Musing Upchurch: Are You Living Grace and Peace? (Galatians 1:1-5)

Are You Living Grace and Peace? (Galatians 1:1-5)

GIST: Grace and peace are available because of God’s desire to save us, so we should live to know this and make it known.

This morning we’re moving into our next book study together as we turn to the New Testament book of Galatians. Though there is some debate over the exact dating of this letter, nearly all scholars agree it is one of Paul’s earliest epistles, and it is commonly considered the very first recorded in Scripture. That’s why we’re coming to it next. Just as a little tidbit, our general pattern is to move through the books of the New Testament in the order in which they were written, pausing each summer to study Psalms, and going off track every five years to go through a Gospel together because I never want us to be too far removed from considering the life of Jesus.

As way of introduction to this letter, I want to read Paul’s… introductory remarks ☺️. He opens, like most ancient letters, by telling his reader who the letter is from. This gives us some important insights→

“1 Paul, an apostle--not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead-- 2 and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:”

It is important to note from the beginning here that Paul is writing this letter to a group of churches, not just one, spread across the region of Galatia. If you were with us for our Acts study, these places will ring a bell: Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra...etc.

He starts this greeting by clarifying the nature of his remarks to follow. These aren’t just words he’s pulling from thin air. He’s writing as an apostle. That word means a messenger or one sent and was used to refer to a unique ministry— specifically those sent directly from Jesus. The original 12 disciples are given this distinction, and Paul, after his dramatic face-to-face conversion encounter, is given it as well. He even makes that clear by saying he was sent by God the Father & Jesus whom He raised from the dead! (Just as an aside, this is no longer a position people hold. After the death of John, though we are all sent out, there have been no more apostles in that sense of the term.)

So Paul the apostle along with his co-laborers addresses this letter to the Galatians, a group of Gentile Christians. This letter is all about knowing and applying the gospel to our lives. These new believers had been pulled into the lie that we need Jesus + other stuff to be truly saved. From the very beginning, Paul starts fighting against that by pointing them back to the beauty of the gospel. Even in his opening signature he points them to the cornerstone of the gospel by telling them he was sent by Jesus who was raised from the dead! His tone here is incredibly passionate— even to the point of seeming angry at times— because he loves them so deeply and can’t stand to see them returning to the bondage of sin when they have been set free, or at least know how to be set free.

To that end, his opening address proceeds to summarize the gospel for them...and us, so that’s our focus this morning. Here’s the gist: Grace and peace are available because of God’s desire to save us, so we should live to know this and make it known.

I know that intro had to be a little longer today, so let’s dive straight in! The first thing to note here is that→

I. Grace and Peace Are Available (3-4a)

Again, the whole context of the letter to the Galatians is combating the destructive claim that you need Jesus’ grace + other stuff to truly experience salvation. That destroys the beautiful truth of the gospel. Therefore, Paul wastes no time with his opening greeting but dives straight into the truth he wants them to remember. It’s the same truth we need to remember. “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…” Let’s break down each element here. First→

Grace is the unmerited favor of God. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve. What we deserve is punishment, but Jesus took our place to offer us→

Peace. This is the peace of God. The word used here carries the implication of freedom from war and havoc. In our current environment, this should be something our hearts are hungry for, right? It’s available… if we’ve experienced grace. We won’t ever be ready to experience peace this side of Heaven until we stop fighting against the Prince of Peace. By nature, we are enemies of God. We’re running from His grace. We despise His guidance. We’re at war and charging headlong toward inevitable and self-driven defeat. Yet, rather than leave us there, He chose to take that defeat upon Himself and rise victorious over it so we could look forward to an eternity of peace in His presence and a lifetime of internal peace now because we can rest in His arms now— even when the world is in complete unrest. And let’s not forget, this grace and peace comes only→

From God our Father & Jesus our Savior Who Gave Himself. How beautiful is that? The creator of the universe took on human flesh, and, because Jesus came as the Christ, the Messiah, the one who rescues us, we don’t have to remain enslaved to our sins. We can believe in Him and surrender control of our lives to the one who came→

To Deliver Us. We need rescued. We’re trapped in our own sins, and we can’t get ourselves out. Jesus came, took on Hell in our place, and rose victorious over sin to save us. It’s all Him. We are the perishing. He is the Savior. We add nothing to that salvation. And this is possible→

II. Because God Desires To Save Us (4b)

Look at the last part of verse 4. This is all “4b...according to the will of our God and Father…” Maybe that doesn’t seem like too big of a deal, but it’s huge. This is Amazing Love! Please hear this. Jesus was under absolutely no obligation to save you. He didn’t have to intervene. He didn’t have to rescue us. I’ve heard people claim that His sacrifice was so we could be with Him in Heaven because He needed people to worship Him. He doesn’t need anything. We worship Him because He is worthy and because seeing who He is opens our eyes to see the world the way it was meant to be. He didn’t need us in Heaven to somehow complete Himself. God is complete in Himself. He is everything He needs. He came and took on the eternal wrath of Hell because He loves you. Period. That’s a big deal. You are loved. Yeah, I know you’re a screw up. I get that you probably did something stupid today and have probably done terrible things in your past. He knows that, and He loves you anyway. That’s amazing grace!

In closing I want to make an observation I know I’ve made often. If it comes across as redundant, I apologize, but it’s a truth frequently repeated in the Bible, and one that should be applied to our lives daily (and I’m not just saying that to be dramatic ☺️). God has made it possible for us to experience grace and peace→

III. So We Should Live To Know This & Make It Known (5)

Look with me really quickly at verse 5: “...5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” You’ve probably heard me say this a lot, but God’s Glory is His character revealed because everything about Him is worthy of praise. We should→

Live To Know This. Paul repeats this in Galatians, so that means you’ll be hearing it from me over the next several months as well. There is not a single circumstance in your life when you don’t need to hear the gospel. If you’re consumed by the guilt of your sin today, you need to see Jesus’ amazing love that came to rescue you. If you know Him but are burdened by the events in your life, you need to remember that He loved you deliberately and came to bring you grace and peace. Your circumstances haven’t changed that. The gospel speaks to every need in your life because it is the deepest need of your life. Live to know that. Remind yourself of this truth every day. And→

Live To Make It Known. Pray that this week you will have an opportunity to share this amazing grace with people around you. Mean it and look for it. I can tell you from personal experience, even during this time of quarantine, there is nothing more incredible than the blessing of being used by Jesus to point away from yourself and to Him.

Let me just recap in our→

TAKEAWAYS

Grace and Peace Are Available
Because God Desires To Save Us
So We Should Live To Know This & Make It Known

Musing Upchurch

Pages

Past Ponderings

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Are You Living Grace and Peace? (Galatians 1:1-5)

1 comment: