Immediately upon studying it and expounding it, Martin Luther drafted his 95 theses and the Protestant Reformation was born. Throughout the centuries the Book of Galatians has been the touchstone of radical change in the church of Jesus Christ. And no change was more dramatic than what happened in the 1730s when a small band of believers got together and began seeking God for revival and renewal in the Christian Church in Great Britain and around the world.
It’s said that when William Holland got his hands on Martin Luther’s preface to his commentary on the Book of Galatians and read it, he gave it to Charles Wesley to read. After they had both read it individually, they began to read it aloud to each other. Holland says:
“There came such a power over me that I cannot well describe it. My great burden fell off in an instant. My heart was so filled with love and peace that I burst into tears. I almost thought I saw our Savior. My companions seeing me so affected, fell on their knees and prayed. And afterwards when I went into the street, I scarcely thought I could feel the ground I trod upon.”
Every night, thereafter, he took Luther’s preface to someone else’s house and said, “Let me read this to you.”
Walter Marshall, in his book, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, rightly says, “By nature, you are completely addicted to a legal method of salvation. Even after you become a Christian by believing the Gospel, your heart is still addicted to salvation by works...You find it hard to believe that you should get any blessing before you work for it.” It’s epidemic!
And that’s the beauty of Galatians. It’s all Gospel. It’s the Holy Spirit’s antidote to religion and our self-dependence. It’s the antidote to slavish obedience predicated on our own merit.
Retired Reformed Theological Seminary professor, Dr. Douglas Kelly once said, “If you want to make people mad, preach the law. If you want to make them really, really mad, preach grace.”
Right on! The law offends us because it tells us what to do—most of the time we hate being told what to do. But grace offends us even more, because grace tells us that there’s nothing we can do - that everything has already been done by someone other than us. If there’s something we hate more than being told what to do, it’s being told that we can’t do anything, that we can’t earn anything—that we are helpless, weak, and needy. And that’s exactly what the Gospel tells us!
The Gospel tells us it’s all Jesus. It’s all grace. It’s all we need every day, and Galatians reminds us of that in a powerful way. I can’t wait to dig in with you and ask the Lord for another great awakening.
