No Other Gospel

Introduction

Well if you have your Bibles, you can open them to Galatians chapter 1. We continue this morning working through the book of Galatians, moving on from the introduction or greeting of this letter, to now getting into the heart of issue that is plaguing the Galatian region. In chapter 1, verses 6-9, Paul is going to lay out all of the context and context of this letter that he is writing. These themes that are presented to us in these verses are themes that we will be dealing with throughout the entirety of this letter such as: the true vs. false gospel, the blessing of the true gospel and the curse of the false gospel, as well as the markers of a true servant of Christ in Gospel proclamation.

Body

(1) The False Gospels

(a) Deterrence

The amazement stems from the swiftness of the region of Galatians, who heard the Gospel, most likely from Paul and those left behind to proclaim the gospel by Paul, to turn to a “different gospel”, as to say what Paul will identify as a “distorted gospel”. If Paul’s first missionary journey took place between 46-48 A.D., and this letter was penned and sent before 50 A.D. (when the Jerusalem council took place), then this “turning away” took place within 3 years of Paul proclaiming the true gospel to the Southern Galatian region.

Now, how exactly were they being deterred away from Paul and Barnabas “who called you (the Galatians) by the grace of Christ”? Well some insight is given into this in Acts 14:2 “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.” You see, as Paul and his team travelled through Southern Galatia proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in both the synagogues and the streets, Jews and Gentiles were being converted. The strategy of the unbelieving Jews was to attack the credibility of Paul and his companions, so that the Jews and Gentiles would question everything that was brought to them by Paul.

It was an operation that deterred people from believing in Christ, by making them question the ones who told them about the grace of Jesus Christ.

Connection/Application:

We should not be surprised by this brothers and sisters, afterall, this is a strategy that is all too familiar for us today. How does the enemy get people to question Christ and deter them away? By calling into question the credibility of those who profess the name of Christ. If you don’t believe me, go scroll through social media on some christian profiles or atheist profiles. You will find everything from calling the Church brainwashed hypocrites, uneducated sheep, to the most hateful people on the planet. Why? The Bible is too credible, Jesus is too credible, God is too credible, so instead of trying to attack those things, which do not get me wrong, people will indeed do, they go after the ones who profess to believe in such things in order to deter others from believing what we believe. But, this isn’t the only goal of false gospels/beliefs. False gospels are not only full of deterrence but they are also full of…

(b) Distortion

The message of Paul during his time in the Southern region was clear from Antioch, Lystra, and Iconium. He would go into the synagogue proclaiming the purpose of Israel’s history to bring about the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who was prophesied, betrayed, killed, buried, and resurrected. This would lead to both Jews and Greeks being saved, Paul would establish the church, then head to the next city to proclaim the same message and plant a new church (Acts 13-14). “After they had preached the gospel in that town and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch, strengthening the disciples by encouraging them to continue in the faith and by telling the, ‘It is necessary to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God’” (Acts 14:21-22 CSB).

This was not met without opposition, for some light is shed on these “hardship” that the believers would have to endure based on what the divisive Jews were trying to do to Paul and Barnabas. “But the people of the city were divided, some siding with the Jews and others with the apostles. When an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat and stone them, they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian towns of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding countryside” (Acts 14:4-6 CSB). This would all spearhead into what led to the drafting of Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches as well as the Jerusalem council in A.D. 50, “Some men came down form Judea and began to teach the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved’” (Acts 15:1 CSB).

Connection/Application:

This is how distortion works brothers and sisters. It takes an element of truth that does not save, nor was never intended to save, and makes that the saving component of their “gospel”. For the Jews, it was the law and circumcision. It’s clever on Satan’s part really. Take something good, like a command or a promise, and make that the central salvific emphasis of someone’s “gospel”. For example, christian prosperity, social justice, racial reconciliation, affirmation, etc. All of these in and of themselves at face value are good things, but none of these things are capable of saving anyone. Yet, the world will use any of these things in order to distort that which is ultimately true of the Biblical gospel. The world would have you believe that Jesus was all about prosperity, therefore, if you want to be saved and grow in your faith, you must give in order to receive. The world would have you believe that Jesus was all about social justice, therefore, if you want to be saved, you must believe in the worlds understanding of social justice, and so on, but hear me none of these things are the gospel. Yes, you ought to give to the poor, feed the hungry, defend the weak, love your neighbor, and so on, but none of these things will save you or anyone else. The gospel is distorted when we believe that we can earn merit with God by participating in good things.

(2) The True Gospel

(a) Grace

(b) Deliverance

Conclusion