Galatians 2:15-21

On Sunday, Pastor Russell Johnson opened with Eli Manning's walk-on tryout at Penn State in disguise, as an awkward, soft-looking quarterback named Chad Powers who then threw perfect spirals on a rope. The players were looking at Chad and watching Eli. One word sums up the passage, Pastor Russell said: substitution. Most of us hold the first half, that on the cross Jesus died the death we deserved. The half most Christians never grab hold of is that He also lives in our place. Using Dave Anderson's outline of Galatians, he showed the text turning from justification by faith to sanctification by faith: the gavel comes down once and your relationship with God is settled, while the growing up takes every day. Three times in verse 16 Paul says no one is justified by works of the Law. When the charge comes that grace will make people sloppy, Paul never takes any grace back; he answers with who is living in you now. Verse 18 names the real lawbreaker as the man who rebuilds what the cross tore down, and verse 21 says that if the Law could make us righteous, the cross was pointless.

1. Icebreaker: Who is someone who turned out to be far better at something than you first expected?

2. Like Never Before: Experiencing grace like never before is the second half of what Pastor Russell called substitution. Most of us hold the first half firmly, that Jesus died in our place. He said the half most Christians never grab hold of is that Jesus also lives in our place. What would change in your week if you believed the second half as firmly as you believe the first?

3. Read Galatians 2:15-16. Three times in one verse Paul says a person is not justified by the works of the Law. Pastor Russell said Peter and Paul already agreed on how a person gets saved, and that the fight was over who does the living now that you are saved. Why do you think the second question is harder to settle than the first?

4. Pastor Russell said people answer the question how do I know I am really saved by pointing to your fruit instead of to Jesus and His promise, and that the trouble with inspecting your own fruit is that you never quite pass. He said plainly that if you have believed, your relationship with God is settled, and you are not seeking to be justified, you are justified. When do you catch yourself checking yourself instead of resting in that?

5. Somebody always warns that preaching free grace will make people careless. Paul never answered that by taking any grace back. He told believers that Christ Himself now lives in them, and Pastor Russell put it plainly: grace does not make you passive, it makes you available. Which of those two has been truer of you lately?

6. He granted that many things on our lists are good, how many quiet times a week or which translation you read, and then said the minute his list becomes the measure of whether he is right with God, or whether you are, he has picked up a brick. Which item on your own list comes closest to being that measure?

7. Dr. Ralston gave Pastor Russell's seminary class a free A on a paper, then four statements to choose from: yes, I will take it; yes, and please do this again; no, I will not take it; no, and this is not fair. Pastor Russell ended by asking which one you would circle. Which is it?

Look up Romans 5:10, Colossians 1:27, Romans 3:24, and Acts 15:10-11. Romans 5 holds both halves in one verse, reconciled to God through the death of His Son and then saved by His life, which Pastor Russell read as saved by His death and saved by His life; Colossians 1 is the phrase he quoted for the second half, Christ in you, the hope of glory; Romans 3 says we are justified as a gift, the same Greek word behind his point in verse 21 that the cross was pointless if the Law could make us righteous; and Acts 15 is Peter himself, years later, calling the Law a yoke no one has been able to bear and saying we are saved through grace in the same way they are.

How do these passages together shape the way you understand what God has already settled for you and what He is still doing in you, and what would it look like this week to take one requirement off someone you have been measuring?