The Gospel of Grace, not Legalism (Galatians 1:15-16b)

"But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles." (Galatians 1:15-16b, English Standard Version)

There is a school of thought that suggests in order to convincingly speak about a subject, one must experience it first. For example, in order to persuasively speak on the benefits of financial stewardship, it would be nice if one could speak from the standpoint of "Hey, I've tried this method and it works!" That is what the Apostle Paul does in the next couple of sections of his letter to the Galatians.

If you will recall, we stated that the theme of the book of Galatians is the Christian's freedom in Christ. In the churches of Galatia, false teachers were infiltrating the local congregations and introducing the heresy of legalism; they were adding human works to the finished work of Christ. Paul writes this letter to rebuke them from turning away from the gospel of grace and toward the yoke of legalism. Now, to persuade them of their error, Paul spends the rest of chapter one and all of chapter two reviewing his personal testimony; he approaches them as a "satisfied customer." There are four ideas I want to pull out from this text that highlight the notion that Christianity is a gospel of grace as opposed to a gospel of legalism.

1. We are set apart beforehand ("But when he who had set me apart before I was born"). One of the things we need to get straight at the start is there are no "accidents" with God. God doesn't have a "Plan B." Everything that is happening is happening according to God's divine plan (cf. Ephesians 1:11); that includes us! The fact that we are Christians, and that we are performing Christian ministry is no fluke. God has set us apart beforehand. Notice that Paul acknowledges the fact that he was set apart before he was born. This is the beauty of the gospel of grace! Grace (using the common definition of "unmerited favor") means that God does the work of bringing us to Christ (cf. John 6:44). Legalism says that I must work my way into God's favor. Grace says that God grants His favor on undeserving mankind through no merit on their part.

2. We are called by His grace ("Who called me by his grace"). Not only were we set apart beforehand, but when the time was right, God called us into salvation. The Bible speaks of "calling" in three ways. First, there is general calling. This is identified as the general gospel call for all to respond in faith to Jesus Christ. Second is vocational calling. This is where God calls a person into a particular ministry. For example, people are called into the pastorate, or called to be a foreign missionary. Third is God's effective call. This is the specific call of each individual chosen beforehand by God to respond to the gospel. The effective call always results in a faith response from the individual called. This is what Paul is referring to here.

3. We are given revelation ("[God] was pleased to reveal his Son to me"). As noted above, God calls us, but what does He call us to? He calls us to the revelation of His Son. When God calls us to salvation, it is always a call to respond to the gospel. In Romans, Paul writes, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). There is no salvation without the gospel ("And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" Acts 4:12). When Jesus Christ is boldly proclaimed, those who have been called, who have been chosen beforehand, have been spiritually awakened to the truth of the gospel message. It is those who respond in faith and repentance.

4. We are given ministry ("In order that I might preach him among the Gentiles"). All of this leads to personal ministry. Paul says in Ephesians, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). God doesn't just want to save us; He wants to use us to build His kingdom. For Paul, that ministry was to preach Christ to the Gentiles. For anyone of us, it could be any number of ministries. We must not think that we're all called to preach; we're all called to witness, but not to preach. In First Corinthians, Paul writes that we're all gifted in various ways by the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:1ff). We are called to use our gifts. In the end it is not the number of souls we win to Christ that matters, but how faithful we were to the ministry we were called to perform.

Application Time. From these four ideas notice that good works come in at the end, not the beginning of the salvation process. In the gospel of grace, God is the prime mover; the one who initiates and sustains the whole process. He's the one who sets us apart, who calls us, who reveals His Son to us, and who calls us into ministry. Our job is to respond faithfully and obediently along the way. Legalism has the whole process reversed! We work, we accept God's Son, we set ourselves apart all in an attempt to move God to respond to our efforts with salvation. Paul gives us a glimpse into his life so that we can see the futility of works righteousness to garner us merit with God.

Bottom Line. Don't fall into the trap of legalism. Legalism has great attraction to us because it appeals to our flesh. Legalism is a way to measure ourselves against ourselves, and that is folly ("Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding" 2 Corinthians 10:12). Remember that the ultimate standard is God's perfect holiness, and no amount of legalistic effort will ever help us attain that standard. We must rely on God's grace. From beginning to end, salvation is all a work of God.

Have a blessed day!

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