Grace

It is becoming difficult to find any "good news, especially this past week. To the individual who has trusted Christ as Savior, the real "Good News" is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ died for our sins … He was buried, and … He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3–4). The Good News is that we, sinners, can be forgiven and go to heaven because of the cross and the one that gave His life. The Good News the world needs to seek is that of salvation through faith in Christ.

This coming Sunday, we are beginning a series in the Book of Galatians. Galatians reads like a court trial that you might observe on your favorite TV series. On one side, there are Paul's accusers. They are persuasive and powerful; these accusers (Judaizers) have followed Paul from town to town to spread rumors and contradict his version of the Christian faith. On the other side sit the jury, The Christians of Galatia. They have enjoyed a warm friendship with Paul in the past, but some of the charges against him are serious. For example, did he invent parts of the Gospel he preached to them? Has God really given him a unique understanding? Is what Paul shares a message of "freedom" that will lead to a weak, immoral church?

In his own self-defense, Paul is now walking back and forth in the courtroom. He uses various debating styles: tight logic, historical reviews, and personal outrage. His integrity, and ultimately Jesus Christ's, is precisely what is at stake. Paul's focus was to defend "Grace," specifically "The Grace of God."

Grace is God's favor to undeserving sinners. The Galatian believers were not simply "changing religions" or "changing churches" but were actually abandoning the very Grace of God! If that was not enough, to make matters worse, they were walking away from the very God of Grace! Remember, friends, God had called them and saved them; now, they were deserting Him for human leaders whose sole purpose was to lure them away from His love. To turn from Grace to Law is to reject the God who saved us.

As we explore Grace in this study, let us remember that God's Grace involves something more than a man deciding to accept Christ. We are not only making a decision to accept, but we are also agreeing to represent our future decisions by Grace (1 Cor. 15:10). Standing in Grace is the foundation for our Christian life (Rom. 5:1–2). Grace gives us the courage to stand in victory (2 Tim. 2:1–4). Grace enables us to suffer without complaining and even to use that suffering for God's glory (2 Cor. 12:1–10). The truth is when a Christian turns away from living by God's Grace, dependence is on his or her own power. This leads to failure and disappointment. In Galatians 5:4, this is what Paul means by "fallen from grace" (Gal. 5:4)-moving out of the influence of God's Grace into the influence of Law, honestly not depending on God's resources but rather depending on our own resources.

This message of Grace changed Paul's life and, ultimately, the lives of countless others. When you accepted this gift of Grace, did it change your life?