Cross Centered

Well good morning. It is super good to have you guys here. My name is René. I'm one of the pastors and about four months ago now we started a sermon series here in this church where we were going verse by verse through a book of the Bible, a book of the Bible called Galatians. It's in the New Testament and I started the whole series off by asking you would you like to have more joy in your life? Would you like to maybe restore the joy that maybe has been leaking out of your life, leaking out of your faith? Like your faith used to bring you joy and now you just feel dry.

And I don't know if you were here or you remember but I started out by saying maybe you don't even remember what joy looks like and so I'm gonna show you a video of somebody who's really having a lot of joy and I showed you a video of a grandma who was going on a roller coaster for the first time in your life. How many of you remember that? That was a lot of fun right? Well so we wrap up this series this morning. We come to the end of the book of Galatians and I want to ask you again, wouldn't you love to have more joy in your life? And I'm gonna remind you again, here's what joy looks like only instead of a grandma, look at an infant who is fighting joy tearing pieces of paper.

Watch this. There we go. Here we go. Here, have some more. That's the funniest thing ever. Here you go. Here, hand by the piece. Ready? You haven't ripped it yet. You haven't ripped it yet. You know it's coming. Grab it. Don't you love that? Doesn't that just bring joy to your heart right now, just watching that? That's awesome, isn't it? Some of you right now are going, this with your sermon notes, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. It doesn't work.

Actually, a female friend, Nancy, showed that video to me a couple of days ago, and she said, "I just want to say one thing. Only a dad would not move that thing that the kid keeps hitting." That's why we need moms, and that's next weekend. But for right now, let me just say this, kids know how to find joy, man. We've been getting all kinds of great emails during this series in Galatians about people kind of discovering grace and joy again. But I love this one that I got this past week.

Hi, René. Several years ago, I saw a bumper sticker that said, "The Hokey Pokey. What if that is what it's all about?" And I thought that was hilarious and a sad day. Well, the other day, my daughter overheard my grandson, Nathaniel, and here's a picture on screen of Nathaniel. She overheard Nathaniel singing to himself, beautifully integrating songs from church and preschool, and he was singing, ♪ Jesus loves me ♪ ♪ This I know for the Bible tells me so ♪ ♪ And that's what it's all about. Don't you love that?

Grab your message notes free is the name of our series going verse by verse through this book of the Bible called Galatians. I have loved going through this. We've been in it for 12 weeks. This is a fascinating little book of the Bible, because this was probably the earliest book written that ended up being included in the New Testament. And so what that means is you get this fascinating glimpse into the early church.

And what's interesting is you see that some of the same things Christians struggle with today are things they struggled with back then. Now, if you're just joining us, let me give you a brief review, okay? Paul has been saying that there are two models of religion. There's the temple model, and this can happen whether or not you have a physical temple, and it can happen in any kind of religion. Basically, this can be summarized as, I obey so that I am accepted.

I obey what the sacred scriptures say that the sacred rules are because the sacred men interpreting the sacred rules and the sacred scriptures have taught me this is sacred behavior, and I'm going to obey so that I am accepted by God or the gods, or I'll be led into the holy of holies, or I'll be an enlightened being, but I've gotta keep these rules so that I will be accepted. That's kind of the temple model. But what Paul's argument has been in the book of Galatians is that actually that's not how God wants to relate to us, because that is a quid pro quo kind of relationship.

It makes God into an employer, us into an employee. It leads to all kinds of weirdness and judgmentalism and hypocrisy, and everything that's ever gone wrong with the Christian church has been because we've drifted back into this model. What Paul's argument in this early Christian document has been is that God wants to relate to us on the grace model, which can be summarized as I am accepted, so I obey. I'm already accepted. God loves me unconditionally. God loves me infinitely, and God demonstrated this by sending Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for all of my sin debt on the cross.

So out of gratitude for that, I am so motivated to be loving to others and to want to follow God. That is the grace model. Now, I want to make something clear, because this came up the other day, somebody came up to me and said, I'm so glad we're in a grace model church, not a temple model church. Hang on just a second here. I am not saying we're the grace model church, and every other church out there is the temple model church, or we're the grace model church, and there's that one, you know what I'm talking about, the one denomination over there, they're the temple model denomination.

And so I hope everybody leaves that to come to our church. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying, and what Paul's been saying in the book of Galatians is that this struggle is in the heart of every believer. Do you see that? Everybody, you know, you might have experienced it this way. You heard about how Jesus loves you. That's something, maybe when you were a kid or something. And your heart responded that, grace, why Jesus loves me? Like little Nathaniel sitting in his car seat. That's awesome. And you had joy in the grace model. But then in everybody, there's this pull back to a temple model way of relating to God, where I better behave so that God likes me.

Well, if I don't behave, then I'm not gonna get brownie points from God and maybe I won't go to heaven. And so we get pulled back into that. And that was happening in the Galatian church. That happens in your heart, my heart. That happens inside the walls of every single church. And that's why Paul's been writing this to Galatian. And I love that this wound up in the Bible because this shows us that this is a tendency of every Christian church, even the ones from the absolute very beginning.

And now we get to the very end of this amazing book. And we are in Galatians 6, starting in verse 11. If you have your Bibles, you can open up to that. Most of the verses are there in your notes. And there's also Bibles there in your pews. Now, I just wanna say this. This is a very, very important passage. It's the last few verses of Galatians, but it's not like these are the credits rolling at the end of the Marvel movie, right? This is huge.

Now, I know, I will confess that it is typical of pastors, me in particular, I guess, to say, whatever I happen to be preaching, this is the greatest passage right here today. This is it. This is so good. This is the most crucial passage of the Bible. But I have sobered up and I've reflected and I have pondered and I have considered. And this really is one of the great passages of scripture. It really is because it kind of explains Christianity. It kind of explains the power of the most important thing to a Christian's spiritual life.

It's really kind of funny what unfolds here in these verses because the writer, the Apostle Paul, is wrapping up this influential piece of world literature. And he says, "See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand." If we did this graphically, it would look like this. "See what large letters I use like this." This is what it looked like to the Galatians. What's this all about? When you look at ancient Greek manuscripts from around this time, many of the most of them looked like this with very small letters because to save money on parchment paper or papyrus, the professional secretaries who took dictation for people because they didn't have like Siri, voice recognition software, but they had people and that person was called an amanuensis.

And you would hire them, there were thousands of them all over the ancient world. They were experts at taking dictation, writing down your letter for you. And so they professionally had to have a small hand and write in cursive letters because it was faster to take dictation that way and it used less paper. But what happens here is I imagine that it changes from this small script to this big capital letters. These are called unseals. When Paul says, "See these large letters." It could be that Paul's been writing through one of these an amanuensis, a secretary. And here he is grabbing the quill of the pen, saying, "Well, give me that, I'm writing this now."

Why the large letters? The tradition is that Paul has eye problems. And so maybe he had to write really big because of his eye problems 'cause he couldn't see really well. But I think that when Paul grabs the pen, it's like he's saying, "I don't care how much this costs to say an extra paper. I'm gonna write this part myself." If you've been with us through Galatians, you can tell Paul has been emotional through this whole letter. And now he's just overcome. It's like he's been pacing and his pacing's been increasing. And he realizes he's got this much paper left before he's done with the letter. And he goes, "Give me that pen. Because if there's one thing I can leave you with in the paper I have left, and there's one big idea that you Galatians need to know, it is this."

And out of these letters that Paul pens with his own hand emerge three crucial questions that I think every single person needs to ask. These will keep your joy alive. These will keep your faith vital. These will help you stay on track and not slip back into the temple model and stay in the grace model. So jot these down. Number one, what is my core motivation? What is my core motivation for my faith? And really for anything I do. Paul here's so insightful. Remember, he is trying to kind of inoculate the Galatians against the teaching of these false teachers who've been saying, "No, you need to come back to the temple model. You need to keep all of these rules."

And the rules started with, "All men must be circumcised." And then they had a list of over 600 other rules that they said these Galatians had to do. And Paul's trying to say, "I know it sounds holy what these people want you to do because it's all about religious rules." But he's trying to say, "It's a trap. It'll drain your joy." And listen to how he analyzes them starting in verse 12. "Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Hey, not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh."

What's this mean? Let's take this apart phrase by phrase. This is so brilliant. He says, "Those who want to make a good impression outwardly." Listen, the motivation of people in the temple model, and the temple model, maybe you've heard it referred to as legalism, the underlying motivation is wanting to make a good impression on other people, winning their praise, getting kudos from other people in your movement. This is the motivation behind so much religion. I want to make a good impression on other people in my movement. I want to hear him say, "Atta boy." How do I know this? Because I'm talking about my past. You've heard me say in this Galatian series, I come out of a very legalistic interpretation of Christianity, and I'm telling you, this is what I live for, praise from people who are two notches above me in my system.

I wanted to hear him say, "René, yeah. You're the good example of what it means to be a good Christian and a true believer with your regulation haircut, and your regulation translation Bible, and your regulation behavior." Now, why would they want the approval of other legalists? Listen, because in a legalistic religious system, that is as close to success as you are going to get. Because legalism actually doesn't work. Paul says, "Not even those who are circumcised obey the law." Do you see what he's saying? He's talking about the deep, dark secret of legalistic religion. It doesn't work. It doesn't keep you from envying. It doesn't keep you from thinking greedy thoughts. It doesn't keep you from lusting. It doesn't really change you on the inside. It kind of puts you in chains for a little while till you want to bust out of those chains. And some of you figured that out in your own church experience.

And you kind of like ran from that because you thought it actually just makes things worse. But people who stay in that system have to redefine success since they're not actually getting any holier on the inside. They have to redefine success as getting the approval of other legalists in their little group. Then I know I'm successful. Total redefinition of what it means to live a holy life. Then here's what that leads to. They want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. In other words, about your obedience, your circumcised flesh. This is brilliant insight. Not only do people in that kind of a religious system, again, I'm talking about my own past here, want to get praise for their own behavior. They want to get praise for your behavior.

This is a trap I was in as a younger pastor. I was so, I remember being so focused on the moral behavior of the people who attended the church I pastored. That I would get embarrassed and angry and depressed when the people in my congregation weren't behaving and weren't attending and weren't being good Christians. And what would happen is it would make me climb, I would just get so mad at them all week long. And it would make me climb into the pulpit and preach what Craig Barnes, the president of Princeton Seminary, refers to as bad dog sermons. You Christians, bad Christians, bad Christians. You bad dog Christians. You know, and they'd leave with their tails between their legs kind of whimpering, and that's good because maybe they'd be better next time.

About what, what did I say? I remember very well. Gosh, to my shame. Pointing out to a church that I pastored in my early years in Tahoe, pointing out to the church. You know, look at this church. It's declining. Look at all the empty seats. We had more people last year than this year. And you know why? It's because you don't take evangelism seriously. You gotta get off your butts and get out there and fight people into this church 'cause it's plateaued and it's declining. It's 'cause of you, you lazy people, you bad dog, bad dog, bad dog. Why did I do that? Because I felt like other pastors and my denomination leaders and God were judging me for how successful and how holy and how big my church was. And it embarrassed me that it wasn't better. And this is such a trap.

Now watch, don't miss this. Paul says that is why they are trying to compel you to be circumcised. I see this in pastors. Desperately trying to compel good behavior. Try to compel people to get into small groups or compel people to serve in church or compel people to whatever, support an orphan. And we are not gonna close this or we're gonna keep playing band, keep playing. We're not gonna close the service 'til we get 100% of these orphans supported because they wanna be able to boast about your compliance. Our church is 100% of its people in small groups. Our church is 100% of all of it. Our church supported all 100 orphans that we presented to it. All that's awesome. It's awesome to be in a community. It's awesome to volunteer. It's awesome to support orphans. The problem is when it's under compulsion, under guilt.

Now listen, some of you are going, "Dodge double it this week 'cause I'm not a pastor." This is not a problem just for pastors. I see this in a lot of parents. Almost desperately afraid their kids are gonna go off the rails or desperately embarrassed that their kids did go off the rails. And it goes beyond a genuine sorrow but there's a sense of, "My kids are bringing me personal shame. How can I face the people at church with what my kids are doing? I hope they don't ask me about how my kids are doing." It would be so embarrassing to tell them. And what does that lead to? Trying to compel them to change. Shoving, forcing, manipulating, guilting, sacrificing the relationship on the altar of behavior. Now grace does not mean I don't discipline my kids, of course, when they're little, grace does not mean I don't allow consequences to behavior but grace does mean I don't have to fear what other people think of my kids.

I don't have to fear what other people think about my students or what other people think about people in my charge. In other words, grace is not codependent. And then Paul makes this fascinating observation. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Now what does that mean? This may be a little controversial for some of you. I'll just warn you ahead of time, all right? Earlier in chapter five, Paul talked about the offense of the cross. What does that mean? Most of us in this room, probably 80% or more of us are Christians and the rest of you are so welcome if you're here just to check this out. But the thing is, most of us can be so close to the cross, even just culturally, right? In American society, we're so close to the cross. We're like, what is offensive about that? What is he talking about?

Well, the cross means I can't save myself. That's what the cross means. Jesus had to save me. My religion doesn't save me, my goodness doesn't save me, my cleverness doesn't save me, my acts of charity don't save me, my church membership doesn't save me, my good deeds don't save me. So really, the cross is pretty offensive to my pride unless you understand Paul's perspective on why Jesus died for you. Why did Jesus hang on the cross and die for you? I heard Tim Keller put it this way, let's say your house is burning down and you've rescued all your kids, you've rescued all of your precious belongings and you're watching your house, that's a drag that your house is burning down but thank God everybody's safe. Then your neighbor comes along and sees it and says, what, let me show you how much I love you and he leaps into the house to his death. Do you look at your neighbor and go, how he loved us? No, you go, what an idiot. Because why did he do that, right?

But what if one of your kids was still inside? And the firefighter said, we can't go in there, it's too dangerous and you are going, what am I gonna do? And your neighbor came along and sized up the situation, said, hey man, I just want you to know I love you. And he rushes into the building and he comes out with your child but at the cost of his life, he dies there on the sidewalk outside your house but your child is safe. You would be in awe of his love. If you think you're pretty, you're good, you're safe and God didn't have to do any intervention, you know, for you, then the cross is just weird. Like why did Jesus run into the burning building? Nobody was dying. But if you believe that our lives can only be saved by his intervention, then it is the supreme sacrifice.

Paul has been saying that we are dying, we are impotent, we are lost, and Jesus Christ came to pay the penalty for our sin and to give us power to change. My friends in the 12 Step Recovery Program get this the best because 12 Steps is built on this concept. I am powerless to overcome my own self-destructive behavior. I'm powerless, powerless. It's only by turning my life, my will, control of everything over to a higher power, over to God, that there is any hope for me. And by the way, here's where the cross is so inclusive and here comes the controversial moment for some people here but just listen. If you say, well, Jesus really didn't have to die on the cross because all good people go to heaven without the cross, that sounds awesome, but what about all of us non-good people? What about all of us who have had moral failure? We just feel hopeless 'cause we know, man, we're not really that good. And if you say, well, really, all the wise and righteous people will go to heaven without the cross. Jesus didn't have to die on the cross. What about all of us idiots? What about all the people who are not enlightened beings? Then we feel hopeless.

This is why Paul just goes to the cross again and again versus a religion of good works because the cross is so much more inclusive than a religion of good works because it's not leaving out the unwise and the uncool and the unrighteous and the weak and the failures. It's throwing open the gates of heaven wide to anybody because God so loved the world that he died for the whole world. And that blends right into the second question. When it comes to my faith, my salvation, where is my core security? Where's my core security? Am I trusting ultimately in my ability to be good? Or am I trusting ultimately in God's power and his ability to save me? Is it about my willpower or is it about God's power? Willpower or God's power?

Paul says verse 14, "May I never boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." You see what he's saying there's an almost untranslatable Greek phrase here, when he says, "May I never boast," it means may never ever ever ever ever be. May I absolutely, under no circumstances whatsoever, ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever do this thing, boast about anything except the cross. What's he talking about? Remember through this whole book, Paul's been saying there are really only two religions, the religion of human achievement and the religion of divine achievement. The religion of human achievement is all about what I do to get to God. The religion of divine achievement is all about what God has done to get me to him.

And here's the thing, people who are in the religion of human achievement, and I'm talking about people within the walls of every church you've ever gone to, you know, the temple model versus the grace model, people who are in the religion of human achievement can boast in, "Hey, look how good I am! Look what I am doing! I'm going to heaven 'cause I'm a holy person and I'm keeping all the rules," and you're not. And it leads to all kinds of performance, pressure, and personal pride, and judgmentalism, and hypocrisy 'cause you're trying to hide the ways that you're failing at all around badness. But in the religion of divine achievement, all you can do is say, "You know what, man? God is so awesome there, but for the grace of God, go I, I'm just throwing myself on the mercy of God. I'm not perfect, I'm a failure, but God's great, and God's the one who saved me, not me."

Now here's why this is important, because grace says imperfect people are allowed. Because I only boast on the cross, I'm not boasting in me. You know, you may know the answer to this one, it's two words, you know what the most common lie Christians tell is? "I'm fine." What grace does is it says, "It's okay to not be fine." It's okay to say, "I am not okay." It's okay to say, "I have issues." It's okay to say, "I have addictions." It's okay to say, "I've been failing in this area." It's okay to say, "I am not living up to my potential." It's okay to say, "I'm not keeping some of these rules," because that's not what it's about. It's about the cross of Christ and what God does in you.

Well, Paul's saying when he's saying, "May I never boast in anything but the cross of Christ?" He's saying this, "We all have issues, you have issues, but Jesus is bigger than your issues." Amen? That's what he's getting at. That's why the cross is literally crucial. That's where the word crucial comes from, crucifix, the cross to a Christian is crucial, because on the cross, God the Son paid this massive price, his own life, for one reason and one reason only to restore a relationship with you. All you do is receive that. Never, ever, ever, ever has there been a greater love. And Paul says, "If that's true, then that is all I need." When he says, "May I never boast in anything but the cross." He's saying, "May I never add anything to Jesus."

It's so easy for religious people to do, to say it's great that you, you know, as Christians we place a lot of unnecessary obstacles to faith in people's way. Why do we do that? Like you can't be a Christian and have tattoos, you can't be a Christian and have that position on that issue, you can't be a Christian and, why do we do that? There's only one necessary obstacle and that's the cross. That's Jesus, that's it, that's it, that's what our faith boils down to. I saw a great blog post this week called, "No Ends in Grace." Look at this. You need Jesus and circumcision, right? That's what the Galatians were being taught. How does that play out in modern day? You need Jesus and baptism. You need Jesus and the right voting record. You need Jesus and natural family planning. You need Jesus and an accountability partner. You need Jesus and a social justice cause. You need Jesus and the right denominational label. You need Jesus and feminism. You need Jesus and organic food. You need Jesus and fair trade coffee. You need Jesus and a moral majority. You need Jesus and a pristine personal history. You need Jesus and a husband. You need Jesus and a baby. You need Jesus and a worship experience. You need Jesus and an hour of daily quiet time. You need Jesus and a certain size on your clothing. You need Jesus and prosperity. You need Jesus and poverty. You need Jesus and and and and and and and and and.

Let go of your should and your ought to and your need to and all your implied and overt and attachments to Jesus. Live like Jesus is enough. And remember you do not earn any part of your redemption. You are accepted because simply he is enough. You don't need any more and in your life. Jesus is enough. Jesus is enough. Jesus alone is enough. Yesterday, today and forever. Amen. That's what it's all about. And that is what builds to Paul's final question here. This is huge. He says, I gotta ask myself, what is my core rule of life? You know, what is kind of the standard I live by? What is my bottom line?

Look at what he says. He says neither circumcision nor uncircumcision mean any pause for a second here. Well, those two words here represent, it sounds weird to modern ears, but those just represent kind of the two world religious systems of Paul's day. Gentile religion was represented by uncircumcision and circumcision represented the Jewish religion. What he's saying is religion is not what it's about. In fact, religion is doomed to failure. The only thing that counts is the new creation, God doing something in your life. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, to the Israel of God. Okay, this is huge. When he says who follow this rule, the word translated rule is canon. It was used to mean a principle, a standard, a standard measurement. He's saying when grace is my standard, when we walk by the rule of grace, it impacts everything we do.

See, the gospel is not just the ABCs of the Christian life. The gospel is the A to Z. The gospel is not the ABCs, the gospel is the A to Z. The gospel not only saves you, every single part of your heart and mind and soul is transformed bit by bit by bit by the gospel of grace. Now, this isn't a microwave change. It's not like, beep beep beep boop, it's done. It's a crock pot change. You seep in God's grace and you start being changed. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Do you remember back in Galatians 2, Paul is dealing with Peter. How freaky would it have been to see these two apostles disagreeing? The gospel had brought Peter out of his own racial and religious prejudice, but now, thanks to pressure from the temple model people, he's slipping back into his religious and racial prejudices again, and Paul confronts Peter. Can you imagine this?

And he declares, when I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I called them out. Now stop. He did not say, Peter, Christians, Peter, bad dog. Peter, Christians are not supposed to be racist and you are breaking the no racism rule of Christianity. Now, he could have said that 'cause it's true, but what he said was, you are not living in line with the gospel. Because the implications of grace are that in Christianity, there are no social distinctions, no gender distinctions, no race distinctions. Paul said there's no Jew or Greek, slave nor free, male nor female in Christ. Those are the implications of the gospel. So he says, you're not living in line with the gospel. Out of the gospel comes a line of truth, a rule of life, a way of seeing reality, and when I live according to grace, I have peace and mercy in my life.

Just a few examples before we move into a time of communion. How does this work out practically? Well, let's take an issue I deal with in my life, lying. I don't know about you, I don't lie about a lot of major stuff, but I find myself lying. True confession time. I find myself lying about these stupidest stuff. Like, man, it took me over an hour to drive from our house at the Fish Hook in Santa Cruz here to Aptos the church over an hour, when it really took me like 47 minutes. Why do I lie about that? Apparently I care about what people think. I want people to go, man, René is something, René's sacrificing for Jesus, sitting in traffic for over an hour. That is amazing, right? I want people to be impressed by me, I guess. That's why I lie.

So how am I gonna change that? You know the way I normally try to change? Is shaming myself. René, bad Christian, bad Christian. You call yourself a pastor. You tell the truth, tell the truth, stop lying. You do that, right, to yourself. So my change only lasts as long as the shame lasts. So to stay changed, I have to continually keep shaming myself, and that is a terrible way to live. What it basically means is you're bullying yourself into change, it's horrible. But what about changing by grace? Really believing the gospel of grace goes to the heart of why I am lying. I need human approval, but if I utterly believe the gospel, what incentive would I ever have to lie again? Because what I believe if I believe grace is that the God of the universe fully approves of me, unconditionally and infinitely loves me, and the opinions of other people don't matter to me because I know that the God of the universe loves me.

And this applies to any sin that you struggle with. You see how that works? What about something completely different? What about how I deal with suffering? Like Tim Keller says, without the gospel being at the heart of your life, when bad, bad, bad, bad, bad things happen to you, you either fall into an I hate me or I hate thee mindset. I hate thee, God. I try to be good. And if you're a loving God, you would not let your children suffer. And so apparently there's not a loving God, so I don't believe in you anymore, right? Or I hate me. I knew I was bad, I knew I would reap the consequences of my own horrible behavior, I'm slime, I deserve this. Whip, whip, whip.

But the gospel keeps you out of both extremes because the gospel teaches that Jesus, the very best person ever, suffered terribly. I've lived a pretty good life. Yeah, well, Jesus lived a perfect life. And he suffered terribly. So if God came into this world to suffer, why should I be exempt? In Paul in verse 17 says, "I bear on my body the marks of Jesus." He's saying, "Hey, Jesus wasn't exempt from suffering, neither am I." But the gospel also shows me Christ rose from the dead after his suffering, and that gives me the certain hope that there's something positive on the other side of my suffering, and my loving God's gonna walk with me through this path. You see, that's the line of grace.

Very quickly, two more, how about evangelism? Telling people about your faith. Everybody gets uncomfortable with this. Some people wanna go, "I don't wanna tell other people about my faith, 'cause who's the same, what's right? I don't want that hassle." Other people get way too overbearing. "We are right and they're wrong! You know, turn or burn!" That weirdness. But if I live in line with the gospel, I wanna tell people about Jesus, but out of love, not guilt. And there's humility in dealing with others, 'cause I know that it's all by grace alone and I'm not better than anybody, and I'm hopeful for anybody, because I know it's all on God's power, not willpower. And I don't have to press or compel or gauge myself on my success, because it's all on God's end, not due to my persuasion.

You see how the line of grace just changes everything. One more. How about how you take criticism? Martin Luther in his commentary on Galatians, written 500 years ago, has a brilliant insight. He says, "When you are attacked, how do you defend yourself to yourself?" Isn't that a great question? When you're attacked, how do you defend yourself to yourself? In other words, do you go, "Don't they know how hard I worked on this? Don't they know how hard I've studied for this? Don't they know how experienced I am in this? Don't they know my record of past success? Don't they know how good my heart is? How dare they criticize me?" And all those responses reveal the truth, what you may be boasting about, about yourself instead of Christ.

But the more you find your identity in what Christ did on the cross, you can say, "You know what, my motives are impure. My intentions are not always pure. They're mixed. My ideas are not all golden. I'm just a sinner saved by grace, so I'm perfectly willing to take critique without feeling personally offended all the time." You see how the line of grace changes everything, and that's why final verse of the letter, here's the wrap up to our 12-week series. Paul says it again in his big letters. He says, "The," what? "Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be with your spirit, brothers and sisters, amen."

Here's the bottom line, really, to the whole book of Galatians. Ask, "Am I living in line with the gospel of grace?" The whole point of Galatians is to move Christians from, I believe the gospel, Jesus died for my sin. Now let's get into something advanced. The gospel of grace is so advanced and has so much depth. It can intrigue you and enchant you and invite you into deeper fellowship with God for all eternity. Because the bottom line, the bottom line that you'll be thinking about forever is Jesus loves me, this I know, and that's what it's all about. Let's pray together. Would you bow your heads with me?

Heavenly Father, I am so thankful that the book of Galatians is in the Bible, because I can so easily slip back into a performance-oriented religion and forget to just throw myself on the mercy of God. And Lord, we want Twin Lakes to be a church marked by grace. A church full of people who just know they're loved, who know you're saying to them, "You are my beloved child in whom I delight." And then that love just overflows as we live according to the line of grace and love to others. And we're not doing good deeds, whether it's here locally with a food bank or Nepal or something to try to earn brownie points from God, but because we know we're loved by God and that love is just overflowing.

Father, as we meditate on the cross now, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with our spirits. Amen.