Galatians: The Gospel of Grace — Stephen Kaung

The Gospel of Grace Revealed in Galatians

We'll please turn to the letter to the Galatians. Galatians chapter 1 verse 16. Galatians chapter 1 verse 16. God was pleased to reveal his son in me. God was pleased to reveal his son in me. Chapter 2 verse 20.

Chapter 2 verse 20. Crucified with Christ and no longer live I but Christ lives in me but in that I now live in flesh. I live by faith the faith of the Son of God who has loved me and given himself for me.

Chapter 4 verse 19. Chapter 4 verse 19. My children of whom I again prevail in birth until Christ shall have been formed in you. Let us pray our Heavenly Father how we praise and thank thee for this privilege of gathering together unto the name of thy son our Lord Jesus Christ.

How we praise and thank thee that he is in us and we are in him and there is nothing that can separate us from his love. We praise and thank thee for giving us this opportunity of reading thy word together.

We ask thee O Lord that thou will breathe upon thy word and make it living and operative in our lives. We pray that I will give the spirit of wisdom and revelation that we may truly know thee. And to know thee is life eternal.

We thank thee in the name of our Lord Jesus. Of all the writings of the apostle Paul there is nothing that is more violent than this letter to the Galatians. It almost seems as if Paul has lost his temper.

He used very strong terms than you'll find in the letter. First letter to the Corinthians. It's almost like Jesus entered into the temple made a rope the cattle away overturned the table of the money changers.

And that is the nature in a sense of this letter. Why is it nature. In order to maintain the truth of the gospel. Dear brothers and sisters this morning we are not going to enter into all the strong arguments that Paul presented to the Galatian believers.

Concentrate ourselves essence of the gospel himself experience. In other words Galatians that behind what may seem negative is that which is very positive sharing with the Galatian believers what the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ really is and what is it that he personally had experienced.

So this morning we would like to use these three passages to illustrate the gospel of grace. The truth of the gospel of Christ that Paul himself had experienced. First of all you'll find Paul said God was pleased to reveal his son in me.

Revelation of Christ as the Beginning of Grace

Reveal in me Adam's son to the world. This is a fact by grace God has provided for the world. A savior had come. He had died on the cross unto this world by grace something more that is needed for each one of us.

And that is by grace he has to reveal his son. That is personal experience. As the grace of God in providing for us salvation is concerned it is already given. Anyone entering into that which God has provided in his grace is something that is waiting to be done.

And unless God reveals his son in us salvation is accomplished will not be able to enjoy it all. He received a revelation of the father concerning the son of a pharisee. You know a pharisee was one who kept the law very strictly.

Pharisees were not only those who study the law but they actually try to keep the law to its very letters. And Paul was a true pharisee. In other words there are many hypocritical pharisees. But Paul was a true one.

He tried his very best to keep every letter of the law even boasted and said that according to the righteousness of the law. He was blameless deeply taught in Judaism. He sat at the feet of Gamaliel the great rabbi of his day all the teachings of the fathers.

Was a person who was deeply involved in Judaism. He was a person who kept all the teachings of the fathers according to the Jewish tradition. And we know at that time the Jewish tradition was the best of all traditions.

He was so zealous in what he believed that he persecuted the church thinking that it was a service that Paul lived not very then the time of Christ the grace of God had already been given to the world.

But he was a person who had not received the revelation. In tradition did not have revelation. He lived outside of the grace of God though the grace of God was already on earth. Yet he lived outside of God's grace.

Why. Because he did not have revelation. It wasn't until he was on the road to Damascus. And there he pleased the heavenly father to reveal the son in him. At that time he really entered into the grace of God.

Now brothers and sisters just remember that in order to really enter into the grace of God revelation tradition will not help us. We may have the best of traditions. The heavenly father should not reveal his son in us.

Nothing is of any. We may live up live in a country supposed to be Christian. We may be brought up in a family a Christian family. We may have all our education received in Christian schools. We may even attend Christian churches in the best of traditions.

If there is no revelation from above we are living outside of the grace of God. Paul said. But when God who set me apart even from my mother's womb how did the grace of God come to Paul. First of all he said God has set me apart from my mother's womb.

When Paul was being conceived in his mother's womb God had already set him apart. Of course he didn't know it but God knew it. We may even go back even before time was in eternity. God has already chosen him in Christ Jesus.

As we find in the letter to the Ephesians the election of God by grace. This is a mystery. We do not understand. We cannot explain it how God in his sovereign grace he has chosen us even before time began in eternity past he has chosen us in Christ Jesus.

Now if this is not grace what is it. Because you were not there yet. You hadn't done anything yet. You did not deserve it. Your marriage couldn't come in. You were born before you were conceived even in eternity.

God has chosen you in Christ Jesus. Now that's sovereign grace. Again I said we do not understand. But we thank God for it. We were in our mother's womb. God has set us apart now. That's grace. Because when we are being conceived we haven't done anything yet.

We haven't lived a day yet. And yet God has already set us apart. We do not know it. And then you find the third step. God his grace chose us before he sets us apart when we were in our mother's womb.

And he has called us one day. He called us by grace. He does not call us by law. He does not call us by justice. He does not call us by justice. Then we will all be condemned. God has called us by grace.

He uses his grace to draw us. He said all you who labor and are habit laden come to me. He does not require anything from us. He calls us just to come to him just as we are. He has called us by grace as we respond to his calling.

The heavenly father reveals the son in his marvelous grace. He opens our eyes to see his son with our spirit. He pleases God to reveal his son in me. And when that happened you know grace in the grace of God under the grace makes such a difference.

The son is revealed in you. You know everything about the gospel. It is foreign to you. You are a stranger to it. When God begins to reveal his son in you immediately you find everything becomes real and living.

Transformation begins in your life. Brothers and sisters begins with revelation. Revelation we are outside of the grace of God. We may be very near to it just like Nicodemus he is not far from the kingdom of God but he is not in it.

Yet it takes revelation from above to show us the Lord Jesus. And when that revelation comes immediately we are quickened. We are brought. And I believe that's what happened to all of us now so far as this matter of revelation is concerned by revelation I do not mean some new revelation outside from the scripture.

I do not mean that by revelation. I simply mean that what Christ has done for us or what he is is being revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. So that what is historical becomes what is personal. That is what revelation really means.

This matter of revelation it seems as if it is beyond human ability. In other words we can do nothing about revelation. If God is pleased to reveal that he will reveal. And if he is not pleased to reveal then no matter what you do you cannot receive revelation.

In other words when you come to this matter of revelation we are helpless. It is pure grace. There is nothing you can do. Is it because of this we shall faint and be disappointed. Not at all because the scripture said God was pleased to reveal his son in us.

In other words it is the good pleasure of the father to reveal his son in us. Often times in my travel I stay in different homes or I visit different homes come to a home a new baby enter into the house.

You do not need to ask to see the baby because the moment you step into the house parents will come forth and show the baby to you. Why. Because it is the good pleasure of the parents to reveal their baby to you.

And if this is true with human how much more it is true with our heavenly father. Now often times when we come to this matter of revelation we are stuck because we feel there is nothing we can do if God does not reveal.

If he is not merciful then what can we do. There is nothing we can do. And it is true there is nothing you can do and you feel frustrated. But dear brothers and sisters you do not know God. You know the heavenly father.

You know that it is the good pleasure of the father to reveal his son in you. I mean this is something he wants to do. And if this is something he wants to do if only you will turn your heart to him and no doubt he will do it.

God who spoke that light should shine in darkness has shown into our hearts of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Whenever our hearts turn to him then the veil is taken away and we shall see the glory of the Lord with unveiled face.

And we shall be transformed from glory to glory according to his image by the Lord the spirit. So how we do praise and thank God that his grace is ever here and his grace is calling us. And whenever we turn our heart to him immediately you will find that he reveals his son.

This is the beginning of grace. This is just the beginning. You know it is very said. You find that among many of God's people when they come into the grace of God when God reveals the son in them when they are saved Christ is in them the hope of glory.

God's people it seems as if that's the end of grace. All that God can do or waiting for is to die. Because after you die then you go to heaven. But we know this is not true. To have the son revealed in us is the beginning of grace.

Christ in the Believer: Beyond Conversion

And after the son is revealed he is in us Christ in you the hope of glory. In 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30 we are told by God ye are in Christ Jesus who has been made wisdom to us righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

Thank God for the fact that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. And because Christ is in us he has been revealed in us. He is in us. And because he is in us you have all the potentials there all the potentials of living there.

But unfortunately being revealed in us instead of living by him we still try to live before we were saved. We tried we tried to live righteously but we failed in our desperation. We said Lord I am helpless I am hopeless.

There is nothing I can do. I cannot please you I can only rely on your grace. So by faith you accept his grace and he is so gracious to you that he saves you. After we are saved then we begin to think I am a Christian.

You have to live up of a standard yourself what a Christian should be. Or probably somebody else will set up a standard for you. Reading the scripture how you find here and there a precept and another precept precept upon precept.

And you begin to take these in and feel well this is the way that I must live so that God may be glorified. Now you forgot that before you believe in the Lord Jesus you couldn't do anything to please God.

But now you begin to think that after you are saved now you can do everything to please God. So you start out to do it. Christ does not live in you. Christ is in you. That is a fact. But you do not allow him to live in you and for you.

Instead he is in you. But it is you who are living. The only difference is formerly you live to sing. You live for the pleasures of sin. You live to serve the world. But now you live to serve God. That is the difference.

But it is still you. In other words the I live for the pleasures of sin. Now I am saved. So I live to serve God. I live to please God. But it is still I. That which is born of the flesh is not because you are saved.

Your flesh has become spirit. Not because you are saved yourself that self become Christ and Christ is Christ. Now after you believe in the Lord and you have received grace here you will find Christ is in.

You are still there. So in other words you will find there are two persons in you. There is Christ there and there is you there because you have been converted. Therefore the sinful you is being hidden and the good you begins to raise its head.

But remember it is still you who live and that is Romans. In Romans chapter 7 you will find that man he knows what is the mind of God. He knows what is the will of God and he has every intention to please God by doing God's will.

Not a man who wants to commit sin. No. But here you will find a man who has a mind that knows God's will and who has a will who wants to do God's will and who is trying his very best to please God. I wonder if that is your description.

And he tried very hard. Now this chapter you will find one word repeated it is not Christ. It is I. But I live to live up to the standard. You will say it is not a very high standard because what he said is do not be greedy now.

That is easy. You have never been greedy before and now you are saved. Certainly you will not be greedy at all. But strange to say you may not be greedy before. But after you are saved you got greedy.

You know grace there the grace of God. You do not use his grace your own strength to live a life that will be pleasing to God. Not until you are defeated. And defeated and defeated until you cry out oh wretched man that I am who can deliver me from this body of death.

You know we are told that in the old days there is a kind of Roman punishment for a murderer. If you murder a person then they will tie the corpse of the one you murdered to you eye to eye mouth to mouth hand to hand feet to feet.

They will tie the corpse to your body until gradually it will corrupt you and decompose for punishment. And some commentators say that is what Paul is talking about. Oh wretched man that I am I am bound to that corpse.

There is no way for me to get away from it and it is destroying me. Who can deliver me from this body of death. And you know the one that is tied to him is himself. And sometimes do you feel that is what it really is.

You find that you are tied to someone and that someone is yourself. And there is no way to get away from him. Who can deliver you from this body of death. It is death. Who can deliver in you is based on the principle of revelation.

Crucified With Christ and Living by Faith

Then Christ lives in you is based on the principle of the cross. Here you find Paul said I am crucified with Christ. No longer live I. It is Christ who lives in me. And I now live in the flesh. I live by faith.

The faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me in you. That is revelation lives in you needs the cross. Great difference here Christ in you that never changes you is an experience that you must enter in.

And how do you enter into grace which is Christ living in you. It is by way of the cross. When Christ was crucified on the cross he not only took our sins away he also took you and me. Romans chapter 6 verse 6 says knowing that our old man was crucified he is the last Adam.

You know in some hymns it says the second Adam come to the fight now. That is scripturally wrong. Christ is not the second Adam. He is the last Adam. If he is the second Adam then there are more Adams.

You know. And we are all these more Adams. He is the last Adam. In other words when Christ was crucified on the cross he is the last Adam. He took all the Adamic race to him. He can include all the Adamic race in him.

And when the last Adam was crucified the Adam race was terminated. God did wonderful work on the cross. On the cross of our Lord Jesus not only our sins were taken away. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree.

And because he paid a penalty of it. Therefore we who believe in him received a remission of our sins. Our sins were gone. Thank God for that. But he did something more than that. When he was crucified there he not only took our sins away he took us away.

The old man you and I took us away and crucified it on the cross. Why. Because he knows this earth is absolutely corrupted and there is no way to remedy it. The only way to get rid of it it crucified.

I think there's one person in the whole world who understands it more than anybody else. And that was that murderer that Pilate released. He was supposed to be crucified crucified in his stead. I think this is what we need to see.

We need to see that we are on the cross. We were crucified with him because we were in him. It is not something that you and I are going to do today. We cannot crucify ourselves. We love ourselves too much.

Something that God has done in Christ. 2000 years ago when Christ was crucified I was crucified because he took me. It is done accomplished. Fact. And because of this faith will look up and say Lord I thank you because I am crucified or I have been crucified.

I am crucified. You know the problem with us is the problem of I. I think that is the biggest problem. It is a greater problem than any other problem around you. Satan is no problem because he is a defeated enemy.

The world is no problem. Sisters are no problem. Your greatest problem is yourself. Can you get yourself out. The only way to get yourself out is by the cross. Can we put it this way. Were crucified on the cross and were buried.

But one came out and one didn't. Were crucified. And in him Christ was buried and you were buried together with him. Then Christ is raised from the dead. Didn't come out because only that which can go through death and comes out of death that is resurrection.

When Christ was crucified you were crucified. When Christ was buried you were buried. But when Christ is raised from the dead your old I didn't rise up. Thank God for that. And because of this Paul said I am crucified with Christ.

No longer live I. No longer live I because I didn't I wasn't raised from the dead. God did not raise the old Adam out from death. But God does raise Christ from the dead. And that is the reason why Paul said no longer live I.

But it is Christ who lives in me because Christ comes out of death into life and he lives now. That is the way to get rid of yourself. And the only way to get rid of yourself as by faith you believe that Christ has borne your sin on the cross and your sins were limited.

So by faith you believe that he took you to the cross and buried it. And in resurrection it is Christ who lives. If you believe it you will find it is true. No longer live I. It is Christ who lives in me now.

Of course you have the me there but you must remember that the me there is the person. It is not the life. In other words so far as the person is concerned we are still here. Therefore he said I now live in the flesh.

We are still continuing to live. You know so far as this body is concerned so far as the person is concerned the identity is concerned it is still there. You know you did not lose your identity. You are still you.

But the life is different. That old life is buried now you live by the new life by Christ who lives in you. It is a new life now. And it is a life of faith. If you want to feel it you don't feel it. You know the problem with many believers is they still want to feel it.

I do believe that I was crucified with Christ but I still feel I am living. It is not a life of feeling anymore. It is a life of faith. But thank God it is not your faith. It is his faith. We live by faith now.

Whose faith by the faith of the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. Now if he loved us and gave himself for us do you think he will fail to live in you and for you. Certainly not if you believe in him.

If you accept the working of the cross then certainly he will live. He will live in you and he will live through you now. He will not fail to do that because he is faithful not your faith. It is his faith.

Brothers and sisters can you now believe. Every morning when you wake up you lift up your eyes and say oh Lord how I thank you. That I don't need to live through this day because you live in me. And you find he does.

He does live in you. He is faithful. And only when he lives in you you are able to please God. You are able to do what you should do. And you are able not to do what you shouldn't do. You will discover that the law of the spirit of life now overcomes the law of death.

That is the only way to live and remember it is grace. Do not think now you have changed. Do not think now you have overcome. Now you become strong. No you are not. It is grace. It is Christ who lives.

Christ Formed in Believers Through Travail

But that's not the end. There is something more. Why. Because you find Paul said I travail in birth for you that Christ shall have been formed in you. In other words not only Christ revealed in you. Not only Christ lives in you but Christ shall have been formed in you now there is a great difference between lives and form.

You know form what does it mean. You know whenever something takes form it becomes visible. Whenever something takes form it becomes a testimony. And the word form there of course it is in verb but in noun it is the same word.

It means not the outward form appearance but the inward. Continue to work in such a way that Christ will be formed in you to put it in another way you will be conformed to his image now. This is the eternal purpose of God.

In Romans chapter 8 we are told whom he has foreknown he has predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son whom he has predestinated he has called whom he has called he has justified whom he has justified he has glorified now that's glorified.

In other words the character of Christ began to be formed in you. You began to express Christ. People began to see Christ in you. People began to feel Christ in you began to touch Christ. People began to feel Christ.

Christ is being formed in you. Oh brothers and sisters this is God's purpose concerning you just to save you from hell to heaven. Thank God for that. But that's the beginning. Save you to such an extent that Christ may be formed in you characterized by the character of Christ.

Read the gospel. You find the four gospels. You find the character that Christ has expressed while he was on earth. How loving he is how patient he is how righteous he is. How transparent he is. How just he is how merciful he is how compassionate he is.

He is everything that you would desire. But this Christ his image shall be formed in you. You will be conformed. Not only you do not live. It is Christ who lives but he lives in such a habitual way that his character is manifested and no longer your own character.

Nothing short of that. This is something that we have to put before us. This is something that we have to press on until Christ be formed in us. And we are conformed to his image in you is by revelation.

Christ lives in you is by the cross. Christ formed in you is by the principle of travail. Here Paul said I travail for you again that Christ shall be formed in you. Paul travailed that Christ may be formed in the Galatian believers.

But the principle applies to everyone. In other words whether you travail that Christ may be formed in other people or if you want Christ to be formed in you you have to travail too. It is the principle of travail.

The principle of travail is a tremendous principle after the fall of man. This is the first principle in the world. You remember after man sinned God told Adam he must toil and sweat in order to make a living.

And Eve had to travail in birth in order to bring forth lives. Without travail there will be no birth. Without birth there will be no life. So for the formation of Christ in us we have to learn the principle of travail.

In other words we have to travail in order to be formed. In Romans chapter 8 you find the whole creation grown in travail. The whole creation is groaning. You know when a woman is in travail she groans.

She suffers. It is almost like death. But out of death comes life. The whole creation groans. Why. Because the whole creation is under bondage or corruption. The whole creation is subject to vanity. Not because they want it but because someone has made it so and that someone is man.

Because of the sin of man the whole creation enter into the bondage of corruption and enter into vanity purposeless. But the creation is not happy about it. They want to get out of it. They want to get into the liberty of the sons of God.

So they are groaning and groaning waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Because when the sons of God are manifested then they will be free. The whole creation will be free. And not only the whole creation is groaning.

Paul said we are the first fruit of the spirit. In other words we who are redeemed of the Lord we also are groaning. We groan too. Why. Waiting for adoption sonship. That is the redemption of the body.

So you find that travail is everywhere. The whole world is in travail. The church is in travail and you are in travail now why is it so there is one verse in Matthew 24. Probably you will find it difficult to understand.

And that is in Matthew 24 the Lord said there will be wars and rumors of wars and fanning and pestilence and all these terrible things happening in the world. And yet the Lord said this is not the end.

This is the beginning of through us. This is the beginning of birth pains. Brothers and sisters the whole world is in travail and wars and rumors of wars and fannings and all these pestilences and all these things are just birth pains.

When a woman is getting ready to get birth she goes through stages of stages of birth pains. And that is what it is that gives us a positive meaning to all these terrible things. Now remember these terrible things are not do not come from God.

In other words God has not ordered it that way. It is the result of sin. But in spite of all these things in other words all these adversities all these terrible things God will make use of them to bring faith.

Maybe in your life you will find there are many forces that are tearing you apart. You will find you are being pressed beyond measure. You will find they are trying to destroy you. And they are. But thank God instead of destroying you they actually help to form Christ.

What is destroyed is what is not of Christ in you. But what is being formed is what is Christ. That is the law of travail. It is not a useless wasteful. It is actually a very positive process of formation in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 that is what Paul is talking about squeezed but not frustrated persecuted but not abandoned at your wit's end but not at your hope's end.

Knocked down but not knocked out bearing in your body the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus may be manifested in your mortal body and may be manifested in others now that's formation to see that we were dead in Christ on the cross.

That's the foundation. But to bear the dying of Jesus in our life that is the building the forming daily. Paul said I die to everything that is not of God. And you know sometimes it is very difficult to take these things away because we cling to them.

So God has to raise up environment adverse to us in order to break through that his life may be given a chance to be formed until we are being brought to our end again and again that Christ may begin in our life.

That is how character is being built. It is not you it is the character of Christ. You will be brought again again to death and slain so that may be built up step by step until Christ is formed in you.

And that is the ultimate end. So from the beginning to the end it is grace. It is all now that is the gospel of Jesus Christ that thy grace will so work in us until praise shall be rendered unto thee in the name of our Lord Jesus.