The Contribution of Christ to Our Salvation

But it's good to see all of you here today. I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter one. We just recently started a series of, verse by verse study series through the book of Galatians, and we've spent the last two Sundays introducing the book and just looking at some broad themes, in the book by way of introduction. And today, we are going to begin.

Our verse by verse study and after much thought, I decided that the best place to begin. would be in chapter one, verse one. And, we'll be, hopefully Lord willing, looking at verses 1 through 5 this morning and the title of the message is the contribution of Christ to our Salvation, the contribution of Christ to our salvation, and we get that, theme primarily in verses 34, and 5, which is where we're going to spend most of our time, but we will take a quick glance at verses 1 and 2.

Looking at Paul's salutation at the beginning of this letter, the contribution of Christ to our salvation.

let me start this way. Back in 2003, there was a man in his twenties that started attending Cornerstone. He was not a believer. In fact, he was a pagan in the technical sense of the term.

He believed in being in tune with and harnessing the powers of nature. In fact, this guy was a witch. not a black witch but a white witch. His, his goal was to live in harmony with the powers of nature and to use those powers for the good of other people.

So that was his theology as he started coming to Cornerstone, and I had the opportunity to share the gospel with him on one occasion just in detail at the end of which he very respectfully said, I just, I don't know, I I need to think about that, and he clearly was not ready to receive Christ. Other people in our church family had, been sharing Christ, with him also. and we had even challenged him to read through the Gospel of John and just try to get acquainted with Jesus and just open your heart to whatever God might want to do through, his word as you read that.

And so he was doing that.

And then on November 9th of 2003, on a Wednesday night, I was here. for Ina and I was just in front of the modular building, and this man came up to me and shook my hand and said, Hey, Pastor Milton, I said, hello. The very next words out of his mouth were, so Pastor, what do I need to do to be saved? I've never had anyone come up to me and ask me that question that bluntly before, and so my response was, Are you serious?

And And he said, Yes, I am. And I said, you want to know now? He said, yes. So, I took him down to my office, and we closed the door of my office, and I told him what he needed to do to be saved, and there in my office, he accepted Christ as his savior.

Yeah, praise God for His goodness. I, I know the date that it happened because while we were in my office, and he was accepting Christ, there was a total lunar eclipse taking place at exactly that moment. And so I went on the NASA website. To track down when that lunar eclipse took place and that's how I know it was November 9th, 2003.

So I don't know of anyone else that has ever been saved during a total lunar eclipse, but this guy who was really into harnessing the powers of nature, really in tune with that. I just find it just oddly significant that during that moment he was bowing his knees. To the Lord Jesus Christ and asking him to be his Lord and Savior. He continues to attend our church.

In fact, you guys see him most every Sunday. he's usually wearing a Chicago Bears jersey, but he just walked in right now, Jeff Van Savage. So, That was not orchestrated at all, but thank you, Jeff for Coming in when you did, But that question that you see on the screen behind me, the question that essentially Jeff Van Savage asked me on that occasion a few years ago, is the most important question that anyone can ever ask. There are people who live and die and never ask this question, and if you don't ask this question, and you do not get an answer to this question, then you are under God's judgment for all of eternity.

If you ask this question, as some do, but you answer it wrongly and then abide by that wrong answer, you experience God's judgment forever in the lake of fire. You must ask this question in one way or another, and you must get a right answer to this question. And then you must abide by that right answer in order to avoid God's eternal wrath and to experience fellowship with Him in His presence, forever. This question What must I do to be saved?

is essentially the question over which the Galatian churches were stumbling. Now real quickly, let me, say something about salvation. When we talk about being saved. just understand that there's 3 aspects to, salvation.

These are all 3 of these things are organically connected to one another. but, we need to understand them separately and not get them confused. There's 3 aspects of salvation. Number 1 is justification.

This is something that happens at a moment of time when a person is declared as righteous before God. This is not a process. in fact, the moment a person believes in Jesus, they are instantly justified, declared righteous before God, and they are as justified as they're ever going to be. All right, that's justification.

And actually, it's this aspect of salvation, primarily over which the Galatians were stumbling. It, the question was, how or what must I do to be justified? That's essentially the question that they were getting a wrong answer to. And beginning to answer wrongly for themselves.

And then secondly, there is sanctification, and this is the process part of our salvation where we grow in holiness. For example, on the day that I was saved many years ago, I was instantly justified, and I was as justified on that day as I am today. That hasn't changed at all, OK. but sanctification, I'm a lot more sanctified today than I was on the day that I came to know the Lord, and I sure hope I'm a lot more sanctified 10 years from now than I am today.

And I know you hope that for me as well, but sanctification is a process. It is the process of growing in holiness, becoming more and more holy, more like Christ in our lives from day to day. And then the last stage of salvation is glorification. This is instantaneous also.

And this is really what completes the sanctification process when we see Christ in His glory and especially on the day of resurrection when our bodies, our glorified bodies are joined with our souls and seeing Christ in all of His glory, we are instantly, when we are in His presence, made completely spotless, holy, righteous, glorified in every way, shape and form, and the presence of sin in our members that plagues us so from day to day will be completely removed. Isn't that going to be awesome.

Now, these are some big words, but don't let them scare you because they're really awesome. justification happens in an instant.

Sanctification is a process. Glorification happens in an instant when we stand before Christ and we become like Him because we see Him. As he is and are fully glorified for all of eternity. Now there's a lot in Galatians that affects sanctification.

We're going to learn a lot about that, but for our purposes this morning, understand that the primary issue that the Galatian churches were getting messed up on was the issue of justification. How can a person become Righteous before God. How can a person be saved in that justification sense before God? What must a person do?

Well, we saw that there were people during the first century who were Jews, and who were, preaching a different gospel, and that gospel was We find it in Acts 15:1, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. And their point is, unless you, in addition to believing in Jesus, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be justified. You cannot be righteous before God. And so there were many who were believing this, and, quasi-Christian people who claim to be Christians who were saying that you had to be circumcised in order to be justified, and it is very evident that these people had crept into the Galatian congregations and were saying the same thing.

The Galatians, who at one point were putting all of their trust in Jesus, are now saying to themselves, Well, maybe, maybe we should get circumcised just to be on the safe side. Or maybe I really am not saved by just believing in Jesus and trusting in His finished work. Maybe I need, in addition to that, to be circumcised and to maybe do a few other things. And if I do that, then I will truly be justified and be saved.

And so Paul wants to address this confusion in this letter, and he addresses it at the very beginning. By taking the Galatians focus and turning their focus to Jesus, saying, before we even talk about what you should or should not do in order to be saved, just stop. And look at Jesus. And look at his contribution to your salvation.

And guys, we're going to see that if we just take the time to think upon and gaze upon Christ's contribution to our salvation, we will see how laughably unnecessary any other contribution from us or anyone else would ever be. Now we'll begin looking at that in verse 3 real quickly, guys. Let's take a look at verses 1 and 2. Who wrote this letter?

Paul. That's how he begins the letter. Back in this day when they wrote letters, normally the first word that they would write is the name of the person who's writing the letter. Today we put our name last.

Back then they would put it first so that the readers would know who the letter is from. So he says, Paul, an apostle. In other words, I am an official authoritative representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says, not sent from men, nor through the agency of men, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead.

I'm just struck by Paul's defensive tone right off the bat. You can tell that he's on edge and he's got his guns loaded, and he's been attacked. His apostleship has been attacked, and he's basically saying, Hi, I'm the apostle Paul, and I'm not sent from men nor through the agency of man. And it's like, Whoa, just, in the very first verse, he's already speaking that way.

And so we have an idea just from that what we're in for in this letter, he says, I was not commissioned as an apostle by men. no other apostle or no other human being commissioned me to be an apostle, nor was I commissioned by Jesus through the agency of man. It's not like, yeah, Christ indirectly commissioned me, but he did so because some other human beings laid their hands on me and said, Christ hereby commissioned you. No, I was not commissioned from men, nor through the agency.

of man, but directly through Jesus Christ. And you read Acts 9, and Paul's retelling of that story later in Acts, you learn that Paul was on the Damascus road. He was on the road to Damascus to persecute some more Christians. The risen Christ appeared before Paul, essentially blinded him, but Jesus confronted him.

Why are you persecuting me? And and essentially called Paul into a ministry of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. Jesus himself did that. That was Paul's commissioning right at that moment, and Jesus did it himself and spoke the words of commission himself.

And so look what Paul says, But through Jesus Christ, and then he says, and God the Father who raised him from the dead. So God raised him from the dead, and then the risen Christ appeared to me. So this is something that Jesus Christ and the Father participated in. So that's what I trace my commissioning back to.

Those of you that look down on my commissioning as an apostle, just understand I was commissioned directly by the risen Christ with the approval of God the Father who raised him from the dead. Verse 2, and all the brethren who are with me. I'm not writing this letter in isolation or sitting by myself, but there are many brethren who are gathered with me, not only physically, but even theologically. I write this letter even on their behalf.

We are in agreement, in unity on the truths that I am going to convey in this letter. And then he says at the end of verse 2 to the churches of Galatia. Now, on the screen behind me is just a little map I drew. And The area that you see, primarily is a map of modern day Turkey, and then there's a white square with rounded corners, and that's generally the area where the churches of Galatia were that Paul is writing this letter to.

And if I could just tell you a little bit on Paul's first missionary journey, this is where these churches were planted. You can read about this in Acts 13 and beyond. Paul, and Barnabas, they leave, the Church of Antioch, and, then they travel through the Mediterranean Sea to the island of Cyprus and then they come into the southern part of modern day Turkey. And they end up traveling up to a place called Antioch.

It's not the same Antioch as the church from which they were sent, but it's Posidian Antioch. They go up into Antioch and Paul begins to preach and this, this Jewish synagogues there, and a lot of Jews are interested. A lot of Gentiles are interested in this gospel message of you can be righteous and be saved by just believing and you don't need to be circumcised and so forth. So he preaches this gospel.

And things seemed to be going well until we learned that there were Jews who became insanely jealous. And they hated the message of the gospel that Paul was preaching because they didn't like the fact that Gentiles could, I've been eating kosher food all my life and washing my hands and doing all these sacrifices and making my pilgrimages to Jerusalem, and you're telling me that this pagan Gentile can just believe in Jesus and become righteous in a moment, and I'm not righteous.

Based on my performance, so they hated his message, and we learned in the Book of Acts that they drove Paul and Barnabas not just out of the city but out of the district. So out of the city and out of the county.

And so Paul then says, Well, let's go on to Iconium. So they travel to Iconium and they do the same thing. They go into the synagogues and they're also preaching to the Gentiles and things seem to go well at the very beginning. But then again, the Jews hate this message and they stir up the people against Paul and Barnabas and they hatch a plot to stone them.

And so once Paul and Barnabas catch wind of this plot to stone them. They figure it's time to leave Iconium. So they leave Iconium and they come into Lystra, but when they get into Lystra, a few things happen there. But then we learn in the book of Acts that Jews from Antioch and Iconium had left those cities and came into Lystra, and they stirred up the people against Paul and Barnabas.

And by the time all the dust settled, Paul gets stoned, dragged out of the city, and left for dead. Paul is lying there and the brethren are standing around him, no doubt praying for him. Paul then just gets up. And says, what, let's go to Derby.

So they then go to Derby and they, they continue preaching the gospel there. And after they had spent a little bit of time in Derby, Paul said, amazingly, let's go back to Lystra and check on the believers there. So they go back to Lystra. And then back to Iconium, then back to Antioch, and then they began making their way back to their sending church.

So that's how these Galatian congregations became established and founded. But just from what I've told you, and all of this is found in the Book of Acts. It's not surprising if sometime later we read in the book of Galatians. That There was a Judaizing message.

We already see how offensive the gospel was to the Jewish community, so I think we can understand at least the temptation of the Galatians to say, what, Maybe, maybe we can give a little ground here. This is really making people angry. Let's, if we just maybe add circumcision, we can keep everything else and it won't be so offensive anymore. And there were Judaizers.

There were people who had totally embraced this message of salvation by faith in Christ plus circumcision. And they had come into the Galatian congregations and were preaching this message, and many of the Galatians were beginning to steer away from the true gospel. And so Paul writes this letter. Look at verse 3 real quickly.

He says, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Just in a nutshell, Paul is saying, guys, I sincerely desire God's very best for you. And I don't just desire that for you, but I am now going to write you a letter and make an investment in you, because I want you to experience God's grace and peace, and I want to be an instrument of that. Sometimes it's just good for us to stop and imagine how messed up a church like this and a group of churches like this really was at the time.

And if you were Paul, what would you have done? What would you have done with churches like the Galatian churches, moving away from the gospel? They're biting and devouring one another. We learned in Galatians 5.

what would you have done with a church like the Corinthian church? These are believers that many of us would have just pulled away from and said, what, I don't want anything to do with these people. Paul, however, steps towards such people. And says, I want God's very best for you, and I'm not just going to say that.

I'm going to write a letter. I'm going to speak to you. I'm going to appeal to you. I'm going to love you.

I'm going to be an active participant. In this process of being an instrument through which you can experience God's grace and God's peace, and we need to learn the same lesson. Rather than running from people when we see their flaws and imperfections and their spiritual immaturities and even their sin and their compromises, instead of running away from them, let's run to them and let us show the love of Christ to them. And be an example or follow Paul's example in doing exactly what he does towards the Galatians.

But now, having looked at that, what I want to do is look at seven truths regarding Christ's contribution to our salvation. If you are here today and you're wondering what should I do to be saved, if you just understand these very simple. 7 truths that we find in verses 3 through 5, you will know without me even telling you what you need to do in order to be saved. I will tell you at the end, but you won't even really hardly need for me to do that.

It will be so self-evident if you are a believer and yet you find yourself this, this impulse to contribute something. You're standing with God, and all of us have that impulse in us. And you want some truths that can just quench that and just lay that impulse to rest. These 7 truths will quench that that proud desire in us to contribute something to our salvation, even if it's just 1%.

Understanding these 7 truths will show us very clearly how laughably unnecessary. Any contribution on our part to our salvation really is. In fact, listen to what one commentator says about verses 3 through 5. He says it's hard to imagine a statement better calculated to oppose any intrusion of the will or supposed merits of man in the matter of attaining salvation, and this is how Paul starts his letter.

OK, let's read this. He says in verse two, and all the brethren who are with me to the churches of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who speaking of Christ, gave himself for our sins. So that he might rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

7 truths just from these few verses that we can observe regarding Christ's contribution to our salvation. Truth number 1, Christ gave. Christ gave. He contributed something to our salvation.

Now, when we see here, what's interesting is in the body of the letter itself, the very first verb in the Greek text is gave. And the subject of that verb is Christ. Christ gave. That's how theologically the body of the letter begins.

To these people who are looking at themselves and contemplating their contribution to their own salvation, Paul says, let's start this way Christ. G Think about that. Christ gave, we needed to be saved. A contribution needed to be made towards our salvation.

And Christ made a contribution. And, and his willingness to contribute towards the salvation of us who are rebel sinners. It shows his gracious generosity, but it also demonstrates our bankruptcy, right? Christ only gave because he saw that we had nothing to give.

And so he gave a contribution to our salvation. We had nothing, not even the smallest contribution to offer towards our salvation. So Christ made that contribution for us. He gave.

Paul is talking to a group of people trying to make a contribution to their own salvation, trying to give something towards their salvation. And Paul is saying, Christ already beat you to it. All right, you're trying to give? Christ gave.

All right, the donation has already been made. Christ has already been given. He has already made the contribution that needed to be made. The debt that needed to be paid as a result of your sin, it's already paid, already paid, and Christ, paid that debt.

Christ gave towards our salvation. Now, the more amazing truth is what he gave. Christ gave himself. Look at verse 3.

Who Christ gave, what did he give? Himself Christ looks at us and our lostness and says something must be given for them to be saved. They can't give it. No one else can give it, so I will be.

The one who gives and what will I give? I will give myself. If we just could see that. With the eyes of our heart.

We would be blown away. By what he gave. And we would never again ever even contemplate the need for us to contribute something in addition to that. Christ Who is infinitely holy, infinitely righteous, infinitely pure, infinitely good, infinitely loving.

He is infinitely all the things. that we are not And Christ gave himself. As a contribution to our own salvation. If we can master that reality, Here's what we would think, or here's what we would never think.

No one understanding who Christ is, and looking at that contribution, would then say, what, I need to, need to give something a little extra to supplement where this has fallen short. This is why it's actually blasphemous. To ever think we can add to our justification, to ever think that we can contribute something, that we look at Christ. And then we're going to supplement that.

He's given himself, and we think that, well, if I were circumcised, all right, then that, that would guarantee that that's, that is a huge statement against the infinite glory of what Christ has contributed. Christ gave. And he gave Himself To these Galatians that are They've taken their eyes off of Jesus and they're racking their brains trying to think what can I contribute. Paul is like, Hey, hey, this is where you've gotten off the beaten path.

Come back to Christ. And look You needed to be saved. Something needed to be given. You could not give it.

Christ gave, and what He gave was Himself Ponder. That. Not only did Christ give Himself But he gave himself for our sins. Verse 4, who Christ gave Himself for.

Our sins. This alerts us to the fact that we are sinners. That because of our sin we were in a lost state needing salvation that we could not earn for ourselves because we have violated the law of God. And I don't know about you guys, but I have at times when I've preached the gospel to myself, I have at times just gone through the 10 Commandments and to see how I have measured up against just those 10 commandments, and I will confess to you that I have countless times violated either.

The letter or the spirit of every one of God's 10 commandments. I am 0 for 10. Seriously, the first one, thou shalt have no other gods before me. Have I ever put anything in front of God?

Countless times. Don't make any graven image. Have I ever taken taken something Of this earth and prized it more than I have God Himself. times without number.

Thou shalt not bear false witness. Have I ever lied times without number and I've been caught almost every single time that I did that. I used to think as a kid whenever I'd lie that a big L would show up on my forehead because my parents always knew. that I was, I was lying and I could never understand how they knew until I had my own children, and you can just observe that as a parent.

On and on the list can go. Thou shalt not murder. I've never physically killed anybody, but I've hated people. I've been angry with people, and Jesus and the apostle John say, if you've ever hated someone or been angry against them, you have committed murder.

And on and on the list can go. You can look at all 10 of the commandments of God, and I have violated every one of them times without number. I am 0 for 10. I stand 100% condemned under the law of God, and so does everyone in this room.

Our sins are not just a little problem either. Many people go, yeah, sin, but who hasn't? People who talk that way have not stopped to consider the one they've sinned against. You measure the greatness of a crime by the standard of the one against whom the crime has been committed.

God is infinitely holy and righteous and good. And every sin that we have committed is against Him. Therefore, every sin is infinitely as bad as God is infinitely good and glorious. And that is why the only fitting punishment for our infinitely bad sins is an infinite punishment in the lake of fire that goes on forever and ever and ever.

We are sinners condemned under the law of God. And for us to think we can earn our own salvation would be like someone who has committed many acts of murder, who tries to do little good deeds so that he won't be a murderer anymore. No, he's committed the acts. He is and forever will be a murderer.

We have sinned. God broken His law. We stand guilty under the law of God. There was nothing we could do to save ourselves or even to make the smallest contribution to our own salvation.

So in our helplessness, Christ looked upon us and said, I want you to be saved, so I will give. Myself for your sins. And what this passage is really saying is that Christ sacrificed Himself. He gave Himself up in death for our sins.

In chapter 3, verse 13, it says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. Christ was on the cross, and the Bible tells us that while he was on the cross, He who knew no sin, who never committed any sin, became sin for us. And so our sins were placed upon Him. The wrath of God fell upon Jesus for the sins that we have committed, and they fell on Him who never committed any sins.

He never deserved to die, but he died as our substitute and in our place. He gave Himself over in death for our sins so that we might be saved. Now that fact alone, should tell you something about your bankruptcy. Christ would only do this.

If indeed we could contribute nothing of our own. to say, well, I can get to heaven on my own good works. In fact, I was listening to one preacher, an activist preacher in our country who said at the end of our lives, God looks at the box scores using a baseball analogy. He looks at the box scores and he looks at our good deeds and our bad deeds, and if our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds, then he will accept us into heaven.

If we could get into heaven that way. Why would Christ do this? We're we're really A blasphemously assaulting his wisdom. Well, thank you very much for doing this, but I don't need it.

I can get to heaven this way. Christ would only do this if it were absolutely necessary. God would only slaughter His Son. If it were absolutely necessary for our salvation.

One commentator says, with this passage, so serious is the breach between us and God caused by our sins that nothing less than the substitutionary atoning death of God's Son can reconcile us to the Father. It was the only thing that could save us. And Christ said, I will give. A contribution to the salvation of these sinners.

What I will contribute is myself, and I will give myself up in death for their sins. I will pay the price for their sins. Now why did he do this? Truth number 4.

From this passage, Christ gave Himself. To rescue us from this present evil age, He gave Himself to rescue us from this present evil age. It says in verse 4, who Christ gave Himself for our sins, so that here was his goal. He might rescue us or save us from this present evil age.

Now the present evil age is not Necessarily this decade. In fact, the age that is being spoken of is the age that began with the sin of Adam and Eve and extends through today. since Adam and Eve committed the first sin and we sinned in Adam. And partaking of that forbidden fruit, this present evil age began, an age in which we have sin inside of us, sinful desires inside of us.

We have the ongoing presence of sin, warring against the good of our souls that we have to deal with every day. Also this present age is character. is by spiritual forces of wickedness that are in the heavenly places that are plotting and scheming and exerting enormous power to lead people astray and blind them to the glory of God so that they don't see God's glory and only see their own glory and live for their own glory rather than God. God's glory and that lifestyle leads them straight to eternal judgment in hell forever.

This present age is evil age is characterized also by the influence of all other human beings who are walking outside of Christ, who are exerting influences for evil in the lives of their fellow men. So this present evil age is characterized by evil coming from within us, coming from above us, exerting down on us by the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. And also by the evil around us that without even thinking we grew up and we walked without even making a decision.

Hardly we just walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience.

makes you want to get out of it, doesn't it? Just to think about it that way. Well, Christ gave himself for our sins so that he might deliver us from this present evil age. What that means at the least is that, by the way, the Bible teaches this present evil age is a sinking ship.

It's on its way out. OK, it's fading away even now, not it will fade away. It is right now in the process of fading away. And, Christ will deliver us.

He will save us from this present evil age, and trillions of eons after this present evil age has sunk and disappeared, we will still be existing in the presence of God and giving praise to Him forever and ever. In addition to that, this passage does not just mean to rescue out of, but it also means to deliver from the power of. Even now, while we live inside of this present evil age, Christ died for our sins. He gave Himself for our sins so that we would be delivered from the power of sin that is within us and above us and around us, and we can walk in righteousness and holiness.

Never believe as a Christian that you have to sin. The devil will tell you, Oh, you have to do this. You've done it thousands of times, and you are not going to be able to resist this temptation. You're going to give in like you have so many times before, and we just believe him.

All he's got to do is say boo, and we're like, Oh, and we just, we crumble into sin because we believe his lies rather than believing the gospel truth that Christ died so that we would be released from the power of sin. That characterizes this evil age. I would also encourage all of you, including myself, that the next time you are enjoying evil in a moment of weakness and being entertained by evil to stop and think, somebody died so that I would be delivered from this. And I'm trampling all over this sacrifice in my lust.

To be enjoying this thing for which Christ died that I would be delivered from. Truth number 4, Christ gave himself to rescue us from this present evil age. Truth number 5, Christ gave himself to save us according to the desire, or the will of God. Christ gave himself to save us according to the desire.

of God, the Father. That's Paul's point. Look what he says in verse 4, who gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from this present evil age according to the will. Of our God and Father.

This adds a dimension to the gospel. If Paul didn't say this, we might think, OK, so this was all Christ's idea. Boy, Jesus really loves us, and now the Father loves us because of what Christ did for us. That's not the biblical picture.

The biblical picture is that this is God's idea. This is our Father's idea. It was the Father's will. It was his desire that His Son come into the world and live a perfect life and then die a death he did not deserve to die on the cross, to die for our sins so that we would be delivered.

This was all the desire of the Father from the outset. When Jesus was on earth in John 6, he says, I came not to do my own will, but the will of the Father. That's what I'm here to do. I'm here to do what my Heavenly Father wants me to do, and what that led him to the cross.

In fact, under the shadow of the cross, almost Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, just hours away from his death. And he is balking at this fate that awaits him. And as he prays, he says, Father, if it be possible, let this cup be removed from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will be done.

Well, guess what? It was the Father's will that Christ die so that we might be saved. In fact, we learned in Isaiah 53, a most startling statement. The Father was pleased to crush him.

He was pleased to crush him. And to put him to grief. Why? The father derived no pleasure.

In the suffering of his son itself, but the father was pleased to Allow this to happen, knowing that he would raise his son from the dead on the 3rd day, seat him at his own right hand, a place of unimaginable eternal glory, and then through that death and resurrection, God would be able to now bring deliverance and salvation and forgiveness of sins to hundreds of millions of people. Who will now be with him forever. This is the desire of God. So God the Father does not love us because Christ died.

Christ died. Because God loved us so much that He sent Christ into the world to die so that the Father would be able to save us through Him. So if you're wondering what the will of God is, the desire of God with regard to you, His desire is that you embrace His Son, that you experience salvation and deliverance. And if you understand that all of this is the desire of God, you will never live in any doubt.

Of the love of God, the Father for you. Many times, again, we hear lies whispered in our ear. God doesn't love you. He doesn't love you.

Maybe he did love you, but he doesn't love you today, not after what you did this morning. He doesn't love you today. His love for you has ceased. Or yes, God loves you, but not as much as other people.

And he's loving you less and less and less each day as you keep messing up. You ever heard those lies before? Am I the only one? OK, well, I'll just preach to myself here.

No, but look, you want proof that God loves you, Romans 5:8, But God demonstrates present tense, present tense. God is demonstrating today his own love towards us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died past tense for us. Don't lose the sense of the tenses there. If you come to God today and say, God, the Father, all these lies are coming at me.

Do you love me today? God would say, I will give you the one ongoing demonstration that proves to you that I love you today, and that is 2000 years ago I gave my son to die for you. That proves I love you today. Not just that I loved you 2000 years ago or a year ago, but that is your proof every single day that I love you.

God demonstrates is continually demonstrating His love toward us through what he sent Christ to do on the cross. And understand when we speak of the will of God, don't think of something mechanical. The will of God is that we be saved. You need to understand that there's emotions on the part of our Heavenly Father with regard to that.

When you really want something to happen, and then it's happening, you feel joy in that and pleasure in seeing your will come to pass. Ephesians 1, we actually see this emotion. God predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. By the way, I say verse 8 there.

I think that's verse 4. Let me check. No, it's verse 5. It's Ephesians 1:5, so you can correct that.

He predestined us to adoption of sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, gathering us to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. why the Father saved us? Because it pleasured Him to do so. if you ask the Father why did you save Milton, he would say, because it pleasured me.

To do this. And then not only that, verse 9, he made known to us the mystery of His will, which is another way of saying the gospel. He made known to us the gospel according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him. Go back in your mind to the first time you heard the gospel.

And I don't know what you thought of it. You might have thought, Whoa, this is amazing. I want to believe right now. Or maybe you were like, I need to think about this.

But when you first heard the gospel from somebody, and you were beginning to comprehend it, Go back to that moment, and now imagine what was going on in the heart of your Heavenly Father. He was like, oh, there's pleasure. He's like, they're, they're understanding this. I'm opening their minds to understand this, and he was just ecstatic.

So pleasured to open your mind. He was like, if, if they, if they lay hold of this and I open their mind to understand it, it's going to blow them away. And so with pleasure, he opened your mind to understand the gospel and with pleasure, even before you were born, before the world was created, before the foundations of the world were laid, God predestined you to be His son and daughter, and he did so because it pleasured Him. To do that.

So you go back to Galatians. Christ gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from this present evil age according to the desire, the will, Of our God And Father Who is pleasured to see these things come to pass in your life. Truth number 6. That goes to explaining why Christ gave Himself is Christ gave Himself so that grace and peace might come to us from Himself and the Father.

Christ gave Himself towards our salvation so that in an ongoing way grace and peace might come to us continuously from Himself and the Father. Notice the grammatical. here verse 3, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself. Paul attaches what he's about to say to the notion of grace and peace coming to them.

So we then understand that Paul in verse 3 is not just saying this is my own heart's desire for you. He's now saying this is the heart of Christ. And your Heavenly Father for you. In fact, Christ wanted you.

I want you to experience grace and peace so much that I came to your city a while back and I preached the gospel to you. I want you to experience God's grace and peace so much that I'm now writing this letter so as to contribute to that end. Christ wanted you to experience God's grace and peace so much that He gave Himself in death. So that you could experience this grace and peace.

What is grace and peace biblically? Well, grace means ill-deserved favor. I love explaining what this word means. it means ill-deserved favor.

It doesn't just mean favor, but it means undeserved favor. And it doesn't just mean undeserved favor, but ill-deserved favor. It is a favor from God that not only have we failed to earn, but a favor, in spite of the fact that we've earned. The opposite.

That's what grace is. It is a favor that comes from God to us that we enjoy day by day and all of the provision and bounty that comes with that from God to us that not only have we not earned. But that comes to us in spite of the fact that we earned the opposite. We earned his judgment and His wrath, but he's withheld that wrath from us, and He gives us grace.

This is insane. It's a scandal of justice, but it's true. This is God's message to us. Also peace, which speaks of wholeness, not only individually in our hearts, but wholeness in relationships, prosperity, spiritual prosperity, freedom from sin, and just a genuine peace between us and God and the enjoyment of that peace in our hearts.

Christ wants us daily to experience this gracious favor and all of the bounty from God and from Himself. He wanted us to experience this so much that He gave Himself over in death, according to the will and the desire of his Father, who wanted this for us also. There's a 7th and final truth. That we can infer from these first few verses regarding Christ's contribution to our salvation, and that is that Christ gave himself so that God would be glorified forever.

Christ gave himself so that God would be glorified forever. Look at verse 4. Christ gave himself for our sins, so that he might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

Literally ages and ages, to whom be the glory for ages and ages. Amen. See, when Christ died, He, how do I say this? Let me say it this way, many times we can talk unwittingly as if we are the end of the gospel, that it's all about us.

in fact, there's a song that's a really good song in a lot of ways, but, there's a line in a song that says, he, Christ took the fall. And thought of me above all. OK, now I think we understand what the writer means by that, and on a certain level that is, that is true. But on the deepest of levels, he wasn't thinking of me above all.

I'm not the end of the gospel. More than me, Christ was thinking of His Father. Above all, and wanted to glorify his Father. In fact, in the Gospel of John, he even says so that the world may know that I love the Father.

And then he begins to speak of what he's going to do in moving towards and stepping towards his death, Christ died so that the world would know that he loves not just us, but his Father, and ultimately, his passion and surrendering his life and death for our salvation was that the Father would Be glorified Christ died, that he would receive glory and the salvation that we experience. And what, realizing that I am not the end of the gospel, but that God's glory is actually frees me up personally to embrace the gospel with greater passion than I would ever be willing to do otherwise.

Because when my timid heart is saying, man, Milton, you're so unworthy. So how can you enjoy?

blessing from God, and I'm wanting to shrink away from it because I feel unworthy. It's in those moments where I realize, what, it's not about me. In fact, Christ saved me. God chose to save me precisely because I am so unworthy.

And so I will take what is mine by the grace of God, and glorify the grace of God in the process. Sometimes I'd like to go through this exercise. I go to God and I say, Father, why would you save me? the chief of sinners, the worst sinner that I know.

Why would you save one so unworthy as I am? And the father replies by saying, I chose to save you, Milton, because you make my grace look really good. And I laugh when I imagine him saying that, and then I say to the Father, that makes perfect sense to me. And so I will take what is mine through Christ so that He in His grace would be glorified, and this was the ultimate mission.

Of Jesus. So what must I do to be saved? Well, Payment's been made. The donation has been offered.

Christ already gave himself for your sins to rescue you and deliver you, so that God would be glorified. And so if you really understand that, you would be thinking, well, what in the world is even left for me to do? I was ready to contribute and keep a notebook of my good deeds and, and try to offer something, but I see that everything's already been done. So what is left for me to do?

what, I'll just give you The, the answer of Paul and Silas to the Philippian jailer in Acts 16, the jailer comes to them, falls at their feet and says, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They said, and this is the only thing left for us to do. Believe, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. In other words, just understand that you were totally bankrupt, that you could never contribute anything to your justification.

Christ has done it all, and just look to him and believe in him as your Lord and Savior, and you will be justified. You will be saved. Guys, when we take time to see the infinite beauty and the perfection of Christ's contribution to our salvation, We are in that moment cured. of that impulse.

To contribute anything in addition to that, to our salvation. The whole reason the Galatians were in the trouble they were in is because they had taken their eyes off of Jesus and his contribution. And now in the darkness they're beginning to look at their own contribution and it actually seems compelling to them. And Paul says, Hey, I know how to fix this.

Let's start the letter this way. Turn your heads And look at Jesus. Just, just stare at him. Christ gave Himself For our sins.

that he might rescue us. From this present evil age. According to the desire of our God and Father. To whom be the glory forever.

And all God's people said, Amen. Let's pray together. Lord, teach us to look to Jesus. To look to him above all.

As long as our eyes are fixed on Him, Lord. We see the ravishing beauty of the gospel. And, and we see how homely any other gospel is. They're downright homely, that people would say, no, this is how you get to heaven.

You've got to do this, you've got to do that, and our own tainted good works. How does that compare to this ravishing gospel? And Lord, I believe that's why Paul starts the letter this way. And then with this fresh in his mind, the very next words out of his mouth are, I am amazed.

I am amazed that you would be deserting this God. How can you walk away from this gospel? For anything else, which is homely in comparison. So Lord, just fix our gaze upon you and on the true gospel.

And upon Christ's contribution to our salvation. And may we walk in the enjoyment of what he has contributed, and experience the grace and the peace that is ours every day by virtue of what he has purchased for us. And in so doing, may we glorify you. And we just give ourselves to you, Lord, and we embrace this gospel, in the name of Jesus.

And all God's people said,