Worship Preparation Guide for Sunday, March 20

Sermon Text: Galatians 2: 11-20

Worship Songs include: Wonderful Merciful Savior, And Can it Be That I Should Gain, The Power of the Cross, I Will Glory in My Redeemer

I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

114 bulls, 37 rams, 1063 lambs and 32 goats.  1,246 animals.  That’s how many sacrifices were required annually under the Old Covenant that was established in the Old Testament.  That does not include the Jewish leap year that had an extra 30 days.  Nor does it include all the personal sacrifices required of individual Israelites that were made up of Burnt Offerings, Sin/Trespass Offerings and Peace Offerings.  The total numbers are staggering.  The burden was staggering. 

It was meant to be staggering so that the sinner would be keenly aware of the depth of sin, the cost of sin, and the reality that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin” (Heb.  9:22).  

Each Sunday that we gather for worship we look to the cross.  This Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, we will do that again through the eyes of Paul and Peter.  Paul and Cephas (Peter) grew up under the Jewish law and sacrificial system.  They knew the impossible burden of it.  They also knew and trusted Jesus as the Messiah, the One who fulfilled that legal burden and provided the righteousness that was the basis of their standing before God.  Yet in Galatians 2 we find a confrontation between Paul and Peter that reminded Peter and us of the constant battle we face with legalism and self-sufficiency, and the constant need we have to rest in the gospel and walk in the reality of the cross. 

How can you and I stand before God accepted by Him (justified)?  The issue in Galatians 2 is whether or not faith in Christ is enough.  Is something else necessary?  Some in Paul’s day (and many today) said “yes, believe in Christ; and then obey the laws of God, and then salvation will be the result. 

The gospel reverses this order.  The gospel says trust in Christ and salvation is the result.  Through faith in Christ alone we are accepted and reconciled to God.  Then out of a transformed heart flows joyful obedience.  Your acceptance before God can never be based on how well you obey him or on what you accomplish for Him.  Instead our acceptance before God is based on what He has done for us in Christ.  “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” (Galatians 2:16)

This truth is should constantly amaze us and fill us with gratitude.  It amazed Charles Wesley.  He wrote the hymn And Can It Be to declare the truth we will examine this week. 

And can it be that I should gain 

An interest in the Savior’s blood?

Died He for me, who caused His pain— 

For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love! How can it be, 

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

No condemnation now I dread; 

Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;

Alive in Him, my living Head, 

And clothed in righteousness divine,

Bold I approach the eternal throne, 

And claim the crown, through Christ my own.