Sunday we finish our series through Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches. He ends with a simple prayer that the grace of Christ be with us. That Paul wants us to live in the grace of God is understandable, since that’s been his message throughout, but a couple of items are curious.

First, he focuses the grace of God as coming through Jesus. This brings us back to how he opens the letter, saying, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (1:3) This comment focuses our attention on Paul’s next statement, “who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.” (1:4) Is Paul drawing our attention back to the work of Christ to free us?

Second, he prays that grace will be with our spirit. He isn’t referring to the Holy Spirit but to our inner being. This requires that we try to understand Paul’s concept of our inner being.

So come Sunday, and let’s consider Paul’s ending prayer for us to live in the grace available to us through Jesus.

Sunday we have the distinct privilege of ordaining and installing new officers (five elders and one deacon). The next passage in Galatians gives us important guidance for interacting with our officers. Paul highlights the “marks of Jesus” that he bears in his body. These “marks” refer to the persecution he endured for serving Jesus by declaring the pure gospel. Josephus tells the story of Antipater (Herod’s father) who stripped off his clothes revealing the scars that told the story of his loyalty to Caesar. In our text, Paul says in essence, “if you could see my scars, you would know that I’m loyal to Christ.”

The lesson is that faithful ministers will suffer. Tim Keller reminds us that those who teach “the false, popular, self-salvation gospel” have no scars because the world loves them and their message. But those who will be faithful to the gospel will suffer persecution.

The most painful scars a minister carries are the ones that come from within the church. Paul is not appealing to the false teachers to stop troubling him, but the believers in the churches. He’s urging them to remain faithful and support him in his ministry. This is an important text for us as we put these men into the ministry.

Sunday we considered Paul’s teaching of the “law of returns.” We always reap when we sow; we reap what we sow; we reap more than we sow; we reap after we sow. If we sow to the Spirit, this is great news. So, patient persistent walking in the Spirit will reap a harvest of righteousness.

In our last full paragraph, Paul directly addresses the false-teachers’ motives for trying to convert these believers to legalism. He mentions two: avoiding persecution and boasting. The exclusive claims of the gospel are offensive to human pride and open views of God. The gospel removes all grounds for boasting except the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Embracing the gospel undermines the power of the performance culture we live in and frees us from pride.

Come Sunday as we boast only in the cross of Jesus Christ.

As Paul ends his letter, he teaches that each of us is called to ministry. We are called to “bear one another’s burdens.” Proper self-assessment in the teaching of the gospel will humble us. This humility frees us from personal and cultural performance mandates and frees us to love one another without boasting in our neighbor.

In our next text, he warns us of the great danger of being deceived. The deception comes through false teaching, but it also creeps into our hearts as we grow tired of our labor. The danger comes as we serve God in a “quid pro quo” relationship. Ultimately, this type of life ends in frustration with God for not delivering what we desire.

Paul’s warning is also an encouragement to continue sowing to the Spirit by doing good to others in gospel ministry. He declares, “in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

So come Sunday and consider the fruit of sowing to the Spirit.

John Stott said, “Our conduct toward others is determined by our opinion of ourselves.” When we find personal value in our performance, life becomes a competition and we both provoke and envy one another. This was the situation in the Galatian churches because of a distorted gospel that demanded performance.

In our text, Paul shows us what it looks like to live in community with a pure gospel of grace. First, instead of judging those who sin, we pursue their restoration to Christ, careful to watch ourselves as fellow sinners vulnerable to temptation. Second, is how we bear each other’s burdens out of brotherly love. Both of these examples are determined by how we view and handle our own loads.

My self-assessment before God will either free me to love my neighbor or will give me reason to boast over my neighbor. This is why Christian community must be deeply rooted in the gospel (gospel centered community) and not performance.

So come Sunday to hear the gospel and consider the power of gospel centered community!

The Galatians were biting and fighting one another. Probably not overt fights, but tribal conflicts that centered on “who’s righteous” and “who’s clean.” This was the fruit of their “conceit” or vainglory (weightless weight). Their treatment of each other was based on their view of themselves as superior or inferior.

Can you imagine sinning in that kind of culture of evaluation and judgment? A culture like that would not allow for confession or honesty from sinners saved by grace. That’s the context of Paul’s next statement, “if anyone is caught in any transgression.” How do we respond to brothers and sisters who are captured by sin?

Join us Sunday and consider how a culture of grace affects our battle against the flesh.

The peace of the churches in Galatia are being torn apart by false teaching about the gospel, but there is more at play. The false teaching was a power play from some who would maintain their status in the religious community. They probably didn’t go about this knowing they were in error and motivated by selfish ambition, but they were nevertheless. 

Paul ends this section with a strong admonition, “Don’t be conceited.” Paul warns that exaggerated self-conception has dangerous results: provocation and envy. Whether we’re in the place of power (provocation) or in the place of weakness (envy), if pride clouds our vision the result will be that we “bite and devour” others. 

Paul’s direction is simple, walk in the Spirit. Churches like ours often struggle to live missionally because our self-righteousness creates a culture of “cleanness” that excludes those deemed unclean (or outside the boundaries of who we are as a group). Only as we walk in the Spirit and live in the humility of the gospel will we build a gospel centered community that ministers God’s grace to others.

So come Sunday and seek to understand with me Paul’s direction.

Believers know that obedience to God is part of what it means to be a child of God. The Apostle John says, “Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (1 John 2:4) Jesus himself says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.” (John 15:10) We dare not separate obedience from faith; we dare not teach a distortion of grace that fails to lead to obedience.

The Apostle Paul does not separate faith from obedience but argues that faith alone makes us right with God through the obedience (righteousness) of another. He further argues that obedience, even for believers, is not something they can produce through their efforts to obey the law of God. The Spirit who gave us new-life is one who bears the fruit of righteousness in our lives. Jesus himself said, “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

The works of the flesh are the product of the sinful desires of the flesh while the fruit of the Spirit is the product of the righteousness of the Spirit.

So, join us Sunday as we consider the work of the Spirit in our lives to bear fruit to God.

Throughout Galatians, the Apostle Paul is making an argument that true life in the Spirit is obedience to Christ, and not the law. One can't earn or work for a right relationship with God and also declare that he trusts wholly in Christ. You can't have both in the economy of God. Similarly, in vv. 19-24, Paul is making the argument that works of the flesh are antithetical to the fruit of the Spirit. They are incompatible. The Spirit's fruit grows and emerges in those who wholly trust in Christ and live in obedience to God's way of doing things. How is fruit being borne in your life and in the life of ECPC?

The power of the Gospel gives eternal life to all who trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and the exchange of his righteousness for their unrighteousness. At the same time we are given a new identity. Daily we choose to live out of this new creation or out of the old identity. 

There are signs of whether we are living out of our new identity in Christ or not.  These signs are gifts from God to direct our hearts to repentance and joy in Jesus when we believe.

Join us this Sunday as we again look at the letter to the Galatians to see:

• Who we are,

• Who seeks to give us a false identity, and

• Who we are to believe.