Grace From Galatians (5-19)

Those who have come from churches that taught legalism all their life have a greater appreciation for the book of Galatians than those who have been taught salvation by grace all their life.

• Those who have been raised in the church all their life and came to know the Lord at an a age, do not always appreciate this gospel of grace like some who have been saved from the gutters of sin. I am not saying that only those who have been in the gutters of sin can appreciate the gospel of grace, but they seem to have a deeper appreciation for the gospel of grace because that marvelous grace reached down into the gutters of sin to lift them out.

• Those who have come from legalistic churches seem to have a greater fondness for the gospel of grace than those who have been taught the gospel of grace all their life. They know the bondage of trying to live a perfect life but being totally incapable of doing so!

Illus: Martin Luther, the reformer, came out of the legalistic Roman Catholic Church. All his life he was taught that salvation is in Christ but also in the many dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church.

But once the Lord showed him that the JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH, he became a new man, and God used him to bring about the Protestant movement.

He later said of the book of Galatians, that it was “My own little epistle; it is my Katie Von Bora.” (Luther’s wife).

He deeply loved this book, as he compared his love for this book to the love he had for dear wife Katie.

WHAT DOES THE BOOK OF GALATIANS TEACH US? It teaches us that we can not earn the love of Christ.

Illus: This is difficult for mortals to understand, because we know in this life we have to work at earning love from others. For example:

• Some children have to earn the love of their parents by doing all kinds of things.

• Some young people feel they have to earn the love of the opposite sex by doing all kinds of things.

• Some feel they must do all kinds of things on their jobs to win the favor of their boss and get a promotion.

However, Galatians shows us that there is nothing we can do to make God love us any MORE or any LESS!

The reason that Martin Luther loved the Book of Galatians is because it teaches GOD LOVES us already with a perfect love, and there is nothing we can do to earn His love.

Also, before Paul was converted to Christianity he was dedicated to legalism. He did all kinds of things to try and earn God’s love. He believed so strongly that this was how to acquire salvation, that he TORTURED those who taught contrary to what Judaism taught.

What a glorious day in his life on that Damascus road, when he came to realize that we are saved by grace.

In the Book of Galatians, he is writing to these Galatians who were saved by grace but now were falling back into the false teaching that in order to be saved you must obey the law.

Let’s look at some things he had to say to them in chapter three. Here, Paul becomes a lawyer, proving his case that his gospel is superior to what these false teachers were teaching them. He used four arguments to prove his case.

First, let’s look at-

I. HIS APPEAL

Look at verses 1-5, we read, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”

Paul, in these five verses, APPEALS to them by asking them five questions.

Questions are asked for two reasons:

• Questions are asked to see how much we know. This is why school teachers give students tests, to find how much they know on a given subject.

• Questions are asked to teach us things.

So often people go through life without thinking. They need someone to ask them some QUESTIONS that will make them think about what they are doing.

Paul asks these questions to teach them some things about the spiritual life. He wants these Christians, who have been gloriously saved by the grace of God, to think about what he is asking them and he hopes they will reach the right answers.