H2o Church
In this 2nd talk in this series, we talk about "the feels" of grace, how God's unmerited favor on us can set us free.
THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD: In the story of the Prodigal Son, in Luke 15:11-32, Jesus reveals God as a loving Father who-
•embraces us in our sinful condition.
•clothes us as royalty.
•blesses us with a ring of unlimited favor.
•receives us as a son/daughter, not a servant.
•celebrates us as ones back from the dead.
Don’t Miss This!—God wants you to be HAPPY in Him. He has done something to make you feel celebrated, delighted in, and cherished.
Galatians has been called “the battle cry of Christian Freedom” because its central message is that we have been set free from sins and mistakes of our past; we have been delivered from the bondage of needing to measure up to some standard that we will never attain to; we’ve been rescued from the hamster wheel of performance, going round and round, trying to be good enough, trying to be holy enough, trying to do something so we will be acceptable to God. We are set free by grace, in contrast to the message of the Judaizers.
The Judaizers, aka, “the party of the circumcision”
*Claimed to be Christians.
*Believed Jesus was Messiah.
*Believed the Jewish law to be REQUIRED to be righteous.
*Did not deny the gospel, but tried to IMPROVE it.
Acts 15:1 ESV
Acts 15:19 NIV
Galatians 1:1-4 ESV
This is the heart of the gospel. Paul gets right to his main point.
Judaism gives us the 10 commandments.
Bhuddism gives us the 8-fold path to walk in.
Islam gives us the 5 pillars to submit to.
God, the one true God, GIVES HIMSELF.
Delivered means we’re rescued, we’re out, we’re not "sorta saved." Blameless and pure to describe us from God’s perspective.
In Christ, I am…
Forgiven for my past
Freed from my sin
Rescued from religious performance
Placed in God’s house
Under God’s favor
Or as a friend texted me this week…
“Overcoming is in my DNA.
Chain-breaking is in my bloodline.
Grace courses through these veins.
Victory is my destiny.”
Galatians 1:5-6 ESV
“I myself have been preaching and cultivating the message of grace for almost 20 years and still I feel the old clinging dirt of wanting to deal so with God that I can contribute something, so that He will have to give me His grace in exchange for my holiness. Still I cannot get it into my head that I must yield myself to sheer grace, yet I know this is what I should and must do.” -Martin Luther
A STATE OF GRACE=the constant, unending position of unmerited favor and blessing that is ours in Christ, based not on our performance but on what Christ has done for us.
Galatians 1:7-10 ESV
A bond-servant is an Old Testament concept of a slave who has been set free by his master, only to pledge himself to serve the master forever due to his overwhelming love for the slave.
Going Deeper
1. Underline each time the word “grace” is found in Galatians. What does this tell you about the importance of grace to a Christian’s life?
2. Why do you think getting “the feels” of grace is so difficult for you personally?
3. How does the New Testament emphasis on love align with Paul’s announcement of “anathema” upon the false teachers (1:8-9)?