All Grace or No Gospel At All

Present the series as walking a narrow path, attractive to fall off; path through a swamp? along a mountain ridge? make “who are you following” rather than “what is the path” the centre of the image. maps with incorrect route option? satnav going wrong, avoid the attractive looking alternative.

BIG IDEA: it’s all grace or no gospel

Intro me

We’ve spent a long time working through Acts - so long I can’t actually remember when we started. Anyone? Time for a quick slido poll!

Acts has told us the story of the very first churches, of how this movement, Christianity, got started. We’ve read about amazing miracles, thousands of lives changed, about a new and radically different community being formed - and for the last while in Acts we’ve been following a guy Paul around. We’ve watched him and his team on a thousand mile mission trip starting a bunch of churches in an area called Galatia - modern day Turkey.

We read on just a little further in Acts past that trip, looking at a big, important meeting in Jerusalem, and how the movement continued through conflict and division - but back on that mission trip, Paul and his team’s parting shot as they pass back through the various cities and visit one last time the various churches they had started is set out for us:

Acts 14:21–22 (NIV)

Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

So what do you think came next? “.., and they all lived happily after?” No - sadly not. Things went wrong - really quite quickly. Those small start up churches got into some big hairy trouble.

So we’re going to press “pause” on Acts, and take a look at what happened. We’re going to do a biopsy, a postmortem, and see what we learn - because there’s critically important stuff for us as a church here still today, and there’s critically important stuff here for you today too even if you’re just exploring faith - because we’re looking at the very heart of the message of Christianity, the critical piece that, if you take it out, the whole thing falls. The keystone, the cornerstone. We can do this biopsy thing here because our bibles have a letter written by that guy Paul to those new churches, a letter which came their way not long after Paul left.

Why do we make such a big deal about the bible? At Hope City we believe this bible, these ancient letters and everything else in here, have been preserved for us because in them we learn God’s truth about him and his world, about us and our brokenness, about how he’s fixing it, and about how we can be a part of that. This is God’s message to his world, to us. That’s why sometimes we call the bible the “word of God” - it’s what he has to say to us; it’s like him speaking to us.

But before we dive into that letter, though, you’re going to need just a little back story: so, “in last week’s episode” as they might say in a TV series...

You know how your phone and your computer - and soon your car! - needs a major update every two days now just to keep working? At the most inconvenient moment, right? Well, some visitors arrive in these new churches with what they claim is a critical update, a “patch” for Paul’s teaching. We don’t get told precisely what’s in this patch here, but we get a pretty good idea from the way Paul responds to it - and it seems very connected to what we were looking at a few weeks back with that blow-up in Antioch leading to a big hoo-hah in Jerusalem:

Acts 15:1 NIV

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Acts 15:5 (NIV)

“The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”

Circumcision, if you’ve not heard the term before, is a permanent body-marking ritual required for all male Jews; the practice comes from an ancient command of God. And it seems someone has shown up in these Galatian churches trying to persuade people to be circumcised:

Galatians 6:12 (NIV)

Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised.

Well, ok, it’s a bit generous to say they’re trying to persuade people. They’re trying to compel them. Press. Push. Force. And the issue seems wider than just circumcision - it seems the new guys on the block are pushing people to take on the whole Jewish way of life, their customs, their rules. Here’s Paul’s beef in another place in the letter:

Gal 2:14 “you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs” - literally to Judaize - to live like a Jew.

Before that big Jerusalem show-down, before that main event we looked at in Acts 15, people with a very similar view, perhaps even the same people, had been stalking Paul, going back through the churches he’d started in Galatia, trying to push an update with very similar content. So these guys show up, trying to “fix” Paul’s message - but Paul’s having none of it. That’s no fix, he says - they are distorting, corrupting, breaking God’s one true message - the message which Jesus sent through his key followers, the twelve apostles as we call them, and through Paul.

Let’s read the start of his letter to these churches together: Galatians. Come with me to page 1168 and we’ll read just the first bit today. 1168 - but, of course, since it’s the start of a new book in the bible, there’s actually no number of this particular page - so 1169 and back one! why do they do that? Anyway, Jemimah’s going to read for us this morning. Page 1168.

Galatians 1:1–10 NIV

Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the brothers and sisters with me, To the churches in Galatia: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 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—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! 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.

Thanks Jemimah. Well let’s start with the good news! In those few verses we’ve just read we get a super-compact presentation of the good news at the heart of Christianity:

Galatians 1:4 (NIV)

[Jesus] gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father

Jesus gave himself for our sins to rescue us - and that was God’s plan, his will worked out.

And just to unpack this a little more, when this passage talks about “sins”, that’s a word that can seem pretty old-fashioned, and one that means different things to different people. What Paul means here, when he uses it in his letter, is all the wrong things that we do, and all the right things that we don’t do - every single little one, not just the big hitters. And he talks about “our sins” because he sees himself in the wrong along with everyone else. Because all of us get it wrong. Because none of us get it all right.

He tells us Jesus gave himself for our sins - that means he took the penalty, the punishment, the just judgement that all those wrong things deserve. He wiped the slate clean. Grace is the bible word for that. Getting what we absolutely don’t deserve. And in this grace, Jesus, giving himself for our sins, rescues us - he lifts us up out of the fix we were in, he grabs us by the lifejacket and haul us out of the water, and rescues us from this present evil age.

This present evil age.. that’s an interesting phrase, right? This present evil age. I don’t know whether you see it that way - but this is no golden age we’re living in. Sure, technology has made somethings better, and there’s been some progress in our world through education, through art, through government, through charity. But this is no golden age, no perfect world - I think Paul’s right when he calls it our present evil age. The truth is, if we care to notice for just a moment, that we live in a broken world filled with injustice and evil. Maybe not that much right in your face - maybe you get to live in a privileged enclave where things are better - but maybe you’ve seen your fair share of evil - I know many of you have, and certainly our world has. Really I think it’s fair to call the present an evil age.

What makes it that way? The bible’s answer is us. You and me. Everyone. We’re broken, twisted, corrupted inside and that comes out as we rub up against one another. Grasping for power. Putting ourselves first. Ignoring the needs of others. And we can’t fix it, try as we might: no technology, no science, no government, no law can fix this. Because it’s inside every one of us. So what hope is there?

Rescue. That’s the hope. Rescue out of this evil age and, one day, a new age: a renewed world flowing out of renewed people. All this is God’s plan, accomplished through Jesus, giving himself for our sins.

This morning, if you’ve never heard that call before, or if you’ve never responded to that call before, let me invite you right now to hear the call: God calls you to live in the grace of Christ. He invites you to accept this grace, Jesus giving himself in your place. He invites you to embrace this rescue. All you have to do is believe and say yes. Gal 1:4

If you want to say “yes” and you’re on the livestream, there’ll be a button appearing in chat that you can click to raise your hand, digitally, to God for his rescue. If you’re here in the room, I’m going to pray a short prayer and I invite you to join in inside your head - if you’re already a follower of Jesus, you can join in too. And if you dare, why not raise your hand to God for his rescue as we pray. Let’s all close our eyes and pray.

Father God - thank you for this good news. Thank you that Jesus gave himself for our sins - that he died in our place, that he took the punishment that should have been ours. Thank you for this call to live in the grace of Christ, this free gift we don’t deserve of things put right, and of a rescue from this broken world. I want to respond to your call, take your hand, and be rescued. And so I raise my hand to you now.

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Amen. If you took a step today, tell someone. If you don’t know anyone, tell me. If you’re on the livestream, click the button to pray with someone. If you’re watching a recording, comment and we’ll get in touch. There’s a new life for you to begin.

That’s the good news. That’s the heart of the Christian faith. Jesus gave himself for ours sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.

But we read more than that. Jemimah read us the bad news too. This letter we’re reading is a shouty letter. It’s one of those ones that arrives in ALL CAPS. With flames. Actually, it’s uniquely shouty in the bible- John Stott, a commentator says this:

“in every other epistle Paul goes on to pray for [his readers] or to praise and thank God. Only in the epistle to the Galatians is there no prayer, no praise, no thanksgiving, no commendation.”

Just rebuke. Why is Paul so upset, so angry, frankly, about what’s happened? Because someone has been messing with this good news.

Galatians 1:6 NIV

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—

The Galatians, they are in the process of deserting this good news - worse than that, deserting the one who called them into grace - that’s God himself. That’s a serious charge: they are deserting God in accepting this so-called update that’s being foisted on them. It’s a different gospel - but Paul doesn’t stop there:

Galatians 1:6–7 (NIV)

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—which is really no gospel at all...

It’s not just a different gospel, it’s really no gospel at all. It’s like clicking “continue” on that update and finding the phone is bricked, dead, never to run again. What’s being pushed on them isn’t an update, a fix, a correction, an improvement. It’s something which will destroy the good news altogether. Really, it’s no gospel -that is, no good news- at all. It’s back to bad news.

What does Paul think the biggest danger is for these fledgling churches that he has started? persecution from those outside? wrong living from those insides? men behaving badly? All that’s going to come - but it’s this false teaching that’s the killer, the idea that what Jesus did isn’t enough, that more is required.

So what should we think of as the biggest threat to Hope City? another lockdown? increasing persecution as we’re more and more out of step with culture? the council deleting all our parking? All this is probably going to come - but it’s losing the message which is our greatest danger. Losing this core message that Jesus + nothing = everything. Get this wrong and we are deserting God. Get this wrong and we’ve got nothing.

if we lose this message of grace, we’ve lost everything. Look at how Paul describes what they are doing to the key message here:

Galatians 1:7 (NIV)

Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

They are perverting the gospel: changing the gospel, turning it on its head; reversing the gospel, even, and so undoing it.

And he pulls no punches in calling down curses on anyone who tampers with the message: them be under God’s curse,” he says. He repeats himself so there’s no room for doubt. Anathema, he literally declares them: to be destroyed. There’s nothing that gets him so worked up and firey as this, nothing so important as this.

The big point is its all grace, or no gospel. This so-called update, Jesus +, where yes you need Jesus, but you also need to tick some more boxes, is no gospel at all.

...

Now if you know me, you’ll know I’m the sort of guy that likes to ask questions. And the big question this has me asking is “why?”. Why, when we say there’s anything at all we need to add to what Jesus has done, are we left with nothing? Why isn’t this like an update that, yeah, it slows your phone down a bit, but hey it still works? You know, it’s not bang-on, but it’s good enough. Why doesn’t that work? Why is this “no gospel at all”?

Here’s Paul a little later in this letter:

Galatians 5:2 NIV

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.

It’s like there are two roads you can go down, two ways you could turn. One depends on what Jesus has done. The other depends on what you do. And if we even take so much as one step into the path which depends on what we do, just one step, we get nothing from what Jesus has done. But why? Is that just the way grace works, that it’s all-or-nothing? That you can’t mix it together with a little something from us, like oil and water which just won’t merge?

I’ve been turning this one over in my mind for a while now. Here’s what I’m seeing in Galatians: the reason they can’t mix, the reason one tiny little drop of depending on what I do poisons the whole thing is that it’s the difference between freedom and slavery.

Galatians 5:1 NIV

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Jesus died to set us free - but if our rescue depends not just on what he’s done, but also on what we do, we’re not free, we’re slaves. We’ll always be asking “did I do well enough?” If you have to keep the rules, what exactly are those rules? how exactly do they work in any and every circumstance? How well do you have to do? (you can see this, by the way, in the way the Pharisees in the bible think about the law) How much is enough? 80%? How am I doing? Where’s my continuous assessment result? Will I make the grade in the end? Or will I slip and fall at the last hurdle?

We can never, ever know. If there’s anything required from our side, anything at all that we must do, any standard we must meet, then we are not free - we’re slaves because we’ll never know if we’ve performed well enough. Have we understood the rules right? Have we measured ourselves right? Have we overlooked some mistake we made? Being under any law is just like being under the whole Jewish Law - it’s relying on us:

Galatians 3:10 NIV

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

In slavery. Cursed. But that’s no gospel at all. Instead, like Paul told us at the start of this letter, Jesus gave himself for our sins to rescue us - so if we hear his call, if we take his hand, we are free. We rely entirely on him. Jesus + nothing = everything.

It is finished, Jesus says - and it actually is finished. It’s done, nothing to do, no test to pass, no grade to make. We are totally, utterly free in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So if you’d call yourself a follower of Jesus here today, do you actually believe you are totally and utterly free because of Jesus? That nothing more is required for your rescue?

It’s pretty easy to nod at this in principle, to see the logic, hear the truth and say “yep I agree that statement”. But to actually believe this is, I think, a lot harder. I mean, look at how quickly a church started by Paul himself can lose their grip on this crucial truth. Look at how fast we tie ourselves in knots over how exactly we must live if we’re really a follower of Jesus, how quick we are to rule others out and write them off. Easy in principle, hard in practice.

So can I invite you to close your eyes for a moment, and ask yourself the question right now, “where do I fail to measure up?”. What do you feel like you have to do, or not do; to think or not think; to be, or not be, to make the grade with God? where are you unworthy? what are you burdened by? where have you failed?… now what if none of that mattered? What if you were totally free because of Jesus? what if it was truly finished?

That’s the gospel.

Galatians 1:3–5 NIV

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

I want to pray right now for us all.

O Lord, thank you for this grace and peace you, God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, gift to us. Thank you Jesus that you gave yourself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age. Thank you our God and Father that it is your will to rescue us through Jesus’ giving of himself. Help us not to desert you, the one who calls us to live in the grace of Christ. Save us from the lure of thinking we have something to bring, the prison of believing there is anything we can and must contribute to our rescue. Thank you that Christ has set us free. Today, help us to live in that freedom, unburdened, light and joyful. Amen.

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But that’s just one side of the coin: this passage is also about people throwing others into confusion, distorting the gospel for others

Application: don’t throw others into confusion lit: trouble others

every follow of Jesus is a disciple-maker - that’s his great commission to the apostles and everyone who follows

what’s making disciples mean at ground level? what do we actually do when we’re “making disciples”? We try and help others find Jesus, and then we try and help them follow Jesus more closely.

if you’re a follower of Jesus, that’s his call to you too. So there’s a way in which we’re all teachers - since we’re all disciple-makers

we’re telling the world around us a story about what it really means to follow Jesus as we just live our way through each day

sometimes when we have the chance to share our story, or share God’s story, we have the chance to do that more directly

and through our life together as a church, when we’re gathered and when we’re scattered, when we’re a part of something organised like a small group, or something that’s not, like a casual conversation over coffee - we’re disciple-makers there too

so as we think about this critical message of grace, is this the message you are teaching others? is this what you way with your words, with your life?

or do we rather more often really tell a different story, tell people it’s Jesus+?

Firing someone because they don’t make the grade

ever had to fire someone? in a previous life; when people don’t measure up we clarify what needs to be achieved, watch them closely. Don’t measure up? you’re out.

Want to fire other Christians who don’t make the grade?

deplatforming someone who doesn’t keep your rules / tow the line

all grace or no gospel

every member mission means it’s critical none of you are preaching another gospel

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discussion: what’s the most dramatic rescue you’ve experienced? what are you most likely to add to Jesus?