Remembering the True Gospel

Freebies

The moment you see something for free there is always an immediate question you ask - why? Are they trying to sell something? Are there going to be strings attached? Is there something wrong with it?

In fact, there is a well known saying about this - there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

It’s actually amazing about how much this type of thinking affect our behaviour.

Occasionally I’ve had random phone calls and the person on the other end of the line tells me that they want to give me a free phone or a free iPad or something similar. I recently in fact had someone on the phone tell me that they wanted to give me $5000 worth of travel vouchers.

I thought, wow! $5000! That’s a lot of money. I could have a decent holiday on that sort of money.

But you know what I did? I didn’t even bother to wait for the catch. Instead, I just politely (albeit, maybe a little abruptly), that I wasn’t interested and hung up.

At the end of the day, I know full well that others are not in the business of phoning random people up and offering them significant amounts of money.

Now this sort of reaction is built on experience, because we know what people are like.

Seeing God like us

Unfortunately, we have a tendency to see God in the same mould as humanity.

Certainly, God did create us in his image, but one thing we didn’t inherit from him was sin - we managed to pick that one up ourselves.

Once you take sin out of the equation things become quite different. You see, part of the reason nothing is for sin is because humanity is inherently selfish.

But because this distinction is easily missed, we have a hard time figuring out the free gift God has given us.

Why accepting grace is hard

You see, fundamental to Christianity, and something that I’m going to explore a bit further shortly, is that even though we have acted in a way that means we can no longer be in fellowship with God, he has provided the means for us to be right with him, and it takes no effort on our part other than accepting it.

Now because we’ve been fundamentally wired to be skeptical of anything free, our minds naturally think, well ok, it may be free, but there must be strings attached.

Interestingly, I think this way of thinking isn’t just for non-believers or new believers. I think for many of us there is something else that we need to do.

Link to Galatians

It’s this very issue that I want to explore, and we are going to do so by starting a new series in the letter to the Galatians.

You see the church in Galatia wanted to keep on adding things to the gospel, such that salvation was acceptance of Jesus, plus various other little add ons which we will look at shortly.

Context of letter

Before we do, I think we should probably orient ourselves.

Well, first up, it’s worth noting where Galatia is. In the first century, when this letter was written, Galatia was a province of Rome, and it was situated in what today is the country of Turkey.

Interestingly, it was actually the Celtic people who had moved into this area a few centuries before this. Now you might know that Gallic is associated with Celtic people, and it is actually from this world for Gallic, that we then come to the name Galatia.

More to the point for our purposes of looking at this letter, Galatia was the main part of Paul’s first missionary journey which we read about in .

records a sermon that Paul preached in Pisidian Antioch, and describes some of the things he did at Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, all of which make up the major towns in Galatia.

Now we don’t know this for sure, but it is commonly thought that Paul wrote this letter following the conclusion of his first trip, and before the start of the second trip. If this is the case, and there is reason to believe as much, then this letter is actually the very first letter that Paul wrote.

Issues being addressed by Paul

Well, now that we have some of this basic information about this letter, perhaps the more important task is to figure out the specific context which Paul tries to address.

Based on an analysis of the letter, and from some knowledge about the church and culture of this area, we can have a pretty good idea.

It would seem that after Paul had gone through and preached a message of grace, certain people have come along and added various bits to it.

Perhaps the biggest issue of them all was the Jewish Christians - who understandably had it drilled into them from a very young age that they were God’s chosen people. And as Christians today, I think we still have to acknowledge their special place in God’s place for humanity.

Now it’s important to note that there are a number of practices that were very important to the Jewish identity, perhaps first and foremost, circumcision, but also various dietary requirements and observe the various holy days and festivals.

We know that while a number of Jews believed in Jesus as the messiah, and accepted his sacrifice as a gift freely given for their forgiveness, they also insisted that on the basis of the Jews being God’s chosen people, anyone who comes to Christ should also have to observe the various Jewish requirements.

It is thought that it is this very problem which is going through the church of Galatia.

We see this in verse 6 and 7 that I read earlier. These verses talk about people quickly deserting the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel, indeed a gospel that is no gospel at all. He then talks about people throwing them into confusion and perverting the gospel of Christ.

Now Paul doesn’t explicitly state that it is the Jewish Christians at this stage, and as I will shortly argue, I don’t think it helps being too specific about this - but the issue is that once you add anything to the gospel, whether it’s to become Jewish or anything else, it ceases to be the gospel.

Exploring the passage

So let’s explore Paul’s words and then we’ll see how it can more generally be applied to us.

Salutations

As with most letters in this time, we start with salutations where you start by saying who the letter is from.

So first up we learn that it is by Paul - and for those of you who are aware of the various critical scholarship of the Bible that exists today, this is one of only a few of Paul’s letters where him being the actually author is not cast in doubt.

Now we often skip over the salutations because we want to get to the interesting parts, however, the salutations often set the scene for Paul’s argument, and it is no different here.

You see, Paul is describing himself as an apostle - he might not have been one of the twelve that walked around with Jesus, but following his dramatic conversion recorded in , he became very much an apostle with a very specific task. And so in the salutation, Paul goes to some length to highlight that this apostleship is not from man - but from Jesus himself - the same Jesus who rose from the dead. It is this very resurrection that is mentioned in verse 1 that gives hope for everything that Paul says and proves that he is not just making stuff up, but instead is giving the very words of Jesus.

Grace and Peace

Again in verses 3 and 4 we can jump over them quickly thinking that they are just some niceties that you add to a start of a letter - almost in a similar vain to the way we might start a letter: ‘I trust that you are keeping well’.

However, one thing about the Bible is that it almost never uses words loosely with no purpose. Rather everything in the Bible is useful for teaching, correcting and rebuking.

Now the terms grace and peace are certainly loaded terms, but it is verse 4 which really gives a little snap shot into the gospel which needs to feed our understanding for the rest of the letter.

What is the gospel?

First of all, it is worth clarifying what I mean by the gospel. The term gospel literally means ‘the good news’, and so from a Christian perspective the gospel is the good news of what Jesus has done on this earth for us.

It is more than just the death and resurrection, although this is certainly the central and most important feature of it. But it also includes all of his work here on earth in establishing the kingdom of God.

Now this can be a problem, particularly if you’ve had a little training in sharing the gospel, because sometimes we feel that every time we have to give a full account of it all.

But if you look at verse 4, Paul gives us just the essential essence for what we need to know in this situation. Now I’m going to break this down into three easy parts.

First that the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins.

Second that it was to rescue us from the present evil age.

And third that it was according to the will of our God and Father.

Death and resurrection

The first point is really the central point of it all. In just a few words, Paul has brought to our attention our great need as sinners who need to be brought back to God, and that Jesus has done this through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

When Jesus died on the cross, he was taking the punishment that you and I deserved. But he didn’t just die for you and me, rather he took on all the sin of humanity, being the perfect sacrifice that was sufficient for all.

The purpose

The second point actually gives us the direction that all of this is headed. Being saved is not just some theoretical truth that has no bearing on reality. Rather in our salvation we look forward to a most wonderful future - a new age in fact where God will reign supreme.

The truth is that this new age has already begun with the work of Jesus, however we are now awaiting the time in which Christ comes again and we no longer live in a dual time where evil and goodness reign together, but evil will end and there will be no more pain or tears.

God’s will

And the third and final point highlights that all of this is happening very deliberately and purposefully with God in full control of it all. Indeed, nothing happens outside of the will of God - and this is a truth that we should take great comfort from.

Deserting the gospel

Well, we then get to the section where Paul specifically addresses the problem which I touched on earlier. That problem of course is that people are trying to add to this good news that I have just outline.

But if I jump down to verse 8 and 9 you can see how important Paul takes this problem. The two verses almost repeat each other, both calling on a curse of God for anyone who preaches a gospel other than the one given to us by Jesus Christ.

You see, we need to hold firm this truth that Jesus died for you so that you can be part of this wonderful kingdom of God, where God is in control and everything happens according to his will.

If you try and fiddle with that truth, than you are fiddling the one truth that really matters in this world.

Understanding the complexities

Now as simple as I want to keep this, I know very well that this is actually complex. You see, we don’t live in a theoretical world - we live in a real world where things are complicated.

Adding to the gospel

Now as Christians we wouldn’t deliberately try to add things to the gospel, but unfortunately it can happen very easily.

Depending on your tradition, what it is might vary.

In some traditions, things such as speaking in tongues as evidence of the Holy Spirit, or being baptised, or other church sacraments can become the thing that we attach to the gospel.

In our tradition, those particular ones are probably less likely to be added, but don’t for a second think we’re immune.

You see, I can quickly think of two different traps.

As I mentioned before we are forced to make various decisions and quite often those decisions are hard to make.

One is right doctrine, and the other is to do with morality.

As Christians we strive to be the best Christians we can be - but what does that even mean?

Adding morality

I’ll treat the second one of these because it’s probably a bit easier. You see, we know that as Christians there is an expectation of godly living. Actually, particularly in the wider society when they’re not attacking us, but even in the church, Christianity can become synonymous with good morals.

But because they are so closely related, and probably because every other religious system in the world is focussed around earning your way to salvation, it is so easy to subtly making salvation about faith plus right morals.

As much as grace and earning our way are contradictions, will just so easily fall into that trap.

The important lesson that we need to learn on this one is that our salvation can never be about what we do, but what we do should always be about our salvation. What I mean is that we aim to live righteously because we are saved, we don’t live righteously in order to be saved.

Adding doctrine

The other one that I mentioned was doctrine, and I think this can be a little trickier. You see, we would never say it out loud, but how easy can it be to think that you are saved by faith alone, but only if you have the right doctrine. But then it’s not faith alone - it’s faith plus right doctrine.

On the first one, while we would never say it out loud, how easy can it be to think that you are saved by faith alone, but only if you have the right doctrine. But then it’s not faith alone - it’s faith plus right doctrine.

Now depending on which Christian circle you hang out in, different things might be emphasised.

I say this one is tricky because doctrine just means our set of beliefs, but we need this doctrine to outline what it is that we are putting our faith in.

In some, the emphasis may be on speaking in tongues as the evidence that you have the Holy Spirit.

After all, faith is not some abstract and fanciful notion that is absent of any basis. It’s faith in something very particular, and by necessity, doctrine is needed.

In others, particularly high church traditions, the emphasis may be on the various sacraments like Holy Communion or baptism.

But here is where it becomes tricky. You see, it is vitally important that the gospel is kept in tact by our doctrine, but doctrine goes well beyond an understand of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone and in Christ alone. You see it also covers various church practices. And then it also involves interpreting scripture on any number of issues such as creation, end times and a whole host of other matters.

In still others the emphasis may be on keeping moral purity. Interestingly on this one, it is often sexual ethics that becomes the main focus.

On many of these issues, godly men and women who have spent many sincere hours researching these issues, and who all hold high views of scripture, come up with differing views on them.

Now it is not as if any of those things are bad.

Some say that women can preach, others say they can’t. Some say the earth was created in six 24 hour periods, other say each day is symbolic of an age.

Now I think most of us come to the point where we recognise that some issues are worth our concern, while others we can agree to disagree. Part of the problem is knowing which issue are important enough.

Sadly, we can have a tendency to err on the side of making our own set of beliefs the test for orthodoxy, and if you don’t believe them then… well, you might not explicitly state it, but… are they really a Christian?

Keeping gospel clear

I just want to clarify at this point, that I’m not trying to discredit the value in pursuing the things I’ve mentioned above.

Godly living, correct doctrine, even the other issues such as speaking in tongues, baptism and other practices, are all worthwhile things.

Just as in the same way, the Jewish people of Paul’s day where right to want to maintain their Jewish identity. Just because they became a Christian didn’t mean they somehow lost their Jewish identity.

But what is vitally important in all of this is that we never make these other issues about salvation.

If you have accepted Christ, then you are saved by grace alone, through faith alone and in Christ alone.

Don’t ever try to burden others or even yourself down with additions to this.

Homosexuality

The big issue that is taking a lot of our attention, particularly because of a certain postal survey that is about to take place, is the issue of homosexuality.

Now as I’ve done before and I’ll do again right now, I affirm that the biblical view of marriage is between a man and a woman. I firmly believe that the bible talks about sexual relations between two men or two women to be a perversion of God’s good design.

But while I firmly believe as such, and I’d go to some length to defend such an understanding, we are doing the wrong thing when we tell people that it is a matter of salvation.

Somehow we seem to get to the point where certain issues like homosexuality, whether we state it explicitly or not, but that we say or think that they need to sort themselves out and then they can become a Christian.

But this is exactly the type of logic that Paul was trying to counter in his letter to the Galatians. You don’t get yourself sorted out first and then come to Christ. Rather you come to Christ just the way you are and let him and the Holy Spirit transform you into his image.

But, you might counter, homosexuality is an affront to God, so how could you possibly be a Christian and a homosexual at the same time.

Again I will affirm that homosexuality is not part of God’s plan, but we can’t for a minute believe that it is the unforgivable sin.

Beautiful gospel

The gospel is a beautiful thing because it accepts everyone just as they are. Just as Paul says, when we add things to the gospel, suddenly it is no gospel at all.

As we continue through this letter, particularly towards the last few chapters, we are going to see just how beautiful it can be when it is practiced well.

The beauty of the whole thing is that it has nothing to do with our own efforts, rather it is all about God doing his marvellous work on us.

This is not a call to be lazy or to think that nothing matters - that is not what Paul is arguing at all. But equally important it we can’t begin to think that our work or doctrine is what brings us salvation.

When we remember this, we truly start to live the beautiful gospel life - something which I believe is attractive to anyone who sees it.

Let’s pray.