The Danger of Demanding What You Deserve

Back on the Friday before last we went up to the Sykesville Ag and Youth Fair for the evening. It was demo derby night, and so when we pulled in we saw a line at the gate stretching clear back along the road. And that was pretty much the whole night—waiting in line for the rides, waiting in line for food, waiting in line for the bathroom. And you always get to see at times like that how intensely conscious everyone is about where they are in line, and where the end of the line is, and so on.

Isn’t it funny how as soon as someone cuts in a line somewhere, everyone else immediately reverts to their 8-year-old self! Maybe not out loud, but inside you’re going, “Hey! No cuts! We’ve been waiting here all this time—it’s not fair for you to cut in!” Pay attention, and you’ll see this attitude everywhere in our society. Everyone is acutely aware of what they deserve (and what other people don’t!) People grumble about “government handouts”— “I worked my whole life for everything I ever got—those people don’t deserve the same as I have!” And on the other side people say, “Well, you don’t deserve all your ‘privilege!’ It’s not fair for you to have everything you have!

Our whole world revolves around demanding what we deserve.

And I think that helps us understand what is going on in the book of Galatians, and why Paul wrote it. You see, when the church began in Acts 2, it was exclusively comprised of members of the Jewish people. They all came to faith in Jesus out of that Old Testament context of faithfulness expressed in Moses’ Law. They kept the commandments, they practiced circumcision, they observed the Sabbath, they kept kosher—all of it.

So the notion was that Jesus was the Savior promised to the Jews, so in order to be saved by Him you had to either be a Jew or become a Jew. So as long as everyone in the church was Jewish, this was a non-issue. But then when non-Jews began coming to faith in Jesus, it created a real crisis of faith in the church. In Acts 11 we read the story of a group of Gentile believers who received the Holy Spirit the same way the Jewish believers did in Acts 2. As Peter is relating the story to the rest of the disciples, he says:

Acts 11:17–18 ESV

17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” 18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

This was a bombshell for the Jewish believers’ worldview: that Gentiles could come as Gentiles for salvation in Christ, apart from the righteousness of Moses’ Law! In some ways, it’s like the Jews had been standing in line for thousands of years, faithfully carrying out Moses’ Law waiting for the Messiah. And then, these dirty, rotten Gentiles just cut in line and went straight to Jesus! They didn’t observe the Law, they didn’t keep kosher, none of it! It wasn’t fair!

And so this led to a backlash among some of the Jewish believers—if the Gentiles were going to come to Christ, they had to go to the back of the line and go through Moses’ Law first! And some of these teachers had made their way to Galatia and had gotten into the Galatians’ heads, saying that it wasn’t enough just to believe in Jesus for salvation; they had to earn the right to believe on Him by starting off as Jews, by obeying the Old Testament Law first.

And so Paul wrote this letter to the Galatian churches to show them that

If you reject the grace of God and demand what you deserve instead, you are demanding your own damnation.

They had already been given salvation in Christ! He had freely and graciously forgiven all of their sins, paying for them by His death on the Cross, and instead of resting in that grace, they were demanding that He give them what they deserved instead! Imagine a drunk driver, pulled over on the side of the road by a state cop. The officer decides not only to let the driver go, but to call a cab at his own expense and send him home in it. Simply unimaginable grace, right? But now imagine that the driver insists that he wasn’t drunk, and insists that the cop give him a breathalyzer to prove it! By rejecting the officer’s grace, the drunk lands himself in jail instead! That is what Paul is warning the Galatians will happen to them if they reject the grace of God and insist on getting what they deserve instead!

And so here in the introduction to the book, Paul is setting the stage for his argument by reminding the Galatian believers of what they have in the Gospel of grace that they would lose if they turned back to the Law.

First, Paul wants to remind his readers that

I. The Gospel of Grace Brings Life from Death (v. 1)

Look at verse 1:

Galatians 1:1 ESV

1 Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—

Now look at how Paul identifies himself in this verse: He is an apostle—literally, one who is “sent with a message”. And he is not sent merely by men (like the false teachers were)—he was sent from God Himself. He was called “through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead”. The Good News of the Gospel is not that Jesus died to make bad people good—He died to make dead people live!

And Paul himself draws on his own past to illustrate the difference between living under Law and living under grace. Because under the Law, Paul was a monster! Look down the page to verses 13-15 of Chapter 1:

Galatians 1:13–15 ESV

13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,

Under the Law, Paul was not a good person! He was full of violent, murderous hatred against Christians (as we see in Acts 9:1). He was far from being righteous—in fact, he was dead in his sins against God! But the grace of God in the Gospel means that Paul was

Delivered from a heart of death (Gal. 1:13-15; Acts 9)

Think of it! What did all of Paul’s righteousness according to Moses’ Law produce in him? A heart of life and peace and righteousness? No—obedience to the Law resulted in a heart of hatred and murder and death. And when Jesus appeared to him on that road to Damascus, it wasn’t because Paul was righteous enough under the Law to be saved—it was because Jesus was gracious enough to save him!

The Gospel of Grace means life from death—Paul was delivered from his heart of death, and further on we see how Paul was

Delivered from isolation in death (cp. Acts 9:26-27)

Look at verse 2:

Galatians 1:2 ESV

2 and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:

Now, if we just skim right past this verse we might take it to simply be a statement from Paul that there are a lot of other Christians who are “with him” in affirming the grace of God over works. And that’s true—but think for a moment who these “brothers” are. Surely many of them were Christians before Paul came to faith, right? And so what does that mean? It means that some of them were his former enemies! And in fact when we read the account in Acts, we see that Paul was not trusted by the other Christians when he first came to faith:

Acts 9:26 ESV

26 And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

Paul was isolated because of his past sins—the other Christians thought he was just trying to lure them into letting down their guard so that he could trap them. It wasn’t until Barnabas—who had formerly been Paul’s enemy—showed him grace that Paul was delivered from his isolation!

Acts 9:27–28 ESV

27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.

Paul knows what it is like to be dead in sin, and he knows what it is like for the Gospel of Grace to deliver him from his heart of death, and to deliver him from his isolation in that spiritual death. He knows that if God had related to him according to what he deserved, he would still be dead—dead in sin and headed for eternal death. And so he writes to warn the Galatians that if they demanded what they deserved from God, they were demanding their own damnation! Because only the Gospel of grace can bring life from death!

In verses 3-4, we Paul goes on to remind his readers that

II. The Gospel of Grace Brings Freedom from Bondage (vv. 3-4)

Look at these verses again:

Galatians 1:3–4 ESV

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

There are two glorious realities in view here: The first is that “Jesus gave Himself for our sins”. This is the fundamental truth of the Gospel—that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins against an infinitely holy God. Think of it for a moment: God is unceasingly and unendingly holy and righteous, isn’t He? He is infinitely righteous. And so when we sin against that righteousness—the smallest lie, the least motion of unrighteous anger, the tiniest hint of lust or greed or hatred or envy—that sin (as insignificant as it seems to us) is an offense against God’s infinite holiness, and is therefore an infinite sin. And even if that one sin were the only sin we had ever committed our entire lives, it would be enough to earn God’s eternal wrath against us in Hell! Because the only way to atone for an infinite offense is by an infinite sacrifice.

And how will a small, finite creature like you accomplish that kind of sacrifice? There is no amount of good works, no “turning over a new leaf”, no “I promise to do better next time” that will take away that infinite guilt before Him! You will spend your life in bondage to fear that your “good works” will never be “good enough” to satisfy His infinite righteousness!

But the Gospel of Grace

Delivers us from bondage to our works (2 Cor. 5:21, p. 966)

The only solution to an infinite offense is an infinitely perfect sacrifice: And this is what Jesus Christ did on the Cross!

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

You are free once and for all from this world’s tyrannical system of earning your salvation! All of that guilt, all of that shame, all of that fear of God’s wrath against you is gone forever when the Good News of the Gospel of Grace does its work in you! And Paul wants the Galatians to know that, if they turn their back on this grace, they will be going back into that bondage of guilt, shame and fear!

The Gospel of Grace delivers us from bondage to always working to earn our salvation. And the Gospel of Grace also

Delivers us from bondage to our sin (Rom. 6:17-18, p. 943).

Paul writes in Romans 6:

Romans 6:17–18 ESV

17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Before you came to Jesus Christ for salvation, you were not only a sinner, but you were enslaved to sin—when sin said “jump”, you said “How high?” When lust told you to look at porn, you looked. When Bitterness told you to hate your sister, you quit talking to her. When envy told you that you deserved what your neighbor had, you despised them. When greed told you you needed more money, you crossed the line to get more. When anger told you your kids deserved a piece of your mind, you blew up at them until they cried in fear. You were at the end of sin’s chain, and no amount of willpower or self-determination would keep you from sinning. You might be able to resist for a while, but eventually you would fall—and fall every time.

But now, under the Gospel of Grace, sin is no longer your Master! You have a new Master, Jesus Christ! He has given you a new heart to be “obedient to His standard of righteousness”, and has set you free from old Slave-Master Sin! And now, when your new Master, Jesus Christ, commands you, you obey Him! When He tells you “love”, you love your neighbor instead of envying him! When He says “Peace!”, you stop striving and clamoring along with the rest of the world to justify yourself and earn your place and get what you deserve! And when old Slave Master Sin comes around and cracks that whip over your head and tells you to be envious or lustful or bitter or violent, you shrug your shoulders and say, “You’re not the boss of me! Jesus is my Master, and I obey Him!”

The Gospel of Grace means that we are free from our bondage to our good works, and free from our bondage to sin. It means that we have been brought out of spiritual death, out of the destructiveness and violence and pain and suffering and brokenness and isolation and loneliness and darkness of our sin into new life in Christ, fellowship with Him and one another, free from the bondage of this world’s self-righteous striving and fighting.

And the Apostle Paul does not want to see the Galatian Christians give all of that up to “go to the back of the line” and try to come to Jesus through the Law of Moses, because he knows that if they turn their backs on the grace of God and demand what they deserve from God, they will be demanding death and isolation, bondage to fear and slavery to sin.

And so Paul writes this letter to call them (and us) to

III. Root Our Lives in the Gospel of Grace

As we go through the book of Galatians together in these next several weeks, I want us to learn from the Apostle Paul what it means to live “Gospel-Rooted Lives”—that we would become increasingly grounded in the Gospel of Grace. In the way that we relate to God, the way we relate to one another, the way we pursue our careers, raise our families, talk to our neighbors, minister to our communities—that in all of it we become more and more defined by the grace of God in our lives.

There are at least two lessons I want us to draw from these verses about rooting our lives in the Gospel of Grace. First, rooting our lives in the Gospel of Grace means

Extending His grace in our fellowship

And this is particularly directed to you who have been longtime members of Bethel Baptist Church; those of you who have walked with Jesus for many years, who have grown in Christlikeness and holiness. The temptation for you will be to look down on those who have come late to grace—people that God calls to Himself that have no church background, who don’t know all the Christian lingo, who don’t understand all the theological and doctrinal intricacies of Biblical faith. Your temptation will be to be frustrated with them, to charge on ahead with your high-powered theological debates while they are just trying to find the right page in their Bibles, to expect their walk with Jesus to look just like yours in discipline and godliness. As God continues to lead us as a church to reach out to our community and share the Gospel of Grace with our neighbors, we must make it our aim to demonstrate the same grace to others that God extended to us!

Because the truth is that every one of us were once dead in our tresspasses and sins, broken and isolated from God and one another, chained with guilt and shame and enslaved to sin. But the grace of God in Jesus saved us!

Romans 5:8–10 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

So, Christian, demonstrate that grace to others that you have received! Let us make our fellowship an object lesson of the Gospel, that everyone who steps through these doors will see what happens when the grace of God in Jesus Christ takes hold of a group of people, and they will be drawn to it (and to the Savior who purchased it with His blood!)

And finally, rooting our lives in the Gospel of Grace means

Receiving His grace in our salvation.

Friend, if you are here today and you think that you are going to be able to stand before God today on the basis of your record—that your good deeds will “outweigh” your bad deeds, you are like that drunk driver thinking that he will go free because he volunteered for the breathalyzer! You cannot stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, reeking of your greed and lust and anger and bitterness and pride, and say “Go ahead—take a look at my record, I think you’ll be impressed!” If you demand what you deserve from God, you are demanding your own damnation. You know that if you stood before Him tonight that you wouldn’t stand a chance, don’t you?

The only way that you can escape the judgment you deserve from God is to receive the grace of God given to you in Jesus Christ! Don’t listen to the lying whisper in your head that says, “God will never accept someone like you—you’re way too far gone for Him to save you! You’d just screw it up anyway! You’d make a lousy Christian! Go out and clean up your life first, show God how good you can be, and then maybe He’ll consider it!” Friend, that voice in your head is the voice of this “present evil age”—the accusing, lying voice of the devil himself. And if you listen to that voice, if you turn away from this invitation to God’s grace and insist on proving that you are good enough for God to save you, then you are turning away from your only hope!

Because the Bible makes it clear that the only way to escape what you deserve is to call on the One who suffered what you deserve!

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus took what you deserve—the death-penalty for your sin against God—so that you could have what He deserves—righteousness and eternal life with God! And He is offering you His grace this morning—and when you call on Him to save you and trust only in Him, He has promised to receive you! He promises you today:

John 6:40 ESV

40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

So look to Him today—call on Him, saying, “Jesus, I believe that you took what I deserved so that I could have what you deserve! You died to take away the penalty for my sins, that you were buried and rose again the third day, and I am placing my trust in you alone for my salvation!” And He promises to take away your guilt and replace it with His holiness, free you from bondage to sin and make you a slave to His righteousness, rescue you from your spiritual death and fit you for eternal life with Him! Don’t demand what you deserve from God this morning! Freely receive what He has provided you—the grace of God in your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Jude 24–25 ESV

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

Have you ever been tempted to believe that your obedience to God should result in more blessing in your life? That God somehow “owes” you for all of your work for Him? How does that attitude affect the way you approach Him?

Where in your life has the grace of God overcome your sin that isolated you from Him? How can you show that same grace to someone who has been isolated by the consequences of their sin?

What does it mean to “root your life” in the Gospel of grace? How does the grace of God in your life shape the way you treat others? The way you pray? The way you relate to other believers? How can you demonstrate that “Gospel-rooted life” this week?

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