About four years ago I remember going through a study of Galatians with a couple of guys. One of them was a Messianic Jew. He was trying to explain to me the historic significance of this letter, and I just argued with him. I guess it was mostly because I didn't understand what I was reading. 

The light began to dawn when I got into a study of Romans by Donald Gray Barnhouse. Even then however, the light of grace had barely begun to trickle into my life. The full weight began to come with the failure of my first marriage, the death of my father, and subsequent losses in every area.  All that I had built my life upon came tumbling down. As I struggled with the hurt, anger, and rejection, the Lord began to talk to my wife and I about Grace. It seemed that no matter where we went we heard the same theme.

Finally, in a conference with James Ryle of Truth Works, I was shaken to the core as I came at last to learn a fundamental truth about what Grace really is.  He showed convincingly from the scriptures that Grace is not unmerited favor.   All my bumper sticker theology was out the window and another sacred cow died. 

The Epistle to the Galatians was written by the Apostle Paul. He had founded the church at Galatia in a powerful move of the Holy Spirit. After having left Galatia, there were Judaizers who moved in, and began to insist that Gentile Christians had to live by the Law of Moses, and be circumcised in addition to their faith in Jesus in order to be Christians. This laid great burdens upon the Gentile converts. The Apostle Paul was livid, calling this a false gospel, even a curse, and a kind of bewitching.  How can we finish in the flesh what God by His Spirit began?

So this letter is a stinging rebuke, a letter of love, and a deep insight into the heart of the Apostle as he expresses his frustration and anger. He finds it hard to believe that they would fall for this diversion from the truth. The bottom line is that our salvation is for freedom. It is begun in the Spirit, and completed in the Spirit. 

I believe that God is calling His church back to Grace. Phillip Yancey, in his book, What's So Amazing About Grace says that "Grace is the best gift that Christians have to offer the world. It is the one thing that separates the Christian faith from other belief systems. That somehow God would initiate the reconciliation of His created beings by allowing Himself to be sacrificed is beyond comprehension."

Could it be that Yancey was talking about Mercy, mistaking it for Grace?  Could it be that in missing the truth of what Grace is, maybe we don't even know what Mercy is either?  God knows that we really can be merciless to one another! God forgive us. Thank God for His mercy.  We all need it, and we all can receive it.  Having received His Mercy, we need to be merciful to one another.  How else can we do that apart from the empowering presence of God on your hearts and lives?

The series "Grace is the Place - Love is the best" focuses on Jesus and the writing of the Apostle Paul.  Come back to these pages often.  We will update them as the Life Courses study continues.