Living in Grace

What About Human Effort?

Galatians 3:1-3  (NLT)

3 Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. 2 Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. 3 How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?

Galatians 3:10  (NLT)

10 But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.

Those who attempt to obey God's Law through human effort are placing themselves under a curse.

James 2:10 (NLT)

10 For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.

1. The law couldn't be obeyed.

Galatians 3:19 A  (NLT)

19 Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins.

Galatians 3:24-25  (NKJV)

24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

2. The law leads us to Christ.

Galatians 3:24  (NLT)

24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith.

When you experience the Grace of God something happens on the inside that enables you to live your life free.

How to live in Grace.

1. Grace is a free gift.

Romans 6:23 (NLT)

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Grace is getting what you don't deserve.  

2. Grace is received by faith.  

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

Faith is not belief.  Faith is trust. 

3. Grace is available to everyone, and He will change us from the inside out.

Romans 10:13 (NIV)

13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

4. Grace comes only through Christ, and no other way.

John 1:17  (NIV)

17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:15 (NCV)

15 But God’s free gift is not like Adam’s sin. Many people died because of the sin of that one man. But the grace from God was much greater; many people received God’s gift of life by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. 

Galatians 2:21  (NLT)

21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

5. Grace is extended throughout eternity.

John 3:16 (NKJV)

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

It's the Grace of God that transforms us. 

Titus 2:11-12  (NIV)

11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,

Grace: When you ought to do becomes what you want to do.  

Chris Hodges, Church of the Highlands

https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/media/message/living-in-grace