· Galatians
Galatians 3:1–29; Genesis 15:6; Hebrews 11:1
Ever started something strong but couldn't keep it up? Pastor Max Lyons opens with a humbling workout fail and shows how it mirrors the Galatian churches, who began in faith and drifted into performance. Walking through Galatians 3, he traces how Abraham was counted righteous simply for believing, how Christ became a curse to redeem us, and why the law reveals sin but cannot fix it. God doesn't ask you to earn His love; He invites you to receive it.
Key takeaways
- Abraham was declared righteous because he believed God, not because of his behavior or heritage, and that has always been God's way of justifying people.
- Faith does more than declare you righteous; it transforms your identity, so your mistakes no longer define who you are.
- Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, paying a debt we could never pay ourselves.
- The law is good, but like a mirror it was designed to reveal sin, not to fix it; only grace can do that.
- In Christ, old labels, divisions, and barriers lose their power to divide, because we are all one family through faith.
Message notes
Starting well is not the same as finishing well
Pastor Max opens with the story of working out with his parents, who were in their sixties at the time. Determined not to let them beat him, he went full speed for about two and a half minutes before hitting a wall, getting lapped by grandparents, and passing out in the car on the way home. He started well but did not finish well, and that is exactly what Paul addresses in Galatians: churches that started so well and got off track.
The background to Galatians
Paul planted churches in Galatia, in modern-day Turkey, preaching that God saves us because He is good, not because we are good. After he left, Judaizers taught that following Jesus also required circumcision and keeping the law. The Judaizers were focused on human achievement, Paul on divine accomplishment. In Galatians 3:1 Paul drops his usual warm greeting for "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?" They received the Spirit by faith, yet had switched over to performance. Pastor Max is honest that this is a 2025 problem too: we give our lives to Jesus and then quietly build a works-based routine. He admits he wrestles with it as a pastor and has to remind himself that God loved him before Elan Church ever started. Serving God is a get-to, not a have-to. That is the difference between legalism and grace.
Abraham believed, and it was counted as righteousness
Paul reaches back 430 years before Moses to Genesis 15:6. God promised Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars, and Abraham simply said amen, the Hebrew word behind believe. No grand gesture, no performance. Abraham was not Jewish, not circumcised, and came from a pagan city, yet God counted him righteous because he believed. Faith also transforms identity, which is why God renames Jacob, Simon, and Abram. You will still make mistakes, but that does not mean you are a mistake. Pastor Max explains justification as a courtroom verdict and quotes Habakkuk 2: the righteous shall live by faith.
Christ became a curse to redeem us
Deuteronomy says anyone who fails to keep the whole law is cursed, and anyone hung on a tree is cursed. Every one of us has fallen short. Jesus, the only person who was not cursed, chose to hang on a tree and become cursed in our place. Paul deliberately uses the slave-market word redeemed: when someone paid off a debt a slave could not pay, that person was the redeemer. The gospel is a promise we receive, not a contract we fulfill.
What the law is for
Pastor Max cautions against teaching that the law is bad; Jesus came to fulfill it, and Paul calls it holy and good. But it was never meant to give life. He tells of Montana's old "reasonable and prudent" speed limit and a driver whose ticket was dismissed because there was no clear standard. The law gives us a clear standard and shows how far we fall short. Borrowing Juliet's mirror, he shows that a mirror can reveal salad in your teeth but cannot remove it. The law reveals; grace fixes. Grace does not say do this and live; it says believe this and live.
One family in Christ
Against a common Jewish prayer thanking God for not making a man a Gentile, a slave, or a woman, Paul declares that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. The distinctions still exist, but they no longer divide or determine our standing before God. Pastor Max tells of his four-year-old son Levi flooding the bathroom and the basement ceiling below it. Levi was not kicked out of the family, because he is their son; they love him because of who he is, not because of his behavior. Imagine a child doing chores so he would not be kicked out. That is how many Christians live toward God.
613 things or one thing
In a closing exercise, Pastor Max asks everyone to change 613 things about their appearance, then just one. The Old Testament contains 613 laws, and keeping them all at once is impossible. The mandate in Jesus is not to juggle 613 things but to focus on the one thing God did, receive it, and let everything else flow from there. God doesn't ask you to earn His love. He invites you to receive it.
