By Faith

Prayer

Out of Line with the Truth of the Gospel

There’s a story in the book of Acts that was an absolute seismic shift in the early church, it was huge.

In Acts 10, an angel comes to visit a God-fearing Gentile, a Roman centurion by the name of Cornelius, and tells him to send for a man named Simon, whom we know more commonly as Peter. Cornelius does - he sends a few of his servants and a faithful soldier to the town of Joppa to find Peter.

Meanwhile Peter goes to the rooftop of the house where he is staying to pray. While praying, he receives a vision - a blanket filled with all sorts of animals. A voice gives him the command, “kill and eat.” Peter is aghast - never, Peter would never break Jewish law by eating unclean animals. But the voice tells him not to declare unclean what God has declared clean. This happens three times.

As Peter is wondering what this vision is all about, Cornelius’ men show up and he goes with them to Cornelius’ house. To the crowd that Cornelius has gathered there Peter shares the gospel, the message of the good news of the grace available through Jesus Christ. They hear the message, receive it - entrust their lives to Jesus, and God pours out the gift of the Holy Spirit on all those present.

Peter and those who traveled with him are blown away, they can hardly believe what God is doing right in front of them - embracing these Gentiles, these non-Jews, into the Kingdom - without having to follow the law. This was the huge shift for them - they would have never imagined God so freely bringing Gentiles into his Kingdom, that his grace would be so big.

God knew this would not be something easy for them to embrace - think about everything God did to prepare Peter for what he was about to do...

Startling vision on rooftop, command to eat unclean animals - God did it three times (let me make this clear to you). Immediately after, men from Cornelius arrive (God’s perfect timing), and just to make it clear, God’s Spirit tells him to go with them.

And finally, the Coup de grace that trampled Peter’s resilience - the Holy Spirit poured out on Gentiles the moment they entrusted their lives to Jesus. Peter celebrated all of this, he recognized God was now offering salvation to the Gentiles through the grace of Jesus Christ.

That’s the message (gospel of grace) we began talking about last week with our new sermon series, The Word Lived. In this series we’re making our way through the book of Galatians, because it’s in this letter to the churches of Galatia that Paul is fighting for the gospel, the message he had shared with them. Because the critical question is what is the Word, the message, that we are to live our lives based on?

Last week we talked about how alarmed Paul was that Galatians were embracing another message - one of following the law, you had to obey the commandments to be considered righteous by God.

Paul - No! It’s the Gospel of Christ, the good news of grace in Jesus, who gave himself…for our sins…to rescue us. This message is so vital, because it is the promise of eternal life available to anyone - for everyone.

Today, we’re going to dig into what it looks like for us to live the message, for it to be the foundation of our lives. Hugely important - because this is the question - where is life found? How are we saved? We believe it is through Jesus Christ, his grace.

And it’s so easy to slip away from, there are so many competing messages, influences - here’s a perfect example, because it involves Peter - who first took the message of the gospel of grace to the Gentiles

Galatians 2:11-14...When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

Paul had to confront Peter (Cephas) and these other church leaders, including Barnabas, who traveled with Paul on his first missionary journey - pillars of early church - and they used to eat with Gentiles, used to live in grace of the Gospel, freedom of it - but then, out of fear of what others will think, quit eating with them - distanced themselves. Decided it wasn’t proper because these Gentiles weren’t circumcised, weren’t following the Jewish law - were unclean.

Here’s thing. They had a rational for doing what they were doing - concern over a divisive issue in the church. Gave into the pressure exerted by certain Jewish Christians. As a result, Gentiles were treated as second class citizens.

Paul is so committed to the gospel. He confronts all these church leaders - you guys are not acting in line with truth of the gospel. In other words, you’re not living out the message of salvation that comes through Jesus.

To act in line with truth of the gospel means that they could eat with any and all -circumcised or not, because it’s all about grace, free gift.

But they were living another “gospel” - requirements of following the law. We get a taste here of how essential it is that we keep gospel front and center - because that’s truth we want to act in line with.

So let’s dig a little deeper - what does it look to live in line with the truth of the Gospel? Main Point: is to live, as Paul puts it, “by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

By Faith

Every week in the newsletter we send out there’s an “I am Second” video - a couple of months ago, it was the story of Phil Robertson, of Duck Dynasty fame, sharing how he came to faith in Jesus. It was hard come - he had dived headfirst into a lifestyle of drinking and carousing and had essentially abandoned his wife and three sons.

Kay, his wife, finally persuaded him to at least talk to their minister, who asked Phil if he knew what the gospel was. He had no idea (gospel music?). When he heard the story of Jesus, he was blown away to learn that Jesus died for him. He made decision to make Jesus the Lord of his life, to follow him from that day forward.

For him it was a whole life change, as he puts it, to turn from his sinful past and make a valiant attempt to be good, which he had never tried before. Reads Scripture, Romans 12, reads that God wants him to not return evil for evil, but good for evil. To feed those who are hungry.

Back then, Phil fished for a living. Set nets - which “river rats” what he called these men, would come along and steal. Normally, if he caught them, he’d have his shotgun out. But this time, he decided to take Jesus at his word - return good for evil. I’ll have to see if that works. Sure enough, he catches some river rats getting at his nets. He confronts them, then tells them they can have whatever’s in the net. He just gives them the fish. They keep looking at him as they drive their boat away. And he never had any more trouble with people stealing his fish.

That’s it, that’s acting in line with the truth of the Gospel. This is the way Paul describes it in Galatians 2:15-21...

“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in[d] Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. 17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. 19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 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. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Do you hear what Paul is saying here - he talks first about what we must die to - for through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. (What the heck is that all about?!). Lots of dying and crucifying here.

This is what Paul is saying - have to remember that Paul is contrasting being justified by faith versus law.

Problem is, if you’re going to try to do it by obeying the law, you’re doomed (literally). As Paul says here, no one can do it, no will will be justified by works of law.

You can’t do it. Requires perfect obedience. You’d have to obey what God teaches us all of the time, in every single circumstance.

Doesn’t matter if you’re better than most. There’s no grading on a curve. It’s like trying to swim across the ocean - you may get a mile or two (or even nine or ten) further than most, but you’ll never make it across the ocean.

Demand of law is death. Our sin, our disobedience - we separate ourselves from God, and the result of that is death. But - here’s the good news, the gospel, Jesus satisfied the demands of the law - he lived in perfect obedience. Jesus loved perfectly. And because of that, he was the only one capable of offering his life - perfect, sinless - for ours. For our sins.

So, Paul is talking about a sort of double-death, if you will. First, he’s making clear that he’s dying to the law, to trying to earn his way by being good enough - which he recognizes is impossible, can’t do it.

But, Paul wants to make clear that his dying to the law doesn’t mean that he’s embracing sin - it’s just that he’s no longer trying to do it on his own.

This is where the second dying comes in - instead, Paul says, I’m joining with Jesus, through faith - in his dying for our sins, to his satisfying the demands of the law. Because I trust in Jesus, I have been crucified with him. I’ve died to my old, sinful way of life. Sin is now dead in me.

Which is exactly what Phil Robertson was doing - I’m going put my sinful past behind me (crucified with Christ), I’m not going to live that way any longer, so I can live in a whole new way.

That of course, is flip side of it. It’s not simply what you die toward - but what you live for and by.

Which is exactly what Robertson declared, I’m going to let Jesus be the Lord of my life, and follow him from this day forward. He’s saying the whole orientation of his life has done a 180. He was living for himself - but it could have been for the admiration of others, or wealth or whatever…but now, for you, Lord.

But now it’s through faith in Jesus. As Paul writes, “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

That verse is so powerful. To live my life based on reality of Jesus, rooted in his love - which is the greatest love possible. If you can think of a greater love, I’d love to hear it, because I can’t imagine what it might be, how it could be greater than willingly offering your life for another. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

This is what it means to live by the gospel of Jesus - trusting this amazing truth that we are this loved, this desired - we matter this much…that God himself would give his life for us - to save us - so much so that we’re willing to do whatever Jesus says. I love how Robertson describes the whole decision to change the way he was acting toward the river rats based on Romans 12…do not return evil for evil, instead return good for evil…well, that doesn’t make any sense to me, I’ve never tried it before - but because you so say, I will.

Do you see how radically different these two ways of living are? The change it makes in your whole sense of being whether you live by the one message or the other - which Word you choose to base your life on?

When you’re living by trying to be good (or, like Robertson, you’re not even trying) - keeping the law - you’re racked with guilt, because you know you’re never quite good enough. So there’s this underlying fear and worry, this constant effort to put on a good look for others. To hide your weaknesses and failures.

Why even Peter and Barnabas ended up doing the things they did - refusing to eat with Gentiles - because they were concerned with how it would look to those who were so focused on keeping the law.

Honestly, it’s even worse if you’re good at it. Because then you start feeling morally superior to others, you’re better than them. You feel it gives you the right to judge them, condemn, gossip about them…they’re so lazy…why can’t he get his life together…I can’t believe she would do that...

So easily feeds into a sense of entitlement…I deserve this…I earned it. Self-righteousness is a terrible route for life.

But to live our lives by faith in the Jesus, his love, his giving his life for us - there’s so much freedom in this.

Free of burden of guilt and shame. Jesus died for all of it, everything. It’s been paid for. Which is not to say that we don’t continue to sin - but to know that we no longer have to carry burden of that sin anymore.

Free from burden of having to earn it on my own. Live in confidence of being loved as mess that I am (which is an amazing gift). That it’s not my burden to fix myself - Jesus has already done that work, made us new. He’s going to complete that work, day by day, shaping and forming me as I continue to surrender my life to him in faith.

Free to offer grace to others, to love them as they are - because I’m not trying to prove I’m good, that I’m better. They don’t have to meet my standards.

That’s life lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. That’s acting in line with the truth of the gospel. That’s what I hope we want to do.

Spiritual Disciplines

Memorize 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.

This is a foundational verse, a life verse. Verse that speaks to foundation we want to build our lives on - dying with Jesus to sin, but living for and with Jesus, his love, his sacrifice.

Every day this week, recite and pray through this verse.

Attentive to your heart (judgment…gossip…critical heart…guilt…overly concerned over what others think)

Signs that you’re living by another word. Pray that would be put to death in you...

*Inspiration - the Story of Stan*

This is the power of the Gospel, this message. It transforms lives. It can transform your life.