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Galatians 1:1-12 – Freedom in Grace The Galatians, the Gospel and Grace Do you ever feel like you mess up, fall short, struggle, don’t make the grade, have to try harder? Do any of you wrestle with ongoing stuff in your life? Compulsions and addictions …to food, shopping, unhealthy relationships, alcohol, addictions of various kinds? Do you ever have this nagging feeling that you are not quite making it as a Christian? That you are not good enough, not holy enough, not passionate enough, not pious enough…? That your marriage is not what it could be or should be? That you don’t love God like you could do? That you could be a better friend, a nicer person…? Do you ever feel that church gets on your nerves sometimes and it might just be easier to stop coming? Do you ever feel like you’re hanging on by your fingernails? That you spend more time saying sorry to God than anything else? That you’re tired of saying sorry? Tired of feeling bad? Do you ever feel that you could and should worship more vibrantly, pray more fervently, read more diligently, keep the rules more stringently….? That, when it comes down to it, you are in a bit of a mess? Beneath the surface…if people could see? Your doubts….your fears…your negative thoughts….your sexual struggles….your compulsive urges….your anxieties…the rage inside. If people knew? What would they do? Look around you at this respectable church. All these respectable people. All these smiling, singing, respectable people… If we could see beneath the surface… If we could read minds and see hearts…. What would we find?

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What would the verdict be? Got to try harder. Run faster. Pray more, repent more, say sorry more, give more, serve more, do more, follow the rules more…. Hide more. Is God pleased with you? Does God like you? Does God love you? Is He disappointed in you? You probably have a sneaking suspicion that God has got his favourites, and you are not on the list. You feel that your report card from God would read: “Must try harder.” The Galatians This is the conclusion that the Galatian Christians had reached. They had started out by accepting that they could be saved by having faith in Jesus. They accepted Paul’s message that Jesus’ death on the cross DEALT with their sins, provided forgiveness, and that this was a free gift. It could not be earned, worked for or deserved. But now…now things are different. They have moved away from this message, this gospel. Now they feel…they must try harder, must fulfil the Torah, the law, that they must DO various things so that God will be happy them… So, Paul is writing to the churches in Galatia, and he is expressing how amazed and astonished he is about what he has been hearing about them …. And this not in a good way. Some people, some teachers, Paul calls them agitators, have come to the churches in Galatia, and have begun teaching them that, to be true Christians, true people of God, to really make the grade and be good enough, they must follow Mosaic law, and specifically, that the men must be circumcised. (See for example Galatians 5:2-4).

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These teachers, these agitators, have been telling these believers that, yes they need Jesus, yes they need faith in God, but also they need to behave in a certain way, follow certain rules, to seal the deal. And the deal might make them squeal because they have to be circumcised they are being told. It’s Jesus PLUS. Jesus PLUS the law. Jesus PLUS circumcision. These men, says Paul, are preaching a “different gospel” (1:6), in fact they are not preaching the gospel at all (1:7). “Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.” (1:7) Paul is amazed – astonished – that the Galatians are so quickly deserting the one (God the Father) who called them by the grace of Christ. The stakes could not be higher. So Paul takes them back to the gospel, to the message and the messenger…

The Gospel The messenger and the message of the gospel… The messenger: 1:1 “Paul, an apostle – sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God, the Father, who raised him from the dead”

1:11-12 “I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man,

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nor was I taught it; rather I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.”

Paul is an apostle, sent not by men, but sent by God. He is not doing what he is doing, not preaching the gospel, to please people, rather he is looking only to please God – he is a servant of Christ. Paul is authentic. He has seen the risen Christ. He encountered him on the road to Damascus. He has been commissioned by Christ. And as he writes to the Galatians, Paul defends his credentials, no doubt in the face of accusations and doubts sown by those agitating and getting under the skin of the Galatian churches. Paul is authenticating his role as messenger, his credentials as a gospel preacher. But ultimately, it is the gospel, the message itself, which has the ultimate authority and which Paul is so keen to defend. 8-9: Whoever the messenger is, even if it is an angel from heaven, they must not distort, add to, subtract from or reverse this gospel. Whoever does this, let them be cursed = anathema, let them face God’s wrath and judgment.

The message What is ultimately the message of the gospel? What is the essence, the core of this good news? We find it here outlined right at the beginning of the letter… 3-4: “the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age…” The message of the gospel is simple: Jesus gave himself for our sins to rescue us.

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We cannot rescue ourselves. We will never be good enough. Not by our own efforts, not by works. Not by following the law or covering our flaws. Not by externals. Not by being a nicer person, or by wearing the right clothes, or going to the right church, or practising our best beatific smile. We cannot rescue ourselves by being religious, by praying harder, trying harder, working harder, being smarter… This gospel starts with grace (1:3) and finishes with grace (6:18) and rests on grace. Grace gives us what we cannot earn and do not deserve. Grace is God’s gift to us. To all of us. All broken and falling short in some way or another. As John Ortberg writes, “One of the great marks of maturity is to accept the fact that everybody comes “as is.” Everybody’s Weird Of course, the most painful part of this is realizing that I am in the “as-is” department as well. Throughout history human beings have resisted owning up to that little tag. We try to separate the world into normal, healthy people (like us) and difficult people. We all want to look normal, to think of ourselves as normal, but the writers of Scripture insist that no one is “totally normal” — at least not as God defines normal. “All we like sheep have gone astray,” they tell us. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The gospel is the answer to that issue, to that problem, to us. The fact that we are all sinners. Sin, writes Francis Spufford in his recent book Unapologetic, is the human propensity to mess things up… We have a propensity, a tendency, to mess things up… The gospel – grace – is the answer.

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The gospel equals Jesus alone, not Jesus plus… Grace alone, not grace plus… The cross alone…not the cross plus… Jesus gave himself for our sins to rescue us. That’s it. This is the radical gospel that Paul preached to the Galatians and that they received. This is the gospel that we have received and believe if we are Christians. Jesus alone. Grace alone. Faith alone. This is the gospel. And this is what the Galatians were now turned away from…deserting…so quickly. This is what we turn away from. Every time we think we have to earn our way, work our way into God’s good books. Every time we feel condemned and not good enough. When we turn back to our own efforts, our own ways. We are turning away from…. The simplicity of the gospel. The sufficiency of grace. The sacrifice of the cross. Having listened to these agitators….They had to do more. They had to be more. They needed to add to the cross. They needed to add to grace. This is NOT the gospel – Paul cries. You don’t have to DO anything, it has been DONE for you. “You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation.” (Romans 10:9 TM)

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Come back to the message of GRACE. Come back to the CROSS. Hold on to the GOSPEL. Charles Spurgeon had the right advice: “Cling tightly with both your hands; when they fail, catch hold with your teeth; and if they give way, hang on by your eyelashes!” Don’t let go of the gospel! As Paul writes later in the letter… “We know very well that we are not set right with God by rulekeeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.”(Galatians 2: 16 TM)

Grace. A counsellor, David Seamands, summed up his career this way: “the two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God’s unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people…” Thomas Merton said: “A saint is not someone who is good but someone who experiences the goodness of God.” Augustine said: “My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.”

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Brennan Manning wrote: “Often hobbling through our church doors on Sunday morning comes grace on crutches - sinners still unable to throw away their false supports and stand upright in the freedom of the children of God.” Francis Schaeffer wrote: “True spirituality consists in living moment by moment by the grace of Jesus Christ.” Faith alone. Grace alone. Christ alone. This is our only hope, every one of us.

Grace and peace to you…

(Community group questions and discussion points on next page)

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Community group questions and discussion points:

These provide a framework for discussion and application. Feel free to pick and choose as discussion develops…

1.

What are the terms that Paul uses to describe himself in this letter? 2. Why do you think he is spending time explaining his authority and credentials? 3. Why is Paul so astonished? What is troubling him? 4. What is the main area of contention that he is addressing? (See for example Galatians 5:2-4) 5. What is the essence of the “gospel” that Paul is so vigorously defending (see, for example, Galatians 1:4, Ephesians 2:8-9)? 6. In what ways do you think that we “desert” the gospel? 7. In what ways do we revert to law and works and effort over grace? How do our emotions and feelings reflect and mirror this? 8. How does the gospel of grace free us from pride and guilt? 9. A counsellor, David Seamands, summed up his career this way: “the two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God’s unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people…” Do you think this is true, and if so, how can we move to a place where we can better receive God’s grace, and also show it to others…..? 10. This letter starts with grace (1:3) and finishes with grace (6:18). Pray for each other in this regard. “Grace and peace to you…”