Good behavior becomes a bad thing when accompanied with wrong belief.

Legalism: is about me Gospel: is about Jesus

Legalism: is about me Gospel: is about Jesus Legalism: what I do Gospel: what Jesus has done

Legalism: is about me Gospel: is about Jesus Legalism: what I do Gospel: what Jesus has done Legalism: my works Gospel: resting in the finished work of Jesus

Legalism: pride or despair Gospel: humble joy

Run, John, and work, the law commands, Yet finds me neither feet nor hands, But sweeter news the gospel brings, It bids me fly and gives me wings! -- John Berridge (1716–1793)

15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 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.

17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.

20 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. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. -- GALATIANS 2:15-21

"Justification by faith is the hinge upon which everything turns." -- John Calvin

“The doctrine by which the church stands or falls.” -- Martin Luther

“Wherefore this doctrine can never be taught, urged, and repeated enough. If this doctrine be lost, then is also the whole knowledge of truth, life and salvation lost and gone. It is also the principle article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consists.

Most necessary it is therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.” -- Martin Luther, A Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians [London: James Clarke, 1953], 101).

The gracious act of God…

The gracious act of God… by which God declares…

The gracious act of God… by which God declares…a sinner…

The gracious act of God… by which God declares…a sinner…righteous…

The gracious act of God… by which God declares…a sinner…righteous… in Jesus Christ

Question: How are you righteous before God?

Answer: Only by true faith in Jesus Christ

In spite of the fact that my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God, and have not kept any one of them, and that I am still ever prone to all that is evil, nevertheless, God, without any merit of my own…

…out of pure grace, grants me the benefits of the perfect expiation of Christ, imputing to me his righteousness and holiness as if I had never committed a single sin or had ever been sinful, having fulfilled myself all the obedience which Christ has carried out for me, if only I accept such favor with a trusting heart. Question #60 – Heidelberg Catechism

“God delights in you – not a better version of you”

Through faith we are accepted before God

Through faith we are alive to God!

We are in mind and meditation to consider Christ crucified: and first, we are to believe that he was crucified for us. This being done, we must go yet further, and as it were spread ourselves on the cross of Christ, believing and withal beholding ourselves crucified with Him. - William Perkins

Thus by the age of nineteen, I had been reduced to a state of complete exhaustion spiritually, until I felt that there was no point going on.

Then, one night in November, that year, just at midnight, I got down on my knees before God, and I just wept in sheer despair. I said, "Oh, God, I know that I am saved. I love Jesus Christ. I am perfectly convinced that I am converted. With all my heart I have wanted to serve Thee. I have tried to my uttermost and I am a hopeless failure." That night things happened.

I can honestly say that I had never once heard from the lips of men the message that came to me then but God, that night simply focused upon me the Bible message of Christ Who Is Our Life.

The Lord seemed to make plain to me that night, through my tears of bitterness: 'You see, for seven years, with utmost sincerity, you have been trying to live for Me, on My behalf, the life that I have been waiting for seven years to live through you. I got up the next morning to an entirely different Christian life. - Ian Thomas

And honest, the god of so many Christians I meet is a god who is too small for me. Because he is not the God of the Word, he is not the God revealed by it in Jesus Christ who this moment comes right to your seat and says, “I have a word for you. I know your whole life story. I know every skeleton in your closet.

I know every moment of sin, shame, dishonesty and degraded love that has darkened your past. Right now I know your shallow faith, your feeble prayer life, your inconsistent discipleship. And my word is this: I dare you to trust that I love you just as you are, and not as you should be. Because you’re never going to be as you should be.” – Brennan Manning