The Truth About Grace:
NO ADDITIVES
Galatians 1:1-10
At the beginning of a New Year, many of us resolve to lose some weight or to eat healthier. Sometimes that involves searching for food with no additives meaning as little artificial preservatives or chemicals as possible.
I don’t know that all additives are bad. Have you heard about the 2 cows out in the field and a milk truck came by advertising milk by saying, “All natural, pasteurized, homogenized, vitamins added.” One cow said to the other, “Kind of makes you feel inadequate doesn’t it?”
In the book of Galatians, Paul is speaking about grace and the gospel of Jesus Christ and how we should not add anything to the grace of God.
How would you fill in this blank? “A Christian is someone who is __________________.” What words best define a Christian? Would you use the words, “Loving” or “humble” or “a regular church attendee” to complete the thought?
All of these words certainly describe what a Christian should do, but they do not define what a Christian is. Many people stumble over the gospel of Jesus because they confuse these 2 concepts: what a Christian should do and what a Christian is.
The book of Galatians clearly defines what a Christian is. A Christian is someone who has trusted Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
In the year 47 A.D., 14 years after Jesus died and rose again, Paul and Barnabas hiked 100 miles up the mountains of what is now eastern Turkey to the Roman province of Galatia. As soon as the Sabbath came around, they went to the local synagogue. As a visiting rabbi, Paul was invited to bring a word and so he did.
In Acts 13, it tells us what Paul said, “We bring you good news. What God has promised our fathers, he has fulfilled for us by raising up Jesus. Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you and through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the Law of Moses.”
This was amazing news! Paul was saying, “You’ve been laboring in this religious tradition for so many years. But even with all that labor you have never felt you were totally right with God. The good news is you can be right with God through belief in Jesus who died for your sins and was raised from the dead.”
People left thinking, “Are you kidding me? I can have my sins forgiven? I can be put right with God? I can live without any sense of shame?” The Gentiles who hung around the synagogue in particular were amazed. “I’ve wanted to be connected to the one true and living God but I thought in order to do that I had to first become a Jew. I thought I had to go through the painful rite of circumcision, keep the kosher food laws, observe the new moons and festivals and each Sabbath. I didn’t know if I could live under that kind of burden, but now you’re telling me that childlike faith in the gracious provision of God in Jesus Christ will set me right with God?” That’s exactly what Paul and Barnabas were saying.
Many people believed and wanted to learn more but the leaders of the synagogue saw people leaving for these new guys so they ran Paul and Barnabas out of town.
Paul and Barnabas hiked 90 miles to the next city and the same thing happened. Then they hiked 18 miles to the next city and same thing happened. 60 miles to the next city and the same thing happened before they got on a ship to head home.
However, soon after Paul and Barnabas left, guest teachers came into these new assemblies of Christians and here’s what they said. “It’s great that you believe Jesus is the Messiah. So do we! But let’s not go crazy here, friends. That doesn’t mean you can just throw off 2,000 years of God’s revelation, and the practices associated with the covenant to our forefathers. You don’t think you’re better than Abraham do you? No! It’s faith in Jesus and the historic God given practice of circumcision and the observance of new moons, festivals and Sabbaths. That’s how you’re put right with God. Faith is great. But remember it’s not just grace and faith. It’s grace and faith and circumcision and the observance of the festivals. That’s what it takes.”
When Paul heard about the “grace and” message being preached by these guest teachers, he wrote them all a letter – what we now call the Book of Galatians…and Paul is very angry!
Perhaps you’ve notices that in most of Paul’s letters his wind-up is usually a little slow. He starts with a prayer or a blessing…something like, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. I just love you all so much. May God bless you!” In Galatians, he doesn’t take time for the niceties. He jumps right in. “I am astonished! I just cannot believe you have so quickly deserted the one God who called you by the grace of Christ. What are you turning to instead? You’re turning to a
different gospel, which is really no gospel at all! You think you are enhancing the message but your little add-on are destroying the gospel and desert God!”
At this point you may be thinking, “Okay, that’s all nice and good but what does that have to do with today? Why take my time to consider this book at all?” We need to hear this message again and again because it is our nature to fall into a system of merit, achievement and reward and put additions on to the gospel of grace.
Depending on what church you grew up in, you may have heard something similar. Maybe you grew up in an evangelical church and the message was, “It’s grace AND a daily quiet time. That’s how you’re put right with God.” Maybe you grew up in a Roman Catholic Church, and the message was, “It is grace AND weekly attendance at Mass. You better not miss because that’s how you’re put right with God.” Maybe you were part of a fundamentalist church and the message was, “It is grace AND certain cultural boundaries like your hair and how you dress and not drinking and so forth. That’s how you’re put right with God.”
The list seems endless because the human mind is endlessly creative in devising ways to please a God it cannot see or understand. Do good, try harder, go to church, obey the Golden Rule, offer a sacrifice, do what your priest tells you, light a candle, say the Hail Mary, meditate, give.
The problem is it fails in the end because you can never be sure you’ve done enough. If one prayer is enough, would 2 be better? How many candles should I light? How often should I go to confession? If church attendance once a week is good, shouldn’t every day be better?
So in this first section, Paul jumps right in and tells us why we shouldn’t add anything to grace through faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.
Body
I. GRACE EMANCIPATES. (vs. 3-5)
Grace means men and women are free because of God’s action and not because of their own will, disposition or intelligence.
Paul jumps right in telling them that grace, God’s special favor made available through Christ and peace, the state of favor made available through Christ both come from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is the reason we have the gospel. Peace is the result of the gospel, because Jesus gave Himself to rescue us.
Every religion of every age attempts to answer the basic question of life: “How can I be rightly related to God?”
One answer is the RITUALISM of ancient Israel. This says we can be rightly related to God if we follow the proper ceremonies.
Another answer is the LEGALISM of the Pharisees. Legalism says we can be rightly related to God if we follow the proper laws.
Yet another answer is the ASCETISM of many of the far eastern religions. If we make the proper sacrifices, we can be rightly related to God.
Then there is the ACTIVISM of Islam which says we can rightly relate to God if we perform the proper works.
Every one of these emphasizes what we can do for God. The Gospel places the emphasis on what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.
Our relationship with God is not established through the rituals we follow, the laws we obey, the sacrifices we make, or the works we do. It is only possible through His amazing grace.
When you take a flight, the airline’s final announcement when you land is usually something like this: Thank you for choosing our airline. We know you have a choice when you fly and we hope you decide to choose us again. In so many areas of life, we have good options. When it comes to the gospel, there is only one way to God.
Martin Luther said that the entire letter of Galatians is compressed in verse 4.
Paul emphasizes the death of Jesus was VOLUNTARY – He gave Himself. They did not drag Jesus kicking and screaming to the cross.
The death of Jesus was VICARIOUS – for our sins, or in our place…like a pinch hitter. In those days, many people were illiterate. They had professional letter writers. They would write a letter for you then at the bottom say, “I so and so write this letter for _____.” Jesus was dying in your place you should have died.
The death of Jesus was VICTORIOUS. To rescue us from the present evil age. Jesus died to set us free – free from sin, free from fear of death, free from do-it-yourself religion, free from pleasing men, free to live as a servant of Christ and free to answer the call of Christ!
The gospel of grace is a rescue operation. The same word was used of the Children of Israel when they were delivered from Egypt or Joseph when he was delivered from prison. It is like a man drowning and another man jumps in the water and rescues him. It like when those miners in Chile were trapped and were rescued.
We are rescued from this present evil age – the moral atmosphere of this world. We live in a dirty, evil, vicious, and cruel world. Many things are better than they were. We have better plumbing but not better people. We have better clothes but not better character.
The wonder of grace is it emancipates – frees us – by saving us. It is hard for people to accept a free gift. We want to earn salvation so we develop a code or a ritual to justify ourselves.
We are taught, “You have to reach down real deep and pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. You can make it on your own. You can endure whatever. Nothing is out of reach.”
We have to decide. Is it, “Jesus Paid it All. All to Him I Owe” or “Jesus paid 9//10ths. 9/10ths to Him I owe”?
You will never be smart enough, pure enough, kind enough, generous enough, affectionate enough or religious enough by yourself to deserve God’s forgiveness.
Grace emancipates.
II. GRACE IS EXTENSIVE. (vs.6-7)
Again, there is no word of thanksgiving and no prayer for them. Paul gets right to the point. “I am astonished…I am bewildered…I am dumbfounded…I just cannot believe it.”
They had been taught by the greatest teacher the church has ever known apart from Jesus Himself, yet they quickly lost a firm grip on the central truths of the gospel and were deserting God by deserting the gospel of grace. It is the same word used of military desertion…of being a turn-coat.
There are 2 ways you can desert the gospel of grace:
1. Jude 4 speaks of those turning the grace of God into lasciviousness…turning away from the grace of Christ into a lifestyle that says, “I’m saved so I can live any way I want to.”
2. Or you can turn from the grace of Christ to legalism. That is what they were doing. Galatians 5:4 he says, “You have fallen from grace.” He doesn’t mean they have lost their salvation. It meant they have turned away from the grace of God to legalism – a performance based life.
Keep in mind God’s grace involves more than salvation. We are not only saved by grace, we live by grace, we stand in grace (it is the foundation for the Christian life), grace gives us strength, and grace enables us to suffer without complaining. When you turn away from living by God’s grace, you must depend on your own power and that leads to failure, disappointment and guilt.
One writer described it as the County Fair. On the midway would be rides, cotton candy and many games. One event that always intrigued and challenged was the bell ring. The purpose was to slam down the hammer with such force that the bell would ring at the top of the bar.
The writer said he would grip the hammer, eye the striking block and put every ounce of strength into ringing the bell. Time and time again he would grunt and strain trying to accomplish something that was greater than he was. Finally, with a last burst of adrenaline and frustration, he would hit the mark as hard as he could, but to no avail. It was impossible for him to ring the bell.
Religiously, many people have the same problem. They try to “ring God’s bell” by performing various rituals in the church. However, no matter how great the effort, we cannot work our way into the kingdom of God. All the religious grunting and sweating in the world cannot bring us into favor with God.
That is why there is grace. Grace is God doing for us what we are trying to do but cannot. That is why Paul declared, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9)
It is easy once we enter a relationship with God, to turn around and strive to perform all the more to gain God’s favor! We thrive on performance in our society! We expect our kids to behave, our dog to do tricks and not bite the neighbors, and our employees to be on time.
We dish out or withhold pats on the back, privileges, or raises based on performance. So it is natural that many Christians become right with God through faith and then turn around and perform all the more.
Churches are structured to perform. We take a new believer, put them on committees because the externals become so important. Most Christians live their lives as though we are going to be graded once a year by God who stands there frowning, with His hands stuck in the pockets of His robe. Glaring, He says, “Well, Harner, that gets a C-.” “You ought to be ashamed!” “That’s not bad, but you could’ve done better.”
Paul would say, “That is not the gospel.” Grace is extensive. If the Father is satisfied with His Son’s full payment for sins and we are in His Son, by grace through faith, then He is satisfied with you and me.
There will forever be those who give you lists and more for you to live up to. They will make you feel guilty if you miss one day of your quiet time or if you buy gas and fail to witness to the attendant, they will make you feel ashamed. God assures us that we are accepted in Him.
The catch is the joy of His grace makes us want to share.
David Seamands in Healing Grace, tells of counseling a church member who was deeply committed, but felt guilty. They would read the Bible and pray but still said, “I feel like I ought to do more. I should do more. I could do more. And I honestly try, but I never seem to do enough.”
That is why Paul was so shocked. To leave the gospel of grace to live on the basis of a list of things I do is to leave God. You can do all the things on your religious list and not have a personal, growing, intimate relationship with God.
III. GRACE IS EXCLUSIVE. (vs.7-9)
There is supposedly a true story of a man working in his garage. He was the kind of person who didn’t like being interrupted while engaged in a project. Knowing this, his wife walked into the garage and stood quietly at his side for several minutes, waiting for the proper time to speak. At last, her husband looked up, the signal that she was free to say what was on her mind. Very calmly and without a trace of panic, she said, “Honey, the house is on fire.” There is a time to forsake the customary, polite, social graces and bluntly state the problem. That is what Paul does here.
Paul’s hope is that they will not be swept away from the essential notions of the gospel simply because something new has come along. Like them, you and I are sometimes guilty of throwing away what we have known and believed because we think it is obsolete or outdated. Paul warns them of the danger of PERVERTING THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.
PERVERT the gospel is used only 3 times in the New Testament. It means to reverse, to turn about, or to change into the opposite character.
The result is it troubles you or throws you into confusion. Paul ends this section by saying that no matter who it may be, if he preaches another gospel from the one Paul brought them, may the curse of God be upon them.
Yet people seem to love the “grace and” message. It is always popular. Why?
1. This “grace and” message is clear. Faith in God’s grace in Jesus Christ is, in many ways intangible. When someone comes along and sets out exactly what we need to do in order to be saved, it is clearer to us. We see a to-do list and that is easier. “Just come to Mass. Go to confession. Avail yourself of the sacraments and you will get grace. There is a list I can check off.
2. This “grace and” message puts us in control. With grace in Jesus Christ, we come “just as we are without one plea”. We are not in control. We are just a repentant sinner seeking grace. With a to-do list, though, we are in control. We can check things off. Faith in Jesus? Good. Circumcised? Good. Go to the new moon festival and Sabbath? Good. Don’t go to R rated movies? Good. Give money? Good. The very essence of the gospel is to accept there is nothing I can do to improve my status with God. It comes through Jesus and Jesus alone.
3. This “grace and” message allows you to compare yourself to others. With a message of grace, who’s to say who’s better than everyone else? With grace, we are all being saved through one Lord. But a grace and message makes it clear who’s getting it right and who isn’t. That allows me to compare myself to others. “Well, I didn’t do that, but I noticed you did, so I’m a better Christian than you.”
His point is that grace is exclusive. Paul could be flexible on many things. When it came to evangelism and how he was going to relate to people outside the faith, he said, “I become all things to all people.” In other words, “I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll lay down my comfort zone, to get in your comfort zone, to bring you the gospel of Christ. That’s how much I love you in the Lord.”
Think how he approached issues related to the Christian lifestyle. In Romans 14, Paul insists that we love each other enough not to insist on our own private convictions becoming public law for everyone else. But when it came to the truth of the gospel, he would not budge because when someone takes
the core of the gospel and tweaks it, they add to it and destroy it.
Paul was narrow minded about the one who saves us. Jesus did not say, “I am one of the ways” or “I will help you find the way. He said, “I am the way. No one comes to the Father but by Me.”
Paul was narrow minded about the way He saves us. The Bible does not say we are saved by faith plus baptism, or faith plus church membership or faith plus works or faith plus anything else. God has done everything that needs to be done that we might be saved in Jesus Christ. That is grace. All that we can do is receive it. That is faith.
Back in 1982, someone walked into a convenience store in the Chicago area and bought a bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol. The next day they were found dead. They had been in perfect health. All they had was the flu. When the coroner ran an autopsy, they found the person’s body was filled with potassium cyanide.
It happened again. 6 or 7 people were murdered in the Chicago area because someone had gone into stores, purchased bottles of Tylenol, very carefully taken off the cap, pulled out the cotton, took out the capsules, pulled them apart, knocked out some of the acetaminophen and replaced it with potassium cyanide. They then carefully closed the capsules, put them back in the bottle, put the cotton back in, put the lid back on, and put the bottles back on the shelf.
In this passage, Paul is saying that when someone adds to the core message of the Gospel, they poison it. They take the Good News and turn it bad. They burden people with all these extra requirements, rules and regulations, saying they are necessary for God to smile on them.
A “grace and” message, putting additives on the message of grace, doesn’t just destroy the gospel; it causes you to desert God. God says, “I gave you everything. I gave you My Son. I gave you the heart and essence of our community of love in the Trinity. I poured out everything for you. And that’s not enough? Are you really going to say, ‘God, Your grace is not enough?’ Are you really going to say, ‘The sacrifice of Your Son on the cross is not a perfect sacrifice for the whole world? Are you going to say, ‘It’s just not enough? It’s a good starting place, but I need to add on this and this to really be right with you’?”
When you embrace a “grace and” message, it is like God has given you a beautiful engagement ring, and it’s not shiny enough for you. So, in an effort to make it shinier, you wrap it in tinfoil. Don’t you see how that’s a personal insult? That is why Paul spends his time in this chapter trying to convince people of his message of grace.
How do you know if you’ve been taken in by the false message? Those who are the most susceptible are the people most earnest – people who care, show up, and want to be right with God. It is easy to fall prey to this message, because all the things being added to the gospel are often not bad things. They are good things!
Here’s an early warning indicator – a light on your dashboard. When this light goes off, you should pause and ask, “Am I slipping away from the simple message of the gospel of grace? Am I somehow destroying the gospel and deserting God?”
Here’s the warning indicator. It’s when you think to yourself, “I’m not a very good Christian.”
Let’s say you haven’t had a quiet time for 3 weeks. You think to yourself, “I’m not a very good Christian. I’m busy at home. I’m busy at work. I’m trying to survive. I never have time in the Bible. I haven’t had time to pray. I’m not a very good Christian.” Aren’t you really saying in that moment that what matters for you to be right with God is not just faith in Christ, but also you having a quiet time? God’s grace extended to you in Christ didn’t go away for 3 weeks when you stopped having a quiet time. It was still there. But now you think that’s not quite enough. When you find yourself thinking along these lines, a warning light should go off in your mind.
The other reason you don’t feel like a very good Christian is because you fell into sin, which leaves you thinking, “I can’t believe I did this. This was the sin I told God I wasn’t going to do again. I swore this off. I thought I was done with this and now I did it again. I hate myself. I’m not a very good Christian.” The whole message of Christ crucified on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins speaks to this very situation you’re experiencing pain about. Jesus died for all your sins. Jesus died for your repeated sins. When you don’t feel like a very good Christian because of those sins, come back to Him in faith and childlike trust and say, “God, just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me.”
You don’t understand God’s grace when you:
· Live with a vague sense of God’s disapproval.
· Feel sheepish bringing your needs before Him when you’ve just failed Him.
· Think of His grace as something that makes up the difference between the best you can do and what He expects from you.
· Feel you deserve an answer to prayer because of your hard work and sacrifice.
· Assume that 1 John 1:9 no longer applies to you now that you’ve sinned so many times you’ve used up all your credit.
· Feel more confident before Him if you’ve been “faithful” with your Christian disciplines.
· Can’t honestly say you see yourself as “blameless” before His eyes.
· Don’t really believe He likes you.
· Shy away from asking Him for things because you think it annoys Him.
· Assume you can do something to make Him love you more or less.
Thousands of Dutch residents spent time digging through their garbage after they learned they might have thrown away a diamond. A local jeweler sent 4,000 clients a mailing marking the 10th anniversary of the store. 200 of the envelopes contained a small diamond, while the others contained cubic zirconium, a cheap substitute used in costume jewelry. Many people who received the letter ignored it, thinking it was junk mail and threw it away without looking inside.
When only a few people responded to the mailing, the jeweler called several clients and learned most had discarded the mailing without looking at the contents.
Perhaps the mailing seemed too good to be true to those who read the letter so they threw the contents away after glancing at the letter. But others didn’t even both to open the package. That’s a shame.
But a great tragedy is the number of people who never bother to listen to God’s message of grace. You have heard. The only question remaining is what will you do with the offer God has made to you.
Unlike the one the jeweler made, God’s grace is real every time. He doesn’t offer cubic zirconium grace to anyone, yet everyday people turn down His offer and throw away their opportunity at eternity. What will you do today?
Gary Harner, sermon, “Gospel of Grace”
John MacArthur, Galatians
J.R.W. Stott, The Message of Galatians
Keith Miller, “How Christians Abandon God”, PreachingToday
Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace
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