SERMON SUMMARY
The Gospel tells us that our relationship with God depends 100% on what Jesus has done for us, not on what we do for Him. We are made right and kept right with God by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But that raises a question. “If your relationship with God is not based, at least in part, on what you do, then what keeps people from doing whatever they want to do? …That’s the question we will be answering today.
SERMON SCREENSHOTS & KEY POINTS
It’s possible to believe the Gospel and be set free in Christ, but then fall back into the slavery of trying hard to keep God’s rules in order to keep God on your good side. But, that’s not authentic New Testament Christianity and it’s not the Gospel. Many of us began the Christian life by trusting Jesus and only Jesus to make us right with God. We knew we could never do enough good things to earn or deserve God’s love. But then, after trusting Christ, many of us were taught that faith had to be supplemented with obedience in order to be a “good” Christian—and even, to prove we were really “saved to start with.” We were taught a “try hard to keep the rules” kind of Christianity. This put many of us back into slavery—slavery to performance-based religion, slavery to guilt and shame for not measuring up, and/or the slavery of pride and self-righteousness when we felt we were measuring up.
In Galatians 5, Paul is setting forth the idea that: Gospel transformation is not the same as moral reformation. He attacks the idea of “balance”—of a faith plus obedience, both/and way to living the Christian life because this “false gospel” enslaves us—It does not set us free. Paul says, “For freedom Christ has set us free so do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” …
He goes on to say that any form of rule-keeping renders the Gospel of Jesus ineffective in your life. He says, to go back to a rule-keeping relationship with God is to “sever yourself from Christ”—it is to “fall from grace.” …These shocking statements are not referring to losing our salvation. They are warning us that, having entered into a grace-based relationship with God, if we go back into a rule-keeping relationship with God, then we cut ourselves off from the life-giving flow of Christ’s Spirit, and we fall from God’s ‘grace-way’ of salvation. (Grace is not a synonym for salvation. Grace is the way into salvation). So, when Paul says, in v9, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump” what he means is that a little bit of this false teaching can work its way through a whole church. Even a little bit of mixing faith and obedience will undo the grace that has come to us in the saving work of Christ.
Paul calls us to (1) Reject balance; (2) Rest in future grace; and (3) Rely on the Spirit.
*We are a church located in Greenville, South Carolina. Our vision is to see God transform us into a community of grace passionately pursuing life and mission with Jesus.
SUGGESTIONS FOR COMMUNITY GROUP QUESTIONS
Remember, these are “suggested” questions. You do not have to go through every single one of them. In fact, some of these questions may prompt other questions that may be important to group members. So, feel the freedom to explore other questions as long as they don’t become “rabbit trails.”
READ Galatians 5:1-9 …
- Go around the room and talk about your religious upbringing. Growing up, did you feel “free” in what you believed about God and life and faith? …
- When did you begin to understand the Good News of the true Gospel that your relationship with God does not depend on how good you are, but on how good Jesus is? …How did that happen? Tell some stories.
- What is the difference between Gospel transformation and moral reformation? …Why are they not the same? …
- Look at v9 — What does Paul mean when he warns the Galatians that a “little leaven leavens the whole lump?”
- Charlie said, “The reason for your obedience is everything?” …What does that mean in relation to what Paul is teaching us in this passage?
- What does the phrase, “obeying the truth” (v7) help us understand how a grace-way of salvation leads to obedience? ...
- How does rule-keeping motivate obedience? …(think, fear-based motivation)
- Read Titus 2:11-15. What does Paul say is to be the motivation fir godly living? …
- How does grace motivate us to obey God? …
- What does “falling from grace” mean?
- How does the statement in v5—“for through the Spirit, by faith…” inform us about grace, the Spirit, and faith as the way Gospel Transformation happens in our lives?
- What else? …”Aha’s?” …Questions?