Do you know what the experience of finding out that you’ve been adopted looks like? It looks like initial disbelief when you don’t dare believe it could be true. And then overwhelming joy - usually expressed in tears. The central idea of our text is that God sent Jesus into this world to accomplish our adoption. To bring us into the family of God. Let yourself believe it. In the fullness of time, the Father sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, to make all those who believe in Him, His adopted sons. In Jesus we have found our forever family and gained an eternal home. 

Jesus is on his way to the cross. A crowd is following him. Women are weeping. Jesus turns and speaks his final words to the people of Israel. Jesus wants these weeping women to understand that the tragedy of this moment, is not Jesus on his way to the cross, but Israel on its way to unrelenting divine judgement.  They were a people that sinned and would face the unflinching, unrelenting, terrifying justice of God. The truth is that we have all sinned - and we are all responsible. How will we escape the penalty of our sin? The answer is in the cross. The incredible love of Christ, warns the Israelites, that there is still time to repent, and turns and makes his way into the fury of divine judgment that is the cross, to bear the wrath of God for all those who will believe in him.

The gospel story is not about you being worthy, it is about God and his glory. It tells us that God saved you when you were thoroughly unworthy. There is far more joy in being loved than feeling yourself to be worthy. The cross does not exist to attest to how valuable you are, but how loved you are. The gospel is about the glory of God, the most magnificent thing in all the universe. The gospel is about how God has glorified his name by inviting you into that glory. Take hold of this truth, repent and believe, and give God all the glory. 

The promise of God is given – not earned. It’s a free gift of eternal life to those who
believe. That promise is meant to define your life. This promise is intended to be your joy and your peace. No matter what circumstances you are facing in your life today – if you have cast yourself upon the mercy of God in Jesus and believed in His Name – then the promise is for you. 

Imagine knowing for certain and forever that your sin had all been pardoned and that God, in all his glory and might – the God whom you so deeply and profoundly have offended with your sin – that very God, so loved you, that he gave his only begotten Son to die for you – so that you might receive the blessing of Abraham.  That assurance is yours for the having by faith. Will you believe Gods’ promise of righteousness for you the sinner placarded before you in the death of his Son? 

Paul is distressed with the Galatians as they are abandoning the true essence of the gospel. He is in anguish because their salvation is compromised. He preaches that Christ was crucified, using the past tense “crucified” to show that Christ's death didn't simply happen in the past – but it is something that happened with dynamic relevance and power for the present. The single requirement for this glorious salvation is faith. The single key to experiencing the power of the cross for your own soul is to believe it.

 The cross of Christ stands as the greatest display love in all the world in all the ages of time and eternity. “Greater love has no man than this, that he lays down his life for his friends.” Every person who trusts in Jesus can have these certain assurances. This is what Jesus has done for you. He gave himself for you. He gave himself to rescue you from the penalty of the law. He gave himself to purchase you for himself. He gave himself so that He could dwell within you. He gave himself so that you could eternally dwell with Him. He loved you and gave himself for you.

God has found a way to save sinners by sending us a substitute - someone who would be able to stand in our place as man. Someone who would be able to obey the law perfectly in our place, suffer the penalty of the law for us, and achieve , for us, the verdict of "righteous before God", all while we still struggle with sin. 

The core truth of the gospel, the exact thing that makes the gospel good news is the
declaration that sinners who deserve only judgment can be justified - declared legally
righteous and innocent before the court of God in heaven – NOT by works of the law, but
simply by faith in Christ Jesus. That’s the good news of the gospel.

Paul was commissioned directly by the Lord Jesus to preach the pure Gospel of grace. There is a connection between trusting the Bible's authority, and resting in the grace of the Gospel. Listen as Pastor Dale unpacks the freedom we find in listening to Christ, as we read the text of Galatians.