Grace is all that God is now free to do for you because of your relationship with Him. Dr. Tony Evans talking about how grace succeeds even when rules fail. When we understand the substitutionary life of Christ, we will see Christ doing in us what the law could never do. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr.
Tony Evans. Keeping rules might make us look spiritual, but it can't make us right with God. Today, Dr. Evans explains why trying to earn God's favor through performance only leads to guilt and bondage, and how grace sets us free to truly grow. Let's join him in Galatians chapter 2.
It was a battle in the early church. And the battle was between law and liberty. Between the old covenant and the new covenant. The book of Galatians was written to settle the score. Paul wrote this book.
To address the issue of Legalism. Legalism is Our attempts in the flesh to make ourselves acceptable to God through keeping rules. One of the great pains of legalism is you're never certain when you've done enough. And you've never certain when you've done enough, long enough. And then you got to keep adding laws.
To help clarify the law, you just heard. It goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on. It is a never-ending. attempt to keep rules in order. Forget God.
to bless you. Paul Is writing the book of Galatians to clarify this. Because he is frustrated. As verse 6 of chapter 1 says, of Galatians, I am amazed. That you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ.
for a different gospel.
So these are saved people. Who came to Christ by grace, but were trying to progress in their Christian life by another message. a different message. Or what he calls a different gospel.
So strong is Paul about this. Abandonment of the grace of God. That he wants them to know that even if an angel from heaven, verse 8, came down. Yeah, sure. and gave them a different message.
that angel would be accursed.
So he is strongly emphasizing grace. To remind us, grace is all that God is now free to do. for you because of your relationship with him. It is the inexhaustible supply of God's goodness. Where he does for us what you cannot earn, do not deserve, and would never be able to repay.
or to put it in brief, it is God's unmerited Favor.
So we come to chapter 2. Then after an interval of fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. It was because of a revelation that I went up. And I submitted to them the gospel which I preached among the Gentiles. But I did so in private to those who were of reputation, that is the other apostles.
For fear that I might be running and had run in vain. I wanted to make sure that me and the other apostles, that we were on the same page in light of this confusion. But but not even Titus. who was with me, though he was a Greek.
So he's not Jewish. was compelled to be circumcised. Circumcision was the male sign that you were underneath the law.
So the apostles and elders come together, look into this matter. Verse 6 says. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said, Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. And he made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.
Now, therefore, why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?
So verse 11, but we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus. in the same way that they are.
So Paul goes back to Jerusalem. Peter says we're all on the same page. that you do not have to go back under the law. And even when we were under the law, we didn't keep it really well.
So, James in verse 19, he sums it up. Therefore, it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among The Gentiles.
So in other words, we don't try to impose the law on them.
So early on in the church, there was this clarification of the gospel. And that is for salvation or for transformation for your spiritual growth. Sh coming underneath the law. is not a requirement. A person can externally keep a set of rules.
and still not be right.
Okay, so external Performance does not equal the road to spirituality. Not because the rules are bad, it's just that the rules can't help you get where you're trying to go. That's right. But what was going on verse 4? But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in.
So we got some stealth. people in the church. who sneaked in to spy out our liberty. Which we have in Christ Jesus. in order to bring us into bondage.
Okay, this is very important. The law cannot free you. It can tell you where you're wrong, but it can't make you right. And All it does is create greater bondage. Greater bondage.
and greater guilt because When you say you're going to keep it and then you break it, then you're guilty that you broke it.
Okay, so it brings you on the guilt. He says, Brethren came in to spy out to get us away from our freedom. The gospel is designed to set you free. He who the Son sets free is free indeed.
Okay. I have come to give you life and to give it to you more abundantly.
So the gospel, when properly understood and lived out, is a freeing agent. not a bondage agent. Many of you growing up in certain churches couldn't wait to get out of there. Ah. Couldn't wait to leave home when your mama didn't make you go all the time.
Because you felt you were in bondage. It was just because It was a performance-driven approach to spirituality, a performance-driven approach. To becoming what God wants you to be.
Now, yes, God wants us to become what He wants us to be. But the method to getting there is not to be bound by the law.
Okay, that's not a method to get you there.
Okay, so Paul wants to develop this concept. And so there were these people in the church. who were putting a vice grip on them of rules.
Okay, in this case specifically uh the the the old testament law But we did not yield, verse 5, in subjection to them. for even an hour. I ain't cutting no slack.
Now, for an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. Yeah. He did not want them brought back under. bondage Well, to be held hostage by something that can't make you better. But from those who were of high reputation.
Those who were recognized as leaders, what they were makes no difference to me.
So, Paul said that you may be high up there, but that doesn't matter to me. If you're wrong, you're wrong, in other words. God shows no partiality, while those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me. In other words, they didn't move me because I was operating on the truth that God gave me about the gospel. But on the contrary, Seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel, so here we go with the gospel again, to the uncircumcised.
That's, I'm pretty sure, almost, if not, everybody in this room in the sense of not being Jewish. That's what he means, people not under the law, not Jews. Just as Peter had been to the circumcision, to the Jews.
So Peter had reached out to the Jews. Paul was sent to the Gentiles. For he who effectually worked for Peter and his apostleship. to the circumcised, to the Jews, effectually worked in me also for the Gentiles.
So it was the same God taking us in two different directions to two different groups, but with the same gospel. And recognizing the grace that had been given me.
Okay, there's our word. You see the word. There's a lot of interchange between gospel and grace, grace and gospel, because it's the gospel of grace. And recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas, which is Peter and John. who were reputed to be pillars, they were the foundation of the church in Jerusalem, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship.
That means we're in sync. We're in lockstep with each other.
So that we might go to the Gentiles. and they to the circumcision.
So we're going in two different directions, but with the same message. They only ask us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. In these first ten verses. Paul is reiterating and re-emphasizing the fact That at all costs, he wants to protect the gospel of grace. There's more to this message of grace and what makes it so powerful.
And Dr. Evans will explain when he returns in just a moment. We're only three days into Tony's series on Galatians, but already we've seen how easy it is to confuse rules with relationship. If you're ready to break free from performance-based faith and discover what it means to live in true spiritual freedom, this is a study you'll want to hear in its entirety. And right now, you can get all 11 messages from this series on digital download as well as on either CD or USB flash drive.
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Well, let's get back to more from Dr. Evans now, talking about law versus liberty. The thing that distinguishes Christianity from every other religion is grace. Every other religion tells you what you must do to make yourself acceptable to God. Grace says you can't make yourself acceptable to God.
Because God is perfect.
So grace is what God has done. The initiative God has taken to make you acceptable to Him. And that is through the finished work of Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is the only one who perfectly met the standard of a holy God. And so when you accept Christ. Having Christ means you've met the standard.
Not because you meant it, but because he credits to you his righteousness.
Okay. Now this leads to an interesting Event An interesting event. Where Paul is demonstrating How Much of a bulldog he is. to protect the gospel of grace. And so let's look at the story because it has tremendous ramifications for the racial issue today.
and the other kinds of division that we are facing today.
So let's look at the story. But when Cephas, that's Peter, came to Antioch. I opposed him to his face.
So, Paul already told you that if you're of high reputation, that doesn't mean nothing to him. When the gospel is at stake, I opposed him to his face, and Peter was a leader. of the churches to rule them. Because he stood condemned. I opposed him because he was wrong.
How is he wrong? Here's what happened. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, He used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he began to withdraw. and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision.
Which are the Jews? The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy. With the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. He says they were hypocrites. And I condemn them.
Peter was a super Jew. He was Jewish to the core. All right. One day, the book of Acts chapter 10 tells us. He's on his rooftop.
And he has seven devotions and he has a vision. There's a sheet that comes down from heaven. with all manner of unclean animals on it. things he wasn't supposed to eat because he's a committed Jew, he's kosher.
So it had all those things on it he was not supposed to eat.
So that means there's pig feet. Chitlins. Hog moths, you know, his, you know, ribs. You know all the stuff. that he couldn't eat.
It's on this sheet.
So he's told to eat. And he says, No, Lord, I can't eat this. I can't eat this. This is against the law.
Okay. This is against the rules. God says to him in this same event, don't call unclean what I call clean. In other words, I'm now giving you some. different instruction.
I'm now, I don't want you to use how you used to operate now. I'm calling it something different. Out of that event, I'm making a long story short. You can read the book of Acts chapter 10. He sends Peter to the home of Cornelius.
A Gentile officer in Rome. He tells Cornelius the gospel of Christ. And Cornelius gets saved.
Okay. Yeah. And in the meantime discovers these folk can cook. And so we find them here in Galatians 2. Eating with the Gentiles.
until his boys from the hood show up. And when they came, he began to withdraw. And hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. In other words, He was afraid of what his own people would say. The Jews.
Because he's fellowshipping with the Gentiles. And it says... that Paul condemned him. To his face. Notice what he says in verse 14.
But when I saw... that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel.
Now that's interesting. All he said was, they got up, backed away from the Gentiles. Paul calls that the truth of the gospel. Why? Because the gospel not only Saves you for heaven, it breaks down illegitimate divisions on earth.
He was not straightforward about the truth of the gospel. I said to Cephas, to Peter, if you being a Jew, Peter, if you being a Jew live like the Gentiles. and not like the Jews. How is it that you compel the Gentiles? To live like Jews.
In other words, You're confusing this whole thing. You have confused the message. Of Christ. You've disconnected this thing and And you are wrong. We are Jews by nature.
And not sinners from among the Gentiles. We are Jews. We were born Jews. This is who we are. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law.
So remember, this whole thing is about the law. A man is not justified, saved, declared righteous by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be identified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. You went back to the Jews, which meant when the Jews showed up, which meant you were retreating back to the law. Because that's what they represented.
And that didn't save you. Why are you going backwards? That's not what saves us, since by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified or saved.
So here he restates the point that you can't be saved by the law.
Now he's going to say later, you can't be changed by the law. But right now, he's making the point of the gospel. They got saved like we got saved, and you going back to the Jews takes them back to the law, you're confusing this whole thing. But if while seeking to be justified in Christ, Verse 17, we ourselves have also been found. sinners Is Christ then a minister of sin?
May it never be. In other words, We're claiming Christ. But if we are doing the very opposite to what Christ is. And what Christ wants is that we're making Christ a minister of sin.
So we claim in Christ. But we're doing a sinful thing. And we dragging Christ into it. Because these Gentiles are going to view what you just did. That's something being authorized by Christ.
So you're making Christ a sinner like you. You're confusing this whole thing, Peter. And we confuse it too when we have illegitimate divisions. May it never be. For I, for if I rebuild what I once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.
So I spent all this time now destroying this misunderstanding about the law. And now If I go back and rebuild what I just tore down, I'm a sinner too.
So I got to correct this thing. For through the law I died, for through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.
Now, this is a Okay. Powerful pre-statement. I'll tell you why I call it a pre-statement. For through the law I die to the law. Why?
Because all the law can do is kill you. The law I was committed to, I died to. In other words, I couldn't live to Christ till I died to the law. Because he says, I died to the law so that I might live. to God.
Which means if you retreat back to the law, you're no longer alive to God. You're no longer experiencing his life.
So one of the things that's keeping us from seeing more of Christ. is that we're operating on the wrong system we didn't caught the wrong bus to get there We're riding the wrong bus. to get to a good destination because this bus can't take you there. The law cannot take you there. Not because the law is bad, it's just that's not the root.
The law cannot, signified in the Ten Commandments, the law can get you to God. Galatians 2.20. Yeah. is the Christian life in a nutshell. Many people know about The substitutionary death of Christ.
That means he died in our place. Substitute. He was our substitute on the cross. You're saved because you've accepted Christ as your substitute. That's the substitutionary death of Christ.
That gets you to heaven. But what Paul is going to get ready to describe is the substitutionary life of Christ. When he died, That gets you to heaven. When he arose, that brings heaven to you. There's a substitutionary death For salvation.
Yeah. But there's the substitutionary life. for transformation.
Okay. And when we understand the substitutionary life of Christ, And not just the substitutionary death of Christ, we will see Christ doing in us what the law could never do. Dr. Tony Evans, reminding us that the Christian life isn't about rulekeeping. but about Christ living His life through us, doing what the Law never could.
Now, don't forget to take advantage of that special offer I mentioned earlier, all 11 messages from Tony's powerful Galatians series, along with his book, Kingdom Prayer. It's our way of saying thanks when you support the ministry of the alternative. Get the details and make your request online at tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222, where one of our helpful team members is ready to assist with your resource request. Again, that's tonyevans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. Peer pressure isn't just a teenage problem, and it's certainly nothing new.
Next time, Dr. Evans looks at a moment of compromise in the Bible that reveals just how essential God's grace is in our lives. Be sure to join us.
