. either He has accomplished it or we must accomplish it… which we cannot do. there’s no middle ground.
And Paul is saying, as emphatically as he can, the Son has accomplished our salvation! So the first truth that destroys legalism is that The Gospel is FREE!!
The 2nd truth that destroys legalism is:
2. The Gospel Is Freeing
vs. 4 says Jesus gave himself for our sins to RESCUE us from this present evil age
God’s purpose was not to take us out of the world at the moment of our conversion, but for us to stay in the world and be salt and light. But Christ did die to rescue us from this present evil age.
you see, the Bible divides history into two ‘ages’.... this age and the age to come. The age to come has already started because Christ inaugurated it. however, the present age has not completely passed away. So since the incarnation of Jesus, both ages have been moving along together.
when you become a Christian, you are rescued from this present, evil age, and moved into the age to come.
the christian life is living the in this age the life of the age to come.
our sins have been forgiven, yes, but we are also now free from this world and its ways. we don’t have to love the things the world loves or pursue the things the world pursues. God’s Spirit changes us and now we live in His ways because He lives in us! And that is NOT legalism!
David Platt says it like this, “Our obedience is not legalistic. We’re not working in our own power according to our own rules to earn God’s favor. No! We’re working in His power according to His rules and we KNOW we have His favor, not based on what we do, but based on all that Christ has done for us!”
The Gospel is freeing.... we are free from sin in this world.
we are saved from this evil age we live in and all of its sinful attitudes and vaules
The Gospel is freeing.... we are free to share with this world.
Galatians 1:5 - “to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
God gives us this free grace FOR HIS GLORY
Paul knew this to be true. in fact he says in vs. 15-16:
15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 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;
God gave Paul His unbelievable free grace SO THAT Paul would preach the gospel of Jesus to the Gentiles.
and it’s the same for you and me. we have received God’s grace SO THAT we can share the Gospel with others.
CLOSING
If our salvation was about what we could do, we would be doing the giving and Jesus would be doing the receiving. But that’s not what it says. It says that Jesus “gave himself for our sins...”
This is such good news! Because when the devil tries to attack you by telling you God can’t love you because you’re not good enough… because of your sin, if you know the truth, the devil, in his ignorance, is actually reminding you of why you can be loved by God.
I’ll close with this from Martin Luther:
Armed with the truth of the gospel, we can respond to the devil when he accuses us: “You are a sinner; that is why you are condemned.” Let us respond like this: “You say I am a sinner and that is why I am justified and saved.” “No,” says the devil, “you will be lost.”
“No,” I respond, “because I take refuge in Christ, who gave Himself for my sins. Therefore, Satan, you won’t be able to defeat me, for you intend to crush me, to depress me with the greatness of my sins, and to oppress me with grief, mistrust, hopelessness, hate, contempt, and blasphemy against God. I want you to know that when you say that I am a great sinner, you have actually given me an armor plate and weapons against you.
With your own sword, I’ll cut your throat and will trample you because Christ died for sinners. What’s more, you in fact preach to me the glory of God because you remind me of God’s fatherly love toward me, a poor and miserable sinner.”
‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.’
Let’s pray.