Freed by Grace

9Praise God, it is the Father's will to show us grace, not our will. That's what Paul says: "So then it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy" (Rom 9:16). Paul didn't deserve mercy; he didn't even ask for it. It pursued him. The same holds true for us: we do not deserve mercy, nor do we even know how to seek it. It seeks us. And it finds us. Mercy comes running, and by His grace, God pursues you with His love. His pleasure in you is not dependent on your pursuit of Him, but His pursuit of you. That's one of the reasons the Judaizers were criticizing the gospel of free grace that Paul was preaching and trying to discredit his ministry.

Paul's reaction to the criticisms of the Judaizers was twofold. First, in Galatians 1 and in the beginning of Galatians 2 he tells them that the gospel is not invented by man.

Paul essentially says, "I didn't make this up." He gives specific details about his time in Arabia, a short trip he made to Jerusalem, and the time he spent in Syria and Cilicia (1:17-21), and his whole point is to show that he didn't learn this gospel from any other man. As an apostle, he learned this gospel directly from Christ, and this gospel was identical to the gospel that had been revealed to the other apostles who had lived and walked with Jesus.

There's a second aspect to Paul's reaction to the Judaizers, and it's the flip side of his previous claim that the gospel was not invented by man. The gospel is revealed by God; there is nothing man-made about it. The good news is that God became a man and lived a perfect life that He might die on the cross for our sins and be raised from the dead in victory over sin so that all who believe in Him will be saved, not based on anything they have done, but based solely on what He has done. This gospel goes against every single strain of pride that dominates our hearts, which indicates that it had to come from God. He initiates our salvation, which is why Paul says that abandoning the gospel of free grace is an abandonment of God Himself. That would be a deadly error.

So far we've seen the work of the Father in initiating our salvation. But there's another, complementary aspect to this.

God the Son has accomplished our salvation. Grace and peace come not only from God the Father in verse 3, but also from "our Lord Jesus Christ." The Father and the Son are closely identified in the work of salvation. The Son is the One "who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age" (v. 4). This is the core truth of the gospel. Salvation is not about what man can do; salvation is about what Christ 10has already done, and He has done everything necessary for our salvation. Paul says that He, Jesus, gave Himself "for" our sins. This word "for" is important, and Paul uses it again in 2:20 and 3:13. The apostle speaks of Jesus giving His life in the place of sinners who deserve God's judgment (ibid., 37). He has paid our sin debt.

God's pleasure is not based on our performance, but on the performance of Christ, who gave Himself for our sins. The only way we can be accepted before God is through Christ. Yet, these churches in Galatia were missing the significance of the death of Christ by adding other qualifications. That's why Paul says, rather forcefully, that we malign the gospel when we add to grace, which is precisely what the Judaizers were doing.

Don't forget, however, that much of the teaching of the Judaizers was right down the line, biblically speaking. They acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, and they even acknowledged His death on the cross. They claimed to believe all the truths that other Christians believed, and they certainly weren't telling people that they denied the gospel. Instead, they were improving it, adding requirements and standards from the old covenant to the new covenant. But the reality is that as soon as you add anything to grace, you lose grace altogether. There's no middle ground.

Think about it: If you were about to drink a glass of clean water, and then someone added a drop of poison to it, would you still drink it? It's close to pure, right? No, it's totally contaminated and undrinkable as soon as that drop of poison hits the water. It's the same way with the gospel. If you tamper with and add anything to grace, you lose the whole gospel. This is why Paul opposes adding human work to the work of Christ for salvation. The gospel does not tell us what we have to do to please God; instead, it announces that God is pleased with us based solely on Christ's accomplishment in His death and resurrection and our identification with Him. We don't need Christ plus this or Christ plus that. We need Christ, period.

Peace can only come in Christ, and we need to be confident in this. So many times we believe God loves us, but secretly we think that His love depends on how we're doing in the Christian life. But remember, God is pleased with you, not based on your performance, but based on the work of Christ for you. This same Christ now lives in you, and even your good works are the result of His power and presence within you.

11Not only do we malign the gospel when we add to grace, but we misunderstand the gospel when we cheapen grace. One of the accusations that always accompanies the free gospel of grace is, "Doesn't that mean people can just live however they want?" (See Rom 6:15.) This is one of the dangers or risks of grace, namely, that some people will abuse grace and take it to mean that this free gift gives them license and freedom to live however they want. Paul addresses this error more specifically later in Galatians 5:13, but suffice it to say at this point, this is a misunderstanding of grace. First, grace is not cheap. The cost of grace is a cross, where Jesus gave Himself for our sins. Second, grace changes our lives. You can't have this free grace without it changing your life. In 2:14 Paul confronts Peter and the believers with him for "deviating from the truth of the gospel" by their hypocritical actions. Their actions were contradicting the grace they believed and proclaimed. Grace brings about change.

If we're honest, different parts of the Bible can almost sound like different gospels. For instance, Jesus said, "Go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven" (Matt 19:21). That sounds very different from what Paul says in Galatians. In fact, if Jesus hadn't been the One to say it, we'd wonder if that was legalism! Or consider Jesus' words:

This is where you can get into a lot of trouble quoting Jesus in the church! The relationship between Paul and James can also be difficult to understand at times. Paul says that we are justified by faith alone (Rom 3:28), and yet James asks, "Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?" (Jas 2:20). This is one of the reasons Luther, who loved Galatians, used to say that he wanted to throw "Jimmy" into the stove.

So which is it? Do we side with Jesus and James, or is Paul right? Before you answer, consider that even Paul confuses us. We're used to hearing about free grace in Galatians and in verses like "For you are saved by grace through faith" (Eph 2:8), but then we hear Paul talk about Christ's second coming as a time when He [Jesus] will be "taking vengeance with flaming fire on those who don't know God and on those12 who don't obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus" (2 Thess 1:8). If we didn't know any better, we'd call Paul a legalist.

The solution to this dilemma is to understand that throughout the New Testament, there is one gospel. So the truth doesn't change, but different books address different audiences. In Galatians Paul writes to people who were trying to add to the gospel. James, on the other hand, was writing to people who were trying to take away from the gospel and cheapen it by downplaying obedience in Christ. Nevertheless, it's all one gospel, and we must be careful not to malign it, nor to misunderstand it.

Rather than maligning or misunderstanding the gospel, we need to marvel at it, and we marvel at the gospel when we trust in grace. The key word here is "trust," sometimes translated as "faith." We must believe that the gospel is free. God the Father has initiated our salvation, and God the Son has accomplished our salvation, wholly apart from anything we have done or would ever be able to do. That's why the gospel is called "good news." Such grace extended to unworthy sinners is worth our marveling.

Earlier we noted that there are two truths that destroy legalism. The first truth is that the gospel is free, which Paul is zealous to make clear. Second, the gospel is freeing. In verse 4 Paul says that Jesus gave Himself for our sins, "to rescue us from this present evil age." This word "rescue" is used in Acts to talk about how the Israelites were rescued, or freed, from slavery (Acts 7:34). It's also used to describe how Peter was rescued, or freed, from prison (Acts 12:11) and how Paul was rescued by Claudius from being lynched by a mob (Acts 23:27). The word "rescue" in Galatians 1:4 speaks not simply of being delivered from the guilt of our sin, though that is certainly true, but also of being delivered from a power—the power of this present evil age. "This present evil age" refers to the world we live in and all of its ways. Now obviously we still live in this world, but there is a sense in which we've been taken out of it. We no longer have to live like this world, pursuing what this world pursues, loving what this world loves, indulging in what this world indulges in. We're free!

The Judaizers were accusing Paul of preaching a gospel that led to loose living. Because they stressed the Old Testament law and morality, they thought that taking the law away would lead to lawless living and license to sin. In Galatians 5 Paul explains why this isn't the case. 13We're not freed into nothingness; rather, we are freed into Christ, who changes us by His Spirit from the inside out. We are freed to live based on Christ's power at work in us. Don't miss the point: our obedience is not legalistic. We're not working in our own power according to our own rules to earn God's favor. No, we're working in His power according to His rules and we know we have His favor, not based on what we do, but based on all that Christ has done for us! The gospel frees us to live as we were created to live—in Christ!

By His grace, we are free from sin in this world. We are saved from the evil age we live in and all of its sinful attitudes, values, and actions. Whether its Jesus' costly calls in the Gospels or the commands in Paul's letters, we don't walk away saying, "Legalistic!" Because Christ lives in us, and because He empowers us by His Spirit, we are free to obey His Word.

By His grace, we are free to share with this world. Paul says, "To whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen" (1:5). God gives us His free grace for His glory. Paul makes a related point:

Why did God give Paul such grace? So that Paul would preach the gospel to the Gentiles. It was private revelation for public communication. This is the kind of grace that frees us to speak, to tell. But it's not just Paul who has been saved in order to proclaim the good news. Whether it's going to an unreached people group on the other side of the planet, or bearing witness to Christ in your workplace, you and I have the privilege and the responsibility, as those who have received God's grace, to share this gospel with everyone. Grace frees us to pass along this good news.

Reflect and Discuss