Sermons on Galatians (Page 3)

“There are two undeniable facts of Scripture: the first is that God is righteous. The second is that we are not…  something is wrong between us and God” (John Stott). The ultimate question, then, is: what is the solution to the problem that exists between us and God? This passage compares the wrong, but common attempt to solve the problem, with the way of the gospel. The glory of the gospel is that God justifies by his grace sinners who put their faith in Christ. 

Paul confronts Peter because Peter is acting hypocritically. He was not acting in line with the gospel, by treating Gentile Christians as not fully accepted by God through faith. The gospel reminds us that there is no “1st-Class Christian” and “2nd-Class Christian”, but we are all one in Christ – fully accepted by God and equal in our status before him, not because of anything we do or anything we are, but only because of the righteousness of Jesus, credited to us…

On the Road to Damascus, Paul met Jesus, and learned about grace. “Paul was fighting against God. He neither deserved mercy, nor asked for it. Yet mercy found him” (John Stott). If God’s mercy could find Paul when he was Saul, then it can find any of us. In this section of Galatians, Paul tells his story – his own conversion to Christ, and his commission from Christ to preach the gospel.

It’s easy to slip into a “Jesus plus” way of thinking and living: believing that there is something I bring to the table that makes me right with God and earns his favor. We as sinners have a gospel-aversion. The gospel tells us that our right standing before God is a free, undeserved gift that we can only receive, never earn. In Galatians, Paul is calling us back to the gospel of grace.