Galatians 1 - Don't Desert the True Gospel!

Click Here to Read or Listen to Galatians 1 

Today we begin Paul's letter to the churches in Galatia. Galatia was a province in Asia Minor, better known as modern day Turkey. The main purpose in his letter is to clarify the true nature of the gospel. Paul says it this way in chapter 1, 

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 

The gospel is the Good News that Jesus came to take all of our sin to the cross. Jesus died and rose again to show that the power of sin, death, and the devil was defeated once and for all in Jesus victory over sin. Though we could never measure up to the righteous requirements of the law, Jesus died so that we might be made right in God's eyes through faith. Importantly there is nothing we can do to earn or merit God's acceptance because of our good works. As the prophet Isaiah, 

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. Isaiah 64:6

So what was the false gospel, which was not a gospel at all? Paul will describe what this false gospel was and how it is manifested itself in the church. Paul is so adamant about that this he says anyone who preaches a different gospel is under God's curse. Paul was very surprised that they were so quickly deserting the gospel that he had brought them. Why take a free gift and turn back into something you could never earn.

Why would someone who was freed from the condemnation of the law want to return to it? Paul is very passionate about this and doesn't care if it gets him in hot water or offends anyone. He says, 

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul Called by God

Paul explains the unusual nature of his call to preach the gospel. 

 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being.

We know this story as Paul's famous "Road to Damascus" experience. On the road to Damascus Jesus appeared to him and asked him, "Saul, Saul why do you persecute me!" Paul was on his way to Damascus to round up Jewish Christians and drag them back to Jerusalem when the Lord appeared to him. He immediately went blind and spent time in the desert of Arabia and then was brought back to Damascus.

Three years later, he went to Jerusalem and met with original apostles. He was not known by the churches in Judea. They had only heard the report, “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 

Jesus met Paul, and Paul's life changed dramatically. He went from persecuting Christians to reaching them. Because of the grace Paul received from God through Christ, he knew what the true Gospel was all about. It certainly wasn't about works, or he would have been dead in the water!  

After receiving God's grace, where are you tempted to return to doing works to earn the applause of people? Or, maybe you have never really realized or experienced the true nature of God's grace in Christ Jesus? Maybe you have heard the gospel of grace preached many times but never really believed in or accepted it for yourself? 

When you truly discover the grace God has given you in Christ, you will want to spread the Good News to the whole world. You will never want to believe is a false gospel. The Good News is not what we have done, but WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR US!  That's what makes it GOOD NEWS!


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