What is burdening you these days? What is burdening you? We gather this morning as diverse people, but we have at least two things in common: we all carry burdens and most of our burdens concern the future. We all carry burdens and our greatest burden is the fear that they will only get worse. But make no mistake, Christianity is all about being unburdened from what truly wearies us. The Lord Jesus himself said, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light, and you will find rest for your souls.” Jesus did not say, “come to me all who are weary and I’ll give you a challenge.” Biblical Christianity isn’t yet another burden for you to carry. The real Jesus unburdens us. What a relief!

This morning we begin a journey through the Apostle Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia – modern day Turkey. And Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches is all about the power of Jesus and his gospel to unburden us from everything that truly wearies us. And the letter begins with a prayer. The letter begins with the great Apostle Paul praying for you to experience what will truly unburden you. Verse 3 – Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Grace and peace. That’s what will really unburden you. One of our tour guides on this journey through Galatians is a man named Martin Luther. About 500 years ago, Luther rediscovered the gospel of grace and wrote a commentary on Galatians that is one of the most important books written in the last 2,000 years of Christian history. And in his commentary, Luther gets right to the heart of the significance of grace and peace to unburden us from what truly wearies:

These two words, grace and peace, include all that belong to Christianity. Grace releases sin, and peace makes the conscience quiet. The two fiends that torment us are sin and conscience. But Christ has vanquished these two monsters and has trodden them underfoot, both in this life and in the life to come…Grace contains the remission of sins, a quiet and joyful conscience. Peace of conscience can never be had unless sin is forgiven first….The more merit-mongers labor and sweat to bring themselves out of sin, the deeper they are plunged into it…If we are comforted and heartened by the grace of God (that is, by the forgiveness of sin and by this peace of conscience), we are able to bear all troubles valiantly and to overcome them, even death itself.

If we are truly comforted by grace and peace, then we can bear all of our burdens valiantly, which is what it means to be unburdened. That brings us to the big idea of our passage: Enjoy grace and peace. Paul’s opening prayer and our big idea is: be comforted and heartened by a fresh experience of grace and peace so that you can bear all burdens valiantly. Ok – how do we enjoy grace and peace? Two ways that we’ll explore this morning: 1. Rest in Christ’s finished work 2. Refuse false-gospels. Rest and refuse.

REST IN CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK

Galatians 1:1-2 – Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers who are with me,

    To the churches of Galatia: You and I aren’t apostles, but we are Christians. And we became and are Christians the same way that Paul became an Apostle – not from men nor through man. You didn’t make yourself a Christian. You aren’t right with God because you do the right things and perform the right duties. You’re not a Christian from men or through a man or woman – including yourself. You’re a Christians, a saint, a beloved child of God, as a gift through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Jesus from the dead to give you eternal life. Rest in Christ’s finished work and you’ll enjoy grace and peace – release from all your sins and a quiet conscience. Let’s move now to Paul’s prayer specifically:

Galatians 1:3-5 – Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Dr. Tony Evans says, “Grace is unmerited favor. It is the inexhaustible goodness of God that is not deserved, cannot be earned, and which we would never be able to repay. Grace is always free and apart from works. As God’s grace comes down on us from above, we are unburdened. We are unburdened from our enmity with God – He’s now our Father. We are unburdened from our enmity with one another – we are brothers and sisters now. And we are unburdened from ourselves and our own consciences – we are saints now. And the Bible word for all that gracious unburdening is peace. As Luther says, “Grace releases sin, and peace makes the conscience quiet.”

Why does Paul pray for people who are already Christians to enjoy grace and peace? Why do we need a fresh experience of grace and peace everyday: release from sin and a quiet conscience? It’s because we all face two great tyrants that burden us. Paul calls the tyrants “sin” and “this present evil age.” Sin is when we fail to do and be what God requires in his law – the Bible. Sin separates us from God, enslaves us to serve it, and condemns us. Even for the Christian, our ongoing sins give us a guilty conscience, accuse us that we don’t belong to God, and lie to us that we better keep our distance from God. The second tyrant that burdens us is this present evil age. In Galatians “this present evil age” refers to the tendency to try and deal with our sins by cleaning ourselves up or doing more, which leaves us with no peace. The only thing that can quiet these tyrants is a fresh, daily enjoyment of God’s grace and peace again. 

And that’s where the finished work of Jesus comes in. The central message of Christianity is that God the Father gives us grace and peace – release from sins and a quiet conscience – by giving his Son as a substitute for us on the cross. The truth is that we have all sinned – we have all disobeyed and ignored God in the world he created. And since God is good and just, our sins deserve punishment. We deserve eternal punishment because we’ve sinned against the infinitely good God. But God so loved us that he gave his sinless Son to take the punishment we deserve for our sins on the cross. And when we stop working and start receiving and resting in the finished work of Jesus we experience fresh grace and peace from God that allows us to face any burden. Remember what Luther said: These two words, grace and peace, include all that belong to Christianity. Grace releases sin, and peace makes the conscience quiet. The two fiends that torment us are sin and conscience. But Christ has vanquished these two monsters and has trodden them underfoot, both in this life and in the life to come…Grace contains the remission of sins, a quiet and joyful conscience…If we are comforted and heartened by the grace of God (that is, by the forgiveness of sin and by this peace of conscience), we are able to bear all troubles valiantly and to overcome them, even death itself. Friends – what is burdening you? It’s nothing that a daily enjoyment of grace and peace from God can’t handle! How do we rest in the finished work of Christ: dare to believe it. When you sin, dare to believe in the grace of forgiveness that comes through Jesus dying for your sins. When you feel like you have to hide or stay distant from God, dare to believe that you’re at peace with him and that your conscience is quiet because Jesus rose to give you his perfect record of righteousness as your resume. What helps you believe it? The Word and the church: draw near to his word and his people. Rest!

REFUSE FALSE-GOSPELS 

In verse six, Paul begins the body of his letter, but grace and peace are still in the forefront. Paul’s letter to the Galatians doesn’t begin like any of his other letters in the Bible. After his greetings, Paul usually thanks God for the good things he sees in the churches to which he’s writing. Even in his letter to the highly dysfunctional Corinthian Church, Paul points out evidence of God’s grace that he sees in the church. But when it comes to the Galatian church, Paul has no time for that. Has one of your children ever run into a busy street without looking? Once you get a hold of them, there isn’t time for pointing out evidence of grace in their lives. No, their life’s on the line, this is too urgent and we have to deal with it right now. That’s the kind of situation the Galatians are in, and it’s a threat we all face. If we are going to live in the joy of grace and peace – free forgiveness of sins and a quiet conscience – we have to refuse false-gospels with every ounce of God’s strength powerfully working in us. 

Galatians 1:6-7a – I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one… Let me tell you what was going on in the churches of Galatia and then we’ll see what it has to do with us. After Paul preached the gospel of grace and peace in Galatia and planted churches, false-teachers who claimed to be Christians came into town and distorted the gospel. They burdened the Galatians by telling them that to truly be right with God, loved by God, and saved they had to trust in the finished work of Jesus and uphold the law of Moses in the Old Testament. They couldn’t enjoy free, unmerited grace, which brings a quiet peace. No, they had add their work to Jesus’ finished work. And Paul looks at them – and us – with all the intensity of a dad who has just grabbed a child darting into oncoming traffic and says, “I am astonished…stop…refuse false-gospels.”

The gist of the false-gospel that threatened the Galatians was this: Jesus + something = right with God. And nothing will keep you in and add to your burdens quite like adding something to Jesus in order to be right with God. Nothing will rob you of enjoying grace for the forgiveness of sins and peace for your conscience like Jesus + something = right with God. Nothing burdens us like adding our good works to Jesus’ finished work to feel completely loved and accepted by God himself. The Christian life is a daily resting in the finished work of Jesus and refusing false-gospels so that you can enjoy the grace and peace that can overcome every burden.

Question: What are you tempted to add to Jesus to make you feel right with and beloved by God? For some of us, the primary thing we add to Jesus is “clean up.” That’s me. If I can just stop behaving this way or that way, then I’ll really feel like I’m ok, then I’ll feel like I measure up, then I’ll feel at ease around God and people. For others of you, the primary thing that you add to Jesus is “do more.” If I can just check off one more box, then I’ll feel like I belong with God and the good people. Friends, Jesus + anything is a false-gospel because Jesus has done it all. He gave himself up to take away your sin, so there is nothing left for you to clean up. He delivered you from this present evil age, so there is nothing more you need to do. You have grace for your sins and peace for your conscience. Refuse all substitutes.

Now, how do we refuse false-gospels? Galatians 1:7a-9 – …but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. We refuse false-gospels by rejecting false-teachers. We refuse false-gospels by testing every so-called Christian teacher’s message against the gospel of God’s unmerited grace and peace through the finished work of Jesus, which we’ve received in Scripture. You may be somewhat surprised to know that Christians have differed on the question of how to refuse false-gospels throughout history. Have you ever wondered why we’re not Roman Catholic, why we’re not Eastern Orthodox, why we’re Protestant? Because we reject any pope, any church tradition, any teacher, and even any angel from heaven if they preach a gospel other than the gospel of unmerited grace and peace. Refuse false-gospels by rejecting false-teachers. And Citylight Church, that includes me. If I ever proclaim a gospel other than the one you’ve received in Scripture, you must bring it to my attention, and if I don’t turn away from it, take other biblical steps to ensure that I either repent or am fired. Refuse false-gospels by rejecting false-teachers – even if that were me. Citylight Church – have you welcomed any so-called Christian teachers into your life that either distort or d emphasize the gospel of God’s free grace and peace through the finished work of Jesus? Refuse it, rest in the finished work of Jesus, and enjoy grace and peace again. 

CONCLUSION

So, what is burdening you? Speak about one of my own. Apply grace and peace to it through resting and refusing.