August 10, 2025

For You: Undeserved Grace | Galatians Part 1

Galatians 1:1–5

Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the brothers who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (ESV)

In this sermon on Galatians 1:1–5, Jed Gillis urges believers to move beyond treating theological words like “grace” as distant, fuzzy terms. Paul’s opening greeting is more than formality. It is a declaration that God’s grace is His active, undeserved favor toward those who trust in Him, not mere forgiveness or reluctant tolerance. This grace flows from the will of God the Father, demonstrated in Jesus giving Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age. True peace comes only from receiving this grace, which frees us from anxiety, performance-driven living, and the weight of failure. Paul reminds his readers that the gospel is not human in origin and cannot be replaced by self-help or moral effort. God’s favor is present now, not just in the past at the cross or in the future in heaven. When grasped, this grace leads to soul-rest and overflows in worship, shaping the believer’s life, growth, service, and fight against sin through ongoing reliance on God’s favor in Christ.

Transcript of For You: Undeserved Grace | Galatians Part 1

Theological Words Can Become Problematic Insulation

Jed Gillis: Galatians chapter one. As we begin looking at this book, I, I want you to think about some of the words you just sang. We just sang about grace. We just sang about forgiveness. We just sang about wonder. We sang about faith. I wonder sometimes if we separate ourselves from the power of those words.

It's almost as if we have these theological terms and we have a fuzzy idea of what it is, but it's like if you have an electrical cable, there's insulation on the outside, there's a cable on the inside that actually transmits power, and sometimes I'm afraid, the theological words we use becomes insulation, and we don't feel the power of what we are actually saying.

We take a word like grace and we add other theological words to it, and we say justification by grace alone through faith alone. And we all nod our heads and say, yes. But I wonder if it has the impact it's supposed to have on our daily experience.

We need these ideas that protect us from error when we come to scripture. Yes, but it's a shame if we have all the right theological words and we never feel the power of grace in our lives.

Perhaps we start thinking, well, I know I need the gospel and I hear these theological words, but that's not what I need. I just need something practical for my life. I want to tell you, as we look at Galatians, God doesn't divide his word into theology and practical tips. He says, if you know me, that's the most practical thing you can know. That transforms who you are.

The problem isn't that we have too much theology. The problem is that our theological terms are only insulation with no power in the middle.

And if we come to the book of Galatians as if it's like a theological debate for academics, we're gonna miss the point. That's not what Paul is writing for. Paul is instead embarking on a rescue mission for people that he loves. And you can hear it in his heart as you go through the book.

He's saying the gospel has come to save you, to deliver you. And he's talking to people he knows are exhausted by sin in this world and in their hearts, and people who are addicted to their own performance as a way to solve that problem.

Paul says, you need something and it's not theological terms that you can put on your bookshelf and leave there gathering dust. You need to know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Reading Galatians 1:1-5

Jed Gillis: So I wanna read the beginning of the book, starting in verse one. Paul an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia. Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever, and God's people said? Amen.

Paul's Message Isn't Human

Jed Gillis: Who's this message from? He starts, he says, Paul an apostle. He's a commissioned one. He's an authoritative spokesman. He's not coming saying, I've got some ideas you could take or leave him. He's coming saying, this is from God. I'm an apostle. But his message isn't human in either of two ways. The source isn't human. It's not from men. And it didn't come to him through man.

He says, it's not like some man came and told me this. He says, if you know Paul's story, he's riding along the road and God shines a bright light on him and knocks him off his horse. That'd gets your attention fast. He says, well, I don't know who you are, but you're not just a mere human. Says whatever message you want me to deliver, I'm listening.

Paul says, I didn't come with a gospel that came from humans. They're not the source of this message, and they're also not the means the way it got to me. Instead, the source is God the father, and the means is Jesus Christ, who has revealed God the father in Paul's life, who has commissioned him.

Paul's Message is True Peace vs. Conterfeit Peace

Jed Gillis: In his book, Paul's gonna talk about peace for your soul. He's gonna talk about counterfeit offers of peace. He's gonna talk about living out what you believe. He's gonna talk about the pointlessness of trying to justify yourself.

Now, if you go look on TikTok or Facebook or online, or if you can find a bookstore, you could look there too. And you will find a million human suggestions for how to have peace, how to live out what you really believe, how to get over the pointlessness of justifying yourself. He says you, you can find all of those things. Humans will suggest ways to deal with the burden of trying to be good enough. But Paul's gonna tell us in this book is that if it's merely from a human, it won't really solve the problem with your soul.

He starts out and he says, what I am bringing to you is not from humans. It's not a human derived message. It's from God.

Grace to You, and Peace

Jed Gillis: So what is his message? But we'll continue looking at it through the book, but here at the beginning when he greets them. Which might seem like a kind of standard biblical greeting. He says, oh, grace to you and peace. We almost might skim past it as if it's an extended version of Dear Galatians here, I'm writing.

But that's not all Paul's doing. Paul's going to summarize the core of the Christian message. He's gonna tell you the power of the gospel, and he starts with grace to you.

What is Grace?

Jed Gillis: So let's take a minute on that word, grace, because we don't want it just to be theological insulation a term we have vague, fuzzy feelings about that doesn't do anything.

What is grace? Maybe you've heard an acronym. God's Riches at Christ's Expense. Maybe you've heard people describe Grace that way. That's good. What's that mean for your life, like today? What's that mean?

Or maybe you've heard this definition. Grace's unmerited favor. Or undeserved favor. It's a good definition. I want you to ask yourself, do I really live like that's what I think grace is?

Maybe we actually live like this. We define it as grace is unmerited forgiveness. Well, it is that it's, it includes that. God forgives me of my sin so I don't have to have eternal consequences. Good. Praise God for that.

But I think a lot of times we think that's what Grace is, and then we think, but God's really unhappy with me right now. He doesn't like me very much, or he doesn't show much favor.

Grace is Unmerited Favor

Jed Gillis: So if grace is unmerited or undeserved favor, not just unmerited or undeserved forgiveness, my response to God is going to be different. There is power in that. If it's just forgiveness, I may have gratitude, but it doesn't drive me to worship the same way that unmerited favor does.

Or maybe you say, no, I got those two words. I know undeserved favor. I know it's not forgiveness. Here's what happens in my soul. Sometimes I hear that definition as grace is Unmarried favor. I got the unmerited part. I didn't deserve it. Yeah, I know. I know what I did this week. I, but really favor?

Sometimes in my soul, it feels more like grace's unmerited tolerance. There's never a moment God merely tolerates his children because he's a God of grace, of undeserved favor.

Do we really believe it's favor? Like the same place This word is used other situations when the angel comes to Mary. Don't be afraid for you have found favor with God, grace. That's the word that's translated there as favor.

When you read that passage and you say, yeah, God's showing this great favor to Mary right there. Do you realize he shows you grace like that?

Or when Luke writes of Jesus, Jesus grew and became strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God was upon him. That's literally the same word, the grace of God.

I say, well, that was Jesus. I mean, of course he had the favor of God, but the good news of the gospel is that the Father doesn't relate to me through me. It's because Jesus came and gave his righteousness for me. So if God shows grace, favor to Jesus, that's the same grace he shows you as his child.

So unless you think the father merely tolerated the Son at that moment. Then the Father is not merely tolerating us.

Or John One says The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory. Glory as of the only son from the Father full of grace, favor, and truth. And in case we missed it from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. More and more favor for the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

When Paul starts with grace to you, he is not saying you have undeserved forgiveness or undeserved tolerance. He's saying God has favor towards all who trust in him and not unmerited favor. I think if anything, it's good for us to go the other direction and say it's unmerited favor.

Grace means that God is for you. There's nothing more powerful than that. We can take grace and have a big, fuzzy theological term, but no, Paul drives you further and says, what does it mean for your life? That you don't have to perform and measure up for God to decide he is for you.

That grace says, despite your failings this week or this morning, and despite the ones you don't know about yet coming this week, God is the God of grace towards all who trust in him.

Peace From God's Grace

Jed Gillis: What does that grace give you? Maybe you notice, maybe you didn't, when Paul started here, he doesn't say like he does in other letters, sum of letters, grace and peace to you. It's translated carefully here in the ESV and some of the, the translations grace to you and peace.

In other words, he's saying the foundational thing you need to know is that the grace, the undeserved favor of God is coming to you. And if you receive that, what you receive with it is peace.

To know God is for you, truly is to receive rest in your soul. That's Paul's desire in this book that God's grace would come to these people and we'll see all the things they're struggling with throughout the book. God's grace will come to them and that they would have rest. Paul's calling for them and for you to have the kind of rest in your soul that will free you from the sin that seems to drag you down over and over. I'm talking about the ones you hate and can't seem to beat.

Paul is calling you to come to the kind of rest that will free your soul. He longs for them to have the kind of rest that protects them from anxiety and burnout. Have you ever been in those places?

Paul says, the grace of God is what you need so that you have this rest. He longs for them to have the kind of rest that removes the crushing weight of not being good enough.

Depending on how you're wired, maybe you feel that more than some others. He says, you need the grace of God. He calls you to that kind of grace. He calls all of us to take refuge in him, to rest in him, and to have total confidence in his favor.

Now, think about the outrageousness of what I just said, that I would stand here and tell you that because my trust is in Jesus Christ and all my boast is in Jesus because that's my trust. I have total confidence in favor. From the almighty, all worthy God who is infinite in every way.

That's not insulation around your power cord. If you grasp that, that is the electricity that Paul wants to bring to them to transform their lives.

God's not just a bigger, better version of us. You see, we can imagine, oh, I could forgive people, so therefore God's grace can be unmerited, forgiveness. I can understand he's bigger and better than I am. I can tolerate people when they've done bad things to me. So God's grace can be unmerited tolerance, like we understand that we can wrap our minds around it and try to put it in a little box.

When you start saying, no, grace means God shows genuine, undeserved favor to all who trust in him. Even when they fail, we say, I know I would really struggle with that.

That's because Paul wants them to see God isn't a bigger, better version of us. He's something wholly worthy of worship. So he says Grace to you, and as you see that grace you find rest.

I want to encourage you when you feel like you don't measure up. Because if we're honest, we all get there. When you feel like I'm not a good enough wife or husband or mother or father or son or daughter or brother or sister or cousin or friend or bible study leader or teacher or student. When you feel like you don't make enough money, like you always say the wrong thing. Like your friends desert you. When you know you messed up and you feel the weight of that. Rest in God's favor for those who trust in him.

You say, well, I, I can't do that. I know I'm not, I didn't measure up. That's why it's called grace. That's the whole point. It's not something that you deserved. So God calls you to bask in his grace and have rest in your soul.

Now, if it's gonna have that kind of impact, it can't be just a sloppy theological, fuzzy feeling. We have to know. We're talking about unmerited favor, undeserved favor from God.

How Do We Know His Grace and Peace are Real?

Jed Gillis: So where do we have confidence in that kind of grace? How do we sit here and know that's, you know, great inspirational talk. Thanks Pastor Jed. I'm gonna go about with my life. No, no. How do we know that's real? He goes on in verse four. Grace to you and peace from the one who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.

He starts with, he gave himself, if something is undeserved or unmerited, it must be a gift. It must be given. And for you to show favor to someone, you have to show that you value them somehow. Right? Well, how did he do that? That's where Paul starts. He gave a gift. He gave the most valuable gift he could: himself.

He showed his favor. He showed that it was unmerited because he gave himself for our sins. Jesus did not give himself for my righteousnesses. He didn't give himself because I measured up. In fact, it's exactly the opposite. He gave himself because we didn't measure up. He gave himself for our sins to deliver us.

I want you to note carefully the connection here. He gave himself as past tense. That's something that happened when he lived on this earth and died for us to deliver us. It is not future.

In other words, Paul's message is not. He gave himself in the past, and if you trusted him one day, you'll find heaven and in between good luck. That's not his message at all. No. His point is. You need the grace of God. How do you have confidence in that grace? You look back and see the biggest demonstration of grace that's ever been seen on Earth and that is Jesus died for your sins, and you say, just like Paul does in Romans, if he did that for me while I was his enemy, while I hadn't done anything good to deserve it, if he did that, I can rest in his undeserved favor now.

Don't live your Christian life with great ideas about the past, and a great hope for the future, and no power from the gospel right now. Paul drives them and says, no grace. Yes, it has a root in the past. Yes, it gives you a hope in the future, but it's to deliver right now from the bondage of this present age.

So when you feel the weight of your repeated battles against sin, because you do feel that weight, when you feel that weight Jesus gave me to deliver me from that bondage. He gave himself to deliver me. When you feel that you failed enough, that everybody around you looks at you with suspicion, when you feel that you failed enough, that you say, I understand why they don't approve of me. I don't really approve of myself. You look to the grace of God that Jesus gave himself for you, to deliver you. Not to leave you there. To deliver you.

When you feel the exhaustion of trying to perform well enough to be approved, you say, but I'm not approved because of me. I'm approved because of Jesus. And Paul continues. Not only did he give himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, it's according to the will of our God and Father.

Nobody forces God to do anything. God did not give himself for you because he felt like he had to. He didn't tolerate you. He said, I'm going to pour out my love for you.

Think of the story of the prodigal son. When the prodigal son comes back, does the father go, well, I hate what you're doing, but I guess I'll forgive you. No. Does the father just tolerate the prodigal son? No. He pours out love on him. He celebrates him. He kisses him before he even gives his speech, right?

This is not against the will of our God and Father. This is absolutely according to the will of our God and Father that he pours out favor on you in giving himself for your sins.

I've said it, but I wanna go back because I think we get so stuck here. The message Paul is giving the Galatians is not that God did have favor for us on the cross and will in heaven, but in between he just tolerates us. The message Paul is giving them is that God's undeserved favor towards you was demonstrated on the cross, is true right now for those who trust in Jesus Christ, and will be perfectly fulfilled in the future. His favor towards you.

It's hard 'cause we see our failings day after day, but think about it. All those failings that are right in front of your eyes, God knew of them when he stepped to the cross. You say, I didn't think I would fail like this. Jesus knew it when he bore your sins on the cross. It's not new news to him.

Why Is It Hard to Feel God's Grace and Peace?

Jed Gillis: Paul's whole argument in Galatians is, if you started your life with God this way, by grace through faith, why are you now pursuing it in a different way? His whole point is the way you started is the way you're going to finish. So why do we feel like that? Why is it so hard to say God shows favor to me as his child today?

I think at least in my heart, it's usually because I'm not good enough at that moment for me. I know my failings and I think I should have been better than that. I don't even look and say I have favor towards me, so how on earth could God have favor towards me?

He's already demonstrated more favor because you've never died on the cross for your sins, but he did. He's not a bigger, better version of us. He's the God who pours out undeserved grace because that's who he is.

I think we don't measure up for ourselves and we're so addicted to tying our sense of wellbeing or approval to, to my performance that God knew the only way to rescue us from that, 'cause it's bondage the only way to rescue us from that was to sever the connection between what I do and the favor I received from him.

And he did that on the cross. He yelled out from the cross that our approval is not tied to our performance, but to his. That it is well with my soul because God pours out his favor on me through Jesus. And if he showed us that kind of favor, how will he not freely give us all things?

If we get this, if we see the grace of God and our souls rest, well what happens? Exactly what Paul does, going into verse five, to whom be the glory forever and ever, it's worship.

Did you know? This is the only place that's right. This is the only place in Paul's letters where he puts a doxology like that at the end of a greeting. He puts it all over the place in his letters place at the end of a greeting. That's 'cause he said a whole lot more than Dear Galatians.

He summarized the Christian message and in the shortest way he can describe the power of the gospel, the pattern of reality that God shows grace to you so your soul can rest and you have confidence in that because of the cross so you can worship. And the more we worship, we circle back in amazement and say the one who deserves glory forever and ever and ever. That's the same one who shows you undeserved favor.

The one who deserves all glory and honor and blessing, and might is the one who looks at you and says, come to me and trust, and I pour my favor out on you.

Does Your Life Reflect God's Grace?

Jed Gillis: So I want you to ask yourself this week, today. Does your life match that pattern? Do you feel worship overflowing like you want it to? I don't always. Perhaps you're trying to find rest for your soul somewhere

else. That's why it doesn't overflow in worship. You're distracted by your anxiety looking to entertainment or productivity or relationships or pleasure to say, I can rest in that. You'll find it doesn't deserve your worship. And you'll find your heart doesn't overflow with worship towards God while you experience this unrest because you won't take refuge in the one who loves you.

Do you feel that rest in your soul? You say, I don't know about worship. Let's back up. Do you feel that rest in your soul? Or is your soul tormented and tossed about by failing, after failing, after failing by things you tried to do that were good, but you go, they're imperfect. By fearful thoughts that rob you of your rest or the the chronic feeling that I'm just not good enough.

If you struggle to find rest for your soul, go one step further back in Paul's chain and say, does Grace really have the impact that it should in my life? Or is that word just a theological cliche?

Do I remember that it's more than forgiveness. Do I remember that it's more than tolerance. Do I remember that it is undeserved. Favor.

Maybe Grace has never had that impact in your life. If so, God calls you to let it have that impact for the first time today, to trust him, and turn from chasing anything else for rest in your soul and say, I rest only in the favor of God through Jesus who died for my sins.

Maybe it has had that impact in your life. The message of Galatians is God still calls you to grace to find rest and to respond in worship.

Take these questions this week, sit with your father and ask him to show you anything that would rob rest from your soul. Anything that would turn you from worship, any misunderstanding of his grace, 'cause your father has favor towards you and he wants to work that in your life.

Paul's message is not just that you're saved by grace. It's that you stay saved by grace. It's that you grow by grace. It's that you serve by grace. It's that you fight sin by grace. Because your soul can find rest in his grace.

The good news is you are not enough, but Jesus is and his favor is enough to give your soul rest. So rest in him this week. I'll invite you to close your eyes to respond to our Father, and then we'll sing and thank him for his grace.