Grace Is The Gospel

Text: Gal 1-3:1

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6–7, ESV).

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” (Galatians 3:1).

“Foolish” – a statement of behavior, not identity.

SO MUCH has been made available to you through this Gospel of Grace, and you’ve settled for SO LITTLE.

“Bewitched” – “under the spell of an evil eye.”

If you’re the “Real Thing,” you can’t become some “New Thing.”
The lesson of “The New Coke.”

Grace Point #1
THIS GOSPEL OF GRACE WE RECEIVED FROM GOD CANNOT BE REDEFINED BY MAN

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one” (v. 6).

The good news of the Gospel is a message of REDEMPTION, RECONCILIATION, and REBIRTH.

This Good News is RECEIVED.

Grace – unmerited (not earned) favor (unfair, preferential treatment).

Grace is God’s enabling power to be all Jesus is, do all Jesus does, and become all Jesus wants.

3 Modern Attempts To Redefine:

  1. Hyper-Grace

Teaches grace excludes the necessity of repentance, obedience, or sanctification in the believer’s life. Hyper-grace teaches that Christians are not bound by the call to holiness or the need to confess sin and repent because all past, present, and future sins have already been forgiven through Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death.

Grace is too amazing to leave me as it found me!

  1. Hebrew Roots Movement

Advocates for a return to the original Jewish practices of the early Christian church by embracing aspects of Judaism and the Old Testament laws, including the Sabbath, biblical feasts, and, in some cases, dietary laws.

Paul would say concerning the study of our Jewish roots… it’s about LEARNING, not EARNING.

  1. “Sinner Saved By Grace” Ideology

Whether it is caught or taught, this is any attempt to add an aspect of works to our salvation as well as the maintaining of a “wretched” identity that was destroyed in Christ.

The true Gospel always puts our BEING before our DOING.

Grace Point #2
THE GOSPEL OF GRACE IS TRUSTING WHAT JESUS DID FOR US, NOT WHAT WE CAN DO FOR OURSELVES

“yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16, ESV).

Justified – to make something or someone right.

Question: What makes us right with God?

Yet we know that a person is justified or reckoned righteous and in right standing with God not by works of the Law, but [only] through faith and [absolute] reliance on and adherence to and trust in Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). [Therefore] even we [ourselves] have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law [for we cannot be justified by any observance of the ritual of the Law given by Moses], because by legal rituals and by works no human being can ever be justified (declared righteous and put in right standing with God) (Galatians 2:16, AMP).

I am JUSTIFIED [only] through faith and [absolute] reliance on and adherence to and trust in Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

Question: Who declared you as righteous?

His Righteousness is Perfect, not Partial.

If God declares it, it’s done.

Grace Point #3
GRACE MEANS THAT WHAT IS TRUE OF JESUS BECOMES TRUE OF ME

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

The Gospel is so much more than freedom from sin… it is eternal life in Him.

Jesus became like us, so that we could become like Him.

  • I am who He says I am!
  • I am chosen!
  • I am a new creation!
  • I am spirit-led!
  • I am an image bearer!
  • I am dead to sin!
  • I am alive in Christ!
  • I am the righteousness of God
  • I am a co-heir with Christ!
  • I am royalty!
  • I am prosperous!
  • And I am more than a conqueror!

Don’t let some religious eye tell you otherwise!

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