Today, we continue our series entitled “Living the Grace Life,” where we will learn to embrace and walk in God’s unmerited, unearned, and often undeserved favor throughout 2025.
As part of this series, I am teaching a verse-by-verse exposition of the book of Galatians. Let’s get into it.
Key scriptures for this year:
2 Corinthians? ?9?:?8? ?TPT??
“Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything—every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.” ?? ??
Galatians? ?5?:?4? ?TPT??
“If you want to be made right with God by fulfilling the obligations of the law, you have cut off more than your flesh—you have cut yourselves off from Christ and have fallen away from the revelation of grace!”
Romans? ?6?:?14? ?ERV??
“Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace.” ??
1 Corinthians? ?15?:?10? ?NIV??
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
Scripture(s) we will study today:
Galatians 1:13-14 TPT
“By now you have heard stories of how severely I harassed and persecuted Christians and how systematically I endeavored to destroy God’s church. My zeal for the traditions of Judaism distinguished me among my people, and I was given recognition for advancing beyond my peers in my observance of our religious traditions that were handed down by our forefathers.”
Galatians 1:13-14 ERV
“You have heard about my past life in the Jewish religion. I persecuted the church of God very much and tried to destroy it. I was becoming a leader in the Jewish religion. I did better than most other Jews of my age. I had so much enthusiasm for the traditions that my ancestors had handed down to us.”
Galatians 1:13-14 NIV
“For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”
Setting the Stage:
Paul is addressing the elephant in the room. By the time he was writing this letter, everybody knew Paul’s story. The false teachers in Galatia were probably saying things like, “How can you trust this man? Do you know what he used to do? He killed Christians! He destroyed families! How can someone who did what Paul did suddenly become an apostle?“
Instead of dodging these questions or making excuses, Paul tackles the issue head-on. He’s essentially saying, “You want to talk about my past? Let’s talk about it!” Paul uses his own transformation as Exhibit A for the power of God’s grace. He turns his greatest liability into his greatest testimony. That’s one of the things the grace of God does. It makes it about God and not you!
Here’s what Paul understood that many believers today don’t: Your past is not your prison—it’s your platform. Paul knew that if grace could transform him from Christianity’s chief terrorist into its greatest missionary, then no one could argue that anyone is beyond the reach of God’s love and power.
Paul is making a profound statement about grace: God specializes in making holy garments from flawed materials. The same God who took a murderous religious zealot and made him the writer of most of the New Testament can use you (with your crazy past) for His glory!
So, what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. Addressing the Elephant in the Room: Owning Your Story to Demonstrate God’s Power.
Paul doesn’t run from his past—he runs to it. He uses his story as proof of what God can do with anyone who surrenders to His grace. Paul understood that transparency about his past would actually strengthen his ministry, not weaken it.
How this applies to you:
— Don’t let other people weaponize your past against you. Paul took control of the narrative by telling his own story first. When you own your testimony, you rob others of the power to use it against you.
— Your willingness to be vulnerable and transparent about your journey will inspire others to believe God can change them, too. Paul’s openness about his dark past gave hope to people who thought they were too far gone. It is still giving people hope today!
— Stop trying to hide the very thing that could become your greatest ministry tool. The contrast between who you were and who you’ve become is evidence of God’s grace and power.
— Religious people will always question whether someone with a “questionable” past can truly serve God. Paul’s response was to let his conversion speak for itself.
— When critics bring up your past, use it as an opportunity to talk about God’s grace. Paul turned every attack on his credibility into a testimony of God’s changing power.
— The enemy wants you to be ashamed of your story, but God wants you to use it as a testimony of His good to help deliver others from the very darkness you came out of. Your testimony becomes a tool of warfare.
— People can argue with your theology, but they can’t argue with your conversion. Paul’s changed life was undeniable proof of the gospel’s power.
2. The Danger of Religious Zeal Without Truly Knowing God.
Paul wasn’t some gangster from the hood who got saved—he was a highly educated, religiously zealous man who thought he was serving God by persecuting Christians. This makes his story even more powerful because it shows that religious people can be just as far from God as anyone else.
How this applies to you:
— The most dangerous enemy of grace is often religious zeal without revelation. Paul thought he was defending God’s honor by attacking God’s people.
— Sincerity does not guarantee accuracy. Paul was sincere, but he was sincerely wrong until Jesus revealed the truth to him.
— Traditional religion can actually make you an enemy of God’s current move. Paul was so committed to the old way that he fought against God’s new covenant of grace. Please don’t let this be you. This is why you must be sensitive to the divine promptings of the Holy Spirit.
— Don’t judge people by their religious performance—judge them by how yielded they are to the Holy Spirit so the Holy Spirit can live through them. Paul had all the religious credentials but was spiritually blind until God opened his eyes by grace.
— If God can transform someone who was religiously zealous in the wrong direction, He can certainly transform someone who’s been morally disobedient. No one’s past is too far gone or complicated for God’s grace.
— When God gives you revelation, your passion doesn’t disappear—it gets redirected. Paul’s zeal went from destroying the church to building it. I can say the same thing. I was a young, brash, arrogant, pompous, and ambitious 23-year-old Staff Sergeant when I gave my life to Christ. And I took all that energy and redirected it to serving Jesus. It’s been 29 years, and the energy has not died down… not one bit!
— Sometimes, the people most opposed to grace are those who have invested the most in religious performance. Paul’s religious achievements became obstacles until grace made them irrelevant. That last statement is why people first grace. When you make everything about God, your life is no longer about you, and religious people can’t stand that. They want to be about to BOAST about themselves. Grace takes that privilege away from you! If your life is truly ALL ABOUT HIM, then it is no longer about you! To live THE GRACE LIFE, you have to be okay with that.
— Last night, I had dinner with someone from my old job who I hired. We reminisced. She asked, “Do you regret leaving?” My answer was, “No. I am doing what God wants me to do.” That’s it. To live for God and His grace, you must be willing to do whatever He leads you to do, and you must be good with it. Your life is no longer about you. Your life becomes ALL ABOUT HIM! Paul thought he was living FOR God when he was having Christians killed. But he was fighting against the God he claimed to serve because his life was based on human effort and human desires. Paul’s transformation is an excellent example of what happens when someone truly dies to self and lives for Jesus!
3. God’s Specialty: Making Holy Garments from Flawed Materials.
Here’s a truth that will change how you see yourself and others: God is in the business of taking flawed materials and making holy garments. Paul is living proof that God doesn’t need perfect people—He needs surrendered people.
How this applies to you:
— Stop disqualifying yourself from God’s purposes because of your past. If God only used perfect people, He wouldn’t use anybody because perfect people don’t exist.
— Your flaws don’t disqualify you—they qualify you to demonstrate God’s grace. The deeper the pit you came out of, the more powerful your testimony becomes.
— Don’t judge your future by your past. Paul went from murdering Christians to writing most of the New Testament. If that’s not a testimony to God’s changing power, I don’t know what is!
— God sees what you can become, not just what you’ve been. When God looked at Paul, He didn’t see a persecutor—He saw an apostle waiting to be revealed. What does He see when He looks at you?
— The same intensity that once worked against God can work for God when surrendered to His purposes. Paul’s passionate nature didn’t change—it was channeled differently.
— God’s grace doesn’t just forgive your past—it redeems it by using it for His glory. What was meant to destroy you becomes a tool to deliver others.
4. The Ultimate Testimony: From Chief Sinner to Chief Saint.
Paul called himself the “chief of sinners,” yet he became the most productive apostle in the New Testament. This paradox is the ultimate demonstration that grace is greater than any sin.
How this applies to you:
— No matter what you’ve done, you haven’t out-sinned God’s grace. If grace was sufficient for Paul, it’s sufficient for you.
— The magnitude of your transformation demonstrates the magnitude of God’s power. Paul’s amazing change gave credibility to everything he preached about grace.
— Paul’s story shows that the worst sinner and the most religious person both need the same thing: Jesus.
— Stop letting people make you feel like a “second-class Christian” because of your past. Your past does not disqualify you; it actually amplifies the power of God’s grace!
— The worse your “before” picture, the more powerful your “after” picture becomes. Paul’s conversion story opened doors and hearts that religious arguments never could.
— Don’t minimize your testimony to make others comfortable. Paul didn’t sugarcoat his past because it demonstrated God’s power.
Let me close with this: Paul’s message to the Galatians (and to us) is that grace is not just for “good” people who make small mistakes. Grace is for murderers, liars, cheaters, addicts, and anyone else who thinks they’re too far gone. God specializes in taking the people the world threw away and using them as ambassadors for the Kingdom of Heaven.
If you’re reading this and thinking your past disqualifies you, Paul’s testimony says you’re wrong. Your story is not over—it’s just getting started!
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You that my past does not determine my future.
I declare that You specialize in making holy garments from flawed materials.
I will not let anyone disqualify me from Your purposes because of where I’ve been.
I choose to own my story and use it to demonstrate Your transforming power.
I believe that the same grace that changed Paul can change anyone, including me.
My testimony of transformation is evidence of Your grace, not a source of shame.
I refuse to judge my future by my past because You see what I can become.
The magnitude of my transformation will demonstrate the magnitude of Your power.
I am living THE GRACE LIFE, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and prosper!
