The Glorious Grace of Christ: A Reflection on Freedom in Galatians
This spring, a group of young women from my church participated in a Bible study through the book of Galatians. I’d wanted to study this book for a long time, but I was unprepared for the impact this short epistle would have on my life.
The book of Galatians is all about freedom through grace. Not the grace you say before a meal or the free grace promoted by professed Christians who desire to still live in sin while claiming Christ. This is overwhelming, life-transforming, undeserved, glorious grace.
Paul wrote this letter to the Galatians because the church was being influenced by the Judaizers, a group of Jews who had converted to Christianity but believed that all Christians ought to be circumcised and to follow the Law of Moses. Paul had strong words for this church in response to the Judaizers:
I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. Galatians 1:6-10 (NASB95)
Paul clearly articulates that there is only one true gospel, and that is the gospel of Christ. This gospel that Paul preached was one of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone (see Eph. 2:8-9). Paul goes so far as to say that anyone who tries to change the gospel is to be accursed. That is strong language!
Even stronger still, Paul confronted Peter in the presence of the church for showing hypocrisy by returning to the Law of Moses and holding himself aloof from the Gentiles in order to look good to the Jewish believers (see Gal. 2:11-14). Read Paul’s correction to Peter:
But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? “We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” Galatians 2:15-21
Paul clearly states that he, a former Pharisee so zealous for the Law that he persecuted Christians, died to the Law—it could not save him. The Law was given to show the holiness of God and man’s utter inability to meet God’s demand for holiness in ourselves (Gal. 3:24). But throughout Scripture, as demonstrated in Hebrews 11, believers were saved not through the works of the Law but through faith.
This picture of salvation through faith is clearly seen through the life of Abram. In Genesis 15, God asks Abram (later called Abraham) to enter into a covenant with Him. A covenant was a lifelong promise between two parties, and if either party broke the covenant, they would be killed. God for His part promised to make Abram a great nation, to give him land, and to bless the entire world through his seed. Abram’s part of the covenant was to walk before God blamelessly. But Abram couldn’t do it. He couldn’t be blameless, or without sin, before God. He was under the same curse of sin you and I are under due to our lineage through Adam. So, God did something unprecedented. He entered into the covenant for Himself, and then He entered into the covenant on Abram’s behalf. God Himself promised to bear the weight of responsibility for Abram’s part of the covenant. Abram could not keep his part of the covenant. Moses could not keep the covenant. Israel couldn’t keep the covenant. All throughout the Old Testament we see God’s people falling short of His holiness. But God’s promise to Abraham remained. And God kept His promise to Abraham, and to all who would call on the name of the Lord, through the death of Jesus Christ, fulfilling the half of the covenant that Abram could not fulfill. Jesus lived a blameless life, walking in the will of His Father always, and then He died in our place on the cross, paying the price of the broken covenant on our behalf so that we could be restored to fellowship with the Father. What amazing grace through our Lord Jesus Christ!
This fulfillment of the covenant is why Paul penned these words in Galatians:
Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished. I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves. Galatians 5:2-12
To keep seeking to attain holiness through the Law (which was impossible for man to do in his sin nature anyways), when Christ had already fulfilled the requirements of the Abrahamic Covenant, was to tell Christ that His work on the cross was not enough. Even Peter, not long after Paul wrote to the Galatians, said to the Judaizers,
Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? Acts 15:10
How foolish to think that they could add anything to the finished work of Christ!
And yet, how often do we do that ourselves?
Studying Galatians humbled me as I came face-to-face with my own self-righteousness. All the ways I’ve tried to earn Christ’s gift to me. All my striving to be good enough, to do all the right things, check all the right boxes. The ways I subtly prided myself in being better than others because of my convictions. When I looked into the glorious grace of Christ, all my attempts at self-righteousness fell to the ground with a crash. My separation from the holy God was always too great for me to ever overcome.
It was only through the grace of Christ that I was called to the Father.
Only by the grace of Christ that I was saved.
Only by the grace of Christ that I was declared righteous before the holy God, His blood washing away my sin and His righteousness clothing me and enabling me to come boldly before the Father.
Only by the grace of Christ that I am sanctified, filled with the Holy Spirit and enabled to walk day by day in communion with Himself.
And by the grace of Christ, I am an heir of the promise of eternal life and glorification, where we will one day be like Him, see Him as He is, and worship before the throne forever.
What glorious grace! What humbling grace! What freeing grace! When I truly understand the magnitude of Christ’s grace for me, I am set free from the burden of earning His love and acceptance. I know it is already given to me, and I can live out of His grace rather than trying to earn it. This is not the kind of grace that gives a pass to continued sin; this is a grace that humbles me and fills me with such gratitude for my Savior that my worship for Him flows into living for Him, to throwing away whatever does not glorify Him, and pursuing the things that bring Him maximum glory in my life. There is such freedom in this amazing grace!
Read the book of Galatians. See the amazing grace of Christ. And worship Him for all He has done, for He is worthy of all glory, power, and dominion for all eternity!
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen. Galatians 6:18
With love,
Kelsey
