The Vineyard Church of North Grand Rapids, MI

Ray Befus, Galatians 1:13-24        Get the Truth from Jesus 4 October 2009

Recently I met someone I hadn’t seen for over ten years and, I hadn’t missed at all. I had loved and trusted him and been hurt by him—betrayed, deeply offended.  In the conflict that overwhelmed our relationship, I did my best to respond with wisdom and courage.  But, I was overwhelmed and, before we had parted, I had gossiped, slandered and even lied to try to shield myself from his attacks. I asked God to forgive me, of course, and I carried on, content in the personal belief that his sins were much greater than my own.  But now he was in the room with me, and we’re going be on the same ministry team sharing the good news of God’s grace with some people who aren’t yet Christians.  After a few meetings in which we avoided eye contact,  it was apparent that he wasn’t going to approach me. So, last week I just went after him, asked if I could talk with him personally.  I told him I was sorry for causing him pain and asked him to forgive me for sinning against him  He said that he did.

If you ask me, was that hard?  I’d have to say that it might have been very hard last year or even last winter.  But reading Brennan Manning’s books this spring and summer has given me a FEEL for God’s grace at a depth I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before.  The truth is that if I was living on the merits of my own spiritual performance I wouldn’t make it.  I’m here because God did for me, through Jesus’ death on a cross, what I never could have managed on my own. Why should it be so hard to admit that we’re weak, fearful, self-protective sinners . . . wounded by the world and so wounding the people we say we love?  John, Jesus’ closest friend, says that if we claim that we don’t sin regularly, we’re lying . . . liars living in self-deception.  Brennan Manning understands God’s grace like few other people I’ve ever met or read, and he confesses his own sinfulness and and regrets in his books like no one I’ve ever met except maybe the Apostle Paul, who wrote much of our NT’s.  Paul confided in his young protege Timothy that he, Paul, was the worst of sinners.  And, God poured out his grace on Paul—an arrogant middle eastern religious terrorist—so that other sinners like me and you would know that our sinfulness is no problem for the God who is love, who so loved us, that he went to the extreme of sacrificing his own son to secure our redemption.   So, no, it wasn’t that hard to apologize and ask for forgiveness.  For the first time I can remember, I am experiencing grace andpeace like a river.  I am in over my head, swimming in a river of grace and peace that has no bottom.  It feels great.  I just want to say to you this morning, “Come on in, you sinners; the water’s fine”.

To some, grace may be a dusty old doctrine.  To splash around a bit and to try to get you wet, this fall I’m inviting you to read Brennan Manning’s book The Ragamuffin Gospel and study along on Sundays as we examine the letter the Apostle Paul wrote to Christians living in different churches scattered around the Roman province of Galatia, in what is now modern Turkey.  Paul’s letter is called Galatians.  Last week we looked at the first ten verses.  Let me read them again and review the high points. READ.

First, notice Paul’s greeting In verse three.  Paul writes “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”.  It might seem like a pleasant, general sort of Christian greeting.  But, it’s no accident that Paul writes “Grace and peace” rather than “Peace and Grace” or just “Hope you’re having a good day”.  Paul is writing to men and women like us who live with a lot stress, deep insecurity, constant feelings of unworthiness, and not a little regret.  How in the world do strugglers like us experience deep, lasting peace on a daily basis?  Paul is convinced that peace flows out of our understanding and experience of God’s grace.  Deep inner peace—even while you’re single, even while you’re unemployed, even when you’re stewing in some sinful failure—comes from getting a grip on God’s grace. 

Paul has written this letter to Christians like us because he’s concerned about a spiritual disease we’re calling legalism.   Legalists believe lies about God and spread these lies to their children, friends, and churches.   Legalists believe that the only way to please God and secure his forgiveness and blessing is to earn these things.  If you want to be forgiven . . .  find peace with God, go to heaven when you die, and live now as a good Christian, you need to clean up your life and earn God’s respect and blessing. That’s not good news because every honest person knows that he or she falls short of God’s standards and instructions. We fell short before we we became Christians and, we still fall short today.  So, the best a person can do is work hard as hard as they can to become as religious as they can be, and cover up their weaknesses and failures as best they can.  That’s not good news and it doesn’t lead to freedom or peace. Paul believes this kind of thinking that promotes a performance-based spirituality is from hell.  Legalism is a lie, and Paul is furious that this lie is being told in churches he planted.

So, one of the major themes of this letter is grace—God’s amazing grace . . . God’s amazing decision to freely give us what we never could have earned: his forgiveness and acceptance.  Specifically, grace is revealed in God’s offer of forgiveness and acceptance before we repent and get our act together.  As Brennan Manning puts it, grace is revealed in God’s loving decision to forgive us, accept us, and love us just as we are, not as we should be. Do you remember Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son?  Jesus told this parable to explain to religious people how God thinks and feels about sinners (folks who still don’t have their lives together). In this amazing story, the Father had already forgiven the son, even before he returned home with an apolory.  The Father had reserved a place in his heart and his home for his son, even while his son was off in rebellion.  When the son returned, the Father didn’t demand explanation or require restitution, shame him with a lecture, or put the boy on probation.  All that was necessary was the young man’s decision to entrust himself to his loving father.

If the Parable of the Prodigal isn’t enough to convince us that God’s grace is truly amazing, we see God’s grace expressing itself in the Gospels where Jesus made a common practice of eating with people who were unusually sinful.  In Jesus’ world, as in middle eastern culture today, sharing a meal with someone was a declaration of authentic friendship and full acceptance. Jesus spent so much time sharing meals with sinful people that the religious leaders in that day described Jesus as a friend of sinners . . . not repentant sinners who’ve become up-standing, tee-totaling church-going folks, but unrepentant sinners.  Jesus was a friend of hardcore sinners.  John, in his gospel tells us that Jesus came into the world to make God known to us (John 1:18).  God’s grace means that God likes sinners—likes to spend time with them, to listen to them, laugh with them, and to offer them his help.  Yes, they need to turn from their sin.  But not to get forgiveness.  Grace means that God is not counting our sins against us (II Corinthians 5:19).  God’s forgiveness and acceptance are unconditional. If you need peace this morning . . . you need grace even more.  You need to turn from your performance-driven approach to life and spirituality and come to the cross where God has done for us what we could never do for ourselves.  Get grace, and you’ll find peace.  Now about the cross.

A second statement in Paul’s greeting that is pregnant with significance is found in v. 4: “the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins.”  For Paul, God’s grace flows through the cross and Jesus’ death for us. In the following chapters of Galatians, Paul will communicate that the cross has become central to all that God is doing in the world and in us.  The cross has done what the OT law could not do, what no other religion or philosophy could provide, what we in our own performance cannot attain: friendship with God. Grace flows from the cross.  Redemption flows from the cross. Freedom flows from the cross. The power of the Spirit flows from the cross.  It’s the cross that saves us and guides us into spiritual growth.  It’s is the cross that assures us of God’s unconditional forgiveness, acceptance, and love for us just as we are.  Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome that while we were powerless, ungodly sinners, God demonstrated his personal love for us by sending his Son to die for us on a cross. (Romans 5:6-8).  Jesus’ performance on the cross, not our spiritual performance, is the heart of  Christianity.

Brennan Manning was once a Catholic priest.  In his book, The Importance of Begin Foolish, Breenan tells a true story about a fellow Catholic priest (pp. 62-64).  The Jews were repulsed by the idea of a crucified Messiah and the Gentiles ridiculed the story.  But, Paul, the Apostle of grace, makes the cross the centerpiece of his life and ministry.  The cross will come up repeatedly in our study of Galatians.  

One last point worth noting in these opening verses is the series of rhetorical questions Paul asks in v. 10.  One of the difficult things about reading and interpreting an ancient letter like Galatians is that we’re sitting in on only one side of a conversation that has three different parties involved.  Paul’s words are plain enough, but Paul is responding to two other streams of communication coming at him: (1) the accusations of religious agitators who are confusing the Christians in Galatia, and (2) the questions and fears of the confused Galatian Christians themselves.  So we have to do some educated guesswork to figure out why Paul is writing the things we read.   In these verses Paul seems to be responding to the agitator’s charge that he is preaching a simplistic gospel . . . he’s soft on sin . . . all this talk about grace is nothing but easy-believism . . . he’s pandering to worldliness, preaching a luke-warm spirituality that has no moral standards. And the agitators are saying that Paul’s motive for lowering God’s moral standards is to get bigger crowds and bigger offerings.  Paul responds that his only motivation is  to serve Jesus.

The truth is that Paul is anything but soft on sin, soft on spritual growth, or soft on holiness.  In chapter five Paul will highlight “acts of the sinful nature” that characterize people who are outside the faith (5:19ff): sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy, drunkenness, orgies.  Notice that Paul calls these things the acts of the sinful nature or the works of the flesh.  When people act this way, you can see that they do not trust God.  They don’t believe that God is wise, and good, and smart . . . and that his instructions are for our good.  Actions like these reveal who is still lost, who is still far from God, who is not part of the faith.

But Paul does not call Christians to act better than those outside the faith.  He doesn’t urge us to commit ourselves to pursue works of righteousness and rededicate ourselves moral goodness.  No, Paul counsels that those who decide to trust their lives to God just need to make room for new things to grow within them . . . the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.    When a man or woman decides to trust Jesus, the crucified One, he or she receives the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit produces—slowly, but slowly—the character of Jesus within us.  Our job is to continue inviting the Spirit to fill us, guide us, stir us, stretch us.  This revelation calls us to be extremely patient with new Christians.  Farmers know that growth takes a long time. It’s the Spirit’s job to change us in ways we can’t change ourselves.  And, he’s the Holy Spirit, so as we continue to say “Yes” to his leading, empowering, convicting, guiding,  and stirring, he patiently produces growth toward holiness or Godlikeness within us.

Paul isn’t soft on sin or holiness.  But he’s convinced that just as we can’t save ourselves by performing better, we can’t produce spiritual growth by working harder.  The way in (salvation, justification) is by grace through simple faith, responding to God’s love.  The way on (spiritual growth, sanctification) is by grace through simple faith, faith that continues to welcome to God’s love and express it to others (5:6).  The Spirit initiates and empowers this process of growth from deep within us.  No one works their way up to higher and higher levels of spiritual maturity by giving stellar spiritual performances.

This brings us to the last part of chapter one: verses 11-23.  Paul want us to know just two things: (1) He didn’t receive this message of grace from a human teacher or mentor and (2) he wasn’t schooled in this message of grace by denominational leaders back at headquarters.  READ.  In these verses, Paul seems to be continuing to respond to the agitators’ complaints against him.  Apparently they’re saying something like this: “Paul is a maverick preacher, a rogue evangelist, an independent operator.  He’s not a man ministering under the authoritative covering of the spiritual leaders back in the mother church in Jerusalem.  Paul is not on the side of the majority of scholars, interpreters, and preachers in our movement.  Don’t follow him out on this limb he’s calling grace.  In a world of spiritual deception, you don’t want to follow some rogue evangelist with a shocking new message.  If Paul’s explanation of grace seems to good to be true, it probably is! 

In a bold decision to use their own argument against them, Paul declares, “They’re absolutely right! I didn’t get this good news from headquarters—i.e., the mother church in Jerusalem, where Jesus’ half-brother James was pastor.  I didn’t get it from a human mentor like Peter, a conference speaker like Barnabas, a denominational school or a best-selling book.  I didn’t think this gospel up on my own; I was revolted by this message of grace until the day Jesus himself met me on the road to Damascus.  This good news of grace, peace, and  freedom—flowing from the cross—is a message I received directly from Jesus himself.

In verse 13 Paul reminds the Galatians of his own story.  Paul never would have chosen this message or this mission.  As a young man, Paul was steeped in the religion of his foregathers.  Paul hated Christians and their Christ.  He listened to their arguments and testimonies and wasn’t convinced by anything the Christians said or claimed about Jesus.  Like some modern atheists, Paul believed the world would be a better place without Christians. All that changed when Paul met Jesus, face-to-face (not in a vision, but in a real appearance of the resurrected Jesus).  You can read about it in Acts 9.   In verse 15, Paul writes that he is convinced that God was totally responsible for his conversion and call.  God, who had been graciously pursuing him his whole life, confronted him personally.  Jesus himself saved Paul and called him and commissioned him with the message of grace.  Paul became exhibit one in the story of God’s grace (v. 16).  If God forgives, accepts, and loves bigoted, arrogant, blind, and violent religious terrorists like me . . . you better believe he forgives, accepts, and loves outsiders like the Gentile Christians in Galatia.  

Paul is communicating that God alone called him to this message and this mission.  He’s not promoting his own agenda or representing the folks in Jerusalem.  After Jesus confronted Paul, he didn’t go to Jerusalem to confirm his calling and commission with human leaders. Paul went to Arabia (Mt Sinai) for over a year and a half, just to hear from Jesus though the voice of the Holy Spirit.  Yes, he visited Jerusalem and traveled with some of those folks, but I didn’t go to school in Jerusalem.  Paul wants us to know, “I’m not a company man, a party delegate, a voice representing headquarters.  I have received this message directly from Jesus.  I am speaking for Jesus as I write these words.  And, yes, I’m angry.   Jesus shattered all of my theological categories.  I’m here to slaughter every cow made sacred by these performance-promoting legalists”.  “Because of the cross, ‘the only thing that counts [with God] is faith expressing itself through love’.” (5:6).j  So there you are!

Last Sunday I suggested that one characteristic of a man or woman who gets God’s grace, is that he or she is free to be transparent about who they are, what they’ve done, where they’re at, how it’s going, what they’re afraid of, and what they long for.  Christians stuck in the trap of legalism fear exposure and rejection from other performers. They’re convinced that they could have done better, worked harder, and performed to higher standards.  But they didn’t, so even as Christians, they now live in the shadows of life with an abiding sense of regret and shame—even self-loathing.  They believe that they disappointed God in the past and, they’re pretty sure God still has a frown on his face today (while they’re worshipping, praying, giving, serving, and sinning again).  So they hang back in group settings (like this) like fragile old people, just hoping that no one roughs them up with any questions that are too personal. Those who get God’s grace live like children, out in the open, out loud . . . sometimes happy (full of laughter), sometimes sad (crying in grief) . . . but always free to be honest and open about themselves with other people.  Is that you?  

If you don’t feel the freedom to be open and honest about yourself, you’ve got to find a way to change the way you see God and see yourself when you fall into temptation, when you worship and pray, when you come to your senses and confess your sins.  Anyone can say, “Oh, I know that God loves me”.  But those who get grace see a smile on God’s face and love in his eyes when they come to him in their sinfulness and sorrow.  They see his arms open wide to them even after personal chapters of compromise and failure.  They see themselves as prodigal sons and daughters and, they see God as the loving Father Jesus described. That’s why they sometimes shout and laugh in worship, and sometimes  swallow hard or even tear up when the band begins the first line of Amazing Grace. 

Brennan Manning offers this exhortation: “For a disciple of Jesus the process of spiritual growth is a gradual repudiation of the unreal image of God, and an increasing openness to the true and living God.  In my own life, honoring the First Commandment, ‘I am Yahweh your God: you shall have no gods except me,’ has meant repudiating  the god of fear and wrath handed on to me by preachers, teachers, and church authorities in my youth, repudiating the strange god who sees all non-Christians as good-for-nothings . . . .” (The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus, p.18)

This morning I want to invite you to try stepping up your personal level of transparency.  What if your humble transparency could trigger a fresh flow of God’s grace into your life?  Take a baby step.  Come to the front and tell a prayer team member what’s really going on in your life, what’s really eating away at your soul, what fear is dogging you from day to day, what painful regret keeps you looking backward.  How will you know, if you don’t take a risk to reveal more of yourself to God and others?

A second, related characteristic of men and women who get God’s grace is something we see in Paul in chapter one. Paul was an individual, a one-of-a-kind Christian.  Paul was free to be who God made him to be and called him to be, an original—not copy or  a clone of the rest of the Apostles. Paul was free to be himself, to chart his own course, to tell his own story, to speak up in a big room, and to stand for his own convictions.  Free to say yes, free to say no, free to get angry and to curse if he thought it was appropriate.  He didn’t feel any need to conform to the denomination, stand with the party, or cave in to the majority.  Where does this kind of bold, healthy, self-assertive, risky independence come from?  A couple things, probably. Certainly it came from his confidence in God’s love.  Paul tells that Romans that he was convinced that  nothing could ever separate him from the love of God that is in Jesus (Romans 8:39).  Paul didn’t just know that promise; it lived in him.  He felt it.  “I can risk and fail and be rejected by people, but I still have a secure place at my father’s table. Because of God’s unconditional love, Paul felt competely free to stand up, to find his own voice, and to speak out and curse in public!

But even more than this confidence in God’s love, Paul’s personal sense of security and freedom was rooted in his personal encounters with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, both on the Road to Damascus (Acts 9), later in the temple (Acts 22), and then in Arabia (through the ministry of the Holy Spirit). Paul was not convinced of the truth of Christianity by intellectual arguments, doctrinal debates or personal testimonies.  He listened to Stephen’s passionate appeal in Acts 7, and then participated in the mob’s decision to stone the man.  Paul didn’t buy the preaching.  Paul’s conversion and conviction came from personal encounters with Jesus and experiences with the Holy Spirit. 

The freedom to be yourself, stand up and speak out, step into your destiny, and boldly go where the men or  women in your family have never gone before . . . that freedom often comes with a personal experience with the Lord Jesus, personal communication from the Lord Jesus, a personal touch from Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Paul didn’t have second-hand experiences with Jesus, mediated through sermons, Christian music, or even a Bible college education.  Paul was transformed by personal experiences with the living God.  

I want to invite you to take a step toward Jesus this morning by coming forward for prayer and asking Jesus to touch you, speak to you, and set you free to live like the man or woman God created you to be, not a copy or a clone of a legalistic parent, or friend, or pastor, or spouse.  Just give it a try.  If you have just the smallest amount of faith, that God might love you as much as he loved Paul, take that little bit of faith and come to the front when others leave.  Tell a prayer team member that you’ve come up here to ask Jesus to set you free to be you—at home, at school or work, even at church.

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