The Message that Changes Lives

The name Thomas Hamilton may not mean anything to you. But two weeks ago, a man named Thomas Hamilton walked into an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, pulled one of the four handguns he was carrying out of his pocket, and opened fire.

When he got done, sixteen five- and six-year old first graders, along with their teacher, lay dead in spreading pools of blood. Hamilton then turned the gun on himself and shot himself dead.

In an age when we’ve become pretty jaded and immune to the violence that we are exposed to day after day, Thomas Hamilton’s monstrous crime stood out for its cruelty and ferocity, because it was directed at innocent children.

I wonder, had he not killed himself, what kind of treatment Hamilton would have received at the hands of the police? I wonder what the people of Dunblane—not to mention the rest of the world—would have thought a fitting punishment for his crime? I wonder how long Hamilton would have lasted in a British jail?

And I wonder, if Thomas Hamilton were to walk in here today and ask forgiveness for his crime, how we—who name the name of Jesus—might receive him?

The answer to that question has a lot to do with whether we really understand the gospel of grace. Because the gospel of grace is a message that changes lives. But grace itself is a concept that is foreign to us.

We have begun to study the book of Galatians—a book that is about the good news of God’s grace. It was written by a man named Paul—a man who, like Thomas Hamilton, had innocent blood on his hands. But Paul’s life had been totally transformed by the good news of God’s grace, and that is the subject of our study today.

As you may remember from last week, Paul was writing to a community of new Christians in the Roman province of Galatia. Paul had preached the Gospel to them and planted churches there on his first missionary journey. But after he had passed through, other teachers—Jewish teachers from Jerusalem—had come into the region.

And these Jewish teachers—we call them Judaizers—taught the Galatians that Paul had not told them the whole story. He had not given them the “full” gospel. The Galatians, who were Gentiles, needed to adopt the Jewish law in order to truly be saved. Following Jesus Christ was all well and good, but they needed to begin to observe the dictates of the Law of Moses if they really wanted to be right with God. And so the Galatians, in their youthful Christian ignorance, began to do just that.

When Paul heard about it, he was horrified. He said “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all.”

He said “You Galatians, in turning to the Jewish Law, are in danger of abandoning the good news of God’s grace. You are turning your back, not only on the message that I brought to you, but on the one who called you by his grace.”

One of the reasons that the Galatians were having second thoughts about the simple message of grace that Paul had given them was that the Judaizers had successfully persuaded them that Paul himself was not a bona fide apostle. Paul didn’t have the credentials of the other apostles who lived in Jerusalem. He hadn’t walked and talked with Jesus. He was a latecomer to the game.

So his preaching and his message didn’t really have the authority, or the stature, of the Jerusalem apostles. In fact, the Judaizers intimated that whatever authority Paul did have, he got from the Jerusalem apostles. They commissioned him. They gave him his license to preach, so to speak.

So Paul wrote this next section of Galatians to correct those misconceptions. In verses 11–24 of chapter 1, he defends the message that he preached, and he also defends his right and authority to preach it as an apostle who was commissioned by Jesus Christ. Let’s examine how he does this:

First, in verses 11–12, he focuses on the message. Then, in verses 13–24, he focuses on the man who was changed by that message—namely, himself.

Galatians 1:11 I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.

Galatians 1:12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

The gospel of grace is not a message that man made up. It is not of human origin. Nor is it a tradition that Paul received or was taught by someone else. The Jewish people, over many years, built up around the OT Law a huge body of tradition. The Talmud, the Mishnah—volumes and volumes of interpretation and discussion and commentary by learned scholars and rabbis. At one time in his life, Paul devoted himself to those traditions. He studied under Rabbi Gamaliel in Jerusalem—one of the great Jewish teachers of the day.

Paul says in verse 14: “I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”

But the gospel of God’s grace is something different. It didn’t come from man. It is not something that Paul had received from a rabbi.

What the gospel IS is a message revealed by God. The word revealed is the Greek word “apokalupsis”. It comes from two smaller words “apo”, which means “off”; and “kalupto”, which means “to cover”. So apokalupsis means literally “to take the cover off” something.

When God gave the gospel of grace to Paul, he was taking the cover off something that had previously been hidden from view. He was unwrapping new truth, the way that you might unwrap a Christmas present.

Paul says in Ephesians 3 that the message of God’s grace was given to me—it was a mystery made known to me by revelation. It was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.

This message that Paul preached was not something that man came up with. It wasn’t the culmination or the pinnacle of man’s best religious thinking. It was something totally different, because it came from God. And it was totally hidden from man’s view until God revealed it in the NT through the apostles.

It is a message that communicates God’s grace. That’s what the gospel is—it is the good news of God’s grace.

When you stop to think about it, all of the religious thinking that man has come up with over the last few thousand years has nothing to do with grace. All of man’s religious efforts have focused on how to work your way into a right relationship with God. Follow these laws; practice these spiritual disciplines; pull yourself up by your bootstraps; get your act together and then you’ll be in good with God. And that has nothing to do with grace. That’s all performance.

But then along comes Jesus in the NT and says “No. If you’re going to have a relationship with God, it’s going to have to happen because God makes it happen. It’s going to have to happen by his grace, not by your merit.” And that’s the message that was revealed through Jesus Christ to the apostles. That’s the good news of God’s grace.

But that is a message that is hard for us to swallow. Because our pride makes us want to think that we can get in good with God because of something inherently good about ourselves. In fact, that’s what Paul was basing his whole life on before he met Jesus Christ.

He says “Hey Galatians! You don’t believe my gospel is from God? Well, just look at what the Gospel DOES in verses 13–24… It changes people’s lives. It certainly changed MY life!”

Galatians 1:13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

Paul’s life before Christ was characterized by three things—pride, performance, and prejudice, which he expressed by persecuting others. Now Paul was a very religious dude. As I said before, he had a top-notch theological education. He had studied under the best Jewish teachers. And he was at the top of his class.

You can see a little bit of that pride when he says “I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age…” He was a whiz-kid; a prodigy. He was conscious of his own performance as measured against other people.

Over in Philippians 3, he says “I got straight A’s on my religious report card:

• circumcised on the eighth day

• of the people of Israel

• of the tribe of Benjamin

• a Hebrew of Hebrews

• in regard to the law, a Pharisee (the Pharisees were kind of the “big kahunas” of their day in religious circles)

• as for legalistic righteousness, faultless

“I had all my ducks in a row. Was I zealous in my religious beliefs? Well, I made life pretty difficult for people of other religions. I persecuted the church.” In fact, here in Galatians, he says “I intensely persecuted the church”

Paul, by his own testimony, was responsible for the death of innocent men and women who happened to be Christians. His devotion led to their death.

Did you ever stop to think that this always seems to be the final outcome of human religion? The more fanatically religious a person is, the more intolerant that person becomes toward others, and the more willing that person becomes to kill others in the name of his religion.

Take modern day Israel for example. Israel is a nation where religion runs very close to the surface.

Not long ago, a fanatical Jewish settler, in the name of his religion, walked into a mosque in the city of Hebron and opened fire with a machine gun, killing dozens of Muslims at prayer.

Just weeks ago, several Islamic terrorists, in the name of their religion, strapped explosives to themselves and blew themselves and dozens of innocent bystanders to bloody bits.

And it’s not just between the Jews and the Muslims. Easter is getting closer and there will be many Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem at that time. One of the sacred sites they will visit is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is built over the place where Jesus was supposed to have been crucified and buried.

However that church is controlled by no less than four competing Christian groups—the Greek Orthodox, the Syrian Orthodox, the Armenian Orthodox, and the Egyptian Coptic Church. And a fifth group, the Ethiopian Orthodox, live on the roof of the church because the other four groups won’t let them inside. And these competing groups sometimes have come to blows over who is going to worship where in the church.

Man’s religions leads to pride, prejudice, and persecution. And that is what it had produced in Paul’s life before he met Christ.

But one day, as he was traveling to Damascus to round up some more Christians and haul them off to jail, Paul was stopped in his tracks. Listen to how he tells the people of Jerusalem what happened to him. You can follow along in Acts 22:3 if you like…

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.

“I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.

“About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’

”’ Who are you, Lord?’ I asked. ”’ I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.

”’ What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked. “‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’

Back in Galatians, Paul describes that meeting this way: “But… God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me”

Notice that there is a change in v. 15-16 from v. 13-14. Look at the pronouns. In verses 13-14, the pronouns are all “I, me, and my”. Human religion is a self-centered enterprise.

But in verses 15-16, the pronouns change. God becomes the subject. God is taking the initiative. God’s activity is in focus. And v. 15-16 talk about three things: God’s plan, God’s power, and God’s purpose.

1. God’s plan.

That meeting on the road to Damascus wasn’t a chance event. It had been foreordained in the sovereignty of God from eternity past. Paul said “God had set me apart from birth. God had his eye on me. God had plans for me.”

Did you ever stop to think that God has similar plans for you? Paul is not unique in that respect.

2. God’s power.

Many people come to Christ after a long period of spiritual searching, of doubt, of seeking the truth. Paul was not one of them. He wasn’t seeking spiritual truth because he was convinced he had already found it. He was fully engaged in the practice of his religion. He was even on a mission to defend that religion and attack Christianity.

Becoming a Christian was the last thing on Paul’s mind that day on the road to Damascus. That morning when he woke up, he would have laughed you to derision if you had suggested such a thing. And yet, by lunchtime (he said it happened about noon) his life had done a 180.

God’s power is so great that nobody, not even a Paul, is beyond his ability to reach.

3. God’s purpose.

Paul said “It was God’s pleasure to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles.” God always has a purpose in bringing us to himself. And that purpose is to reveal his Son in us. Remember that word “revealed” means to “take the cover off.”

The purpose of being saved, of being born again, is not simply to get a free pass to heaven when you die. It is that Christ might be revealed in you—might be formed in you—that others might see him in your life and want to know him too. Is that the purpose for which you are living today?

Jesus Christ gave Paul a special mission—to be his apostle to the Gentiles.

Paul got that assignment directly from Jesus. He didn’t get it from the other apostles in Jerusalem. Nobody ordained him, or commissioned him, or gave him a license to preach. He didn’t consult any of the church leaders about this mission.

In fact, immediately after his conversion, Paul spent the next three years of his life in Arabia and Damascus, as he says in v. 17. What he was doing there, we don’t exactly know. I’m sure that he spent much time in prayer and reflection on what had happened to him. I’m sure that he had to rethink his total understanding of the OT in light of the fact that he now knew that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah.

He did do some preaching in Damascus, as we know from Acts 9. In fact, the Jews became so angry about his preaching that they conspired to kill him, and he had to escape from the city by being lowered in a basket through an opening in the city wall late one night.

Then he went to Jerusalem, where the Christians were so afraid of him that they wanted to have nothing to do with him. Finally, Barnabas befriended him and took him to meet Peter and James.

But the reason that Paul relates all this to the Galatians, and the point he is trying to make, is that the Gospel of God’s grace had already totally changed his life, and he had already received his commission to be an apostle to the Gentiles, long before he ever met any of the other apostles in Jerusalem. He had been given that commission by God.

Paul’s life made an impact after he came to Christ. He tells us in v. 21…

Later I went to Syria and Cilicia. I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they praised God because of me.

We often think that Paul immediately became a missionary and set out on his first missionary journey. Not so. He spent many years back in his home town of Tarsus, which is in Cilicia. Years of preparation.

Two things about his life during this period. It was a period of personal obscurity. He says “I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea…” As far as they were concerned, Paul had disappeared.

They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they praised God because of me.

If you are living a changed life because of the gospel of grace, you might be very much in the background—your name may not be on everyone’s tongue—and you can be content with that. Yet, even so, your life will result in praise for God.

God had done a work of grace in the life of this man. And that made people excited, not about the man, but about the God who had done it.

Which gets us back to the Thomas Hamilton’s of the world. God delights in taking a man who, in human terms, is beyond forgiveness. What he has done is so despicable that human grace cannot possibly cover it. We cannot bear to think of letting such a man “off the hook”. And yet God’s grace can.

I don’t know whether Thomas Hamilton ever heard the gospel during his troubled 43 years. I do know that if he had lived long enough to repent and turn to Jesus for forgiveness, God would have accepted him.

I know that because I know that God has done it countless times before.

• He did it with Abraham, a man who—not once, but twice—gave his wife to another man to save his own neck.

• He did it with Jacob, a man who defrauded his own brother out of the blessing.

• He did it with David—a man who had one of his own loyal soldiers murdered so that he could marry the guy’s wife.

• He did it with Manasseh, a king who roasted his own sons alive at the feet of a pagan idol.

• He did it with Peter, a man who cursed and swore that he didn’t know Jesus.

• He did it with Paul, a man who made a career of killing Christians.

And he did it with me. And he did it with you.

And he did it because he is a God of grace. And the message of that grace is what we stand for. It’s a message that changes lives.