What Is So Amazing about Grace?

What is So Amazing About Grace?
Galatians 2:16-21
August 3, 2025

As we continue our study in the book of Galatians, you’ll remember that last week we saw that Paul was affirming his calling as an apostle to the gentiles, having been taught by Jesus himself, the author of grace, what the message were to be.

The whole reason for this letter was that there were Judaizers telling the gentiles that came to faith, that true followers of Christ should get circumcised, and keep all the Jewish rules, laws, and feasts.

Paul vehemently opposed this. We find him in chapter 2 recounting his visit to Jerusalem which we read of in Acts 15. After submitting to the elders and apostles the gospel which he preached to the gentiles, they agreed with him that being saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone was the true gospel.

They also confirmed that they would not require of the gentile believers to be circumcised and to keep the Jewish laws, because the law does not save, but only points to the need of a Savior. They only advised them the following:

Acts 15:28-29, For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell.”

Even these, though, were not commands and laws which would disqualify one from salvation. They only say, if you keep yourself free from such things you will do well. In other words, it will be better for you.

We should remember that the people that they were sending these letters too had no frame of reference of the law of God. They came from Pagan backgrounds.

Yet Paul aggressively championed the message  of the true gospel of being saved by grace through faith alone, adding nothing to it.

To such an extent that he even confronted and called out Peter when he was acting contrary to their decision, withdrawing himself from not eating with uncircumcised gentiles when in the presence of the Judaizers.

Why was Paul standing so strongly for this? Won’t it just give people license to sin?

We see Paul addressing it in this chapter.

I. Beware of a Perverted Gospel

• We touched on this when we were going through the book of second Corinthians, but it is important to understand why Paul was so serious about what was happening in the churches.

A. Do not follow a different gospel 

• Paul is amazed the Galatians were so quickly deserting the grace of Christ for a different gospel. What was he referring to?
• We must remember that the first converts in Acts were Jews. They put their faith and their trust in Jesus as their savior and Messiah, but they were used to following the law which was the baseline of morality in their culture.
• There was a directive in the Old Testament that, if a gentile would want to come under the covenant of God and join the Jewish faith, they would have to uphold the law and be circumcised.
• So, they just naturally assumed that to be a follower of Christ you had to first be a Jew and subscribe to everything the faith and law entails.
• Now this is where the Judaizers came into the picture. These were actually Jewish Christians who received Jesus as their Lord, but wanted the gentile churches that Paul planted, to also submit to the mosaic and Jewish law to qualify to be Christians. They had the greatest intentions in mind.
• They saw the message of grace as an addendum to the law. There are even some messianic Jews that today still holds this view.
• If we remember the customs of the gentiles and what they were used to doing, as was graphically portrayed in the book of Corinthians, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea.
• Wouldn’t it be a good idea to get all the gentiles to first become more moral and law abiding before allowing them to call themselves Christians?
• When we take into consideration this history, I’m sure you will agree with me that this becomes much more relevant in our day and age as well.
• When looking at the world around us, many Christians think that, if we can only get the world to obey the moral guidelines laid down by the law, everything would be all right. So, it becomes their mission to tell everyone around them how wrong they are and that they need to start following the rules.
• In short, the message is, become better first before you can be Christian. The gospel of grace says, come to Jesus first so you can start your journey of change.
• Although living a more moral life will definitely make life less messy and will certainly be beneficial to society, it has no impact on your acceptance before God and eternal state. That is not what qualifies you.
• If eternal salvation is the aim, it misses the mark.
• Many wonderful, law-abiding people will not see heaven.

B. The power of sin is the law

• We also see the opposite effect at work. The heart that is not changed looks at the law and says that it now wants to do the exact thing it is not allowed to do.

1 Corinthians 15:56, The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;

Illus – It is like a parent who tells his toddlers, ‘Do not draw on the wall.’ Up until that moment, they haven’t even seen the wall in that light or thought of the wonderful potential of drawing on this incredible canvas!!!

• The moment people focus on the law, the flesh says, ‘I want that!!’

Illus –  This is so well depicted in the movie Chocolat.

• What about when someone then receives Christ? Isn’t it now their responsibility to start following and adhering to the law? Should we as Christians not now give them rules to live by?
• If people start to focus on living in accordance with the law, even if well meaning, it quickly shifts their focus from the finished work of Christ, His love that changes them, them living lives in thankfulness and joy, to focusing on themselves, their, failings, inadequacies, and failures in trying to be “perfect”.
• So, they start to mask their sin, and are kept in condemnation because of their failings.
• This is no different from what the Judaizers were doing. They were adding works to be acceptable to God to the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.
• Anything that is added to the gospel of grace for salvation is religion. Religion is rituals that want to draw people out of relationship and grace to works.
• Ultimately, it focuses on self-effort again which is the root of man’s pride and rebellion trying to be acceptable and on even footing with God by their own efforts.
• Grace turns hearts of stone to flesh. Religion turns hearts of flesh into stone.

II. We are Called to The True Gospel

• God never intended for the law to save. The law was given to show our inadequacy to save ourselves. Not stealing does not cover the sin of stealing. Not murdering someone after committing murder does not cover the guilt of murder.
• Enforcing morality does not change the heart.
• God is not in the business of behavior manipulation, but He is in the business of heart transformation. Because the transformed heart wants something different, wants to live differently.

A. It is the gospel of grace

• Paul, in his greeting, lays the foundation of the true gospel.

Galatians 1:3-4, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 

• It is fascinating that God chose by His sovereign will that we would be saved by grace alone. It seems counter intuitive. Should people not pay for their mistakes? Should we not earn the right to stand before God?
• If we carefully examine that mindset, we will see that it is rooted in pride. Self-effort. Wanting to assert myself. I want to be God’s equal on my own.
• Grace is the greatest rebuttal to man’s pride. And why is that important? Because pride destroys relationships. It is selfish, envious, narcissistic and cannot love. It only loves itself. It is a horrible destructive force.
• Grace is the antidote to the poison of pride. Receiving grace brings humility, deep thankfulness, compassions for others, grace towards others, love towards others, because you are very aware that it is what you received without deserving It reflects the very nature of God. This is how we know God is not prideful.
• Interesting to see that Paul always uses the phrase grace and peace, but it is always in that order. You cannot have true peace without understanding and receiving grace.
• And many times, when peace is absent, it is because of a perceived disruption of one’s standing in grace.
• ‘…from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins …’ It was God’s will and plan that our redemption would come through the sacrifice of the Son.
• Have you ever wondered why? Why did God allow Adam to sin with the catastrophic result culminating with the climax of horrific sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, knowing that only the death of God Himself could set us free?

Ephesians 2:4, But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

• It was to reveal something.
• If you want to see God’s infinite power and majesty, you can just look at creation, or out into the universe.
• But how is infinite love revealed? Only through giving Himself. Only when man sees that by his choices He has come to the end of himself with no hope of self-redemption, broken, messed up, destroyed, when their pride and own choices has led them there, like the prodigal son, then only can infinite love be revealed.
• And it is because of His great love. God’s love is not a cheap emotion; it is a deep commitment that does not change and flows from His nature.

B. Grace sets free from sin

• So what about sin?

Roman 5:20, But then Law came in, [only] to expand and increase the trespass [making it more apparent and exciting opposition]. But where sin increased and abounded, grace (God’s unmerited favor) has surpassed it and increased the more and superabounded (Amp)

• If grace abounds, will this not lead to people sinning more? This is the greatest caution churches have about teaching grace. They think teaching grace stirs sin and lawlessness.
• The opposite is true. Teaching the law strengthens sin. So what is the answer?
• We should ask, what draws people to sin? It is to satisfy a deep need. It is a perverted notion and it never works, yet the lie is that sin solves the problem, but it only medicates it.

Illus – It is like when you have headache because you are dehydrated. Taking Tylenol works, but it just numbs the problem. You need water. Without it, the headache will come back.

 App- Loneliness and rejection can lead to sexual sin. Stress and anxiety lead to substance addiction. Feeling insecure and inferior leads to gossiping and envy.

• The behaviors are only markers pointing to a deeper worth issue.
• Any sin has a root problem that cannot be addressed by the law. In fact, it is made worse by the law, because every time you break the law you feel more inadequate.
• It can only be addressed by the unmerited favor and a revelation and acceptance of the unconditional love of God.

C. Receive the free gift

• The only condition of partaking of it, is that YOU must want to receive it and take hold of the free gift by faith!
• When you surrender to Jesus, let Him wash your sin away, are baptized by the Holy Spirit in the Spirit into His atoning, substitutionary death, you die to the law and the result of breaking the law, because Jesus took the penalty of your sin upon Himself.

Verse 20, 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. 

• This is not a verse punting a deeper commitment to try harder by reminding myself that I have been crucified with Christ, so I now better keep my act together and my nose clean. This is not a message of condemnation.
• It is a declaration that it has been done. I have been crucified with Christ by no merit of my own. And Christ by His unbelievable undeserved favor, came to live in me. I now have life inside me, even while living and sometimes struggling in the flesh.
• And it is built on the foundation of HIS LOVE! I hold on to the truth by faith in God’s faithfulness.
• He already died for all my sins two thousand years ago before I even existed or sinned. He paid for the principle of the fact that I will still sin in the future.

Illus – There was a song that meant well many years ago, but actually stirred condemnation and looking to self. ‘Jesus, I never want to hurt you again…’

• It paints the picture that Jesus is surprised by our sin and failure. This is not the truth and it creates condemnation, leading to works to be accepted.
• When thinking about our past, we should be incredibly thankful, worshipping Him for the amazing grace He bestowed on us. That is it.
• His aim is not to keep us focused on our sin, but to remind us of His love.
• If we do keep focusing on our sin, we can fall into the trap that we must over and over, with deep regret, confess and say sorry for our sin. And when we have asked for forgiveness enough times, ( whatever that might be…) God will reluctantly forgive that sin.
• Can you see how subtly it sneaks in? In other words, if I have punished myself enough, said I am sorry enough, I will be forgiven.
• Then I can feel worthy to stand before God again. On what grounds? Is it grace or works??

Verse 21, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

• Therefore, Paul says, do not go back to the law. The law didn’t help me at all. The law kept showing me what a failure I am. There is no point.
• The message is: It is dealt with. Get over your past. Look forward. Lean on Christ, Live for Him in His continual grace.

Ezekiel 36:37, I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

• This is the result, because your heart has changed. You have received grace, which makes you gracious. You have received love that makes you loving. You have received compassion that makes you compassionate.
• This sets the foundation to God transforming your life by His love, as you look to Jesus. As you behold Him, His character, receive and have revelation of what He has done for you, you become like Him.

Illus – We see an interesting event when Laban and Jacob agreed upon his wages…