Rescued by grace not rules Galatians 1:11-24

Rescued by grace not rules

Galatians 1:11-24

Galatians 1:11–24

Imagine your GPS stops working in a city you've never visited before. You ask ten different people for directions, and every person gives you a different answer.

"Turn left."

"No, turn right."

"Take the highway."

"Avoid the highway."

The harder you try to figure it out yourself, the more lost you become. Then someone who actually knows the way gets in the car and says, "Follow me."

That's the difference between religion and the gospel. Religion says, "Here's what you need to do to find God." The gospel says, "You could never find your way to God, so God came looking for you."

That's Paul's story. Paul wasn't searching for Jesus. Jesus came searching for Paul.

Last week we started out study of Galatians. We saw how we are able to guard our hearts and minds against false gospels by reading, studying, examining with others and obey God’s word.

Today we'll see through Paul's testimony that the gospel comes from God, not man, and that salvation and transformation come by grace, not religion.

If you have your bibles. Galatians come right after 2 Corinthians and right before Ephesians.

1. The Gospel Is Revealed, Not Invented

Galatians 1:11-12

Galatians 1:11–12

Paul begins by defending the source of his message. "The gospel I preach is not something I made up."

Why?

Because the false teachers were essentially saying: "Paul gave you part of the truth, but we can give you the rest." Paul says: "No. The gospel didn't come from me. It came from Jesus."

We live in a world where everyone has opinions about God.

Social media has opinions.

Podcasts have opinions.

Celebrities have opinions.

Friends have opinions.

But the question isn't: "What do people think?"

The question is: "What has God revealed?"

The gospel is not something we improve, update, or customize. We receive it.

And if anyone would have invented a different gospel, it would have been Paul.

Which brings us to his testimony. Paul had spent his life persecuting the church and was doing just that when Jesus called him to be His witness to the Gentiles.

2. Grace Reaches People Religion Cannot

Galatians 1:13-16

Galatians 1:13–16

Paul wants the Galatians to remember who he used to be.

Paul was a persecutor of the church. He didn’t just not like the church, but he actively worked to imprison and kill followers of Jesus. And it was then that God called Paul by his grace to go and preach to the very ones he had been persecuting.

So when Paul says that while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of His son. Paul had lived it.

Think about how shocking that statement is. Paul doesn't say, "God started loving me when I stopped persecuting Christians."

He says God had set him apart before he was even born. Before Paul hated Christians. Before Paul arrested Christians. Before Paul met Jesus on the Damascus Road.

Paul stood approving the crowds as they murdered Stephen for preaching Jesus. Paul was on his way to Damascus with authorization from the high priest to arrest followers of Jesus and bring them back to Jerusalem. Both men and women. It was then that Jesus called him not just to follow Him but be his witness.

Acts 9:3-6

Acts 9:3–6

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Jesus stopped Paul, who then was known as Saul, in his tracks and called him. Paul was blinded by the light and had to be led by the hand to Damascus were he was meet by Ananias who explained further what Paul was to do. Ananias was apprehensive to go because he had heard about Paul.

Acts 9:13-16

Acts 9:13–16

13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

Ananias had heard how Paul had persecuted the church. God are you sure about this Paul guy? God says yes Paul will be my instrument to proclaim His name to the Gentiles! So Ananias goes to Paul

Acts 9:17b-19

Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

It was by God’s grace that Paul was saved and called to ministry. And Paul started preaching Jesus immediately. The man who raised havoc for the church was now preaching the good news of Jesus. People were astonished and baffled.

But that's what God's grace does. It saves. It transforms. And sometimes it leaves people amazed.

Why? Because Paul's conversion wasn't the result of him seeking God. God's grace was already pursuing him. Grace doesn't begin when we start seeking God. Grace begins because God first seeks us.

Notice he doesn't say: "I was a pretty good guy."

He says: "I persecuted the church." "I tried to destroy it." "I was advancing in Judaism."

In other words: Paul wasn't an irreligious man. He was an extremely religious man.

Paul's problem wasn't that he had too little religion. His problem was that he had lots of religion and no Jesus. And that's exactly the trap the Galatians were being tempted to fall into.

That's a dangerous place to be. You can attend church. Know Bible verses. Give money. Serve faithfully. And still not know Christ.

Religion changes behavior. Only grace changes the heart. Religion can make you look different on the outside. It can change what you wear. It can change where you go. It can change the words you use.

But only Jesus can change what you love. Only Jesus can change your desires. Only Jesus can take a heart that is hostile toward God and make it alive. That's exactly what happened to Paul.

Imagine trying to wash a dirty car with muddy water. The harder you work, the dirtier it gets.

That's what happens when we try to save ourselves through our own efforts. The problem isn't the outside. The problem is the source. We need something outside ourselves to make us clean. We need grace.

Some people think: "If I can just clean myself up, then God will accept me."

The gospel says the opposite. God accepts us through Christ, and then He begins changing us. Just like Paul, you don't get cleaned up to come to Jesus. You come to Jesus so He can clean you up.

Grace didn't just change Paul's destination. It changed his identity. The gospel didn't simply rescue Paul from judgment. It transformed him into a completely different person.

3. Grace Doesn't Just Save You—It Changes You

Galatians 1:15-19

Galatians 1:15–19

Paul wasn't merely forgiven. He was transformed. The same man who arrested Christians became one. The same man who hated Jesus began preaching Jesus. The same man who tried to destroy the church started planting churches.

That's not self-improvement. That's supernatural transformation.

A caterpillar doesn't become a butterfly by trying harder. It becomes something entirely different. The gospel doesn't simply make bad people better. It makes dead people alive.

Sometimes we reduce Christianity to behavior modification.

Stop doing this.

Start doing that.

Try harder.

Be better.

But Christianity isn't ultimately about modification. It's about transformation.

God doesn't just improve people. He makes them new.

Ask yourself:

What area of your life have you stopped believing God can change?

Your marriage?

Your temper?

Your addiction?

Your fear?

Your bitterness?

Paul's story reminds us that nobody is beyond God's reach. If God can transform a church persecutor into a church planter, He can transform us too.

Maybe you have thought that you were too far gone. Too lost. Too messed up. Friends if God can save and use Paul then God can save and use you too.

4. The Goal of Grace Is the Glory of God

Galatians 1:20-24

Galatians 1:20–24

The churches had barely met Paul. Yet they heard the reports. "The man who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith."

And their response wasn't: "Wow, Paul is amazing."

Their response was: "They glorified God because of me."

That's the goal of every testimony. Not that people would admire us. But that people would worship God.

When people look at your life, who gets the credit? Your discipline? Your willpower? Your intelligence? Or God's grace?

The greatest testimony isn't: "Look what I accomplished."

It's: "Look what God has done."

Paul's story is really our story. Maybe not the details. Most of us haven't imprisoned Christians. Most of us haven't traveled to Damascus. Most of us haven't seen a blinding light.

But every believer has this in common: We were lost. God pursued us. God revealed Christ to us. God saved us by grace. And God is still transforming us.

The gospel is not: "Try harder."

The gospel is: "Jesus has done what you never could."

We are rescued by grace, not rules.

Maybe you've spent years trying to earn God's approval. Trying to be good enough. Trying to clean yourself up. Trying to balance the scales.

Paul's testimony reminds us that salvation is not achieved. It's received.

Jesus isn't waiting for you to become worthy. He's calling you to trust Him.

The same grace that saved Paul is available today. And if that grace could rescue a persecutor, it can rescue you.

Christian, are you still living by grace, or have you gone back to rules? Are you trusting Jesus today, or are you measuring your relationship with God by your performance this week? Some of us started by grace but now we're trying to finish by performance. We know Jesus saved us.

But we live as if God loves us more when we have a good week and less when we have a bad one. We measure our standing with God by our Bible reading, our church attendance, or our spiritual success. But the same grace that saved you is the grace that sustains you.

The details are different, but the pattern is the same. We were lost. God pursued us. Christ revealed Himself to us. Grace rescued us. And grace is still transforming us.

Paul's testimony is proof that Christianity is not about bad people becoming good people. It's about dead people being made alive by the grace of God.