(Read Galatians 2:11-16)
This morning we continue our series “Grace that is Simply Amazing.” For the past couple of days I have sharing about a Grace that helps to take the pressure off of you and how God is not out to get you. Before I get into the message today I want to share a couple of responses I received from these messages. One person wrote me and said, “This issue has had me in bondage for 20 years! I truly believed God hated me and was going to punish me for the rest of my life for things I have done! Glory! Thank you Jesus!” Another person wrote, “This was truly a blessing to my soul. I really needed to hear this message. I have been allowing my past mistakes to hunt me every night when I close my eyes to sleep. I thank you God, you are Awesome all the time.” Once again, satan wants you focused on your past, while God wants you focused on your future. Condemnation will keep you trapped in your mistakes. Grace will free you to become whom God has called you to be. Thank God for His amazing and undeserved GRACE!
Now let’s get into this morning’s message. A few weeks ago I started at Galatians 3:1 and we walked through chapters 3-6. Before I leave Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia I want to address a couple of things he said in chapter 2. In this chapter the Apostle Paul confronted the Apostle Peter about what he considered to be hypocrisy concerning the Law of Moses. The Bible says, “When Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. As a result, other Jewish Christians followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.” Paul was not happy with Peter’s actions. Paul felt as though Peter was more concerned with what his Jewish friends would say about his relationship with Gentiles, than he was with the Gentiles themselves. But then Paul gets to the more important issue. Paul says, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
So what does this mean to you today? A few things:
1. Jewish converts, who had been under the Law of Moses all their lives, LEFT the Law when they accepted salvation in Christ Jesus by Grace. So it makes no sense for a Gentile, who had never been under the Law of Moses, to embrace the Law AFTER being Born-Again. Those who had the Law left it after being Born-Again, so why would a person who never had the Law in the first place TAKE IT after being Born-Again?
2. Paul said, “A person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law” (Gal 2:16). The Law of Moses could never save you. It was designed to expose your need for a Savior!
3. Paul said, “We have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law” (Gal 2:16). The Bible is clear that we are made righteous by faith and not by works. We cannot earn God’s righteousness. God makes us righteous when we accept His Son Jesus as Lord.
4. Paul said, “No one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.” (Gal 2:16). That is about as clear as you can make it. You cannot be made right with God by dutifully obeying rules. You can only be made right with God when you accept the fact that you are a rule-breaker, in need of a Savior. Our Savior came and His name is JESUS!
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for teaching me more and more about Your amazing, undeserved, unearned and immeasurable GRACE! You are not holding my past against me. You are not out to get me. You are not focused on everything I have done wrong. Once I accepted Your Son Jesus as my Lord, You saved me by Your underserved Grace and You now seek to use me by Grace to accomplish Your Kingdom plans and purposes for me. The Law of Moses served it’s purpose in my life. The Law exposed to me the fact that I was wrong and that I needed a Savior. Without the Law I would have never called out to Jesus as Lord. But now that I am Born-Again, I don’t focus on the Law of Moses. You have written Your Law on my heart, by Your Holy Spirit, and I now seek to be led of Your Spirit every day. The Law was external, the Holy Spirit is internal. Now that I have been made righteous through faith in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit leads me to FIND, FOLLOW and FINISH Your purpose for my life. I willingly give myself over to You Father, to be led of Your Spirit, and to be used of You, for Your Glory, every day. As You use me today, I declare by faith that I will be a conduit of Your light and of Your love for every person I come in contact with. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
