Can someone who has done terrible things really be changed by God?
WATCH
Transformed, 2 of 3 from April 26, 2026
“The best evidence of the Gospel is a transformed life.”
Galatians 1:11-2:10 by Ryan Gagnon (@RyGagnon)
SUMMARY
This sermon teaches from Galatians that salvation is through Jesus alone, with nothing we can add to earn it. Pastor Ryan contrasts the world’s pressure to make us conform with Jesus’ power to truly transform our lives, calling believers to show the reality of the gospel through a changed life that points others to Him.
REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
💬 How has Jesus used you to point someone to Him this week?
💬 How do you celebrate yours and other’s transformed lives?
💬 In what ways are you conforming, are you transformed?
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Um, we're going to continue our series Transformed this this morning. But I have a question for you first. What is that?
Sausage McMuffin. Okay, show of hands. Who likes McMuffins?
Oh, come on.
One more time. Who likes McMuffins?
McDonald's made $27 billion last year. More people than that hand made like McMuffins. But they go through five and a half million eggs a day. That's crazy. So why would I show you a picture of a McMuffin?
Do any of your eggs at home that you've ever made look like that?
Why? Fake eggs, okay?
Oh, what? They're not cooked in a mold, okay? So if you guys have ever seen this before, what they do is they have a little mold, and then they crack the egg and they pour the egg into the mold, and then it makes the egg that weird circular thing that people eat. And we go, okay, I guess, Right? Like, that's what the mold does.
So why am I talking to you about a big muffin? Why am I making you think about food when you should be thinking about Jesus right now? Here's the why we learned last week in this series. Pastor Michael took us back to Romans, chapter 12, and he read a verse to us, and that verse was, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God and what is good and acceptable and perfect. We learned that Jesus doesn't manipulate us.
He transforms us from the inside out. Would you say that's a manipulated egg? That's definitely a manipulated egg, right? That egg has conformed to the mold that it was put into. And just want to propose an idea.
That's what humanity is. We are in a broken world that is not operating the way that it was designed to operate. Sin came in, and once that sin perverted everything, messed up everything, introduced the even idea of death. And now each of us is cracked and poured into a mold. And many people that we know are defined by whatever mold they're in.
They are defined by their circumstances, not by their Savior.
All of that is true for every single person in this room up until the moment you meet Jesus. We talk about the idea of being transformed by the renewal of our minds and not conformed to the world. Those are some of the things that we learned last week. But that wasn't it. There was even more than that.
Before we get into that, let's do as our custom, to pray the disciples prayer together. Now, this is words on a Slide. It's there. If you don't know the words, that's okay. But the idea behind this and the reason that we do it every single week is because Jesus said, this is how you are to pray.
You want an example? Here's an example. So if Jesus is going to give us a proper mold, let's hop into that. Amen. So I invite you to pray out loud together.
The disciples prayer. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. So let's go through a quick recap here. So we began in Galatians. If you guys have the blue Bibles, that's going to be on page 1121, if you want to flip there.
We learned last week that we were reading a letter that was written to the churches in. Anybody remember Galatia? Okay. So this is a group of churches in what we would now call Turkey. Okay.
So Paul's writing this letter to these churches, and he's got a problem. The problem is they have started to believe a perverted gospel. Paul went and started these churches, the same Paul we read about, and now he leaves those churches. And then there's this idea that creeps in, and this idea is trying to add to what Jesus did. We learned a couple of things that are going to be really important to understand as we unpack where we are.
First, Pastor Michael explained to us that grace is costly, undeserved, and a gift. The idea of grace being unmerited favor or something that we don't deserve, I think for many of us, we're there. We get that. But the idea that was so impactful, just for me personally from last week, was how much grace costs. Grace costs God his son.
It costs Jesus his life. That grace that we say so quickly, we can just. It's so flippant. We say, grace, grace, grace, grace, grace. But it's costly.
And just because it wasn't costly to us doesn't change the fact that it is incredibly costly. It also was a gift. It's not a loan. It's nothing we can pay back. God gave it to us.
It was here. I'm offering you this grace as a part of my gospel. In terms of the gospel, we learned that it was exclusive, it was good news, and that it was From Jesus. We hear the word good news a lot, but there's a lot of good news out there, right?
You can get an egg McMuffin right now. I'm just kidding. But seriously, like, there's a lot of good news, right? You can do like, there's so many good things, but the Gospel of Christ is the best news. There's no other news that compares to it in any way, shape or form.
It's exclusive. It's only available to someone who decides to follow Christ. It's only available to a follower of Jesus. He says he's the way, the truth and the life. No one may come to the Father, but by me, except on Tuesdays.
No, it's just, it's exclusive. You can't add anything to it. So Paul's dealing with this problem of this grace filled gospel that he went and taught to these churches and started these churches in Galatia. And now this gospel is getting perverted and, and these are people that he loves. He bled with these people, he lived with these people.
These people are following Christ because of what God did through him. And now he's hearing that. Their ears are itchy, they're hearing something a little bit different and he doesn't understand why they're listening. He said to them that if anyone preaches a different gospel to you than the one that I preached, he is accursed. He said that if a spiritual being shows up and gives you a different gospel, that spiritual being is accursed.
Paul was very clear to them, this is all you need. This is it. It's Jesus. The answer to the test on every daggum question is Jesus. That's it.
It's Christ. And he's over and over and over again pointing that out to them. But then you have this group, they're called the Judaizers. This was a group of people who went to these churches and said, hey, yes, Jesus is phenomenal. Jesus is the man.
You gotta follow Jesus. But you know, there's all this other stuff back here that gives us like these things that we need to follow and these things that we need to do. And one of them is circumcision. And you're not really saved unless you're circumcised. Do you hear it?
Do you hear how? I started with a lot of truth? I started with the fact that God had. There's a lot here and it's good stuff. But if you really want to be saved, if you really want to have the gospel, if you really want salvation, there's these Other lists of things you need to do.
So Paul hears that this is what's happening to these churches, and he's writing this letter to persuade them to literally fight for them. Because these are people that he doesn't understand. He's like, I thought you got it. I thought you understood the gospel. I thought your life was transformed.
Why does it feel like you're conforming to the world? That's what he's struggling with here in Galatians. That's what he's attacking here in Galatians. We're gonna learn today that the best evidence of the gospel is a transformed life. When you look at someone's life, and that life is fundamentally different from the moment they meet Christ.
Now, I'm not saying all of a sudden they don't make wrong choices. That's not what I mean. But their desires begin to change. They are a different person after meeting Jesus. That's a transformed life.
And the best evidence of the gospel, the actual gospel, that Jesus came, bled and died after leading a sinless life was a sacrifice and raised from the dead and promises that he's going to return that gospel, that you cannot have a relationship with God without that. It doesn't fit. Nothing else works. That gospel is the true gospel. And the best evidence of that is when people understand it.
Because when people meet that gospel, things change. Their life is transformed, and it's transformed by the renewing of their mind.
So it's a lot of talking. What do you say we get into the passage? We're going to be Galatians 1:11.
For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a Revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous.
I was so extremely jealous was I, for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach to the Gentiles. I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go to Jerusalem for those who were apostles before me. But I went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. So Paul's continuing in this letter, and he's pointing out to them a couple of key things.
Now, for time Purposes, because we're going to cover a lot today. We're going to move through these pretty quickly. But I just want to make sure everybody sees, look at how it starts. For I would have, you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. He's saying, the words that you heard from me didn't come from someone else teaching me.
They came from God.
Let me be very clear. From the very beginning, this came from Jesus Christ himself. That's the reason we've read that story before. That's the story. Paul is saying the source is Jesus.
It came through a special Revelation to him. Jesus was speaking directly to Paul. He was not taught by man's scriptures, any of that. He says, not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Now, remember how that happened? This dude was off to go kill people. He was off to go round up Christians, throw them in jail and hurt them. That's what he was doing. On his way to doing that, Jesus said, saul, Saul.
And he blinded him. You think that got his attention? Probably right. You're just driving down 40 and all of a sudden you just can't see. That'd be kind of wild.
God got his attention. God told him what needed to happen. Told him to go into Damascus. He goes in, goes on the road, and he's there. And then Ananias comes and sees him and verifies everything.
And then the scales fall from his eyes. But notice what he says here.
I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age, among my own people. So extremely zealous. I was violent and tried to destroy the church. Couple of things that he's pointing out that he was. He was zealous, he was good at it, he profited from it, he enjoyed it, and he was more effective than everyone else.
This Guy had the YouTube channel with everyone watching. Everyone knew what he was up to. Everyone knew that he was the one. When they kicked the door down, you were going away. That's who Paul was.
He was an enemy of Christ. But notice what he says here. But when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me, God looked at who you could consider probably the chief enemy of humanity at the time, the guy who was good at this, and it pleased God to reveal himself to him. Does that make any sense to y'? All?
Because it doesn't make sense to me. If I'm God. I feel like I could come up with a lot other plans. I don't think I would pick the person who has hurt more of my people than anyone else.
But that's not the God we serve. The God we serve gave him a special Revelation and said, I will show him how much he will have to suffer for my name. So the same guy who made so many other people suffer, he's now going to in his life, he's gonna reveal more people to Jesus. How crazy is this? It pleased God to reveal himself to him.
There are so many people that we all know that are hung up in their own bustedness and they think, I'm too bad, I've done too much, I've screwed up too much. There's no way God would forgive me. We're not playing the comparison game. But this is pretty tough to beat, fair, pretty tough to beat this one. All of your sin and all of your bustedness and your selfishness and your ego and all the stuff that you carry on a day to day basis, the God of the universe is pleased to reveal his Son to you.
It pleases him. He enjoys revealing himself to you.
Don't bring your own bustedness and think that that outpowers God's love. It doesn't.
Notice too that the Revelation had a purpose.
The purpose was that he was going to empower Paul to be a person, that people would go, what? Hold on. That's the dude who literally took away my cousin's family. What do you mean he's following God now. What do you hear the plan?
God's working because he has a special Revelation and it has a purpose because a transformed life points people to Jesus. So he was gonna use Paul's life of craziness and he was going to take that life and it was going to guide more and more people to Jesus. It was gonna point them to Christ. And part of the reason it was gonna be so impactful is because it was so awful. God used it all.
We talk about it week after week after week here. God does not waste pain. He doesn't do it. God uses everything for his glory. He redeems it all, including what Paul had done.
But it doesn't end there because Paul said he goes off to Arabia and then to Damascus. Let's pick up in verse 18. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him 15 days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. In what I am writing to you before God, I do not lie.
Verse 21. Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown in the person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They were only hearing it said he used to persecute us, now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. And they glorified God because of me.
So now, after three years, he goes off to Arabia, he goes back to Damascus, and he's preaching the gospel. Now, what he doesn't do is he doesn't go back to the church leadership in Jerusalem. Remember what he's doing. He's writing to the churches in Galatia and he's pointing out that they should believe the gospel that he has given them. So he is making sure they understand.
I got this special Revelation from Jesus, and what I didn't do was go back to the professors and get them to sign off on my homework.
I continued in my understanding with Jesus and then began doing the work of ministry, of introducing more people to him by preaching the gospel he gave me. He's pointing that out to them. And then he says, after three years, he goes and meets up with Peter.
Now, something crazy to me is that if you go back in Acts to before his conversion, which was in chapter nine, so we're thinking like Acts, chapter eight, you have Stephen, who's killed in Acts, I believe seven after that happens, Paul is there at that event. Paul continues to the word is ravage the church. Post that God uses that to disperse the believers out of Jerusalem. They go off and they begin making new churches. So he's redeeming the persecution.
So they go off, and now they're starting these new churches and then these new churches, which for many of them, they would never have gone had there not been persecution. So now they're off. And now the same guy who's the reason they left is out there talking about Jesus. What do you see? How God's plan is working out in their lives.
It's crazy. Blows my mind what God is doing here. And it points out that transformed lives are worth celebrating. Think about this. A transformed life is guiding people to Christ.
But it's also worth celebrating because it's not dead anymore. Anymore. If you are following Christ, you're not dead anymore. That's worth celebrating. Think back to the last week.
How celebratory have you been about your walk with Christ?
How much time have you been thinking about your story and what God's done in your life? Because God in their life was showing them you are where you are. Because of what Paul did. Now you are encouraged where you are because of what I have done through Paul. How cool is that for us?
We all have stories. I know many of your stories. How much time are we spending thinking about the trouble of the day versus the winning of the past that is actually for the future?
A transformed life is worth celebrating. It doesn't end there, though. We're going to continue. And we're going to pick up chapter two.
Bit of a time jump here. Then, after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a Revelation. There's that word again. I went up because of a Revelation.
And set before me, though privately, before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles in order to make sure I am not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out the freedom which we had in Christ Jesus so that they might bring us to slavery. Verse 5. To them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the Gospel might be preserved for you.
And those who seem to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Those I say who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the Gospel to the circumcised. For he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised, worked also through me for mine, for the Gentiles.
And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me. And they that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
Time jump. Okay, so we're skipping a whole lot of stuff. If you want to read that, just go through Acts, okay? And many of the epistles, but remember. What's Paul doing?
We're reading Galatians. This is to the Galatians. He's making a time jump on purpose. The time jump that he's making is because, hey, I've dealt with this circumcision problem before we talk through this and let me tell you what happened, okay? So 14 years later, Paul's dealing with this issue.
Those Judaizers were saying the Gentiles needed to be circumcised to be saved. So he does this really interesting thing. He's got Barnabas, his right hand guy, and he's got this guy Titus. Now what's interesting about Titus is he's a Greek, so he's not Jewish. And he's a convert.
So he's someone who's decided to follow Jesus. Now Titus is not compelled to be circumcised. He does not feel as if he needs to be circumcised. Paul, who was led by Christ to introduce him, does not believe he needs to be circumcised. So Paul's dealing with this issue and they've talked about it.
Now they're gonna go back to Jerusalem to talk about this. So he's bringing the case study. You see it. So he's bringing Titus with him. And they get there and Paul does a really wise thing for any of you guys that are in leadership.
He had a meeting before the meeting. Many of us have done this, right? You have something that's gonna be. You really gotta deal with some stuff. You talk to people ahead of time.
You don't want to go into a meeting cold. So he did that. He went over and he started talking to the leaders and said, hey, here's the situation, here's what I think. What do you think? And then they started talking about it before they would talk about it as a group.
Now we're going to go Back to Acts 15 here in a moment. We're going to get into all the details of it. But just to give you an idea, Paul was working through 14 plus years of ministry where he's been presenting this gospel that we were talking about. And then this group of people is going around saying that gospel isn't true.
Do you see how this would be incredibly, incredibly awful? And Paul is fighting for these people because transformed lives do not conform to this world. Paul could have just changed it. He could have just said, oh yeah, you know what? Yeah, let's do that.
Could have done that. He could have conformed to the mold. He could have done that. But think about all the people that would be all over the place. Think about in our own lives, all of the churches that don't stand on sound doctrine and how the people feel.
The churches that don't preach the Bible, the churches don't believe that God's word is true and what that does to the flock. A transformed person does not conform to this world, and Paul didn't. Now, if you want to flip over, we're going to go to Acts chapter 15.
I'm going to read through that. This is what we just read, but with more detail. Okay. Acts, chapter 15.
But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the customs of Moses, you cannot be saved. And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and to the elders about this question. So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, it is necessary to circumcise them in order to keep the law of Moses, verse 6.
The apostles and elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the Gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did us. And he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear.
But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will. Verse 12. And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. And they finished speaking, James replied, brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name.
And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written. After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen. I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old. Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood. For from ancient generations, Moses had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogue.
So that was a play by play of what we had read previous.
So Paul and Barnabas make their case. The Pharisees make their case that they need to be circumcised. So now you have this debate back and forth, but notice who speaks up. You can always count on Peter to talk. So Peter does, but he shares a story.
Now, remember Peter, back in Acts 2, Peter begins speaking. Holy Spirit shows up. A bunch of people come to know Christ, but then also Peter's the one who goes to Cornelius House. And I would definitely recommend you read up on this if you're not tracking with this story. He's called by God to go to this family, and then he presents the Gospel to this family that are not Jewish, and they come to know Christ.
And there's all this celebration, and it's exciting. And Peter stands up and says, guys, guys, guys, this isn't new. This has already been going on. What are we even talking about here?
And then he talks about the fact, why would you place a yoke on their neck that we have not been able to bear?
This is where in Kid Nation, I would ask you all to put on your thinking caps. So I'm not going to do that, because you're adults, but put on your thinking caps.
Peter is Jewish, and they've been working through this system of atonement. Now, in this system, for them to have a right relationship with God, remember, sin entered in, and then the relationship was jacked up. For there to be atonement at one, there needed to be a sacrifice. This is the system that they had operated from. Remember when we said all this good stuff?
That was part of that good stuff. It is. God created a system with people who said they knew better and sinned. And he created a way that they could have atonement. It's a good thing.
But he was doing it all with the idea of pointing to Christ. So he was creating a system to show that for the forgiveness of sins, there would be a shedding of blood, and the blood would cover over the sin. Now, when Jesus comes, leads a sinless life, offers himself up as that perfect sacrifice for the propitiation. That big word that just means, let's go with propitiation for our sins. That's what he does, he gives it all.
He is a worthy sacrifice. Not just for the sin you did yesterday, but the stuff that your grandkids are going to do. He paid for it all. So what Peter is saying is that we're talking about atonement now. We're talking about a system in which all the sin is paid for.
And now you want to bring on some of these things to people that are not Jewish. We are in a new system now. We need to celebrate Christ. It's Jesus plus nothing equals salvation. There's nothing else.
Anything you add to that is false. It's Jesus. And he's pointing this out to them, and he's saying, what are you even thinking about? Transformed lives stand on Jesus truth.
So as they're talking through, I would say this is not in there, but I would think that that's when the Titus conversation is happening, using the Titus case study to talk through part of this. So then they continue, and then they say, this is how we're going to handle this. And they send Paul and Barnabas off with the fellowship of the right hand. Basically saying, guys, go. Because what we've realized is the same Jesus who sent us to the circumcised, right, the Jewish people, that same Jesus is sending you to the uncircumcised.
They realize Paul's not called by man. Paul was called by God. And Paul is explaining all of this for a couple of reasons, to the Church of Galatia. They can trust the gospel that he's sharing with them. They can trust that it came from God, not from him.
And when Paul took this particular issue to the leaders of the day, it passed the smell test. This has already been worked through.
Paul loved the Galatians, and he wanted to see the issue they were dealing with be worked out. They were following a false gospel. He first started with the idea that the gospel is from Jesus. Then the leaders had signed off on it, and how it had led to incredible fruit in these people's lives. He's arguing for their salvation.
He wanted them to be transformed by the renewal of their mind, not conformed to the world. So he won. And by the way, that want didn't come from him, because we know what his wants were. All of his wants were profit. He wanted to step forward.
He wanted everyone to think about him. He was fighting that battle. But God transformed him, renewed his mind, and then he did not conform with the world because Jesus plus nothing equals salvation. Couple of questions to wrap us up. How has Jesus used you to point someone to him?
This week. It's tough. It's tough. But real talk. How has Jesus used you?
How have you listened? Because a transformed life should point people to Jesus. How do you celebrate yours and others transformed lives? Do you sound like everyone else is just complaining? Or are you acknowledging the fact that you're alive?
How amazing is that? And finally, in what ways are you conforming? Are you transformed? Because if you're someone who has not met Christ, do not leave this room without doing so. Don't do it.
You are dead in your trespasses and sins. He offers renewing your mind. He offers transformation. He offers the ability to have an eternal life with him and a life that's fulfilling here because it's about him, not about you. He changes your wants right now.
You don't want that, and that's okay. You want what you want. I get it. I want what I want, too. But he's in the process of changing that for all of us.
If we allow him to, if we decide to follow him again. The best evidence for the gospel is a transformed life. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, Lord, your word is incredible.
The stories that you have told are breathtaking.
Lord, I just pray if there's anyone in the sound of my voice that does not know you, Lord, that you would make it so clear to them that they need you, that you would draw them close and help them to understand that you have paid for all of their sin. You offer a restart and they need it, Lord, for those in the sound of my voice that have just been bogged down by a bunch of garbage, it's just been a tough haul recently.
Lord, I just pray that you would wrap your arms around them and remind them that their life is transformed because of what you've done, not what they have done. That you would challenge them, Lord, to not be conformed to the the world, to not fit into some mold that has no eternal significance.
We thank you, Lord, that we can trust you. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
LINKS
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
