Live Free | Children Of Promise | Gareth Nicholson
- Free Church
- Aug 10
- 7 min read
Live Free | Children Of Promise | Gareth Nicholson | 08 August 2026
There is something incredibly freeing about understanding that our relationship with God has never been based on our ability to perform.
In week one, we looked at the truth that Jesus plus nothing equals everything. We are made right with God through Jesus - not through our good works, our performance, our striving, or our ability to keep a list of religious requirements.
Last week, we explored grace: our good works don't make us right with God. Grace does.
This week, we go one step further.
In Christ, everything that is promised to the children of God is promised to you.
That is the big idea at the heart of Galatians 3.
When We Start Adding to the Gospel
Paul begins Galatians 3 with some strong words:
“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?”
Paul isn't questioning whether they believe in Jesus. They do. The problem is that they have started adding things to the gospel.
They began with faith in Jesus, but somewhere along the way they started believing that faith wasn't enough. They needed to add something else: performance, rule-keeping, religious requirements.
And this is a danger we can experience too.
We can begin with the simple truth that Jesus is enough, but over time start thinking, “I believe in Jesus, but I also need to do enough to stay in God's good books.”
We can turn Christianity into a cycle of striving:
Jesus + my performance.Jesus + my good behaviour.Jesus + my religious activity.Jesus + my ability to get everything right.
But Paul reminds us that this isn't the gospel.
The gospel is that Jesus is enough.
Abraham and the Promise
To explain this, Paul goes all the way back to Abraham.
Before Abraham was circumcised, before he was part of Israel, before the Law was given, God made him a promise.
God promised to bless Abraham, make him into a great nation, give him descendants, and ultimately bless all nations through him.
And Abraham's response wasn't to perform.
He believed.
Genesis 15:6 says:
“Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
Abraham was made right with God through faith.
This is important because it shows us that God's plan has always been about faith.
It wasn't that people in the Old Testament were saved by keeping rules and people in the New Testament are saved by believing in Jesus.
God's plan has always been faith in His promise.
The promise God made to Abraham stretches all the way through the story of Scripture and reaches us today through Jesus.
The Law Had a Purpose
So where does the Law fit into the story?
After Abraham came Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and eventually the nation of Israel. The Israelites ended up enslaved in Egypt for 430 years.
God raised up Moses to lead them out of slavery. At Mount Sinai, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and established what is known as the Mosaic covenant.
There were laws, sacrifices, priests, purification requirements, and regulations that shaped the life of Israel.
But the Law was never God's plan for salvation.
It was never intended to be the thing that made people right with God.
Paul describes it as something temporary - a guardian or tutor that served a purpose for a particular people at a particular point in God's unfolding story.
And ultimately, it was pointing somewhere.
It was pointing to Jesus.
Jesus comes as the fulfilment of what the Law and the sacrificial system were pointing towards. He becomes the ultimate sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He becomes the one through whom we are made right with God.
The Law was never the destination.
It was pointing to Jesus.
Jesus Is the Fulfilment
This helps us understand why the Old Testament can sometimes feel confusing.
We read about blessings and curses, sacrifices, priests, dietary laws and countless regulations, and we can wonder how all of this fits with the grace we see in Jesus.
The answer is that the Bible is one unfolding story.
The Old Testament wasn't irrelevant. It was part of God's story, revealing who He is and preparing the way for Jesus.
Jesus didn't come to change God's plan.
He came to fulfil it.
The promise made to Abraham remains: God's people are brought into relationship with Him through faith.
And through Jesus, we become children of that promise.
You Don't Have to Earn Your Place
This is where the gospel becomes incredibly good news.
You don't have to earn your place in God's family.
You don't have to perform well enough.
You don't have to have enough good days to outweigh your bad days.
You don't have to read your Bible enough, pray enough, serve enough, or give enough to make God love you more.
These things can be good and important parts of following Jesus, but they don't determine your righteousness before God.
Jesus does.
When we turn those things into requirements for earning God's approval, we miss the freedom of the gospel.
Paul's message is clear: no one is justified before God by their performance.
The righteous live by faith.
Grace Doesn't Lead to Carelessness
At this point, we might ask an important question:
If Jesus has done everything, then why should I bother how I live?
If I don't have to keep rules to be accepted by God, can't I simply do whatever I want?
The answer is no - but not because we need to return to performance.
Instead, something much deeper happens.
When we put our faith in Jesus, God puts His Spirit within us. Our lives begin to change from the inside out.
Jesus summarised the heart of God's desire like this: love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself.
This isn't about ticking boxes.
It's about a transformed heart.
We don't live differently to become children of the promise.
We live differently because we already are children of the promise.
That's the difference between legalism and grace.
Legalism says, “If I do these things, maybe God will accept me.”
Grace says, “God has already accepted me through Jesus; therefore I want my life to reflect the One who has saved me.”
A Life Worthy of the Calling
Paul says in Ephesians 4:1 that we should “walk worthy of the calling” we've received.
Notice the order.
The calling comes first.
The life follows.
We don't work our way into God's family. We live differently because we have already been welcomed into God's family.
And this transformation doesn't happen through guilt and condemnation.
It happens through the Holy Spirit.
Over time, the things that once seemed normal can begin to feel different. The Holy Spirit brings conviction - not to shame us, but to lead us towards something better.
He invites us to lay down lesser things so we can take hold of greater things.
We aren't trying to become perfect overnight.
We're learning to yield to the Holy Spirit and allowing the life of Jesus to become increasingly visible in us.
We're not where we were.
We're not yet where we're going.
But we're moving towards Jesus.
Practices, Not Requirements
So what can we do to position our hearts to hear and respond to the Holy Spirit?
There are practices that can help us grow - but they aren't ways of earning God's approval.
Read your Bible.
Not because you have to, but because God's Word creates space for the Holy Spirit to teach, challenge, and shape you.
Pray.
Not because prayer earns you anything, but because prayer is part of knowing the Father who loves you.
Get into community.
Life groups and relationships with other believers remind us who we are when we forget. We need people around us who can remind us that God's promise isn't conditional on our performance.
Serve others.
Serving shifts our focus from ourselves to the people around us. It reminds us that we're part of something bigger than ourselves.
Practise generosity.
Giving loosens our grip on money and materialism. It reminds us that everything we have ultimately belongs to God.
None of these things make God love you more.
None of them earn your salvation.
They are simply ways of posturing our hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit.
Hold On to the Promise
The enemy would love for you to believe that God's promise is conditional.
You're not doing enough.
You've messed up too many times.
You're not good enough.
You've failed, so you're disqualified.
But the gospel says something completely different.
The promise is unconditional because it rests on Jesus, not on you.
The same promise God made to Abraham reaches us through Jesus.
You are invited into God's family by faith.
You don't have to add anything to Jesus.
You don't have to earn what He has already given.
And because you are a child of the promise, you can now live from a place of security rather than striving.
So today, take the pressure off.
Stop trying to earn what Jesus has already accomplished.
Hold on to the promise.
Open your heart to the Holy Spirit.
And let Him shape your life so that, little by little, you look more like Jesus.
Jesus plus nothing equals everything.
And because of Jesus, you are a child of the promise.
Life Group Questions
What stood out to you most from this message, and why?
The message says, “Jesus plus nothing equals everything.” What are some things we may be tempted to add to Jesus to feel accepted by God?
Have you ever struggled with feeling like you aren't doing enough for God? What difference does it make to know that your standing with God isn't based on your performance?
Which of these practices helps you most to posture your heart towards the Holy Spirit: Bible reading, prayer, community, serving, or generosity? Why?
Where might the Holy Spirit be inviting you to lay down something lesser so that you can take hold of something greater?
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