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.
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 CEV
“But God treated me with undeserved grace! He made me what I am, and his grace wasn’t wasted. I worked much harder than any of the other apostles, although it was really God’s grace at work and not me.”
Scripture(s) we will study today:
Galatians 3:5 TPT
“Let me ask you again: Does God pour out his Spirit upon you and work miracles among you because you have done good works and kept the law? Or does he do this because you have believed the message of grace and have faith?”
Galatians 3:5 ERV
“Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you do what the law says? Or does he do this because you heard the Good News and believed it?”
Ephesians 2:8-9 TPT
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this salvation is not from yourselves–it is God’s gift to you. It’s not from works, so that no one can boast.”
1 John 4:19 TPT
“Our love for others is our grateful response to the love God first demonstrated to us.”
Setting the Stage:
Today, I want to delve even deeper into Galatians 3:5 and address something that has been on my heart. Paul’s question reveals a fundamental difference between religion and relationship, between performance and grace, between trying to impress God and understanding that God has already accepted you because of what Jesus did.
Let me clarify something important: Yes, God does want us to be perfect. Jesus Himself said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48 NIV). God’s standard hasn’t changed. He desires holiness, righteousness, and perfection. But God doesn’t need you to be perfect because Jesus was already perfect for you!
There’s a massive difference between what God wants and what God needs. God wants you to walk in holiness because that’s how you represent Him well on this planet. But God doesn’t need your perfection to love you, bless you, or use you mightily. Why? Because Jesus already provided the perfection God requires. Your perfection isn’t the prerequisite for God’s power; Jesus’ perfection is! Do you know what this is? It is called GRACE!
The Galatians had experienced God’s power, not because they impressed Him with their performance, but because God was already impressed with Jesus’ performance on their behalf. When you understand this, it changes everything about how you approach God.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. God’s Opinion of You is Based on Jesus’ Performance, Not Yours.
God doesn’t look at your track record to determine how He feels about you. Once you are IN CHRIST, He looks at Jesus’ track record. When God sees you, He sees you through the lens of what Jesus accomplished. Your standing with God is based on Christ’s performance, not your performance.
How this applies to you:
— Every time you approach God, remember that His response to you is based on Jesus’ perfect life, not your imperfect one. This removes all the pressure to ‘get everything right’ before you can expect God’s favor.
— The Galatians experienced miracles because God’s heart toward them was settled, not because their behavior was perfect. God’s goodness flows from His nature, not from your performance.
— When you mess up, God’s opinion of you doesn’t change because His opinion was never based on your behavior in the first place. It was established by Jesus’ finished work on the cross.
— Religious systems teach you that God’s mood changes based on your behavior. When I was religious, I often thought that God was mad at me. Grace teaches you that God’s heart toward you is unchanging because it’s based on Jesus’ unchanging sacrifice.
— You don’t have to wonder if God is pleased with you today. The question was settled 2,000 years ago when Jesus said, “It is finished.” If you are Born-Again, you must settle this in your heart because God is pleased with Jesus, and you’re in Jesus.
— Every morning when you wake up, you can approach your day knowing that God’s heart toward you is already favorable because of what Christ accomplished. This creates confidence, not anxiety.
— The pressure to impress God is removed when you realize He’s already impressed with Jesus. You can now live from approval rather than trying to live for approval. This makes living #TheGraceLife both liberating and empowering.
2. Your Faith Accesses What Grace Has Already Provided, Not What You’ve Earned.
Paul’s question highlights that God’s Spirit and power come through believing the message of grace, not through earning His favor. Faith isn’t your attempt to convince God to give you something; faith is your acceptance of what He’s already provided through grace.
How this applies to you:
— Every time you exercise faith, you’re not trying to get God to do something new; you’re accessing what you believe He has revealed as “already done.” Faith is the key that unlocks what grace has already provided.
— The Galatians received God’s Spirit through believing what they heard about grace, not through proving they deserved it. In the same way, your faith connects you to grace; your performance has nothing to do with it.
— Faith is not your good work that earns God’s response. Faith is your agreement with what God has already decided about you. When you believe what God believes about you, miracles happen and the supernatural is manifested.
— Religious faith says, “God, if I’m good enough, please help me.” Grace-based faith says, “God, because You’re good enough, I open my heart to believe and receive your help.” The focus shifts from your goodness to His goodness. God does not want to bless you because you are good. God wants to bless you because God is good!
— Every answered prayer in your life came because your faith accessed God’s pre-existing grace, not because your behavior earned His intervention. Think about every breakthrough you’ve experienced; it came through God’s grace and your faith, not your works.
— When you understand that grace has already provided everything you need, faith becomes exciting rather than stressful. You’re not trying to convince God to give you something; you’re receiving what He’s already given. If you ever get to the point where you truly live this way, God will be free to cause you to dream dreams on His level and He will be free to manifest them, because you are no longer diluting your faith with the inconsistency of your performance.
3. Grace Makes the Unqualified Qualified and the Impossible Possible.
Paul’s question reveals something powerful: God doesn’t choose to work miracles through the most qualified people; He chooses to work miracles through people who understand that His grace qualifies them for the impossible. The Galatians weren’t spiritual superstars; they were ordinary believers who opened their hearts to God’s grace.
How this applies to you:
— Grace doesn’t just forgive your past; grace qualifies you for your future. Every limitation you have is an opportunity for God’s grace to demonstrate that His power is made perfect in your weakness.
— The Galatians came from pagan backgrounds with no religious training, yet God’s grace enabled them to experience more miracles than the religious experts. One major reason for this is that they did not need to unlearn anything. If you were raised in a church in a religious environment and you get Born Again at the same time as someone who had never been in church, the other person had the advantage of not having to unlearn the religious practices that you learned. This is what happened with the Galatians. They just believed and God released the supernatural. The simplicity of faith is what positions you to receive the supernatural. Not rites, rituals, routines, or religious practices.
— Grace doesn’t require a perfect resume; it creates one. Grace empowers you to do what you could never do without God.
— When you finally fully open your heart to God’s grace, your background becomes irrelevant and your future becomes unlimited. What disqualified you in the world’s system becomes the very thing that qualifies you in God’s grace system.
— Grace gives you access to assignments that exceed your ability. When God calls you to do something impossible, He’s not calling on your ability; He’s calling on the grace that He deposited down inside of you.
— God’s grace specializes in taking your greatest weakness and turning it into your greatest strength. God does this to show that the excellency of the power is from HIM, and not from us.
— Grace doesn’t make you capable because you’re worthy; grace makes you capable because God is gracious. I pray you truly embrace this message and open your heart to God’s grace.
4. Grace-Based Living Attracts God’s Power; Performance-Based Living Repels It.
Here’s what Paul understood: There’s something about grace-based living that creates an environment where God’s power flows freely. When you live under grace, you create space for God to be God. When you live under Law, you create pressure for you to be God and you actually block God from moving.
How this applies to you:
— When you stop trying to earn God’s power through performance, you create space for Him to demonstrate His power through grace.
— The Galatians experienced supernatural power because they created a grace-based environment where God could move without human interference.
— Performance-based living creates stress in your relationship with God; grace-based living creates rest. God’s power operates more effectively in an atmosphere of rest than in an atmosphere of striving and stressing.
— Grace removes obstacles; the Law creates them. As a result, those who live under grace routinely expereince God’s power and those who live under the Law, routinely expereince pressure and stress, while blocking themselves from the supernatural because there is too much of THEM in the way.
— Grace-based living makes you attractive to God’s power because it gives Him all the glory. When miracles happen through grace, everyone knows it was God, not you. Performance-based living tries to share the glory. Performance-based believers have a bad habit of taking credit for things God did through them. God does not like anyone taking His glory. Grace says. “Look at God.” Religion says, “Look at me!”
— The atmosphere around your life should be filled with expectation for God’s goodness, not anxiety about your performance. This is living #TheGraceLife.
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You that Your opinion of me is based on Jesus’ performance, not mine.
I approach You with confidence because You’re already impressed with what Christ accomplished on my behalf.
My faith accesses what Your grace has already provided; I’m not trying to earn what You’ve already given.
I believe the pure message of grace, and this belief positions me for supernatural demonstrations of Your power.
I create a grace-based environment around my life where Your power flows freely.
I refuse to live under the pressure of trying to impress You because I know You’re already impressed with Jesus.
Every miracle I experience points to Your grace, not to my goodness.
I am living #TheGraceLife in 2025, and Your power flows through me because of Your grace.
GREATER IS COMING FOR ME because I live from Your approval, not for Your approval.
I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and prosper!
