The Gospel of Grace – What it is not.
The Gospel of Grace is NOT enslaving
The Gospel of Grace is NOT just spiritual or physical
The Gospel of Grace is NOT discriminatory
Last week we began a new series on Galatians.
We saw that Paul had started the churches in Galatia and then some people came in claiming you had to do more than just receive Christ as Savior, that it was more than just grace.
We saw that the gospel Paul preached was a gospel of Grace.
Paul goes on in Chapter 2 to show by his actions and statements what the gospel of Grace is not and that is what we are going to look at today.
This is important for us because we always need to have proper perspective and understanding if we are going to be effective servants and communicators or the gospel and to be able to live a life full of grace.
Galatians 2 (p. 823-824)
1 Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 [This matter arose] because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.
6 As for those who seemed to be important-whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance-those men added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. 8 For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 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 Peter 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?
15 "We who are Jews by birth and not ’Gentile sinners’ 16 know that a man is not justified by observing 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 Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
17 "If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am 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 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!"
There are some powerful statements in this chapter of Galatians. Let us see if we can look at some of this and see for ourselves what the Gospel of grace is not and apply these things to ourselves.
First thing I want you to see is that
The Gospel of Grace Is NOT Enslaving
(Galatians 2:3-5)
3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 [This matter arose] because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.
These are the Judaisers that Paul is talking about trying to enslave the people once again by the law.
They were adding circumcision and obedience to the Law to the grace of God for salvation.
It is only God’s grace that brings salvation and that sets us free apart from the law.
He tells us we are free. Gods grace has set us free.
We talked last week about how we need to tap into God’s grace everyday. While it is a one time event that saves us by his grace,
it is a daily event to receive His grace for daily living.
When we don’t do that, we tend to become enslaved again to working in our strength to try and please God.
Draw close to Him everyday and experience that freedom everyday.
I want to reiterate my point from last week because I think it is vitally important for us.
Take time each day and just BE with the Lord.
Be with Him like you would be with a close friend.
That is what relationship is all about
That is how you are going to experience the joy of being obedient.
First you are going to be empowered to do it
Second you are going to enjoy doing it
This is what Freedom really is.
Being obedient is not going to earn us God’s grace.
It is drawing on God’s grace that will enable us to be obedient.
And it is God’s grace that is going to bring freedom and joy everyday.
We often don’t realize it but when we are in sin, we become enslaved to it.
Peter tells us that a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. (2 Peter 2:19)
Freedom is being empowered to choose righteousness.
But we only have this power when we are continuing in the grace of our Lord.
We lose the power to truly be free in this life when we are not continuing in God’s grace and we become enslaved again by the deception of sin.
Don’t be enslaved to the path of destruction. Sin is deceptive. It blinds us to the destruction it will bring and only lets us see the momentary pleasure it may bring.
Don’t be deceived
Don’t be enslaved
Be free
Free to live righteously and enjoy its blessings by continuing on each day in the grace of the Lord.
I challenge you to spend 15 minutes over each of the next 6 days and just be with the Lord.
Tell him how you feel.
Tell him your concerns
Tell Him how much you need his strength
Tell him you want to experience His presence
Be in relationship with Him and Be free!
Secondly,
The Gospel of Grace Is NOT Just Spiritual or Physical
10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
You have heard the phrase that a person can be so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.
Well I don’t believe that because if a persons focus is truly upon the Lord and growing in Him, they will be living that out in their actions.
Like we talked about last week, the Gospel of grace changes you. It changes you inside first and then as you grow those changes manifest themselves in you physically, in the things you do and the way you do them.
His grace affects you spiritually and physically.
We create a false dichotomy sometimes between the spiritual and the physical. We are one person. We are spiritual and physical. Everything we do affects all of us.
James tells us some of the same things.
When we read James sometimes, we can think that He and Paul were preaching 2 different things, but they weren’t.
James tells us that faith without works is dead. (James 2:26)
Paul tells us that we have been created in Christ to do good works (Ephesians 2:10)
There were those even back in Paul’s day that said that he tried to create this dichotomy between the spiritual and the physical. And some that said we should sin more so we could get more grace.
Paul said “By no means!” (Romans 6:2). We get more grace by continuing on with the Lord every day (Colossians 2:6) and that grace will bring us freedom to be righteous and leads to holiness (Romans 6:22).
That righteous living, that holy living, is both spiritual and physical.
Our spirits draw close to God’s Spirit by His grace and our bodies seek to be obedient and do good things.
We give to the poor, as Paul and Barnabas did when they took funds to the Jerusalem church in Acts 11.
We help out others in need with money.
We help out others by being there for them.
We do these things with joy in the grace of God.
When we are doing these things begrudgingly, that should be a warning to us that we are not drawing on God’s grace as we should be.
This doesn’t mean that we have to be at the church 24/7.
Or say yes to everything that is every asked of us.
But it does mean we don’t say no to everything that is ever asked of us and that we seek the Lord’s counsel through prayer on what He wants us to be doing.
Then there will be no difference between what is happening to us spiritually or physically because both will be glorifying the Lord.
Finally,
The Gospel of Grace Is NOT Discriminatory.
Galatians 2:1-2, 6-9, 11-21
1 Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.
6 As for those who seemed to be important-whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance-those men added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. 8 For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews.
It says Paul took Barnabas and Titus. Barnabas was a Jew and Titus was Greek.
The Gospel is not just for the Jews or just for the Gentiles.
It is not just for whites
It is not just for blacks
It is for whites and blacks and Asians, and Indians and every Human on the face of the planet.
1 Timothy 2:4 says that
God “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
Not just some, but all.
1 John 2:2
2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus died for the sins of everyone. Now for that to become valid for your life, you must receive the gift by receiving Christ as your Savior, by believing in Him completely.
Why did God do this for everyone?
Because God has created us all in His image.
Galatians 2:6 says the “God does not judge by external appearance.” God does not discriminate based upon how we look or what color our skin. He looks squarely at our hearts.
Each human being has been created in his image.
We look at the external appearance often and we see differences.
God does not look at the external appearance.
He looks at the heart and sees his own image.
Now it is distorted due to our sin, but his image is still visible in each of us.
When Samuel was told to go and anoint one of Jesse’s sons as the next King, Samuel began by looking at how Jesse’s sons looked, at their stature.
But God said this to Samuel
1 Samuel 16:7
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
So, Paul brings Titus the Greek and Barnabas the Jew and says God has worked in both of these peoples lives. They have been saved by Grace. God did not require Titus to first become like one of us, a Jew, to receive God’s grace.
It is the same today. God does not require blacks to become white.
He does not require Asians to become black.
He does not require Old to become young.
He does not require young to become old.
We don’t have too much problem with those but we do have sometimes our own issues.
He does not require one culture to become another culture
He does not require older folks to like newer musical styles and does not require younger folks to like older musical styles.
None of that matters when it comes to the gospel of Grace.
What matters is that our heart is prepared to receive Christ as Savior.
And it is prepared when we recognize our need.
But not only does God not discriminate,
He does not want us to discriminate.
Let’s read the last part of this chapter again about the situation with Peter.
11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 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 Peter 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?
15 "We who are Jews by birth and not ’Gentile sinners’ 16 know that a man is not justified by observing 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 Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
17 "If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am 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 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!"
Here Peter is eating with the Gentiles but when some other Jews come, He becomes fearful that of what they may say.
Peter. He can be so courageous at one moment and so fearful the next.
We see Him walk on water and then sink
We see Him proclaim his allegiance unto death to Jesus and then later that night deny Him 3 times.
How many of us are like that too.
We are strong at one moment and weak the next.
To me this underlies the great importance of God’s grace.
When we are not drawing on God’s grace each day, we begin working things out in our own strength, and we get fearful because we fail to leave God in control.
When Peter was walking on water, he took his eyes off of Christ and sank
When Peter denied Christ, He was thinking only about how to save himself.
When Peter separated from the Gentiles, He was thinking how to save himself some possible disagreements with the other Jews, not thinking of what He was saying with His actions.
Many of us have probably done brave and courageous things for Christ.
But the moment we take control from the Lord is the moment we set ourselves up to let Him down.
When we say you can’t do this or that to be a Christian, we discriminate.
Anyone who is a Christian has been saved by the grace of God.
And we all have issues that God’s grace covers.
But Paul goes on to ask rhetorically “if God’s grace covers sin, does that mean that we are encouraged to sin?” Absolutely not, Paul says.
We have no encouragement to sin and yet none of us are free from sin.
That is why Paul says that he does not set aside the grace of God.
Romans 7:24-25
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
None of us can attain righteousness by our actions. If we could, then Christ died for nothing.
So how can we not discriminate against others?
Don’t be enslaved
Let God’s grace seep out in our actions
Don’t expect people to conform to YOUR cultural standards.
Recognize that it is only by God’s grace that each of us have been saved. And live each day by “continuing on in the grace of God.”
Let’s pray
