Weekly Sermon of
Fr. Dave Johnson

 Episcopal Church of the Resurrection 

“Living Under Grace” (Galatians 3:23-28) 

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June 22, 2025 

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In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

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Several years ago, I visited Graceland, the home of the legendary Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee. Elvis was larger than life. Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, not far from where the country and gospel music from the Appalachian Mountains and blues music from the Mississippi Delta, merged into rock ‘n roll. Over a billion Elvis records have been sold. Elvis had over 150 gold albums or singles. In the museum at Graceland there is an enormous wall where all these gold records hang, and it is overwhelming. 

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Paul Simon took the title of his 1986 Grammy winning album Graceland from a visit he made there with his young son, as he sang in the title track: 

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I’m going to Graceland, Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee 

I’m going to Graceland 

Poor boys and pilgrims with families and we are going to Graceland 

My traveling companion is nine years old, 

He is the child of my first marriage 

But I’ve reason to believe we both will be received in Graceland 

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The good news of the gospel is through faith Jesus Christ you have be received in Graceland, the Kingdom of God. Living under grace through faith impacts everything, as Paul wrote in today’s passage from his Letter to the Galatians: 

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Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:23-28).

 

Paul wrote his Letter to the Galatians to address a very significant issue in the early church, the role of the Old Testament law in light of the New Testament gospel of God’s grace. The churches in the region of Galatia, which is modern day Turkey, were wrestling with a question that impacts the entire trajectory of the Christian life: Is the New Testament grace of God enough or do you need to keep the Old Testament law too? Many Christians at the churches in Galatia had converted from Judaism to Christianity and were insisting that yes, as Christians you still need to keep the Old Testament law. In other words, God’s grace needed to be supplemented by keeping the law. 

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But the Apostle Paul would have none of this. For him, when it came to the Christian life the grace of God in Jesus Christ was and is enough. Paul minced no words about this, as he wrote earlier in his Letter to the Galatians: 

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I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ (Galatians 1:6-7). 

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There is no nuance here. When it comes to the Christian life, God’s grace is more than enough. Paul emphasized this again later in this letter: 

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We have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law...I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing (Galatians 2:16, 21). 

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You have heard of the expression “fallen from grace”--it is from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. Many think to be “fallen from grace” means that when you sin, or fail, or are a hypocrite, etc. that you have “fallen from grace.” That is not the gospel. The gospel is that God gives you grace no matter what, because God is a God of grace, and you have been received in Graceland. Rather, to be “fallen from grace” refers to putting your faith in keeping the law, rather than putting your faith in Jesus Christ and what he already did on the cross. Paul put it this way: “You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4). Yikes.

 

Again, when it comes to the Christian life, God’s grace is enough. God’s grace supersedes the law; God’s grace transcends everything. Scripture tells us that “the law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17), and that “you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14). 

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In the New Testament baptism replaced Old Testament circumcision as the sign of God’s covenant. Grace replaced the law. When you are baptized, you receive what St. Augustine called “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace”, you are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, and you are changed from being under the law to being under grace. The postbaptismal prayer in The Book of Common Prayer, which we will pray later in this service, states: “Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon these your servants the forgiveness of sin, and have raised them to the new life of grace” (308). In other words, God’s grace means you have been received in Graceland, the Kingdom of God, the Church. 

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It is the grace of God that saves you, not keeping the law--as Paul wrote in his Letter to the Ephesians, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). We respond to God’s grace by faith, trust. 

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And again, as Paul wrote in today’s passage, “You are all children of God through faith…you have clothed yourselves with Christ…all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Do believe this? Do you believe you are not under the law but under grace? Lest you think this is all esoteric theology with no bearing on your actual life, bear with me. Living under the law is very different from living under grace. 

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Living under the law means you are always trying to justify yourself, always trying to be accepted, always trying to measure up. Living under the law means you are always trying to prove yourself to others, even God, especially God. Living under the law means you have to win. Living under the law leads to one of two places: hypocrisy or despair. People who think they are doing well living under the law are hypocritical, living a double life, under the constant fear of being found out. People who try to live under the law and see their failure to do so can sink into despair. Neither hypocrisy nor despair give life. Living under the law is exhausting, a dead end. It will not work. It cannot work. 

 

Again, as Paul writes, “if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” Did Christ die for nothing? Do you think Jesus’ death on the cross was not enough for you? Do you think you can supplement God’s grace with your efforts to keep the law? Do you think God’s grace isn’t enough for you? 

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The good news of the gospel is that God’s grace in Jesus Christ is enough for you, more than enough. In his last book All is Grace, the late Brennan Manning put it this way, “My message, unchanged for more than fifty years, is this: God loves unconditionally as you are and not as you should be, because nobody is as they should be. It is the message of grace” (192). 

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The gospel means that instead of living under the law you can live “the new life of grace.” Living under grace means you are fully aware that you a sinner, but you trust in God’s forgiveness. Living under grace enables you to forgive others more readily when they sin against you. Living under grace may even enable you to forgive yourself. Living under grace means you don’t have to prove yourself to anybody because God already proved his love for you in that while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you (Romans 5:8). Living under grace means you know you are accepted by God as you are, and you can begin in turn accept others as they are and even accept yourself as you are. 

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Living under grace means you do not always have to be right, and you do not always have to win. Living under grace means you no longer must justify yourself because Jesus has already justified you through his death and resurrection. Living under grace means you can be who you actually are, that you can remove the mask of hypocrisy and toss it away. Living under grace replaces the despair that comes from trusting in yourself with the hope that comes from trusting in God. 

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God’s grace transcends categories and connects with the whole world, including you. In his death on the cross Jesus fulfilled the law for you, and in his resurrection, Jesus raised you to the new life of grace. This grace is for everyone, for Jew and Greek, for male and female, for “poor boys and pilgrims with families” and for you today. You are invited to the new life of grace, because you have already been received in Graceland. 

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Amen.