INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
• The last few weeks we have been examining the subject of grace.
• When you start to grasp the fact that grace is all that a loving God feels and does to save people, my prayer is that we start to see the value of grace, that grace is not something that is cheap.
• When you think of where you were before you were baptized into Christ, what comes to your mind?
• When I look at myself, I see someone who once was lost and now is found, was blind and now I see.
• The song Amazing Grace is a good song that summarizes how I feel about what God has done for me.
• I know that without God’s grace, I would be lost.
• The other thing I know is that because of God’s grace, I have been abundantly blessed in every way. God has given me a great family, and a great church family to serve.
• So, here is my question, what effect should God’s grace have in my life?
• Should my life be different that it was before I was baptized into Jesus?
• Should the expression and exercise of God’s grace in my life through what Jesus did for me on the cross change me in some way?
• We have heard people talk about experiencing a life changing experience, such as marriage, children, tragedy.
• These things are more circumstance related that will have an impact on one’s life; however, is Jesus just another circumstance that alters my life or is there something more?
• The expression of God’s grace in one’s life should do more than to change our circumstances, it should do even more that change where one spends eternity, God’s grace should have an effect on my life.
• When one experiences God’s grace through salvation and forgiveness through Jesus, rising and walking on a newness of life should be evident.
• It is not the difference between Dry Jeff (Before Baptism) and Wet Jeff (after baptism), it should the difference between Lost Jeff, and Saved By God’s Grace Jeff.
• So today, we will turn to a beautiful passage written to the Galatian Church by the Apostle Paul.
• This letter was written to the church at Galatia, one of the reasons Paul was inspired to write this letter is because Judaizers (People who were trying to make Christians follow Jewish laws and rituals before they could become a Christian) were seeking to impose rules on Christians from which they had been saved from having to do.
• Let’s turn to Galatians 2:19-20
• SLIDE #2
• Galatians 2:19–20 (CSB) — 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.
• SLIDE #3
The first effect that Grace should have on me is the fact that…
SERMON
I. I am a new person.
• Let’s look at verse 19 for a moment.
• Paul says, For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God.
• Remember last week when we discussed the phrase WORKS OF THE LAW found in Romans?
• Well in verse 16 of Galatians 2, we see it again. Then just a couple of verses down, we find verse 19 where Paul speaks of through the law I died to the law.
• Remember that from literature of the time we see that WORKS OF THE LAW refers to manmade laws or manmade additions to the Law of Moses.
• WE cannot be made right with God by making up our own rules is how we might say it today.
• In verse 19, we see the word LAW two times. Paul had to die to the law so he could live for God.
• The absence of the article before (LAW) ??µ? is noteworthy; whereas the Law of Moses, being the one revealed Law, is always designated the Law (? ??µ??), ??µ? denotes law in the abstract, so that this clause comprehends emancipation from all control of external law.
• Rendall, F. (n.d.). The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians. In The Expositor’s Greek Testament: Commentary (Vol. 3, p. 165). New York: George H. Doran Company.
• So, what Paul is saying is that through the works of the law he died to the works of the law, he knew that before he could become a new person, he had to rid himself of trying to do it on his own! He saw the futility of trying to live in that manner.
• He said he had to die to that way of life so he could live for God.
• To die to something means to cease to have a relationship with something.
• The time of death for Paul was when he was baptized into Christ. Romans 6:2-4 explains this.
• Paul wanted to live now that his spirit was regenerated in Christ!
• SLIDE #4
• Romans 8:10 (CSB) Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
• Then we hit the first part of verse 20.
• I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
• When we receive God’s grace through Jesus, we are a new person!
• SLIDE #5
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 (CSB) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
• Romans 6:4 (CSB) Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.
• What is a newness of life, what does it mean to be a new creation?
• When we are alive in Christ we do not have to be the old person any longer, Jesus wipes our slate clean!
• Why do we insist on not experiencing or developing the new person that we are?
• We are missing out on so much when we fail to allow God to develop the new person you are in Christ!
• When we do not allow ourselves to become the new person we were meant to be in Christ, we are missing out on a great blessing!
• Don’t be afraid, LET GO!
• Let’s look at verse 20 once again.
• SLIDE #6
• Galatians 2:20 (CSB) 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.
• SLIDE #7
The second effect that Grace should have on me is the fact that…
II. I have a new focus.
• I want to focus on the last part of the verse for this thought.
• 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 goes to focus. If you are going to be able to embrace the fact that you are a new person, in order for that to happen, you need a new focus!
• When most of us need a new stove, when we purchase the new stove, we get rid of the old one so there is room for the new one.
• You do not put the new stove in the kitchen and keep the old broken one in the kitchen, you get the old one hauled away to make room for the new.
• One of the issues we deal with concerning developing our new life, is that we focus too much on the old life!
• WE allow the old life to crowd out any chance of the new life taking root because all we can think of is the old life.
• We try to hold on to the old life to the point there is no room for the new.
• Old habits, old ways of s
• When we are baptized into Jesus, our slate is clean, the house is cleaned’ however, then we need to fill our house (LIFE) with new things.
• The passage we looked at in 2 Corinthians tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!”
• The passage does not say WILL come, but HAS come!
• Jesus told a story to illustrate what can happen to us if we do not replace the old with the new.
• In Luke 11:24-26, Jesus speaks of the return of unclean spirits.
• SLIDE #8
• Luke 11:24–26 (CSB) — 24 “When an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it roams through waterless places looking for rest, and not finding rest, it then says, ‘I’ll go back to my house that I came from.’ 25 Returning, it finds the house swept and put in order. 26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there. As a result, that person’s last condition is worse than the first.”
• The principle is the same.
• When Jesus was resurrected, His life took on a different focus than it did before the resurrection.
• When Paul was baptized into Jesus, he was a new creation, and the focus of his life was totally different that it was before.
• He was ALIVE to the Law and to the works of the law, NOW is has died to that way of life and is no longer responsive to it; but rather he is ALIVE in Christ!
• To be alive in something denotes being in a relationship with something.
• His focus is Jesus, my focus should be Jesus.
• My heart and mind should respond to the Holy Spirit within me as I live life, not the old way of life. THAT IS NOT ALWAYS EASY; HOWEVER, AS YOU DIE TO SELF, IT GETS EASIER AND EASIER.
• In Philippians 3, where Paul speaks of his old life, he says the following…
• SLIDE #9
• Philippians 3:8 (LEB) More than that, I even consider all things to be loss because of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for the sake of whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and consider them dung, in order that I may gain Christ
• The translation of the Lexham English Bible nails it!
• If you spend your life focusing on your old life, you will never enjoy the new!
• Let’s look at verse 21
• SLIDE #10
• Galatians 2:21 (CSB) I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
• SLIDE #11
The third effect that Grace should have on me is the fact that…
III. I have a new direction for my life.
• This is close to focus; however, I see this new direction as a place to put our focus.
• What Paul is teaching us that living the by the Law or the Works of the Law WILL not bring salvation, justification, or righteousness into one’s life.
• If manmade religion and/or rules will suffice to receive God’s pronouncement of justified, then Jesus died for no reason, we would not need His death because we could earn it ourselves!
• IF those things could bring salvation, then Jesus died for nothing, and God’s grace would have been waster and futile.
• So, Paul is pragmatic here.
• The thought is “Why would I go back to live my old life when if profits me nothing. Why would I go back to a life that will not allow me to experience the grace of God and the salvation found in Jesus?
• Setting aside the grace of God will do nothing good for me!
• The phrase SET ASIDE also means to VOID, nullify, to scorn, or disdain.
• The direction of my life should be to stay away from the old way of life and embrace the new life I have in Christ by God’s grace!
CONCLUSION
• Listen. We all need God’s grace, I think on some level we all want to receive grace.
• The good news is you can receive God’s grace through a relationship with Jesus!
• God’s grace should have an effect on my life. It should be evident that I am experiencing new life, that I have a new focus and a new direction.
• We need to realize that God makes us a new creation when we are baptized into Jesus.
• Our life is about lining ourselves up with that truth.
• Our new life is a process of growth and development.
• Each day we are being transformed into the image of Jesus! Each day, every day, one moment at a time!
