Freedom Is Here: A Study of Galatians | Donovan Rillion | Justified by Faith

The lesson. We're three weeks into our Freedom

Is Here series. In week one, we talked about

how Paul, the apostle, is fighting against these

false gospels that are being spread in the church

in Galatia. And these people are trying to tell

the Christians there that you can do this to

be saved and you can do this to be saved. And

there's all of these, we call them Jesus plus

gospels. And Paul says, it's just Jesus. There's

no other gospel. There's nothing else. It's just

Jesus. And then in week two, we saw that Paul's

own story is one that is written by grace. It

is a transformation that happens from grace alone.

And now this week in Galatians chapter two, Paul

gets right to the heart of the matter because

you have these people wondering, well, if. If

it's not these Jesus plus gospels that save us

and you keep talking about grace, well, then

what do we do to be justified? What makes us

right with God? And the truth is, if we get this

wrong, if we get this question wrong of what

makes us right with God, we don't just end up

with a slightly different version of Christianity.

We end up with something that doesn't save us.

Because salvation is just about being right with

God. Because to be right with God means that

we have a relationship with God. And if we have

a relationship with God, we get to live with

God. And that was God's whole point in the beginning,

was for us to live with Him. And so how can we

be right with God? We find our answer in Galatians

Galatians 2:15

chapter 2, verses 15. through 21. And I want

us to read this whole passage and then we'll

kind of break it down. But we need to read this

whole passage to get what Paul is trying to say

in this letter. So Galatians 2, 15 through 21.

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile

sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified

by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus

Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus

in order to be justified by faith in Christ and

not by works of the law, because by works of

the law, no one will be justified. But if in

our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too

were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant

of sin? Certainly not. For if I rebuild what

I tore down, 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. It is no longer I who live, but Christ

who lives in me. In the life I now live in the

flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who

loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify

the grace of God. For if righteousness were through

the law, then Christ died for no purpose. So

you got to remember, again, you had people telling

Christians, you need Jesus plus works. You need

Jesus plus the law. You need Jesus plus blah,

blah, blah. And Paul says it's not that that

will save you. It's just Jesus. It's Christ crucified.

And us living in him. You see Paul starts there

in verses 15 through 16 by admitting something.

He says even though he, Peter and the other apostles

were born Jews. And they upheld the law. Remember

Paul was an apostle before. And so he didn't

just uphold the law. He delighted and was zealous

for the law. And so Paul says we upheld the law.

But not even we could be justified by keeping

it. Justification or being made right with God.

Justification doesn't come from works of the

law. It doesn't come from anything that you or

I could do. Paul repeats it three times in one

verse so that we don't miss it. It comes through

faith in Jesus Christ alone. I love that we sang

in Christ alone. Because it is only Jesus. It's

just Jesus. And the more I get through this series,

I'm starting to think that maybe the series title

should have been just Jesus. Because that's the

theme. It's not these other things. Here's the

deal. No one is going to stand before God one

day. Whenever we get to judgment, we're not going

to stand before God and say, you know, God, I

don't know if you remember this, but you have

to let me in because I was good enough. I did

everything that you told me to do. Nobody's going

to stand before God and say, hey, look at this

document. I kept a record of all the times that

I did the right thing, or I kept a record of

all the times I gave a certain amount of money

to the church, or I kept a record of all the

mission trips I went on, or all the Bible studies

I was a part of. We're not going to look at God

in the end and say, remember all the things that

I did right? The only ones who will stand before

God As right with God are the ones who Jesus

looks to on the day of judgment and says, they're

with me. The ones that we look to Jesus and say,

I'm with him. You've seen the movies where, you

know, somebody is trying to get into the club

and they are exactly on the list. And, you know,

they're way back in line and the bouncer kind

of cuts them off. They're like, no, not you.

But then they look at the famous person that

they just so happen to see because that happens

all the time, right? They're like, oh, it's Shaq.

I'm with him. And then Shaq looks at them like,

I don't know that guy. And the bouncer throws

them out to the street. That's what we're going

to do. I mean, we're going to be like, Jesus,

we're with him. And he's going to say, yeah,

they are. They're with me. It's not going to

be our own accolades and our own accomplishments

and our own good deeds that get us in. It's our

proximity to the Savior. Let me put it this way.

I want you to imagine you're standing on an old

bathroom scale that's broken. Don't think about

what it might read. You're on a broken scale.

And no matter how many times you step on it,

it always gives you the wrong number. And sometimes

it even gives you a different number because

it's broken. And you can diet, you can exercise,

you can try harder, you can wear less clothes.

Or if you're trying to gain weight, you can wear

more clothes so that you get the number that

you're looking for. But if the scale is broken,

it is never going to show you the true number.

You see, that's what trying to be justified by

the law. Or by our good deeds or by our own goodness

is like. You can step on the scale a hundred

times and you can try harder and harder to get

it to give you the number that you're looking

for. But it'll never give you right standing

before God. Because the scale is broken. The

scale of the law, it's not a complete thing.

It's not the thing that was ultimately going

to get us to be with God for eternity. That scale

is broken. The only way we can know the truth

is if someone else steps in and gives you a better

measurement. When I was in high school, I was

on the football team. I won't say I played football

because I didn't play a lot, but I was on the

football team. And every spring we did 40 yard

dashes so that we could kind of, you know, gauge

where we were at speed wise. And then at the

end of the summer, after all the workouts are

done, we would do 40s again. So we could try

to figure out, you know, improvements and all

that stuff. And so I can remember when we would

run the 40, we would have like five different

coaches. lined up. You'd have two or three at

the starting line and you'd have a few at the

end so that they could all start their stopwatches

at the same time. So that when you started moving,

they pressed start. And when you got across the

line, they stopped. Now the problem with this

is some coaches' hand reaction time is a little

bit slower than others. And so you'd get like

a, you know, if I ran it, it'd be a 4 -5 -6,

a 4 -6 -7, and then all the numbers in between.

And you're like, well, one of these has to be

right, right? And the truth is, probably none

of them were right. That scale, that way of measurement

is broken. But now when you get to the NFL, when

those guys line up to run their 40 -yard dash,

they have lasers. that are at the start and are

at the end. And so the laser picks up on any

movement. So when they get down in their stance

and they set their arm back and they go, as soon

as a part of their body gets across the laser,

it's on. And as soon as the body gets across

that last laser, it stops. Now, which measurement

do you think is right? The high school coach

getting paid. part -time pay to coach football

with his little stopwatch that he got at academy

or the couple thousand dollar laser technology

that the nfl combine has probably the lasers

in fact you have a lot of guys that you know

when they're in high school they run the 40 and

it gives them you know the coaches like oh they

ran a 4 -3 and then in college it's like oh yeah

they ran a 4 -4 then they get to the nfl it's

like they ran a 4 -6 There's no way. Well, there

is a way because their measurement is precise.

And that's kind of what it's like with this Jesus

plus gospel mindset and then just Jesus. You

have all of these things that they can't measure

correctly because they're not the right measuring

system. And then you have Jesus who is the right

scale. He gives the right number. The gospel

says, stop stepping on this broken scale. Stop

measuring yourself with self -righteousness.

Stop measuring yourself with your standards,

with your traditions, with your intentions, and

just trust the one who lived the perfectly righteous

life for you. If you will measure yourself the

way Jesus... says to measure yourself, and that

is, do you trust me? Do you follow me or do you

not? If you'll measure yourself that way, you

may just feel like you're in good standing with

God. And that's a good place to be. See, we go

to verse 20 and Paul says, I have been crucified

with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but

Christ who lives in me. See, that's the heart

of the Christian life. It's when I give my life

to Christ, my old self dies. The old self that

I had been trying to measure. The old self is

gone. My sins, my striving, my failures, my attempts

at self -justification. All of that is gone.

It's nailed to the cross. It's thrown in a tomb.

And the only thing that rises from the grave

is a new person. And it's not just a new person.

It's a person with Christ living in them. That

means that your identity isn't sinner trying

to get it right. It's not sinner trying to be

right. It's child of God. And dwell with Christ

living in him. With Christ living in her. See,

I love that word dwell because to dwell is not

like I'm coming to visit and I'm going to set

up shop in your home for a weekend. It's not

I'm going to stay here for a temporary time.

When you say, hey, where is your dwelling place?

It's where do you live? So our family was in

a period of transition, right? So when we moved

here, we were staying at an Airbnb for a couple

months. But now we're in a place that we are

going to dwell, that we're going to live. There's

a big difference. It's temporary residence. And

Jesus doesn't take up temporary residence in

our lives. He lives in us. That's a really, really

nice new identity, right? The perfect son of

God. The one who loved us enough to give up a

seat on the throne, to come down here, be spit

on, to be mocked, to be beaten, to be killed

for our sake. That perfect, loving, grace filled

God lives in us. So you talk about. Can I get

in? I feel like if my way of getting in is my

proximity, my relationship to God. Well, if God

is living in me, there's no way I don't get in.

There's no way I can't be near God. There's no

way I can't have access to God. He's in me. See,

your obedience, it's not a trade for acceptance.

Us living the right kind of life, we should try

to do the right thing. We should try to do. We

should always strive to follow the commands of

Christ. This is not a let's give up rules type

of thing. But our obedience isn't a trade for

our acceptance. You look at the Reformation movement

a few weeks ago. I mentioned and quoted Martin

Luther. I think it was last week. Martin Luther

knew all about obedience to the law. He knew

about structure and religious rules and traditions

and commands. And so Martin Luther knew what

he was supposed to do. But Martin Luther, again,

never felt free. He never felt right with God.

And so you get into this Reformation movement

where people like Martin Luther said, it shouldn't

be like this. We should feel a little bit more

freedom. We should feel a little bit more grace.

In our life with Christ. And so they start this

movement. Where they move away from this rigidity.

And all of these laws. That really. They're not

bound in scripture. And they said we're going

to reform. Christianity. And then. You get to

the restoration movement. Where the people that

founded. That. The church of Christ and the Christian

church, they said, we want to get back to even

more just Jesus. We just want Jesus. And so you

have this thing where everybody is starting to

come back to maybe it's just that we've already

been accepted by Christ. And we need to live

like it. See, your obedience isn't a trade for

acceptance. Your obedience is a response to acceptance.

We don't serve to earn God's love. We serve because

he's already loved us. We live a life for him

because he's already loved us. Maybe you have

rescued a stray dog at some point in your life.

And, you know, maybe when you got the stray dog,

it was a little mean and it smelled and it was

scared. And so you loved on it, right? And you

gave it a bath and you fed it some good food.

It doesn't have to eat out of the dumpster anymore.

You gave it a nice. Cozy bed in your living room

or for some of you people in your bed and you

love this dog and you treat it so well and you

give it a home and you give it a family. And

this dog, for the first time in its life, knows

what it means to be accepted. That dog. Unless

it's just got a screw loose, and some of them

do. But that dog is going to serve you. It is

going to protect you. It is going to let you

know when danger is near. It is going to be the

first person by your side when you're hurting,

when you're sad, when you're sick. I don't know

if you've ever witnessed that, but I've seen

this, I call it a phenomena, where the stray

dog becomes, The beloved child in the house.

And it will do anything to protect that house,

to serve that house. And that's not to call us

stray dogs, but that's kind of our life is. Christians,

right? God has given us a home. He's given us

a purpose. He's fed us. He's clothed us. He's

cleaned us up. He has given us everything we

needed to feel loved, to feel okay, to feel like

we've got a family, to feel accepted. He says

that. And so now that we are in Christ, we're

in this family, we want to serve and do everything

we can to make sure that this family knows, hey,

I love you back. And so our relationship with

God is not a, I'm going to serve so that you

will love me. It's I'm going to serve because

you have already loved me. So much so that you

would die for me. It's a freedom response. It's

a rescued response. It's a, you've done this

great deed for me, so now I'm going to live the

rest of my life to try to repay you response.

See, Paul closes this section with a warning.

He says, if righteousness were through the law,

then Christ died for no purpose. Think about

that for a second. If you could earn salvation

by just being good, if you could earn a spot

in God's house by being good. Then it was all

pointless. The cross was pointless. Christ's

life on earth was pointless. His shame, his ridicule,

his pain was pointless. But God knew that it

was the only way to save his children. See, Jesus

didn't die because... You needed a little boost.

He didn't die because we were sad and he wanted

us to be happy. He didn't die so we could have

a fun life and live our best life now. Jesus

died because we needed total rescue. We were

drowning. We were in the burning house and he

had to step in to save us. His grace was our

only hope. His getting down on our level. Running

into the burning house. Jumping into the stormy

seas. It was our only hope. And so what do we

do with all of this? Because there's a few different

points that we hit on. Well, I want to give you

a few application points. They're very simple.

The first one is stop striving for God's approval.

Because we can't earn it. The truth is... None

of us are ever going to live until we are in

the new creation with God. None of us are ever

going to live a perfect life. And so something

we do every day is going to be something that

God would look at and say, I just don't approve

of that. cut somebody off in traffic, when you

yell at somebody because they said something

you didn't like, when you shove somebody out

of your way, when you lie because you think it's

going to get you out of the jam, when you steal,

when you cuss, whatever it is that you're doing,

we're all going to do something that God just

doesn't approve of. And you know exactly the

things that you do every single day that there

is no way possible God approves of it. I know

my things. And so we've got to stop striving

for God's approval and live from grace. Live

with the understanding that God has already forgiven

us. He longs to keep forgiving us and he is going

to do what is necessary to get us to that new

home with him. So we live from grace. from grace,

not guilt. See, guilt is not a motivator. I don't

know about you, but guilt has never motivated

me to do the right thing, especially not a sustained

right thing. Like I don't lose my temper with

my wife and then I go, oh, I felt bad about that.

And so for the next month, I stopped losing my

temper. It takes a little bit more than that.

It takes a, I genuinely want to do the best for

my wife. So I'm going to work on my temper. Again,

you know the things that you do that God doesn't

approve of. And you need to be motivated by more

than just, I feel bad about that. We need to

be motivated to like the stray dog story, to

live the right way for God because he's already

rescued us. He's given us the grace we need.

Guilt motivates for a moment. But grace is the

type of thing that will transform a life. We

saw that with the Apostle Paul. Do you think

Paul felt guilty sometimes after stoning a Christian

or after killing someone? I would imagine he

did. Again, unless there's a screw loose, you

don't kill someone or send somebody to have their

life taken and not feel a little bit of guilt

afterwards. even if you thought you were doing

the right thing. I'm sure we've got some deer

hunters in the room. I don't know about you,

but there's a moment after I kill a deer where

I think, I hate that. But then I remember the

circle of life and that I need to eat and that

there's a part of this food chain. So you get

over it because you did the right thing. But

there's still that part of you that's like, It's

like, ah, I hate that. You know, when you see

the blood on the ground or whatever, it's like,

ugh. So guilt doesn't transform, but grace does.

And the third thing is share the freedom. You

see, people around us, and we're seeing it in

our society today, that there is some type of,

we're going to call it revival happening. And

really, it has been happening for a while, but...

People are looking to be freed from the chains

of sin. People are looking to experience something

greater than what the world offers. People are

looking for this grace that transforms a life

because this life is hard and it's heavy and

it's painful. And people want something more.

And we have that. If we are in Christ, we have

access to that. We know that to be true. We've

said, I believe it so much so that I would give

my life for it. We have to share it. Because

the world is looking for it and they're just

waiting up for us to say, hey, I found it. There

are people all around us, people in this church

even, that are still stepping on that broken

scale trying to measure if their life is good

enough. There are people still trying to measure,

am I good enough for the people around me? Am

I good enough for my family? Am I good enough

for my friends? Am I good enough for my coworkers?

Am I good enough for my bosses? Am I good enough

for God? You know, I think I mentioned last week

that you have people taking their own lives because

they just don't feel like they're good enough.

They don't feel like they have enough value.

And if we feel like we know the truth of... Somebody

says you do have that much value. Why would we

not share that? It really could be the thing

that saves a life. The people around us need

to hear about the grace, the goodness, the freedom

that Jesus gives. Y 'all, justification is not

about what we do. It never has been. There's

nothing we can do to justify ourselves. It's

about what Christ has already done. So we don't

have to keep stepping on the broken scale. We

don't have to keep using the hand -clicked stopwatch,

hoping that this time we'll get it right, or

this time I'll measure up, and this time I'll

be good enough. Jesus has already measured up

for us. He's already paid the price. He's punched

our ticket. He's opened the gate. He has already

measured up for us. And by faith in him, we are

declared righteous. When we give our lives to

him, when we show our faith and put our faith

in him, we are made right with God. We are given

access to the kingdom of God. We are adopted

into the family of God. We're given a home. We're

given a purpose. We're given a family. We are

accepted. And we are guaranteed a spot in the

new creation. You see, Paul says, the life that

I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the

Son of God who loved me, who gave himself for

me. And that's the invitation today. Stop striving

to be perfect. Nobody's saying stop doing the

right thing. But stop striving to be perfect.

Stop trying to fix the broken scale and just

put your full trust in the finished work of Jesus.

If you're not a Christ follower, if you've not

given your life to him, if you haven't been baptized

for the remission of your sins, for the gift

of the Holy Spirit, for access to the family

of God, for that guaranteed home in the new creation,

if you have not done that yet, today can be the

day. That you accept that free gift of righteousness.

If you're a Christian and you have been bought

into the family of God, you've given your life

to God, but you've been chained by guilt or you've

been chained by legalism and you just feel like

you haven't really been okay with God because

you just don't know if you're in good standing

with God and you just constantly doubt your life

in Him. Come back to the cross. Come back to

grace. The son of God loved you so much that

he would step down from his throne in heaven.

Endure a life of pain. So that you and I could

be made right with God. So that we could be justified.

So that we could be declared righteous. Wherever

you stand in your walk today. If there's anything

you need. If it's just a prayer or if it is the

free gift of salvation, we want to help you with

that. And so we extend an invitation to you now

as we stand and as we sing.