LIVING BY GRACE

Galatians 3:1-14

Dr. Wm. J. Maxwell

First Presbyterian Church, Newport, RI

March 19, 2006

In our Lenten series on the Cross-centered life, so far we’ve looked at how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is something worth fighting for; in a sense - something non-negotiable, an essential tenet of our life in Christ.

We’ve also looked at how a person comes into a position of right-standing or righteousness in God’s sight. This occurs by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The Christian life is thus the Christ-centered life, and the Christ-centered life is the Cross-centered life, because it is by the Cross of Christ that we are redeemed, purchased and set free at the cost of His own life.

Now, this morning we come upon a passage that reminds us that we are not only saved by God’s grace, we are also to live by God’s grace. I believe a closer look at this passage will bring this truth to light.

THE PASSAGE AND ITS MEANING.

The Galatians had begun their journey well in terms of faith in Christ and union with Christ. They had believed in the Gospel Paul had preached to them. The Apostle had portrayed Jesus Christ as crucified and they had initially trusted fully in Christ as the means of receiving forgiveness of sins and right standing with God.

But they had now become quite foolish in taking a different turn, in that they were now attempting to earn their salvation by observing all the demands of the Law. Wisely, Paul asked them to look back upon the early days of their conversion. Their conversion experiences had nothing to do with conforming to all of the Law’s imperatives and demands. He reminded them that the gift of the Holy Spirit – the indwelling, abiding Spirit of God – came by hearing the Good News, by believing it to be true, and by personally appropriating it by faith.

In addition, apparently they’d suffered persecution because of their faith. Wouldn’t all this have been pointless and all in vain, Paul asked, if salvation comes simply by circumcision and law keeping?

Again, many miracles had occurred in the Church, as the book of Acts teaches and informs us. There had been the changing of many lives, the healing of the sick, the casting out of demons, and some were even brought back from the dead! In all this, the Galatians had experienced such a powerful movement of the Holy Spirit as a matter of faith and trust – period!

Turning from reasoning based upon their personal experience, Paul then turned to the authority of Scripture. His main point here is that it has always been by faith that people have become the children of God. In this, he asked them to consider Abraham, the great Patriarch of the Jewish people, whose faith was credited to him as righteousness. Here was a striking point of fact! So, based on this, the real sons and daughters of Abraham are not those who are his descendents by race, but rather on the basis of faith in God.

Lastly, Paul turned to another form of reasoning. He used a string of Old Testament quotations to make the point that Law-keeping is ultimately an exercise in absolute futility. No one is able to keep the whole Law. No one! Instead, a curse hangs heavy upon those who attempt this.

The only way to escape the curse of separation from God and a just and final verdict against us is this: by having another bear that curse for us. Christ alone kept in perfect obedience the whole Law, as we are told that He was entirely without sin. He had no curse on Himself – and so it was that He could bear the curse for others, which He did upon the Cross of Calvary.

In all of this, like an expert lawyer, Paul made it quite clear that the Galatians were only being extremely foolish. They had started well in relying solely upon God’s grace in Christ. But on the journey, they’d taken a detour in seeking to merit God’s favor and acceptance by Law- keeping. And this was a terrible mistake.

SO MANY OF US

HAVE DONE THE VERY SAME THING.

It’s easy for us to point the finger at the Galatians and say with Paul, “How could you be so foolish?” And yet, if the truth were to be told, we should be pointing the finger at ourselves.

Many of us have heard the Gospel of God’s grace and have responded in joyful faith and trust. We realize that the words of the well-beloved gospel song, “Rock of Ages,” are all quite wonderfully true:

Not the labors of my hands can fulfill Thy law’s demands;

could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow,

all for sin could not atone; Thou must save and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling;

naked, come to Thee for dress; helpless, look to Thee for grace;

foul, I to the fountain fly; wash me, Savior, or I die.

We sing these words with great enthusiasm and think of our initial salvation, trusting in Christ alone. But this song applies to the whole of our Christian life … to every step of the way, not just to the initial step of our journey.

You see, for many of us, somewhere along the way of our own personal journey, we get the idea that God will bless us more and love us more and give us more attention on the basis of our being “good.” We take a detour that attempts to satisfy and pacify God with some good words and some good works, all in the hope that He will keep on loving us and caring for us.

We may thus believe that we are saved by God’s grace alone, but that we also are kept in His care and embrace by our own goodness. Such a detour can go on for miles and miles, all in an effort to keep winning God’s affection.

Last week, I quoted Martin Luther, who rediscovered for the Church the Gospel of God’s grace. Here was a man who truly came to know and experience the fact that we are saved by grace alone. But even Luther, the great advocate for the Gospel of Grace, confessed the experience of taking this dangerous detour.

He once confessed after a number of years of ministry:

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 may contribute something, so that He will have to give me His grace in exchange for my holiness. And still I cannot get it into my head that I should surrender myself completely to sheer grace; yet (I know that) this is what I should and must do. [i]

Why can’t we get it into our heads? Why don’t we do this? Why don’t we “surrender (ourselves) completely to sheer grace”? Why do we in time take a detour from being saved by grace and living by grace to the road that says, “God will love me and be pleased with me if only I go there or say this or do that”?

I’m convinced that such a perspective often comes from the relationships we’ve had over the years. Perhaps we’ve had an absentee or neglectful parent, whose attention we wanted so very much, but whose attention we could never receive. Or we’ve had a demanding parent who took notice of us only when we met that parent’s high expectations.

Perhaps we’ve had a spouse who vowed to love us “till death do us part,” and yet, from that day on, loved us with a conditional love that said, “Unless you change to meet my expectations, I won’t love you anymore.”

Or there’s the teacher who was so very pleased and enamored with your older sister or brother that, by the time you came around, you were expected to be just like her or him. Only you couldn’t be. Because you are you.

Or the boss who hired you to do this, but then you found out soon enough after being hired that all the while he wanted you to do that!

You see, so very often we place God in the very same position as that parent, that spouse, that teacher or that boss, and we say to ourselves, “God will really love me if I do this!” Or we say, “One day I’m going to be like that, and then He will bless me!”

Now, there is a place for obedience and faithfulness, and we’ll talk soon about that aspect of living the Cross-centered Life. But for now, we must understand clearly that as we are saved by God’s grace, so it is that we must live by God’s grace.

We can do this, not by constantly straining to gain God’s affection and acceptance, but walking with the assurance that God never stops looking at us other than from the perspective of His grace, His unconditional love, and His eternity long adoption of us as His children.

John Eagen is a name not many of us would recognize. Eagen was a high school teacher in Milwaukee who taught for some 30 years and was a man who cared deeply for the youth. After his death in1987, his personal journal was published, revealing a man who truly lived by God’s grace. Here was a man flawed with weaknesses and character defects, but who also knew that his sins could not keep him from God, that all had been redeemed by the blood of Christ.

Once, at a spiritual retreat, John’s spiritual director spoke to him of what it means to be living by grace. He said, “John, the heart of it is this: to make the Lord and His immense love for you constitutive of your personal worth. Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. God’s love for you and His choice of you constitute your worth. Accept that, and let it become the most important thing in your life.”

In his journal, John wrote of his response to these words:

We discuss it. The basis of my personal worth is not my possessions, my talents, not esteem of others, reputation … not kudos of appreciation from parents and kids, not applause, and everyone telling you how important you are to this place … I stand anchored now in God before whom I stand naked, this God who tells me, ‘You are my son, my beloved one.’ [ii]

Dear friend, as you listen to these words, are you saved by grace alone, in Christ alone? And if you are, are you also living by grace alone?

Don’t take that detour! And if you have, come back! Stand anchored in God, before whom you stand naked, and hear Him saying to you, “You are My daughter … you are My son … My beloved one.”

Yes, “Define yourself radically as one beloved by God.” And that is living by grace!