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Grace, God’s riches at Christ’s expense.
We’re starting a new series called “Grace and Power” this morning.
Together we’re going to explore the vast wonderful communication from God as found in the book of Galatians.
Turn if you will to the very first chapter of Galatians where we will look at the first five verses.
What does it say?
What does it mean?
INTRO - I want to tell you a story.
Its a story about a young man that wanted to get out into the world quickly.
He demanded that his dad give him his inheritance early so he could go live the party-boy life.
The fellow traveled and met lots of people who were glad to help him spend all his money on things that made him happy for the moment.
Soon, the money was gone and so was his joy.
You probably already know that this story in one of the Bible’s most frequently shared; the parable of the prodigal son.
What to do when we really make a mess of things?
Where to go when we’ve really messed up?
What can we say when we hurt loved ones with our words, hurt our spouse by being stupid, or driven a wedge between ourselves and someone for whom we care?
Where can we go when we’ve acted intensively, thoughtlessly, or obnoxiously?
What should we do when we’ve drifted from faith, compromised the gospel, or turned our back toward God?
Good questions, lets see what the Bible has to offer in regard to questions like these.
Grace is in Galatians
Seems people want to hide sin; the sin our ourselves.That’s really normal; goes back to the fall.
We’ve been hiding ever since.
The Galatian Christians probably wanted to hide when they heard from Paul.
Paul is basically saying, “You all have gone Prodigal!”
The tuned their back on grace and sought justification in the Law!
Paul is pretty upset with the Galatian Christians.
However, he was not left speechless:
AND
AND
AND
This is a serious situation, very serious.
Paul knows it and now so do the people.
Note that Paul doesn’t take them to the whipping shed or vent his frustrations on Facebook.
Paul takes the people back to grace:
TRANS - Paul is saying, “You messed up, but there is hope.
Go back to grace and find all that you need.”
BAK - Here is the low down.
After Paul left Galatia the Christians were led astray by people who discredited his apostleship.
They led them astray and caused them to question the gospel.
The Christians we told they needed to get circumcised if they were to be considered children of God.
The stray-makers are usually called “Judaizers.”
They wanted the people to embrace the Jewish law.
They made lots of good arguments such as the sharing in the blessings of Abraham, securing their identity as “son of God,” and getting help to battle “desires of the flesh.”
BILL - The Judaizers caused the Jesus followers to doubt Paul’s teaching could get them to where they needed to go spiritually.
We might say they suffered buyer’s remorse.
They had a crisis of faith and were ready to get circumcised.
Paul’s Message is Legitimate
Sometimes we find ourselves circumstances similar to those of the Galatians.
We are pumped about the Gospel; then we find ourselves thinking Christian life is not all that we expected.
Then, we wonder is more is needed to get us where we want to be?
This is kind of where the Galatians were.
This is why Paul’s first message of grace still stands.
But note he does not speak about the message, but the messenger:
Is Paul unsure about his credentials?
No! Pauls is reasserting the legitimacy of his gospel.
For if Paul is not legitimate, not an apostle, then the gospel isn’t either.
The legitimacy of the gospel is why Paul insists on his God-given go ahead.
In another way, this is the same reason Paul notes how he stands with others who proclaim the gospel:
Paul is not alone following Jesus—he is not a renegade working in isolation outside of the rest of the church.
The gospel Paul is preaching is the same one the Galatians one they came to believe and the same one that Paul’s cohorts preach.
Paul emphatically stresses that he is the real thing—a true agent of grace!
As a fact, being a apostle of grace, extending grace to others on God’s behalf is Paul’s raison d'etre (reason for being).
Paul is an apostle for grace, but so is this book.
The book of Galatians exists for grace!
Grace is the reason Paul writes this letter; Paul wants grace applied to the situation at Galatia.
Paul for grace, Galatians for grace, yet more importantly—God for grace.
It is for this reason that the church today needs Galatians (as well as all of Paul’s letters).
The letters begin and end with grace.
Let’s go a step more, Paul for grace, Galatians and the other letters for grace, God for grace and indeed the whole of Scripture, both OT and NT for grace.
God’s wants to open the floodgate of grace on all people through the Word of the Bible!
Genesis though Revelation, the inspired Word of God if slap full with grace.
Countless coins of comfort, precious pearls of peace, jumping jewels of joy are discovered all through the pages of the Bible.
The Bible itself reminds us the Word is written for us:
It is for this reason that when we muddy the waters, we must go back to grace by going back to the Bible.
When we mess up, we must not forgo Scripture.
Instead of closing the Word, we must open it once again.
Look to it, live in it, let love teach us once again to live it.
When we sin, we tend to spend less time in the Word, hide from God.
Why is that?
Look here:
The Word hits us right were we are.
At the same time, the Bible has exactly what we need when we make a mess of our lives.
It is in the Bible we find the message of grace—the gospel.
Getting back to grace, in one way, is going back to the Bible.
The message of grace is found in the Word.
TRANS - We’ve noted Galatians is a book of grace and that Paul is an apostle of grace.
But is this enough?
Let’s ponder on that in our next section.
Jesus’ Sacrifice is Sufficient
Reestablishing the legitimacy of his gospel is not enough for Paul.
It’s true, but is it enough?
Paul knows his work is convincing the Galatians that the grace of God is enough to meet their needs.
BAK - When Paul previously left the Galatians certain teachers came along promoting Jewish law as a way to advance spiritually.
Also, we can assume the Galatians found the law appealing because of the promise of spiritual help.
Undoubtedly they found themselves frustrated, just like we do, with the continuing presence of sin in our lives.
Do we know we need to be rescued from the power of sin? Sin is a lordless power, a godless force.
Sin is not just a one time thing, event, action, or over and done with once you do it.
Sin has after effects; it lives on!
The after effects affect us.
Is there a way to get free from sin that entangles?
Paul says, “yes” there is a way to be free from sin.
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