Galatians 1: Christ Revealed

We sometimes have a hard time seeing Christ Only

We are starting a series in the book of Galatians called “Jesus Alone, Jesus Only.” You may look at that and think it’s kind of an obvious title however it is worthwhile for pursuing because of another obvious title of a new netflix show called Is It Cake?

If you haven’t seen this show the title explains the premise pretty clearly. Contestants bake realistic looking cakes and then judges come on the show and have to look at other similar items, of which one is cake, and then try and figure out which one is cake.

You would think it was easy but it turns out it is not. It is often difficult to judge which one is cake because they all look so realistic.

Series of pictures

And I think that if people can’t tell the difference between a suitcase and cake, maybe we aren’t as good at finding the real thing as we thought we were. And so while it seems like a simple title, we are going to approach this New Testament letter with the understanding that we may need help sometimes understanding the importance of knowing and seeing Christ in all things.

Because sometimes we look out into our world and we, like looking at identical items, think that something looks like Christ when it is not. We scan our horizon and think that must be what Jesus is for, it must be what Jesus wants. And it may even have some kind of overlap, where the goals you see being celebrated or the theologies you see being communicated look somewhat like Christ.

But as we saw with the cake, we can’t always tell the difference until we get close enough to truly evaluate. And Paul, the writer of this letter, asks us to get close because he doesn’t want anyone making the mistake of seeing Christ in something He is not in. To Paul, that is a detrimental mistake.

Paul’s Emergency Mode

We see that in the way he opens his letter. Normally Paul is effusive in his communication.

Just to give you a sense, let’s compare. Look at how the same guy, Paul, opens his letter to the church in philippi

Philippians 1:1–6 ESV

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Paul is rejoicing with them over the work of God.

Now look at how he begins our letter this morning

Galatians 1:1–5 ESV

Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Paul begins defensively. He gives some insight right away into the issue. He addresses them as an apostle, an early church leader. And an apostle who wasn’t voted in or who influenced his way in, or who manipulated his way in, but rather one who God delivered and called in. PAul is deliberate to say this is not from humanity but from God. This lays a foundation about how Paul will communicate the reality of the Gospel.

Paul’s authority and his witness are not formed in the hands of men, he says, but God. And he starts there because he is going to get direct pretty quickly.

In verse 6, Paul Jumps right into a distressing problem. He does not offer thanksgiving for their faith, he does not celebrate. He moves into emergency mode. We have to realize this is a big deal to Paul.

What do you need to know in an emergency? Where the exits are. How do move from where you are to where you need to be. This is why Flight Attendents do that thing we always ignore. We ignore it until there is an emergency. But when there is something urgent we need to know the next step

This is what Paul is doing in Chapter 1. He is relocating the church in Galatia.

There is no addition in the Gospel

Why does Paul not waste time?

The church in Galatia had come to faith in the work of Christ and had started out well. But then a certain group came along and stated that while it was good to be saved by grace, it was not enough. That people had to be saved by grace as well as keep some of the law. That grace came with additional actions. And for Paul this was a big deal. So he doesn’t waste time in emergency mode, he gets right down to business.

Galatians 1:6–9 ESV

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

This is strong language. Paul is concerned that the church in Galatia, while understanding the work of Christ, have, because of their beliefs, abandoned the work of Christ because they believed that salvation was a cooperative work between God and the self.

They were trying to redraw theological lines, ethical lines, and ecclesiological lines. They saw how it had been done and thought, I can probably make it better.

Meaning that God did the work of salvation through Christ but then said, “well I guess there is something more you can do.” A group of people had come into the church in that city and started adding to the Gospel, and Paul was quick to say, that is not the Gospel.

Look at what He says, That people who are believing that they have to add works to salvation have turned to a different Gospel, one that is not the Gospel itself. The Gospel is so distinct and so sufficient. Christ was careful and thorough to do the work, that there is nothing to add or subtract from. It is ours for the having and keeping but not ours for the adding.

To add to the Gospel leaves us with no Gospel at all.

If you take Jesus and add anything at all, Paul says, it is no Gospel. It is taking something that is already sufficient and then, in adding your own touches, removes what it true about the Gospel in the first place.

IT is like Eccoe Homo. which was a century old fresco of Jesus in Spain.

show pic.

An amateur painter attempted to restore the fresco

and here is how she did

show pic.

This is kind of what Paul is talking about. We somehow think that there are things that must be connected to the Gospel. But to do so, is no Gospel at all. When we add our works to the Gospel, we miss the Gospel in the first place.

Christ has offered Himself to us as something perfected for us to be given new and eternal life in Him. And when we add our own twist to it, we end up twisting the original work, and Jesus plus anything else ends up being no Gospel at all.

Your works plus Jesus is no Gospel

Your ideology plus Jesus is no Gospel

Your ministry plus Jesus is no Gospel

Your politics plus Jesus is no Gospel

Does that mean that Christ doesn’t have works or ministry or politics? No of course not, but if you have trusted your works and Jesus then we begin to have trouble. If we trust our politics as an equal means to the Gospel, or if you think that politics will bring about Gospel responses, then it is no Gospel at all.

Here is the good news. Jesus doesn’t need our help to complete what He has already completed.

But He invites us in, not to complete what He began. That’s heresy. But to join in to reflect who He is in the world.

Christ is Revealed

Here’s the good news. You cannot add to that which is already complete or sufficient. If something is at 100% you cannot add to it to make it more than 100%. The Gospel, the good news of Jesus is entirely sufficient to do for us what we haven’t been able to do for ourselves.

Let’s take a closer look at verse 6

Galatians 1:6 ESV

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

Look at what Paul knows they already understand.

“Him who called you in the grace of Christ.”

This statement is foundational to understanding what is going on. He is saying you are called to keep on living in the grace of Christ. Keep on resting in who Christ is, trust Him and live from that place. Trust Him and act accordingly.

And Paul fully trusts in the gift that Christ offers. We see where he is placing his trust when he makes clear that the one who has called Him and the One who has delivered us from our sins has not only done the work but has done the work on His own, without our help. He is able and sufficient.

Look at Galatians 1:11-12

Galatians 1:11–12 ESV

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.

There is a singular power in the work of Christ. There is authority in what He claimed and what He taught and what He did. It is unrepeatable and unmatchable. Paul is saying that the Gospel is it’s own authority and does not belong to anyone. No one has claim on it to try and improve on it or make it better.

Even if he or an angel from heaven preaches a contrary Gospel, Paul rejects him entirely. Let him be accursed. The message that matters is the revelation of Christ and His resurrection that carries in it the forgiveness of sin.

Here is what Paul is saying. Christ has been revealed in the world. Not by humanity, not by better ideas or theologies. But He has been revealed as the entire revelation of God.

Meaning there is nothing present in Jesus that doesn’t help us know God and doesn’t help us walk with Him. He is how we interpret what life is like.

the revelation of God, meaning the key that God has given to us to understand Him, is very good news. Because it means that we are not in the center of the universe. It means we are in need of someone else.

For a moment, let yourself off the hook for having to save yourself and all mankind. That job is taken and it is complete. Our job is to trust it and express it.

That’s why we need to understand that idea that Paul is presenting Jesus as, God who is revelation. Because we have to be able to distinguish what we feel like God has shown us and what we have heaped onto God as addition.

Christ is revelation because He is sufficient. He is entirely complete in Himself. And He invites us into understanding that gift and being able to live from that.

Revelation is kind of like the key that unlocks the door. It is the way we interpret all of life and understand how to live. Have you ever come home after a long day and forgotten your house key? You are tired, youre cranky and all the sudden you can’t get into the house. But finally you find a spare and the moment you turn the handle on your front door your whole disposition changes?

That is revelation. It is the ability to be able to see and act in a way that makes everything else make sense. It allows us in, it shows us the way. That is Christ.

And it is important that He is set apart, that grace is set alone, and that we understand that we cannot add to what is complete.

We don’t add to it, but we must act from it.

Have you ever made a cake? Have you ever made a cake with a 2 year old?

Why? That seems like a terrible idea. Do they help make the cake? Never? do they make a mess? Always.

But we still do it. Not because the cake needs to be better but because the child does. You invite them into the process of relationship to show them how to live, how to do things, how to create, how to be patient, how to measure and so on.

The 2 year old has to be invited in. It is how they grow and develop.

God doesn’t need us to make a better cake. What He has done is sufficient. But He invites us in out of love, He invites us in out of relationship. He invites us in for our own holiness and growth.

Understanding the completeness of God in the revealed Christ helps us to understand how good it is to be invited in. And we recognize that we are changed because of how Christ has invited us into relationship.

We often add things to the Gospel because we are anxious it won’t be enough on its own. It won’t do enough, act well enough, fight hard enough, say enough, or work well enough. We are anxious that maybe the Gospel can’t do enough for us or for our world. And so we need to strap things like power or relevancy or influence or works in order to get the Gospel to “just do something!”

But we miss out when we do that. We make trades. We end up just trying to work our way to salvation, or trying to enforce our way to salvation, or trying to entertain our way to salvation. And it won’t work. We end up frustrated.

We can rest in the complete work of Jesus. He is the revelation of God. The key to which we see everything else. In Him we have life.