The Line of Grace

Well, good morning, everyone. Good morning. My name is Mark, one of the pastors here. I want to welcome all of you, not only in this room. We've got a group next door and venue. As you heard earlier, there are folks that tune in all over the world, whether online or here locally through Community Access TV. However you're joining us here today, we just want to say hello. Welcome. We are glad that you are with us.

I want to start with a little bit of a story. July 2011, a man named Leland Hanson of Portland, Oregon. He goes down to his neighborhood 7-Eleven, plops down a dollar bill, and buys a lottery ticket, which he then takes home and sticks on his refrigerator door and promptly forgets about it. A couple of other tickets along with it. And three months go by, and Leland Hanson is now paying some bills at the kitchen table. He's a little short because there are unexpected expenses that have come up. He looks over at the fridge door. He sees those lottery tickets. He thinks, well, maybe there's a couple bucks in there between a lot of them.

Well, it turns out that one of them actually was a winning ticket, happened to be the one that he bought three months prior in that 7-Eleven store. Not only was it a winning ticket, it actually turned out to be a megabucks jackpot winning ticket, a ticket that turned out to be worth $22 million. Safe to say he paid his bills. But I just imagine that for three months, how many times a day does he go and open up the fridge door and that thing just waving right in front of his face? And yet, it's really of no real benefit to him until he discovers its true worth.

And sometimes I wonder if you and I don't spend our days in the same way when it comes to the priceless treasure that we have in the gospel. I mean, I don't know about you, but I know for myself, the good news of God's grace in Christ, man, I love thinking about that. I like knowing that I have it, that I've received it. And especially, you know, Trump mentioned his birthday, because I think about the ones that I have more and more so. I'm aware of the fact that I have more birthdays behind me than I have ahead of me, unless I live to like 103. So I like knowing that I've got that grace ticket and that I have hope for life even beyond this one.

But how about in the day-to-day realities? How does the knowledge of God's grace really impact me? How does it impact you? Because if it doesn't make us feel free or more full of joy, more full of just wonder and enthusiasm about what all God is doing, I have to ask myself, is the gospel really penetrating my core in the ways that God intends it to? I mean, rather than being something that's out there, this nice positive thing that I like to look at, what would it look like if I really plumbed the depths of its true value? What would it look like in your life, in my life?

You know what I think it would look like? I think it would look like God's dream for His church. Today, as we continue in our series "Free," we've arrived at Galatians 2. And somehow, in our collective wisdom, René and I decided that chapter 2 could be covered in one message, which is a decision that's having deeper ramifications on me than it is on him at the moment. But I'm going to do my best today. And in fact, I want to start us out by looking at what I think is a theme verse. If you really want to understand chapter 2, I think there's a nutshell. And it comes in verse 21. It's at the top of your notes. It's going to be on the screen behind me. And I'm going to ask you to read this with me so it kind of sticks in our brains. Let me hear you read this. Here we go. "I do not set aside the grace of God."

Now here's my concern. We talk about grace so much here. I'm wondering if your response even to that word is similar to what my wife said to me this week. I showed her a rough outline of this weekend's message. And I said, well, what do you think, honey? And she goes, didn't you say all that last week? I love her because she's not only beautiful, she's honest. But did you know less than 20 years after Jesus was crucified and resurrected, less than 20 years after that, His church was on the brink of setting grace aside. And it didn't start with the Galatians. We're going to do a little bit of church history. Paul's going to provide that for us today. You will be stunned how close the church came. And who was that close to putting grace up on the fridge where it would be eventually forgotten? And this is where Paul says, nuh-uh. We cannot do that. And he says it to the Galatians. And he says it to us.

Because grace, it throws down this absolute line in our lives. And once that line is laid down, it touches every part of our being. And we're going to try to move through perhaps a more superficial understanding of grace and see how it penetrates every aspect of our lives. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Let's dive in. Galatians 2. Paul finishes the story that he began in Galatians 1, right? And if you missed last week or any of the other messages in the series, I invite you to go to our website, TLC.org. You can watch any of our sermons anytime you want for free as long as there's an internet and we've paid the electricity bills. So TLC.org.

But in chapter 1, Paul talks about how he went from being really a religious terrorist to a Christian evangelist. And then chapter 2, 14 years have passed. Paul has teamed up with a guy named Barnabas. And their ministry headquarters is a city called Antioch. Now, if you look on this map on screen, you'll see that Antioch is up the coast from Israel. It's in modern-day Syria. And in the day of Paul, Antioch was the third largest city in the entire Roman Empire. There was a large Jewish population there. There was an even larger Gentile population. In fact, because it was on the ancient Silk Road, there were people in Antioch that came from as far away as India and China. I mean, this is a major, multi-ethnic, multi-culture, cosmopolitan city.

And the reason that's important is because Paul and Barnabas are accustomed to doing church in a very diverse environment. And then one day, these guys from the South, these guys from Judea, they show up in church and they say, hey, excuse us. May we have your attention, please? Unless you are circumcised, you really can't be a true Christian. This kind of drops the bomb. And as you might imagine, Paul and Barnabas, they just go ballistic over these guys. In fact, Acts 15, Acts chapter 15, is a parallel to Galatians 2. And in verse 2 of Acts 15, it says that this brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp debate with these guys, which I think is a bit of an understatement, because half, if not the majority of their congregation, they're Gentiles. So what do you do?

Well, because of this issue, and because Paul says he has a revelation of sorts, he and Barnabas decide to go all the way down to Jerusalem to meet with James, Peter, and John, and just make sure that they're all on the same page. Make sure that they're all preaching the same gospel. And joining them on this trip is a guy named Titus. Titus is a Greek. And so Titus becomes really the mascot for Gentile Christians. And you have to bear in mind that in these days, the circumcision was really unique to the Jews. Now today, it's obviously much more common across many different people groups. I mean, for example, I mean, guys, how many of you-- don't answer that question, OK? I'm just messing with you and making sure you're paying attention.

Now here's my point. This is a huge deal for them because it goes to the heart of the gospel. I mean, do you really have to be circumcised to be a Christian? Is the gospel Jesus plus some sort of religious rite or ritual? And in our day, we could ask perhaps a different question. Is it Jesus plus baptism? Is it Jesus plus the Lord's Supper? And you might be thinking, well, wait a minute. We stress those things. The Lord commands those things. But the question is, do we observe baptism or the Lord's Supper in order to be saved or because we're saved? Is it Jesus plus or Jesus plus nothing? And that's really the question. And that is where grace is going to draw this line that says you cannot add anything to Jesus.

And today, I want to show you four ways that it does that in Galatians 2, four ways that grace draws a line. And the first line it draws is between spiritual slavery and spiritual freedom. This may be a little bit of review for some of us. But you can start with grace in the moment you make some sort of religious rite or ritual or tradition mandatory to God's favor or God's forgiveness. The moment you do that, you've just marched right back into slavery all over again. In fact, grace will just get completely choked out. You'll have all the trappings of religion all around you. It'll look real churchy. But you'll be a slave to all those rituals and regulations.

And so Paul, Barnabas, Titus, they arrive in Jerusalem. And I have to think much to his relief, it's decided that Titus does not need some sort of minor surgery. He's like, whoosh. Titus has been sweating bullets ever since they left Antioch, I'm sure. But you have to remember, the church in Jerusalem is about 100% Jewish. And when these Jewish followers of Jesus, they recognized that he was their long-awaited Messiah, they did not consider themselves to be any less Jewish at all. They still went to synagogue. They were still very much a part of their culture and their ethnic identity. And so they didn't really have to deal with this issue very much or very often.

And so the question, again, is what do you do with a Christian who's not kosher? That sounds like an odd question for us. But for them, this is where grace is drawing an absolute line into a very specific reality of life. It moves from the conceptual to the practical to the everyday. And they can't just stick it up on the refrigerator door. They've got to deal with it. And so James, Peter, John, they agree with Paul and Barnabas. In fact, as Paul retells the story to the Galatians, he says in verse 4 of chapter 2, he says, "This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves." Like I said, it started up in Antioch. But actually, when they got to Jerusalem, there were members of the church down there. Some of them were former Pharisees or still consider themselves Pharisees in a way. And they were saying, yeah, we got to circumcise Titus. We can't be around him.

Verse 5, "But we did not give in to them for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you." You see what's going on here? The truth of the gospel is on the line. Less than 20 years after Jesus is resurrected. And had they caved-- had they caved to cultural expectations or cultural conditions, had they caved, Christianity would have become just one more religion that tells you, you have to earn God's favor and approval. It would become Jesus plus. And then you just go ahead and fill in the blanks. Look what Paul says here in verse 6, though. He says, "As for those who were held in high esteem, whatever they were makes no difference to me. God does not show favoritism. They added nothing to my message." What did they add to his message? Let me hear it, church. What did they add to his message of grace? Nothing. And you know, that is so freeing.

As a pastor, I've been with people in the hospital near the end of their life. And it's not uncommon to find people who are filled with fear and anxiety because they-- you know, there was one thing on the checklist that they didn't get to check the box on. And I'm not talking about some life experience. I'm talking about a religious obligation that they still feel they have for God to welcome them into his arms. It's so freeing to know that Jesus has done everything necessary. Well, it gets even better than that because grace not only draws this absolute line between spiritual slavery and freedom, it also cuts between old divisions and new unity. Jesus started with his own people, but the gospel is global.

And really, the upside of this whole circumcision debate is that it forces the church to really define its message and to affirm that grace is for everyone. So Paul says in verse 9, "James, Cephas--" again, that's Peter-- "and John, those esteemed as pillars gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised." And don't misunderstand what Paul's saying here. He's not saying that the guys in Jerusalem, they're going to be exclusively reaching out to Jews. And Paul and Barnabas, they'll be exclusively reaching out to Gentiles. It's just a generalization based on the demographics of where they're operating. It's going to be what typifies their ministry.

But again, grace cuts through all of these old divisions, so much so that Paul is going to say something that is so radical in Galatians 3 when he says, "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Do you know that when he wrote this, nobody actually believed this? Nobody believed this. In fact, this is something that our world still struggles with to this very day. 2,000 years later, the division still exists. If you're a woman, according to Forbes, on average, you earn about 77% of what a man would earn in the same position with the same qualifications. Now, while some might debate what's all behind that, no one disputes that discrimination is, A, if not the major reason for that. It's old divisions.

If you're white and you're applying to get a loan or a car or an apartment, there are all sorts of anxieties about bigotry and racism you don't even think about because you don't have to. People of color do. A very good friend of ours, he and his wife, they're a biracial couple. And one time they were applying to rent a house, and the landlord meets the wife, and it talks to the husband on the phone. They've got impeccable credit. And so, man, landlord Kimahee is just, let's get together. Let's sign the lease. Can't be more excited about this deal until my friend meets him face to face. He's a black man. And suddenly, there's this 180. Suddenly, there's no enthusiasm about signing the paperwork. This is not in Alabama. This is close to home. And I can't tell you what was in that guy's-- the landlord's heart, but I can sure tell you what it smelled like. Smelled like an old division.

And you might be thinking, well, Mark, that's out in the world. That's society. We ought not confuse that with the church. That's true, and hopefully we can see a difference in the church. So I asked my friend that very question yesterday. And I said, OK, that's the world. What about the church? What about around Christians? He said, Mark, honestly, it's definitely better in a church, but it's still there because we notice people based on their appearance. And it triggers these old prejudices, these old divisions because saying we are one in Christ in principle, that's one thing, but living it out, that's another. And the gospel will confront us whenever things are out of line with God's grace, which is going to lead us to that third line that grace draws, and that's between hypocrisy and integrity.

And I want you to buckle up your seatbelts because this is where our story is going to take a pretty jarring and unexpected turn because Paul, Barnabas, Titus, they go back to Antioch. And some time later, Peter comes up to visit them, to hang out with them. And you have to think, everyone's just going crazy because Peter's like a superstar. This is Peter, man. He walked and talked with Jesus. He was there, and now here he is right here with us. And there's this groovy Jew, Gentile vibe going on, and everyone's just enjoying it until Paul says that certain guys showed up claiming to be associated with James. Now, I don't think they were, but that's why they introduced themselves. And they start murmuring in Peter's ear. Peter? Really? You eat with them? You do know they're sinful. You do know that, right? It seems like a real good testimony, Peter.

And whatever they say, Paul calls these new arrivals the circumcision party. We're the circumcision party because that's probably kind of the banner that they're marching under. And guess what happens? They get to Peter. They get to him. Peter starts to think about-- he starts to care about what they think of him. In fact, Paul says he's afraid of what they are thinking of him. And it's like amazing because you're like, Peter, you're this tower. You're this major figure. I mean, it kind of reminds me of-- this is a weird parallel. But it kind of reminds me of-- you know, like in Star Wars, there was the Death Star. The Death Star, it was like this invincible thing, right? It was like this giant, how can you stop this thing? Oh, by the way, it's got a little hole in it that Luke shoots with his eyes closed. And that's it. It's gone.

Well, the circumcision party, what they do, they find the little hole in Peter. And they start poking at it. And it's more than just peer pressure. This is where Peter derives his sense of value and self-worth. And so to prop himself up, he starts to back away from the Gentiles, just little by little. Pretty soon, it's like, well, you guys got your cafeteria. We got ours. It's nothing personal, guys. I still love you. But then Paul says others start to follow Peter in his hypocrisy. And the subtle message to the Gentiles is if you want to be a Christian, you've got to also take on the law of Moses. And I have to say, I love sections of the Bible like this because they ring so true. I mean, do you think anyone would have made this up? I mean, seriously? Paul is calling out Peter. And not only that, he's writing about it. I mean, like, sometimes you send an email and you go, oh, maybe I shouldn't have sent that. Paul goes, send. And there it is for us to read. I mean, it's crazy.

And even dear Barnabas, dear Barnabas, he's also led astray until there's one guy left, one guy who is ironically the one with the most impressive credentials. The coolest bloodline, the guy who was the Pharisee of Pharisees. And yet listen to what that one guy says in verse 14. "When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, you are a Jew. Yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it then that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs and talk about being able to hear a pin drop?" Peter's basically saying-- Paul's basically saying, Peter, before those guys, the circumcision party got here, before that, then you were hogging all the bacon at breakfast, man. Look at you now. Or better yet, look at your brother Titus. Because basically what you're saying to him is that God's grace is not enough.

Hear me. You know, sometimes we think grace is all soft and squishy and just do whatever you want. But the fact is, grace forces us to rely entirely on Jesus. And the moment we try to do anything that props us up and makes us feel self-righteous, grace exposes the fraud. It lays us bare. And notice what Paul says. He says, "Peter and the others were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel." I want you to circle that phrase, acting in line. In Greek, it's just one word, orthopaedeo. Orthopaedeo, you don't have to be a Greek nerd to probably figure out what that means. Ortho, right, sounds like orthodontist. Ortho means straight. Paedeo comes from the word for foot. It literally means straight-footed, but its intended meaning is to walk in a straight course.

Now, I want you to think about what Paul is saying here. He's saying that the gospel has a line to it. It has a trajectory. And because God is so passionately in love with us, his intention, his stubborn intention, is to bring everything in our lives into alignment with the truth of his gospel and his grace. In fact, think about an area of your life where maybe you struggle somewhat regularly. In the old days, they would have called this our besetting sin, or maybe it's a habit. It's that thing that you kind of go back to over and over. It's your weak spot. It's kind of the hole in your fortress. And in that place, there is something in your soul, in my soul, that says to us, "You need me." Jesus is fine, but you need me.

In fact, the reason we can't will that thing away is because part of our will is convinced that we still need it. But then, if by God's grace-- and it's really only by God's grace you come to the point where you just go, I am totally powerless. I give up. That creates an opening for grace. It creates a moment where willpower is replaced with God's power, where self-righteousness is replaced with Christ's righteousness, where hypocrisy gives way to integrity, true integrity. And it's when that line of grace sets down in that part of our being.

Last area of our life, where grace lays down this line, is perhaps the most profound of all. And it's the line between death and life. Because as Paul looks back on his whole experience from way back when he was called on the road to Damascus and everything that's happened over the ensuing years and this whole dust up over circumcision and confronting Peter and Barnabas and the rest, when he tries to kind of put a bow around that, he actually comes up with some of his deepest theology about what it means to stand in God's grace, right here in verses 19 through 21. And I want you to notice how he contrasts death and life in these verses. He says, "For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."

Now, before we read the last verse, I want you to imagine something. I want you to imagine the night that Jesus is on his knees and he's praying with more passion and urgency than he ever has during his time on earth. The disciples are asleep. The soldiers are on their way to arrest him. And he says, "Father, if it is possible, take this cup from me." In other words, Father, if there's any other way other than the cross, I would be open to that. Three times he phrased this, through sweat and blood. I want you to imagine, just allow yourself to imagine for a moment the Father saying, "Well, come to think of it, son. I suppose that if people were really, really good, I suppose if they tried really, really hard and did all the right things and really impressed me, well, yeah, that would be a way. That would be another way. So, yeah, there's that way, but you still need to die. You can just die for the underachievers, the people who can't attain righteousness in and of their own strength. Now, how ridiculous would that be?

Because do you think if there was any other way for us to be reconciled to God, if there was any other way, do you think the Father would allow His Son to be nailed to the cross? Paul's answer to that question is this. "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing." He either does everything or He does nothing. And aren't you glad He didn't die for nothing? In fact, He died for you. He died for me. He died for us because, after all, He is for us. That's why they call it grace.

And so my prayer for all of us is that His grace, in all of its fullness, will continue to trace itself through every single part of our lives. Rest in that. Revel in that. Live in that. Amen? Amen. Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we thank You, thank You, thank You for all that we have in You. And Lord, I pray that You would fill us with such a thrill that would exceed being able to hold a $22 million ticket, because we have something even better. We have You. We have eternal life. We have forgiveness through Your Son. And so Lord, not because we get ourselves all lathered up or anything, but because of just the reality of that. I pray that it would press into our heart and our souls and our lives in fuller, more meaningful, more joyous ways today, that we would be people who are just abounding in Your grace. Because I think we can all agree that's what not only we need, but that's what our world needs. And so wherever we are today, Lord, wherever our area of need is, for those who-- this is all new to them. Lord, I pray that You would continue to illumine minds. And for those who are struggling in a besetting sin, Lord, I pray that Your grace would penetrate and bring freedom as we admit our utter dependency on You. Wherever we may be, Lord, we thank You that You are with us and that You are for us. It's in the name of Jesus we pray.