Grace in Galatians (Part 203) – The Gospel That Cannot Be Improved

https://youtu.be/ZF_S-n1C25s?si=X2e-xXXOxLwT66JY

Today, we continue our focus on THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, as we learn to maintain our posture of faith after God has revealed His plans for our future.

As part of this series, I have taught a verse-by-verse exposition of the book of Galatians. We have now studied every verse in the letter. Over the next two weeks, we will recap the entire book.

Key scriptures for this year:

2 Peter 3:18 GNT“But continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever.”

Luke 10:20 Mirror“It’s time for you to rediscover who you are from Heaven’s perspective.”

1 John 3:10 Mirror“There is a very visible and vast difference between living one’s life from your God identity or from a fallen man’s mindset.”

Proverbs 25:2 NKJV“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

Jeremiah 29:13 NIV“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Scripture we will study today:

Galatians 1:6-7 TPT“I am shocked over how quickly you have strayed away from the Anointed One who called you to himself by his loving mercy. I’m frankly astounded that you now embrace a distorted gospel like that! That is a fake ‘gospel’ that is simply not true. There is only one gospel—the gospel of the Messiah!”

Galatians 1:11-12 TPT“Beloved ones, let me say emphatically that the gospel entrusted to me was not given to me by any man. For I did not receive it through man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through a direct revelation from Jesus, the Anointed One.”

Galatians 1:15-16 TPT“But God had set me apart from my mother’s womb, graciously calling me to be his. And he was delighted to reveal his Son in me so that I would proclaim him to the non-Jewish people of the world.”

Supporting scriptures:

Galatians 1:8 TPT“But if anyone, whether ourselves or even an angel from the realms of heaven, were to come and preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we have already preached to you, let a curse be upon him!”

Galatians 1:13 ERV“You have heard about my past life. I belonged to the Jewish religion. I tried to destroy God’s church without mercy.”

Galatians 1:23-24 ERV“The only thing they had heard was this: ‘This man was persecuting us. But now he is telling people about the same faith that he once tried to destroy.’ These believers praised God because of me.”

Romans 1:16 ERV“I am not ashamed of the Good News. It is the power God uses to save everyone who believes.”

Matthew 16:17 TPT“Jesus replied, ‘You are favored and privileged, Simon, son of Jonah! For you didn’t discover this on your own, but my Father in heaven has supernaturally revealed it to you.'”

1 Timothy 1:13-14 ERV“In the past I insulted Christ. I persecuted his people. I did all I could to hurt them. But God gave me mercy because I did not know what I was doing. But our Lord gave me a full measure of his grace.”

Jeremiah 1:5 ERV“Before I made you in your mother’s womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I chose you for a special work.”

Setting the Stage:

Today, we begin something special. After more than two hundred messages, we have studied every single verse of the book of Galatians. Verse by verse. Line by line. We walked the whole letter together. Now, for the next two weeks, we are going to recap the journey, mine some additional golden nuggets, and remind ourselves of what God said.

We start where Paul started. Galatians chapter 1. Paul does not open this letter with small talk. He skips his usual pleasantries and rushes straight to the meat of the message. Before he teaches one point of doctrine, he plants a flag. There is one gospel, it came by revelation, and grace is its entire foundation. Let’s go back to the beginning.

Today, we will recap Chapter 1. I would do the same for the following chapters until we’ve gone through all six, and then I’ll close with some final messages next week. 

So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.

1. There Is Only One Gospel, And It Is All About God’s Grace.

In most of Paul’s letters, he opens with warm salutations. Not here. By verse 6, he is already into the heart of the matter. The Galatians were drifting toward what he called a different gospel, and Paul would not let it slide. He says, even if an angel from heaven preached another gospel, let that angel be accursed. Why so intense? Because the gospel is grace. The moment you add your performance to grace, it stops being grace, and it stops being good news. 

How this applies to you:

— There is only one gospel, and its true name is grace. Grace plus anything equals nothing.

— Galatians 1:6-7 TPT says, “I am shocked over how quickly you have strayed away from the Anointed One who called you to himself by his loving mercy… There is only one gospel—the gospel of the Messiah!” Read those words. One gospel. Not one of many. Not one option on a shelf. The gospel of grace stands alone, and every rival message is a counterfeit.

— A counterfeit gospel always sounds religious. That is what makes it dangerous.

— The Galatians were not abandoning the church. They were not denying Jesus. They were simply adding Law to grace, and Paul treated that small addition as a full departure. Grace mixed with works is no longer grace. A drop of poison in a glass of clean water still ruins the whole glass.

— Galatians 1:8 TPT says, “But if anyone, whether ourselves or even an angel from the realms of heaven, were to come and preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we have already preached to you, let a curse be upon him!” Read that. Even an angel. Paul is saying the messenger never gets to outrank the message. If it is not grace, it is not the gospel.

— The gospel does not need your improvements. It needs your faith.

— Romans 1:16 ERV says, “I am not ashamed of the Good News. It is the power God uses to save everyone who believes.” Walk into today resting in the one gospel that actually works. You are saved by grace, you stand by grace, and you have nothing to add to what Jesus already finished.

— Of the many things that I love about the grace of God, one that I think about all the time is the fact that when you meditate on God’s grace, you keep coming back to this conclusion: IT’S ALL ABOUT HIM! 

2. The Gospel Came By Revelation, Not Education.

Where did Paul get this gospel? That is the question chapter 1 answers. Paul says plainly that no man gave it to him. He did not learn it in a classroom. He did not inherit it from a religious system. And he was not there when Jesus mentored the disciples directly for three and a half years. But Paul did go home to Tarsus and spend three years alone, spending time with Jesus directly. 

The message Paul preached came to him by direct revelation from Jesus Christ. Now think about that. Paul was one of the most educated religious men of his day. He sat under Gamaliel, the finest teacher in Israel. Yet all of that education never produced the revelation of grace. 

How this applies to you:

— Religion can be taught. Grace must be revealed, because it seems too good to be true. It’s like God Himself has to reveal to you, in your heart, that His goodness is true and all we have to do is receive it by faith.

— Galatians 1:11-12 TPT says, “the gospel entrusted to me was not given to me by any man. For I did not receive it through man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through a direct revelation from Jesus, the Anointed One.” Paul, the scholar, is telling us that the most important truth of his life did not come through study. It came through the Spirit.

— Information in your head is not the same as revelation in your heart.

— I want you to picture Paul before the Damascus road. He had memorized the Law. He could out-debate any Rabbi. He had credentials, a position, and applause. And he was still dead wrong about Jesus. All of his learning could not save him. It took one encounter with the risen Christ to turn the scholar into a son. Education filled his head. Revelation changed his life.

— Matthew 16:17 TPT records Jesus telling Peter, “You didn’t discover this on your own, but my Father in heaven has supernaturally revealed it to you.” Read that. The Father revealed it. The deep things of God do not come by human effort. They come when the Spirit turns the light on inside you.

— I can testify to something similar. My mother made sure I was raised in church. I went through catechism training St. John Cantius (Roman Catholic) Church on New Jersey Avenue in Brooklyn, NY. I went through first communion and holy confirmation, and Sister Gregoria was my catechism teacher. After that, I spent countless Sundays in churches in New York, and while I was in the Army. All of that teaching went to my head. On August 27, 1995, inside the chapel on Camp Doha in Kuwait, I got a revelation of who Jesus was, and I was born again. I can tell you that my life has never been the same

— Do not just study the Word. Ask the Author to reveal Himself in it.

— Walk into today hungry for revelation, not just information. The Holy Spirit lives in you to be your Teacher. When you open the Word, invite Him to open your eyes, and the same Jesus who revealed Himself to Paul, who revealed Himself to me, will reveal Himself to you.

3. Grace Can Reach The Worst Of Us.

Paul does not hide his past in chapter 1. He drags it into the light. He tells the Galatians exactly who he used to be. He was a man who hunted Christians. He dragged believers from their homes. He stood and approved when they were killed. By his own description, he tried to destroy the church of God without mercy. If anyone seemed beyond the reach of grace, it was Saul of Tarsus. And that is exactly the point. Paul puts his testimony on display so you will know one thing for certain. If grace could reach him, grace can reach anyone, including you.

How this applies to you:

— If grace reached Saul of Tarsus, grace can reach anyone.

— Galatians 1:13 ERV says, “You have heard about my past life. I belonged to the Jewish religion. I tried to destroy God’s church without mercy.” This is the man God chose to write almost half of the New Testament. Your past does not get the final say over your future. Grace does.

— Don’t judge your future by your past. Your future must be based on the plans God made for you (by grace) from the foundations of the world.  

— Grace is not God rewarding the deserving. Grace is God reaching the undeserving.

— I want you to picture the believers who first heard that Saul had been converted. They did not believe it. They were afraid of him. Some of them had buried friends because of him. And yet the same God they were crying out to was the God remaking the very man they feared. Heaven was not intimidated by Saul’s record. Grace saw an Apostle where everyone else saw an enemy.

— 1 Timothy 1:13-14 ERV says, “In the past I insulted Christ. I persecuted his people… But God gave me mercy… our Lord gave me a full measure of his grace.” Did you catch that? Paul said, “A full measure.” God did not give Paul second-class grace because of his record. He gave him the full measure.

— Stop letting your worst chapter define your whole book. If you can embrace the fullness of God’s forgiveness towards you, then you will be in a position to also embrace His grace and move forward into the life He planned for you before the world began!

— Galatians 1:23-24 ERV says the believers marveled, “This man was persecuting us. But now he is telling people about the same faith that he once tried to destroy.” Walk into today knowing that God can make this kind of turnaround in the life of anyone.

— We serve a God who specializes in making holy garments out of flawed material. 

4. God Called You By Grace Before You Were Born.

Here is how Paul closes the heart of chapter 1. He reaches all the way back before his birth. He says God set him apart from his mother’s womb and called him by grace. Consider the fullness of the revelation here. Before Paul drew a single breath, before he did one good thing or one bad thing, before he could earn anything or ruin anything, God had already set him apart. Not only that, but God had foreknowledge of every bad thing Paul was going to do as Saul of Tarsus, and God called him anyway. That’s grace! What was true of Paul is true of you. 

How this applies to you:

— God called you by grace before you ever had a chance to earn it or ruin it.

— Galatians 1:15-16 TPT says, “But God had set me apart from my mother’s womb, graciously calling me to be his.” Paul’s calling did not begin on the Damascus road. It began before he was born. Damascus was not the start of the plan. It was the day Paul discovered the plan.

— Your purpose was not invented by you. It was assigned to you.

— The reason why destiny cannot be decided is because God decided before the world began. Understanding this, you realize that destiny cannot be decided, but it can be discovered!

— Jeremiah 1:5 ERV says, “Before I made you in your mother’s womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I chose you for a special work.” God did not start thinking about you the day you got saved. He has known you, chosen you, and set you apart since before you had a name.

— Walk into today (and this week) resting in a calling that grace assigned before time began. You do not have to qualify for it. You do not have to earn it. You simply have to discover it and live it out. This is #TheGraceLife.

Declaration of Faith:

Father, I thank You that there is only one gospel, and it is grace!

I have nothing to add to what Jesus already finished!

I will not mix law with grace. Grace stands completely alone!

The gospel comes to me by revelation, not by human effort!

Holy Spirit, open my eyes every time I open the Word!

If grace reached Saul of Tarsus, grace has surely reached me!

My past does not define me. The grace of God defines me!

You set me apart and called me before I was ever born!

I am not creating my destiny. I am discovering it by grace!

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!