11-27-11 Grace To You...And Peace

Gal 1:1 Paul, an apostle (not sent from men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead),

Gal 1:2 and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia:

Gal 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ,

Gal 1:4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

Gal 1:5 to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

Those are the opening words

of Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

They are words that, to us,

without having been there when the letter was written,

and without understanding what drove Paul to write this letter

or what he hoped to accomplish with it,

sound...well, just sound like nice Bible words -

the type of thing we would expect to find in one of the New Testament Epistles.

They may even sound like a cheerful greeting from the Apostle Paul

as he greets his readers and wishes them grace and peace.

And certainly they are Paul’s greeting to the Galatians,

and certainly he is reminding them of the grace and peace given to them by God through Jesus Christ.

But what we can so easily miss

is that they are far more than just that.

They are, in fact, Paul’s opening attack

in his warfare against a lie so powerful, so hideous

that if it was not confronted and destroyed

would warp the good news of Jesus Christ

into just one more man-made religious system

in which its followers forever wallow in the futility of trying to find peace with God

through good deeds and religious devotion.

Last week we began our study of this remarkable letter,

and we spent much of our time

looking at the way in which Paul’s message of God’s grace and freedom through Christ

had been supplanted by a subtle but powerful message of seeking to earn God’s acceptance

through their performance.

A number of Jewish teachers had asserted their leadership in the infant Galatian church following Paul’s departure,

and convinced the young Christians

that they may have been able to come to God through faith in Christ’s death for their sins,

but they could only remain with Him

through offering God a level of performance

that justified His continued acceptance of them.

You can come to God through faith,

but you can only remain with God through works.

We finished our time last week

by looking at Paul’s opening words to the Galatians,

words in which he clearly, boldly affirmed his God-given position as an Apostle of Jesus Christ -

one of the few

brought on the scene by God at the beginning of the formation of the Church on earth,

used by God to reveal to the world

both what it means for us to live with God through Christ,

and what it means for us to be the church - the body of Christ on this earth.

Basically Paul began his letter by saying,

“If you have a problem with what I’m about to say to you,

take it up with God, not me,

because He’s the One who gave me the message and compelled me to communicate it to you.”

That took us through the first 2 verses,

and then we ran out of time.

So this morning I want us to pick up right where we left off

and see what Paul does next.

And what he does next

is to clearly, concisely proclaim the heart of the truth that is under attack.

But he does it in a way that is designed to keep his readers open to his words

at least long enough for them to hear and hopefully remember

the truth they had so quickly forgotten.

In verses 3-5 he offers them

what at first appears to be words of blessing,

but it is a blessing that does not end until Paul has driven home

the very truth they had lost sight of.

He says,

Gal 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, ...

And before we read the rest of this greeting,

I need to tell you that those words right there...grace and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ...,

those words are not the Christian equivalent of “Have a nice day!”

You know how it is in our culture -

you finish paying for your cantaloupe and a box of pasta

and the clerk hands you your receipt and says, “Have a nice day!”

And we all understand

that what the clerk just said has no real meaning whatsoever.

That clerk has absolutely no power, no ability to grant you a nice day.

And in fact the clerk really could care less whether you have a nice day or not.

If he or she is basically a nice person

then they probably do at some level hope you’ll have a nice day,

but if you don’t

it won’t affect their day at all.

It’s just a pleasant, meaningless way of ending a casual human encounter in our society.

But when Paul says, Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ...,

that is not what is happening.

This isn’t just a nice way of opening the conversation.

Those two words - grace and peace -

those two words go to the very heart of everything God has been seeking to communicate to the human race

since the first day of creation.

They go to the very heart

of everything He was seeking to offer us

through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And Paul is not simply wishing them grace and peace,

he is telling them exactly what it is

that God has already given them.

Do you remember a number of months ago

when our study of the book of Romans

brought us to the first two verses of Romans chapter 5?

Do you remember where those verses are found

in the flow of that remarkable letter.

Paul began the letter by giving us a terrifying verbal picture

of the human race...of US without Christ -

a picture in which we all stand helpless, guilty, and justifiably condemned before God.

And then he turns our eyes onto Christ

and the amazing truth that through Jesus Christ we are justified by faith apart from works of the law.

He tells us that while we were still immersed in our sin and rebellion

Christ died in our place for our sins,

the Just for the unjust,

so that we could be joined to Him in love forever.

OK, immediately following the presentation of that truth

Paul takes the first half of the 5^th chapter of Romans

to reveal to us the 8 birthday presents given to every Christian by God the day we enter His family.

And do you remember which two gifts were at the top of God’s list?

Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand...

Peace with God...and this grace in which we stand...

Folks, that’s the Hallelujah Chorus of the Book of Romans.

Now, listen again to Paul’s opening words to the Galatians.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ...

Peace with God...and this grace in which we stand...

When Paul begins this letter

by reminding his readers

that their simple act of faith in Christ

has resulted in God having already given them His endless grace

and absolute peace with Him forever

he does so because he knows that it is this one amazing truth,

this one glorious reality

that they have already lost sight of.

And unless and until they once again remember this truth

everything God seeks to do for them, in them, and through them

will come to a screeching halt.

This is what it’s all about -

this is what the human spirit hungers for, longs for -

this is the assignment God has given to every human being who enters this world -

the assignment of discovering and then receiving grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it is these two things

that the Jewish teachers surrounding them

had blinded their eyes to,

convincing them that peace with God comes only through our performance

and God’s grace is reserved for only the faithful few

who achieve the highest possible level of devotion and productivity.

Then, having reminded them of the two great truths they had forgotten,

Paul goes on to drive this truth home

through a clear, concise statement

of how God was able to give this grace and peace to us.

Gal 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ,

Gal 1:4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

Gal 1:5 to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

In a single sentence

Paul tells us how He did it,

why He did it,

and how it will affect us if we have heard and understood what’s really taken place.

The how is given to us in just six words...who gave Himself for our sins.

How did Jesus Christ give us peace with God

and this grace in which we stand?

By giving Himself for our sins.

How are you doing with God right now?

What is it that stands between you and Him?

What keeps you in fear of your Creator?

What is it that makes you hide in the shadowlands?

What is it that has created that constant tension between yourself and your God?

When you hear the account of Adam and Eve

hiding in the undergrowth from their God,

filled with shame,

peaking out through the bushes,

desperately looking for something to hide their nakedness,

is there something in that account

that makes sense to you?

Do you find yourself doing the same thing...

hiding from your God

behind a frantic schedule,

or a little pile of good deeds,

or whatever narcotic of the soul you’ve chosen to dull the pain...and the shame?

Do you think that

if you were to step out from your hiding place,

to step out into His presence

He would lash out in anger

or turn away in disgust?

If so, then you have not yet heard the truth about your God,

you have not yet heard

or, like the Galatians, you have forgotten the gospel - the good news of God.

And here it is in a single statement - the Lord Jesus Christ ...gave Himself for our sins.

And the debt is paid...your debt is paid in full forever

by the blood of Christ offered as payment for your sins.

And now,

if you dare to step out from the shadowlands of life,

to step out into His presence,

there will be no anger, no wrath, no disgust

because there is no longer any sin on your account

and never will be again.

It has all been transferred onto the account of Christ,

and your debt has been removed from you forever.

And what you will find Him offering you

is exactly what Paul tells us our God is offering us - grace...and peace.

And then, after telling us how our God brought about this incredible offer

of grace and peace from Him,

Paul then goes on to tell us why.

He says that our Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins... so that He might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father...

And the first comment I need to make here

is the first comment I see Paul making in this statement -

that HE is the one who delivers us.

Jesus Christ is the one who brings about the deliverance in our lives.

We do not deliver ourselves for Him,

we do not deliver one another for Him.

I have been involved in an awful lot of lives during the past 40 years.

Some of them I have been deeply involved in.

A number of them I have grown to love very, very much.

And what I tell you now may be a little risky

because if I do not say it correctly

it is possible that some of you may use it as an excuse to keep yourself safe, protected,

uninvolved in the lives of those around you.

You may use it as an excuse not to love,

and that would be a great tragedy both for yourself

and for those God has given you to love.

But I’ll go ahead and try to put this into words anyway

because if you can hear correctly what I’m trying to say

it may help you to be bold in your love

without being destroyed in the process.

You see, no matter how much you love,

no matter how deeply involved you are,

no matter how much you care,

no matter how much time you invest,

you can never change another human being.

You can never deliver them from evil.

There is only one Deliverer - the Lord Jesus Christ.

Certainly, He may and frequently does work through us

to accomplish some aspect of His deliverance in another person,

and when He does

He also at times chooses to allow some of His glory to slop over onto us.

Some time ago I had an opportunity to get involved in a young Christian’s life

and was able to communicate to him

some truths about his God

that had a profound affect on him.

Several months following that crisis point in his life

I told him that I felt honored at having been close enough to see

what God was doing in his life,

but then I went on to tell him

that, if I hadn’t been there when I was,

God would have brought someone else into his life to give him the truth he needed.

He responded by saying,

“That’s like saying if there was no sun then there would be some other source of light.”

That’s the way we feel sometimes

when God loves us through another person.

But the simple truth is that there is only One Deliverer -

there is only One who can flood the human spirit with light,

there is only One who can break the chains that bind us,

there is only One who can break the power of sin in our lives - our Lord Jesus Christ.

And here is the critical thing

about the calling our God has given us - this calling to love one another.

We are called to love for two huge reasons.

First, we are called to love

because it gives our lives purpose and fulfillment as nothing else in life can do.

It helps us to understand why we are here

and why our lives have value.

The act of loving accomplishes something deep within us

that cannot be accomplished any other way.

And second, when we love -

when we care and reach out to the needs of those around us

there are times when our love becomes the channel through which God can then accomplish His work of deliverance in the other person.

But here is the crucial truth we can never ever loose sight of -

we are not the healer,

we are not the deliverer,

we are not the ones who bring about the changes in another person’s life.

Those changes can only be accomplished by God Himself,

and they will be accomplished in the lives of those around us

if, and only if their spirit is open to Him.

If it is not,

or if they are fighting Him,

there is nothing we can ever do

to bring about changes within them.

And if we ever take onto ourselves

the responsibility for changing another person’s life

we have taken on a responsibility

that will ultimately destroy us

and most likely destroy our relationship with the other person as well.

Well, Paul tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ removed our sin from us so that He might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father...

He is the Deliverer,

and then let me also say

that I believe Paul is talking here about the whole spectrum of Christ’s redemptive work within us.

He’s talking about that deliverance

that begins from the day we come to our King,

the deliverance from fear, and guilt, and shame.

He’s also talking about the deliverance

that involves that sometimes slow, painful process

of breaking the power of so many of the lies we have believed - the “renewing of the mind” process

that we saw in Romans chapter 12.

That, of course,

is a process that continues on as long as we are on this earth,

in these corrupted physical bodies.

And then Paul is also talking about the ultimate deliverance

that will come for some of us

when our King returns and claims us for Himself,

and for others that comes

when our holy spirits are finally freed from these physical bodies through death

and total victory is ours.

And then Paul ends this remarkable introductory blessing

by giving us a clear statement of how we will respond

when we have correctly understood what he’s just said.

He tells us that all that Christ has done

is in perfect harmony with our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

And that right there is the point of the whole thing.

When we do correctly understand

both what Christ has done

and why He’s done it

our spirits will respond with a longing to give our God the glory forevermore.

And why did Paul begin this letter to the Galatians with this blessing?

He did it at least in part

because it was the most powerful way he could ever have offered

of showing his readers the stupidity of the lies they had believed.

And he did it by showing them what the truth really looked like.

They had been pulled into a pathetic religious game

in which they tried to become their own deliverers,

trying to change their own lives through their own efforts,

and the end result of their foolishness

was their taking the credit onto themselves.

And it didn’t work

because it was all a big religious game.

And what Paul offered them

was a powerful picture of the real thing,

and with that picture

he also hopefully stirred within them

a hunger for the grace and peace they had lost sight of.