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I want to welcome you back to Daily Drive Time Devotion. We're beginning a study
together with the book of Galatians. This is day two of our look through
Galatians chapter one.

We're going to look at verses three to five in just a moment. But before that, I
want to talk about the plot of this book. Yesterday we talked about the
characters, Paul and the Galatians and the Judaizers, the false teachers.

We also talked about the setting. It was written just after Paul had heard the
news that the Galatians were beginning to follow a bad road in their faith.
Today, I'd like to look at the plot.

What is the outline of this book? And if you're going to outline Galatians in a
very simple way, there's really three parts. There's six chapters and there's
three parts, chapter one and two, chapter three and four, chapter five and six.

Chapter one and two is about the gospel, the good news and how it's sent from
God. Chapter three and four is about the law and how it's meant to be a tutor, a
teacher and not the whole truth. This was the whole problem.

They were accepting the law and not the gospel. So part one is about the gospel.
Part two is about the law.

And chapter five and six, part three is about freedom. It's personal. It's about
how you and I are truly free in Jesus Christ.

And as you look at this outline, really, there are two things that are going on
all the way through the book of Galatians. This letter is about a battle for
truth and it's about the message of the truth. You get you see the battle, but
you also see the message.

You see the battle throughout the book that really takes place on three fronts.
You have Paul versus the Judaizers. That's a personal battle.

You have false teachers and you have the apostle Paul. And they're very personal
words in the book of Galatians about this battle that they're having with each
other. Paul does not back off of speaking personally.

Definitely does not. You're going to see that as we go through this book. So you
have the battle of Paul versus the Judaizers.

You have the battle of grace versus law. And that's not a personal battle.
That's a doctrinal battle.

What does the Bible have to say about grace, God's gift? What does the Bible
have to say about law, the rules that God has? And how do the two mix?

What do we do when we try to mix the two? We're going to see what the Bible has
to say about that in the book of Galatians. So it's a battle of Paul versus the
Judaizers, grace versus law.

But it's also a battle of slavery versus freedom. It's a personal battle, a
doctrinal battle. And this last one is it's an ethical battle, slavery versus
freedom.

This isn't just about governments. This isn't just about human slavery. This is
about souls.

This is about the slavery of our souls to sin. And the ethical battle that we go
through when we allow sin to begin to control our lives and how God can free us
from that. And when he does that, it brings freedom in other areas of life.

It brings freedom in governments. It brings freedom in the way that we treat
people. There is a battle for truth that's going on throughout this entire book
on those three fronts.

But there's also, in the midst of that, a message of truth. It's not all about
battle. It's about message.

The message that the book of Galatians seeks to proclaim is this in one
sentence. Grace, not law, is and always has been God's means of salvation.
Grace, not law, is and always has been God's means of salvation.

It's not the keeping of rules through which I build myself a relationship with
God. It is the love of God through which he invites me into a relationship with
God. That message, grace, not law, applies to each part of the letter.

Remember, it's about good news and law and freedom we talked about just a minute
ago. The good news is the news of grace. The law is that which leads to grace.

It's not wasted. It's meant to lead to grace and freedom. Freedom in living is
the result of grace.

It's really a book that's all about freedom. Knowing Jesus Christ is true
freedom of life. A kind of freedom that you and I couldn't imagine anywhere
else.

We live in a world today where freedom is a great value. And whether it's the
cry of freedom that you hear around the Declaration of Independence as an
American, or the cry of freedom that you hear from Mel Gibson at the end of a
famous movie, or the cry of freedom that you have in your own heart when you
feel trapped by your circumstances and by your bad choices, you and I are set
free from cells of darkness, guilt, legalism, hate. We are set free from our
slavery to sin through the freedom of Jesus Christ.

And through studying this book together, here's what Jesus wants to do in my
life and your life. He wants to open up the doors. He wants to open up the
windows and let in the fresh air of freedom into your life, into my life.

And with that in mind, let me read for you Galatians, chapter one, verses three
to five. Here's how Paul starts the letter after introducing himself. "Grace and
peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for
our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our
God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever.

Amen. " Paul starts out by saying, "Grace and peace. " If you've read some other
letters in the New Testament, you know that is Paul's usual greeting.

He could have said anything. He could have said love and hope or faith, hope and
love. But he focuses instead on grace and peace, oftentimes as he begins a
letter.

That's interesting to me because what he's focusing on is these gifts that Jesus
gives us. He gives us grace. He gives us peace.

And because he gives me those gifts, I can have faith, hope and love. Paul
doesn't start with the commands that Jesus gives us. He starts with the gifts
that Jesus gives us.

Because it's out of these gifts that I'm going to be empowered to follow those
commands, to live out the life that He wants me to live. My response is all
going to be based on grace and peace. And it is not bad to begin this letter
with a recognition of what Jesus has given.

And by the way, it's not bad to begin each day of your life with a recognition
of what Jesus has given. That way you're living your life out of His resources
and not your resources. It's not bad to begin anything in your life with a
recognition of the gifts that He has given.

Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Paul
gets right to it. He says the Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself for our sins.

See, that's the key. The key to grace is that Jesus gave Himself. That's why He
can give us the gift of grace, the gift of forgiveness, the gift of a new life.

Now, as we walk through this book of Galatians, from time to time, I'm going to
quote from Luther's commentary, Martin Luther's commentary that he wrote on this
book, because I believe that in the Reformation, it was a history changing, a
hinge point of history moment. And Luther wrote about it in this book. In
Luther's commentary on these verses, on this phrase in the book of Galatians,
here's what he says.

"The heavy artillery of these words explodes papacy, works, merits,
superstitions. For if our sins could be removed by our own efforts, what need
was there for the Son of God to be given for them? Since Christ was given for
our sins, it stands to reason that they cannot be put away by our own efforts.

" That's from Luther's commentary. And you see what he's saying. I love that
phrase, the heavy artillery of these words.

He gave Himself for our sins. It explodes papacy. That is human answers.

It explodes works. That is my answers or merits and superstitions. Other ideas
of how you and I can come to a relationship with God.

It's all about what God has done for us. This is the good news that we're going
to focus on these next six weeks together as we walk through Galatians. This is
the freedom that's the focus of this letter.

And it all depends on this gift. If this gift were not given, He gave Himself
for our sins, you and I couldn't have this freedom. And then as you read on in
these verses, the Bible says, He gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from
this present evil age.

Now, I know that there are many, many good things on this earth at this time.
There's no doubt about that. There's many beautiful things.

There's many wonderful things you can eat. There's many wonderful relationships
you can enjoy. No doubt there are some wonderful things on this earth.

But the Bible is very clear about the fact that although we can experience some
of God's beauty on this earth right now, we do live in an evil age. Now, it's an
evil age, by the way, that is brought on by our own evil choices all the way
back to the Garden of Eden, to Adam and Eve, and then our evil choices all the
way through. God doesn't want this world to be an evil place, but He gave us a
choice and we chose evil.

And because of that, we live in an evil age. And so because of this, when I hear
someone say, ask the honest question, how could God allow evil and say something
like, I could not believe in a God, I just can't believe in a God who would
allow evil? When I say that, if you were to say that, hear somebody say that,
I'm missing two very important parts of the puzzle if I say that.

First, I'm missing the part that I'm to blame. I'm the one who brought evil into
this world. I'm blaming God for a choice that Adam and Eve made and everyone has
made since then.

But I'm missing also a second very important point. This world is not all there
is. It is the present evil age, but it's only going to be for a short time.

We're going to live forever in perfection with God. But for a while, we live in
a place where there's evil because we've invited it in. Now, why would God allow
it in?

Why wouldn't He just stop it right now? Well, if He stopped it right now, He'd
have to stop every single person who's evil. And there's some people who haven't
yet come to know Him.

And so He's waiting. He's waiting for them to have faith. And I am willing and I
would guess you're willing to, to live in an evil age a little bit longer.

It means there was even one more person who would come to faith in Him and enjoy
Him for eternity. But it's not one more. It's millions upon millions more who
are coming to Him day by day, coming to faith in Him.

And we're going to enjoy eternity together. You and I have a gift. He gave
Himself for our sins.

And because of that gift, I can look forward to an eternity with Him. I am so
grateful that Jesus gave Himself so that we would not be left alone in this
present evil world, but also so that we would have something to look forward to
beyond this world. In fact, let's tell Him right now.

Jesus Christ, we're grateful. Thank you for giving yourself. Thank you for
giving yourself so that right now I can have a relationship with you, enjoy a
relationship with you.

And when days are tough, I know I'm not alone. And thank you for giving yourself
so that someday I'll go with you to be with you for an eternity. And there will
be no more present evil age.

It will be a present day of glory for all of eternity. I look forward to that
day, even as I live with you now, Jesus, in your name, in your name. Amen.

Make sure to join us tomorrow. Tomorrow, I've got some good news and some bad
news.