No Other Gospel

The letter to the the church of Galatia was probably Pauls first letter ever written. Most scholars date the book to around 48 to 49 AD.

galatia was located in what is now modern day turkey.

One man said its like the Magna Carta of Evangelical Christianity. In these 6 chapters you see doctrine, proclamation, and practice. While every letter is important to believers this one stands out for a multitude of reasons.

The book of Galatians is very clear on the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Meaning that you cannot save your self by any human effort.

Paul want’s to make sure that everyone understands that False teaching that was being spread around has no place in the church. ( the false teaching that was in the church of Galatia was something that was known as Judaism)

these people were undermining Pauls authority, and perhaps saying he was inferior to the other apostles. That what he said didn’t have the same weight as say someone like Peter, or John.

These Jewish Christians taught that all who embrace Christian salvation must also submit to Jewish Law. He gives examples in this book like this.

Galatians 6:12 says, “It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.”

Galatians 4:10 says, “You observe days and months and seasons and years!”

Galatians 5:4 says, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace”

But Pauls aim was to defend the one true gospel, against the Judaizers saying things like this in the book.

Galatians 5:6 says, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”

Galatians 6:15 says, “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”

Galatians 5:18 says, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law”

In Seminary my professor said this: The Theme of this book is the cross alone is the way of salvation and therefore all attempts to supplement the work of Jesus with the works of the law must be rejected.

And if you had to narrow down the book of Galatians in just a few verses it would be Galatians 3:10-14 which says, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

Today we are going to be in Galatians 1:1-10 and Paul is going to respond defending his apostleship, and the message of the gospel.

Read text

main idea being No other Gospel can replace the one that Paul has preached to the people of Galatia.

No other gospel comes from God

Paul was a man who was sent out by God. Paul had a radical conversion to Christianity, and Christ despite who he was before meeting him called him to be an apostle. An apostle means to be sent out with a commission. But to be an apostle you had to directly be called out by the risen Christ. While right after the resurrection apostles had a major role, God used apostles as major figures in the early church apostleship today no longer exists. God uses Pastors, evangelists, missionaries, and every other believer to carry on his message That God gave the apostles.

Paul in Galatia was being accused of giving a different Gospel. They accused him of it being from Man, but Paul quickly in his letter to the Galatians tells them otherwise. This Gospel that Paul was preaching to them had came directly from Jesus, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. The gospel Paul preached to them is the same Gospel that we know today. He was not adding to it or taking it away from it, he was simply preaching the true gospel to the people of God. The Gospel that God had commissioned him to preach.

For believers today this means that we must accept the apostolic teachers from the bible. Believers authority is the word of God, and God used the apostles to deliver his word. Its not the word of God plus something else, Its scripture alone. This means that the message of God is not from man, but from God alone, Man did not make up the Christian story, its God story and as a result it means..

No other gospel comes from God.

No other gospel saves

After Paul states his case that the gospel is from God he reminds the people of Galatia of the saving work of Christ.

But notice how he does it, instead of railing into them he greets them with kind words, and a reminder to the people of Galatia of the grace and peace from God our Father. Despite the people of Galatia neglecting God’s grace he so kindly reminds them of it, and he reminds them the purpose of that grace.

That purpose was to save and rescue sinners. God reminds the people of Galatia that The Lord Jesus Christ died for him. This is so important, because others were trying to add to this wonderful truth. And the great thing about this truth is that it was for a purpose to deliver them from the present evil age. This age wasn’t just a specific time period, but a system, a system that is dominated by Satan and sin.

When Christ died his purpose was to actually deliver you from sin. Not just try, or crack open the door, but to deliver believers from the bondage that they were once under.

This is how God saves. He does’t save you based on your own works, he saves you on the biases of his glorious grace. Grace cannot be called grace if it is earned.

Listen to Jesus words in John 6:38-40 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” It was God’s will to save us by faith, not works, but faith alone.

He does all this because to him belong the glory. In our salvation God gives grace and gets the glory. If it were the opposite we would get the glory. That means in our salvation God gets the glory because he is the one who saves.

But despite this amazing truth, the people of Galatia were running to a different gospel.

Paul is astonished that the people of Galatia have so quickly abandoned the grace of Christ. The text indicated that this wasn’t just some long drawn out thing they quickly deserted him, it was a fast change. It would be like watching the red river game with their OU jersey on and quickly changing to an texas jersey when the slightest bit of pressure started taking place. In the moment you may have failed to see that OU is the best team , and the people of of Galatia were doing something way worse they abandoned the one who called them into the grace of God, and looked to a different gospel. Paul had labored over these people for three years yet they sought a different gospel.

This other “gospel” was not a real gospel. It didn’t offer grace, it added to the finished work of Christ. In a sense the people of God were leaving grace to pursue legalism. This was serious deal. They were becoming what I like to call check list Christians they were looking to add to the resume that Christ has already given them. These people were called Judaizers like I said in the introduction, in short they believed you must become a jew in order to become a Christian. Which meant that the saving work of Christ was not enough. The rest of the book of Galatians we will see this in more specific ways, but the point is you cannot add to the grace of God in order to be saved. I said before and ill say it again. Grace cannot be called grace if you do something to earn it.

Paul quickly reminded the people of Galatia that there is not another gospel. These people were dealing with people who tried to distort the gospel, and make it different than what Paul had came and taught them, and this was a major problem, because many people were falling into this lies.

This problem isn’t just for the people of Galatia we have seen this happen for years. In the Roman Catholic tradition they believe in faith plus works. Meaning you have to believe in Christ but do certain works to save you. They believe that if you are baptized in the trinitarian formula, be infused with additional grace by observing their sacraments.

Official Catholic Doctrine says, “The saving words and deeds of Jesus Christ are the foundation of what he would communicate in the Sacraments through the ministers of the Church. Guided by the Holy Spirit, the Church recognizes the existence of Seven Sacraments instituted by the Lord. They are the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist), the Sacraments of Healing (Penance and the Anointing of the Sick), and the Sacraments at the Service of Communion (Marriage and Holy Orders). Through the Sacraments, God shares his holiness with us so that we, in turn, can make the world holier.”

All these things are needed in addition to faith in Christ. When we add to the saving work of Christ we water down the grace that only the gospel offers, and lose the beautiful truth that Jesus alone saves.

The gospel cannot be added to, and Paul wants the people of Galatia to know that very truth. I want you to know that nothing can be added to the gospel. If your neighbor, or friend at work or a complete stranger tells us you that Faith alone doesn’t save dont believe them, because that isn’t the gospel message that isn’t the message that saves.

Believe this Paul lays out the gospel so well in 1 Cor 15:1-4, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”

This wan’t the gospel the people of Galatia was hearing from the Judizers, but this was the gospel they had heard from Paul, and this is the gospel that can save, Notice what it said in verse 2 by which you are being saved, the gospel isn’t faith plus works, it isnt check the boxes then you are good, it isn’t doing all these steps they you have made it, its faith plus nothing. Repent and believe, because no other gospel saves.

No other gospel is to be proclaimed

Paul goes a step further in his argumentation. He says Galatians 1:8-10. Its really important that he added this into the text. I just mentioned some things that were going on in Galatia, false teaching was running through the church there. It was a possibility that some were coming behind Paul saying that Paul said something that he didn’t say or an angel had said something that was different than what Paul had taught, but even if that was the case Paul wanted to make a clear statement that if anyone preaching a gospel different than what Paul had taught let him be accursed. Thats powerful.

Because Paul or an Angel would never preach a different gospel, but even if they did they would be accursed. The word in greek means athema which means someone who is on their way to destruction, and bound for hell. Thats how serious Paul was about those who distort the gospel, who say it’s something else. No other gospel is to be proclaimed. If wasn’t serious enough he said it again. Have you ever read something that had way to many exclamation points, because someone was trying to get their point across, this is what Paul was doing,

he said hey people of Galatia you know the gospel I came and preached to you, you know that I preached to you only Christ can save you, I didn’t add anything to the gospel of Jesus of Christ, yet you are abandoning this wonderful grace that God granted you, and going to another gospel that isn’t a real gospel that cannot save you, oh and by the way if you believe that I want you to know that those teachers and you are going strait to hell.

Paul is serious about the what the gospel is, and he is warning the people don’t fall into to the temptations of the flesh and listen to those who have a gospel that isn’t from God.

I love what I read this week it says, “Our society is inherently pluralistic and finds its ability to cope with the massive diversity of our world by appealing to pluralism.

In the United States, the constitution makes freedom of religion a cardinal virtue. But Christians, while they may believe that freedom of religion is a necessary law for a diverse society to live in peace, cannot at the same time infer that all religions are true just because tolerance is needed in a diverse society. Here our current Christianity has gone astray; here we have succumbed to the forces of our age. While we may defend the rights of others to worship in the manner they choose, we do not at the same time minimize the truth of the gospel by suggesting that these other faiths are also the truth.

What Paul teaches—and here again we touch upon his apostolic authority—is that distortions of the gospel, whether they are protected by constitutional rights or not, are contrary to God’s will and subject to God’s final displeasure”

The most unloving thing you can do is tell someone a different gospel, because it not only condemns you, but also them as well. The clarity of the gospel is necessary because peoples lives are at stake and so is the health of this church. The message to the Galatians in the same message to us, their is no other gospel. Their may be things that Christians disagree about but the gospel is not one of them.

Paul closes with verse 10, and its only fitting that he says this.

Prior to conversion Paul was seeking the approval of man if you read the beginning of Acts you see him doing all these things to make his Jewish friends like him, he is trying to wipe the Christian faith off, but he was changed by Christ, and became a servant for him, and because he was a servant of God, he knew that no other gospel is to be proclaimed.

One commentary I looked at this week, mentioned the song I’d Rather have Jesus, and in this song it has these lyrics.

I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause, I’d rather be faithful to his dear cause, I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame, Id rather be true to his holy name.

Paul had a real conversion, and because he did he made sure he had a real proclamation of God’s word.

Paul’s gospel is the same Gospel that the church today believes.

We believe in God who raised his son from the dead.

We believe in a God who can forgive sins, who can deliver us from this evil age.

We believe that their is no other gospel, and no other one should be proclaimed.

If you dont believe that today, here is your chance. The bible is clear that those who repent ( turn away from their sins ) and place their faith in Christ alone can be saved.

No other Gospel can replace the one that Paul has preached to the people of Galatia.

No Other Gospel comes from God

No other gospel saves

No other gospel is to be proclaimed.

Let us pray.