Galatians 2:11-14
Grace Is Better
This is the first recorded conflict between the Old Testament
emphasis on law and the New Testament emphasis on grace. Whether you
are a young convert or a seasoned veteran; you either have, do, or
likely will have some concerns about how the Old Testament and the
New Testament blend together. They fit; and they fit together very
well, but there has always been some difficulty in getting them to do
so as illustrated here by two of Christianity’s finest human
servants, Peter and Paul.
To understand the message, you need some background.
1. The Old Testament emphasized worship by the law. The New
Testament emphasized worship by grace.
2. In the Old Testament, worship was primarily for the Jews. In the
New Testament, especially after Acts 10, worship was for
everyone, Jew or Gentile.
3. In Acts 10, God used Peter to preach the gospel to the Gentiles
and when the people believed that Jesus was the Savior, the Holy
Ghost fell on them and filled them. The Jews then realized that
God wanted the gospel to be preached to the Gentiles, for them to
be saved, and for them to serve God just like the Jews.
4. But the old ways died hard.
a. In this passage, Peter had gone to a Gentile city, Antioch, to
preach the gospel and teach Gentiles.
b. \\#12\\ He did an excellent job until some Jewish Christians
showed up and then Peter pulled away from the Gentiles. He
put his ethnicity ahead of his calling. In today’s vernacular,
he showed that he still had some bigoted, biased, racist
views.
c. \\#13\\ That caused other Jews to pull away from the Gentiles.
d. \\#14\\ When Paul saw what was going on, he publically rebuked
Peter. Notice what Paul told Peter.
From that time to this, there has been debate about how much of the
law Christians are required or should keep. The two sides often
referred to as the law or legalism verses grace. I cannot answer all
of the questions you might have in one sermon, but—from this
background—I want to give you three truths this morning.
I. Grace Is Better than the Law.
A. Notice what Paul said in two verses here:
Gal 2:16 … even we (the Jews) have believed in
Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the
faith of Christ, and not by the works of the
law….
Gal 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God:
for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain.
B. In those verses, Paul said that even the Jews have come to
understand that justification and righteousness come—not by
the law, but by grace.
1. Justification and righteousness are two different terms
that describe what happens when a person is saved.
2. Just to keep things simple for right now, I will say that
Paul was saying SALVATION can only come by grace.
3. Friend, if the only way you can be saved is by grace, then
grace is definitely better than the law!
C. The Bible makes it clear that grace is better than the law not
only in these passages, but throughout the New Testament.
D. Why? Because the Law was man’s working under, God but grace
is God working inside of man.
1. That’s not just a fancy phrase.
2. With the Law the best man working the hardest he could was
still just the best man doing his best.
3. But grace takes us to whole new level.
4. Grace is God putting His Holy Ghost inside of us to give
us direction, understanding, desire, ability, and freedom
that is not of this world.
E. Understand that grace only works because of two things:
1. Because you have been saved.
a. God does not work with or live in a lost person.
b. Well, that is not exactly correct. He will work with
a lost person to bring them to salvation; and He may
work with him in some other areas; but not because
he has too. It will because He is a merciful God.
c. However, God will not the unsaved direction, under-
standing, ability, and power that He gives to a
saved person.
d. To be led by God’s grace, you must be adopted into
God’s family.
e. You can be saved today.
(1) Repent of sin.
(2) Believe what the Bible says about Jesus.
2. Because you are listening to the Holy Ghost of God.
a. Some people incorrectly think that Christians are not
born-again WITH the Holy Ghost of God being inside
them. They believe you must seek the indwelling of
the Spirit of God.
b. The Bible says differently.
Romans 8:9 …Now if any man have not the Spirit
Of Christ, he is none of his.
c. If you are a Christian, the question is not do you
have the Holy Ghost. The question is, "Are you
listening to Him?"
d. Old Testament saints did not have the indwelling Holy
Ghost of God to direct them, to help them to
understand, to give them godly desire, ability, and
freedom.
e. They just had a book with a lot of laws in it.
F. Grace is better than the law.
II. Grace Does Better than the Law.
A. Grace not only IS better. Grace does a better job. At what?
At everything. Why? Because the Holy Ghost of God is inside
of us to give us direction, understanding, desire, ability.
and freedom.
B. Let’s just consider two of those:
1. Grace gives ability or power.
a. I know that the law was given by God, but the law came
up short.
b. What are some of the areas in which the law came up
short.
(1) The law wasn’t complete.
(a) You could not write a book that can list all
of the wrongs man can imagine to do.
(b) Ravi Zacharias is given credit for saying,
"The reason we have 17,000 pages in our law
books is because we cannot follow 10 lines
on a tablet made of stone."
(2) The law wasn’t compassionate.
(a) According to the law, if you sin once, you
die.
(b) That is pretty tough.
Ezekiel 18:4 and 20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
(3) The law wasn’t capable.
(a) The law could not do for mankind what
mankind needed most.
(b) The law could not save man from sin.
Hebrews 10:4 For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and of goats should take away
sins.
(c) Only Jesus’s death could remove our sin.
Heb 10:12 But this man, after he had offered one
sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right
hand of God;
c. In Jesus Christ, we have all of those things and more!
(1) Both we and our salvation is complete. God makes
us new creatures with new lives, new abilities,
and a new eternity.
(2) Jesus is compassionate
(3) Jesus is most certainly capable.
d. "Why did God give us something that wouldn’t work?"
(1) The short answer was to show us that no matter
how hard we tried, it wouldn’t work.
(2) Paul put it this way:
Galatians 3:24 Wherefore the law was our
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we
might be justified by faith.
(3) The law teaches us that no matter how good we
are, we are not good enough.
(a) We need a Savior.
(b) We need grace.
2. Grace gives freedom.
a. Sadly, most Christians today misunderstand the freedom
that grace gives to us.
(1) They think the Bible teaches that grace gives
Christians the freedom to BREAK the Old
Testament laws.
(2) Anyone who walks away from the Bible thinking
that being free from the law means they are free
to sin has read into the Bible and not read from
the Bible.
b. These Christians believe and quote Bible verses that
they think teaches that Christians are free to break
the law, their problem is they never read the whole
passage!
(1) Romans 6:14
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over
you: for ye are not under the law, but under
grace.
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not
under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
(2) Romans 7:6
Romans 7:6 But now we are delivered from the
law….
Romans 7:7 … I had not known sin, but by the
law….
Romans 7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the
commandment holy, and just, and good.
(3) And Gal 3:13
Gal 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is
written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a
tree:
Gal 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Gal 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called
unto liberty; only use not liberty for an
occasion to the flesh….
c. So you ask, "Are we free from the law?"
(1) Yes, but not to break it. We are free to go
beyond it!
(a) Instead of bringing an animal sacrifice to
the altar, you can lay yourself on the
altar.
(b) Instead of worshipping God through a priest,
you can worship God directly.
(c) Instead of worshipping God in the temple in
Jerusalem, you can worship Him anywhere.
(d) Instead of stoning the sinner that does
wrong, we can teach them about God’s
forgiveness and mercy.
(e) Instead of living in a ritualistic religion,
we can live in a relationship with the Son
of God!
(2) The mentality that grace gives us the freedom TO
sin is the heathenistic mindset of the LOST.
(3) The freedom that we have is not freedom to break
the law but freedom from sin itself.
John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you
free, ye shall be free indeed.
III. Grace Requires Better than the Law. (Turn to Matthew 5.)
Matt 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of
the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case
enter into the kingdom of heaven.
A. Grace does not free us free to break the law, but to go beyond
the law.
1. Jesus told His disciples that they would have to be more
right with God (under grace) than the religious leaders
of Israel were by the law.
2. Then He went on to illustrate it.
a. \\#21-22\\ The law said don’t be angry without a
cause. Grace says don’t even call people names.
b. \\#27-28\\ The law said don’t commit adultery. Grace
says don’t even lust in your heart.
c. \\#31-32\\ The law said you could get a divorce. Grace
says you could only get it for fornication and then
if you remarry, it is adultery.
d. \\#33-34\\ The law said perform your vows. Grace says
don’t even make vows.
e. \\#38-39\\ The law said be just in your actions. Grace
says give and forgive.
f. \\#43-44\\ The law said to love your neighbors. Grace
says to love your enemies too.
B. Friend, no matter how you slice it, grace requires a better
walk with God, better dealings with people, and a more
righteous, less sinful life.
I close with a thought. What sinful action or behavior have you
condoned because of grace? God gave grace because the law did not do
enough. Grace does it all.
Grace saves. Grace gives you time and mercy to be saved. Have you
been abusing God’s grace instead of accepting Jesus as your Savior?
Stop. Trust Jesus today.
Grace cleanse and forgives, but not to sin. Grace cleanse and
forgives when we stumble into sin. No Christian should ever walk
with their eyes wide open into sin.
Don’t abuse grace. Get things right with God today.
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