Grace in Galatians (Part 126): Are You Wasting God’s Grace?
Today, we continue our series entitled “Living the Grace Life,” where we will learn to embrace and walk in God’s unmerited, unearned, and often undeserved favor throughout 2025.
As part of this series, I am teaching a verse-by-verse exposition of the book of Galatians.
Key scriptures for this year:
(2 Corinthians 9:8 TPT)
"Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything—every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do."
(Galatians 5:4 TPT)
"If you want to be made right with God by fulfilling the obligations of the law, you have cut off more than your flesh—you have cut yourselves off from Christ and have fallen away from the revelation of grace!"
(Romans 6:14 ERV)
"Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God's grace."
(1 Corinthians 15:10 CEV)
"But God treated me with undeserved grace! He made me what I am, and his grace wasn't wasted. I worked much harder than any of the other apostles, although it was really God's grace at work and not me."
Scripture we will study today:
(Galatians 4:10-11 TPT)
“You are so busy scrutinizing the calendar! You are terrified if you miss a special holiday or a religious feast day. I am afraid that all my hard work among you has been wasted!”
(Galatians 4:10-11 NLT)
“You are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years. I fear for you. Perhaps all my hard work with you was for nothing.”
Supporting scriptures:
(Colossians 2:16-17 NLT)
“So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.”
(Romans 14:17 NLT)
“For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
(Hebrews 4:9-10 NLT)
“So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world.”
Setting the Stage:
I pray you had a great Thanksgiving break. I sure did. In the last message we covered in this series, Paul questioned the sanity of the Galatians. He asked, “Why would you go back?” He couldn’t understand why anyone who had experienced the intimacy of knowing God as Father would return to the “weak and feeble” principles of religion.
Today, Paul gets specific. He identifies exactly how they were turning back. They weren’t just rejecting Jesus verbally; they were rejecting the sufficiency of His grace by returning to the observance of the Jewish religious calendar. They were observing days (Sabbaths), months (New Moons), seasons (Feasts like Passover or Pentecost), and years (Sabbatical years).
Paul wasn’t upset that they were celebrating; he was upset because they believed these observances were necessary for their justification. They thought that by keeping the calendar, they were earning credits with God. This broke Paul’s heart because it meant they were moving from a relationship based on love to a religion based on rituals and regulations. He even expresses a deep fear: that his labor among them might have been in vain. If they went back to the Law, the grace he preached was being wasted on them!
So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. Religious Rituals Cannot Produce Righteousness.
Paul calls them out for “scrutinizing the calendar.” They were obsessed with ensuring they didn’t miss a holy day. Why? Because under the Law, missing a feast or a Sabbath was a sin. But Paul is shouting to them (and to us): You cannot earn favor with God by checking dates on a calendar!
How this applies to you:
— Many Christians today still treat their relationship with God like a checklist. “Did I go to church on Sunday? Did I pray for 15 minutes? Did I fast in January?” These are all good things, but they do not make you righteous. While it is okay to observe these things, if you’re doing so in order to earn righteousness with God, then your understanding of your relationship with God is off-kilter, and you are not resting in God’s grace or Jesus’ finished work.
— Now, to be clear, if you do these things because you love God, then it is part of your worship. But if you do these things because you think they make God love you more, that is religious activity, and it is an affront to God and His grace. So, your motivation for doing things matters!
— The Galatians thought that by observing the Jewish calendar, they were adding to their salvation. But you cannot add to a finished work!
— Observing Lent, keeping the Sabbath, or celebrating religious holidays are fine if done in freedom. But the moment you think, “I am holy because I did this,” or “I need to do this to please God,” you are living by works and have fallen from grace.
— Righteousness is a gift received by faith, not a wage earned by rituals. You are righteous because of who you believe in (it’s about faith), not what day you observe.
— Don’t let religious traditions replace your spiritual reality. God is not impressed by how well you keep religious calendars; what He is looking for from you is faith!
— Stop trying to maintain a “spiritual schedule” to appease God or the people of God. God is looking for you to walk with Him daily, moment by moment, led by His Spirit, not directed by a calendar.
2. Don’t Mistake the Shadow for the Substance.
In Colossians 2, Paul explains that these religious festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths were merely “shadows of the reality yet to come.” And who is that reality? Christ Himself! The Galatians were chasing the shadow when the substance had already arrived.
How this applies to you:
— Imagine a husband who has been away at war. His wife has a picture of him on the wall. She kisses, talks to, and holds the picture. But when her husband walks through the door, if she ignores him to keep talking to the picture, that is crazy!
— The Old Testament had the New Testament concealed in it. And in the New Testament, the Old Testament is revealed. So when you look at the Old Testament rituals (the Sabbath, the Feasts, the Temple), what you see is a shadow or picture of what was to come in the New Testament through Jesus. So, the Old Covenant was pointing to Jesus. Now that Jesus is here, why would you go back to the picture (shadow)?
— Jesus is our Sabbath! We don’t just rest on Saturday or Sunday; we rest in Him every single day. We have ceased from our own works to trust in His finished work.
— Jesus is our Passover! We don’t need to slaughter a lamb once a year; the Lamb of God has been slain once and for all, and His blood covers us eternally.
— When you rely on rituals, you are hugging the shadow and ignoring the Person. Jesus is the substance of everything the Law foreshadowed.
— Religion focuses on the external shadow (what you eat, what you drink, how you dress, what rules you observe). Grace focuses on the internal reality (Christ in you, the hope of glory).
— Don’t trade the living presence of Jesus for a static, dead ritual. Embrace the newness of the life Jesus died to give you!
— Notice how Jesus lived: He was led by the Holy Spirit in all things. By being led by the Holy Spirit, he often did things that led to him being criticized by the religious people who kept the Law. Jesus’s greatest opposition did not come from the world, and it did not come from sinners; it came from religious people.
— If you say Jesus is your Lord, but if you want to hold on to the religious activity that was the foundation for his demise, you are fooling yourself. You are not walking with Jesus; you are living by a set of rules that will cause you to make Jesus irrelevant to your daily life.
3. Fear-Based Religion vs. Faith-Based Relationship.
The Passion Translation of Galatians 4:10-11 includes this statement: “You are terrified if you miss a special holiday.” This is a key indicator of legalism: TERROR. Religion thrives on fear: the fear that if you miss a step, God will get you. Grace thrives on love: the assurance that even when you stumble, you are secure.
How this applies to you:
— If your spiritual life is driven by the fear of punishment, you are not living under grace. Romans 8:15 tells us we have not received a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear!
— Legalism keeps you on edge. You are always wondering, “Did I do enough? Did I pray enough? Did I confess every sin?” That is torment, not peace.
— God does not want you to serve Him out of terror (the fear of going to hell). He wants you to serve Him out of love and gratitude.
— When you understand grace, you are not terrified of missing a ritual because your standing with God isn’t built on that ritual. It is built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ.
— Fear makes you a slave; faith makes you a son. A slave is terrified of the master; a son is secure in the father’s love.
— Look at your life: Are you driven by anxiety or led by peace? The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you don’t have peace, you might be living under the Law.
— Refuse to be bullied by religious fear! Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free!
— Living under the Law will stifle your faith because every time you do something wrong, you hear a law-based voice in your head saying, “Because you did this, God is not going to bless you, and your prayers have been canceled.” You must decouple, disconnect, and detach your faith from your performance! If your expectation from God is based on your perceived level of performance toward God, you will never be able to believe at the level God wants to bless you, because you’re simply not that good, and neither am I!
4. Don’t Let the Grace of God Be Wasted on You.
Paul makes a heartbreaking statement: “I fear for you. Perhaps all my hard work with you was for nothing.” Paul had labored, preached, prayed, and suffered to bring them the Gospel of Grace. If they turned back to works, they were rendering his labor useless in their lives.
How this applies to you:
— Grace is a powerful gift, but it can be wasted! How? By receiving it and then trying to finish your walk in the flesh (human effort).
— 1 Corinthians 15:10 says, “God treated me with undeserved grace… and his grace wasn’t wasted.” How did Paul ensure it wasn’t wasted? By relying on that grace to labor, rather than relying on his labor for grace. You work BY grace, not FOR grace!
— When you go back to trying to earn God’s favor, you are essentially saying, “Thank you, Jesus, but Your blood wasn’t enough. I need to add my effort to it.” That is an insult to God and His grace!
— Don’t let the labor of those who taught you the Word be in vain. If you have been taught grace, WALK IN IT! Honor the investment that your divinely-appointed mentors have made in your life by walking in the grace they taught you. By doing so, you honor them, and you honor God, because you make your life ALL ABOUT HIM!
— Pastors and spiritual leaders feel this burden. We pour our lives into teaching people their identity in Christ, only to watch them run back to religious bondage the moment pressure comes.
— Accept the fact that your story is a “grace case,” and live your life in a way that lets everyone know that you are who you are by the grace of God!
— You have been given too much revelation to live like a slave or a servant. Honor the Gospel by living in the freedom it provides. You are a son of the Most High God. Please go into this day and live like it!
That's enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You that I have been set free from the bondage of religious rituals!
I refuse to live by life by observances when You want me to focus on walking with You daily!
I am righteous because of my faith in Jesus Christ, and that is enough!
I have moved from the shadow to the substance. Jesus is my Sabbath, my Passover, and my Feast.
I rest in the finished work of Jesus every single day, not just on special occasions.
I reject the spirit of fear and terror that comes from legalism.
I serve You, Father, out of love, gratitude, and relationship, not out of obligation or fear of punishment.
I declare that the grace You have poured out on me will NOT be wasted!
I am Living the Grace Life, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
Comments