Gospel People Part 5: Completed By Grace
Gospel People was a series I taught through the book of Galatians. The title came from the primary issue of the book: whether people define themselves by the Gospel or works they can accomplish. This writing series will outline the points I used in teaching the book of Galatians and will hopefully serve as a starting point for you in teaching it as well.
As a sports fan, I love when games get down to crunch time. A team can employ all sorts of different strategies early on, but when things really hang in the balance, the frills go away and you see what a team really believes in. In my preaching, I try to work hard to craft catchy introductions and frame things in creative ways. With this passage, I couldn't do that. This passage is crunch time. Without trying to over-exaggerate, I would say that the truths in this passage may be the most important things I've ever taught my youth group. If this passage is all my youth group students left the group with, that would be enough for me.
1. Walking In Grace (v.1-9)
Verses 1 and 2 present us with the main issue of this passage:
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by healing with faith?
After hearing about and trusting in the teachings of Jesus, the church in Galatia was swayed to trust in their own efforts to remain in God's favor. That mentality is one of the most dangerous beliefs a Christian can pick up. While few would outright say they trust in their own efforts for salvation, many make it clear by their frantic lifestyle of serving or their Christian checklist that they don't simply trust in the love of Jesus to save them. Paul's reminder is that a work that begins by grace can only be completed by grace.
Paul continues in verses 3 through 5:
Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain - if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith.
This is a great question for every believer to ask themselves constantly. It's a subtle, dangerous temptation to begin trusting in our own work to save us or keep us close to Jesus. Effort and obedience and extremely important, but they can never take the place of trusting the Spirit to keep us in God's love.
Paul illustrates this with an example in verses 6 though 9:
Just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed." So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Sometimes, a lesson is best learned by seeing it in action. That's exactly what Abraham does for us. He proves that a person is only welcomed into God's family through faith. While Abraham obeyed God, his righteousness was only from the fact that he believed. The danger that comes the longer a person walks with Christ is to think that their accumulation of good works is what makes them saved. The good works we do can only come about because we have already been transformed by God. Our goodness is never something we should attribute to ourselves, it's part of the Spirit working the righteous character of God into us.
2. Avoiding Spiritual Pride (v.10-14)
While Paul engaged Abraham earlier to use the law as an example, he approaches it from a different angle here in verses 10 through 12:
For all who rely on works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them." Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for "The righteous shall live by faith." But the law is not faith, rather "The one who does them shall live by them."
Paul presents a drastic choice. If the Galatians want to be perfected by the law, that's fine. The problem was that they would then be on the hook to keep the law perfectly. Paul's statement was not designed to inspire the Galatians to attempt perfection as much as it was intended to show the impossibility of earning salvation. The law of God was not meant to be a bar we try to jump over, rather, it was designed to show us how short we fall compared to God's standards. The law is a reminder that we need someone else to save us from the weight of sin. Forgetting that is what leads a person to trust their own effort.
Fortunately, Paul provides the good news in verses 13 and 14:
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us - for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree" - so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
While we could choose to take on the curse of the law for ourselves, Jesus has taken that curse on for us. Jesus died the death we each deserve to die so that anyone who believes would be welcomed into the family of God. All that is required of us today is trust in the atoning death of Jesus.
This is not something we can afford to get wrong. A gospel that teaches "Jesus and..." is not one that really trusts in Jesus. The Bible is clear that only faith in Jesus brings salvation. To allow people to trust in anything else is to let them run towards eternal destruction. That's why I look at this passage and call it crunch time. This is too big of a truth to mess around with. A teaching so wonderful deserves our all, and fortunately, by the power of the Holy Spirit, this passage is producing fruit all around the world.