Galatians - To The Churches In Galatia
Week 5 - Seeing Grace

Paul has a passion for the Gospel. It is why he continues to tell his own story about what God did and continues to do. Sometimes it is easy to talk about the need for grace in our lives, but it is another thing to see or believe how much we really need that grace. Paul has been telling his story of coming to understand God’s grace in Galatians 1. He will do a 3-year time jump in chapter 1 by talking about how he first met Peter and James. Today he continues his telling of his story and will pick up approximately 14 years from where he was in the last chapter.

• How do you describe the Gospel? What is grace?
• How do you describe grace?
• Would you say you have “seen grace” this week? Where?
• How did they see grace in the book of Galatians?

Grace was seen in the advancement of the Gospel - God was/is doing a work. God was/is moving by bringing people to know Him—not a cultural version of Him that reinforces broken stereotypes, but the real God of grace and mercy. God is the one who works; it is not about Paul or Peter—much less you or me. God causes the Gospel to advance in people’s hearts.

• What is the difference between head knowledge of grace and actually seeing grace in your life?
• How does grace bring us to know God better?
• How does seeing grace impact: how we spend our time? Where we invest money? How we pray? Which church to join? How we assess our own spiritual health? How we parent? How we make decisions and resolve conflicts?

What should we look for in order to see grace? The Gospel advancing forward. When God is being made known and people believe, that is grace. When a person comes under the conviction of sin and puts their trust in the Savior who died for their sins, that is grace.

• Has grace ever been messy in your life?
• In what ways is Jesus your first love? In which ways has that faltered?

We see grace in the growth of God’s people. Grace is seen in the way God grows and changes us to look more like Him. Many times, we want to see people trust in Jesus and instantly change, but the Gospel at work is usually a bit messier than that. All too often we are blind to what God is doing because He doesn’t work on our timetable. Though he may seem too slow to us, He is always doing exactly what needs to be done.

• Have you become blind to what God has done, and is doing, in others?
• How can we better pause and see visible grace in others, so we can better relate to them?
• How can we remember to nurture others even when we have issues or conflict to deal with?

How do we develop our ability to “see grace?” We must first understand the Gospel in order to recognize grace not only in ourselves, but in the world around us. Do we understand what the Gospel truly is in the core of its announcement? Has our life been changed by Christ and His salvation? In order to live a Gospel-rooted life, we need to be able to see God’s grace in ourselves and the world around us.

• How have you seen the Gospel advance in your life? The life of your family/friends/coworkers/city?
• How do you celebrate those changes?

In one sense, everything is grace, but in another, there are specific things we look for as we grow in Godly discernment. Some of us have a hard time seeing grace because we don’t know where to look. Grace isn’t only grace when the sun is shining and children are laughing. Grace is also seen in our personal struggles or battles with sin.

• Do you believe grace has been given to you?
• How is visible grace on display in your life?

Christians are works in progress, and that is grace. If we are going to see grace, we need to look to the cross of Christ first, because we will never be able to see grace until we’ve first seen it in the shed blood of Jesus.

• Spend time reflecting and speaking the areas of visible grace you see in each other.