Jesus + Nothing = Everything

Why is it so important to protect the gospel from falsehood? Dave Bass shares this shocking story:

A candidate for elder in an independent suburban church in the Midwest sat with the board for his interview. From all the church’s appearances—doctrinal statement, sermons, worship, teaching—he had no reason to doubt that this was a solid, biblical church. In discussing his qualifications, however, he discovered that he was chosen partly because his astrological sign was in harmony with those of the board members.

They urged him to pray for a “spirit guide” who would give him wisdom in his new office. They said he could expect to benefit from “deep” teachings from the elders themselves. Now the man understood why a friend had earlier declined the position and had been reluctant to discuss it.

Even Apostle Paul dealt with the same thing. He had to deal with false teachers, trouble makers and gossipers in the church. He had to deal with some who were being legalistic. Who kept looking back at the good ole days instead of looking to see how God was at work today.

Let’s read...

Galatians 1:6–10 (NASB95)

6I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;

7which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

8But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!

9As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

10For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.

The Surprise

v6. I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;

Now first of all we see that Paul is surprised to hear the church in Galatia was so quick to turn away from the gospel of Jesus Christ. In order to understand what gospel they were turning to we need to understand some things about the text. Namely, the law, gentiles and Jews.

There were Jewish Christian legalists who came from Jerusalem and were teaching that before the Gentiles can become Christians that they needed to become Jews first. They wanted to add works on the law on top of faith in Jesus Christ as the basis of salvation.

Now the biblical law may be classified in three ways: 1) ceremonial law- 2) civil law- 3) moral law- The ceremonial law is fulfilled in the perfect life and sacrificial death of our Lord to whom it pointed. The Christian who observes the ceremonial laws, in effect, would be denying the birth of Christ.

Civil laws, consists of those laws that regulate justice among human beings.

The moral law binds all mankind, in all ages, it is summarily shown in the Ten Commandments.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches , we find passages that are condemning the false teachers’ heresy of requiring obedience to the ceremonial law of circumcision.

In some situations described in this letter, the heresy is in the form of requiring the ceremonial law for one to be justified.

In this letter we also find that Paul is condemning a return to the ceremonial law of circumcision as an act of sanctification.

Whether it was to boost their religious reputation, avoid persecution, or to keep up appearances, Paul denounces any use of the obsolete ceremonial law as part of one’s sanctification.

This is the opposite of what he and the rest of the New Testament writers teach regarding the moral law and sanctification.

The moral law does in fact serve a major role in our spiritual growth – the ceremonial law does not!

Therefore, it is critical that we don’t quote passages that downplay or condemn “the law” in a Christian’s life until we carefully discover which “law” is in view.

This distinction is crucial, and I find it is often missed in the discussion regarding “law” and sanctification.

I think Pauls surprise was that they were turning back so soon from the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ to the law.

There are many false gospels out there even today. Those that promise good news when it’s really not.

We have the prosperity gospel which says God wants you healthy and wealthy

We have the good works gospel which says im not a bad person. i help other people. i volunteer.

We have the tolerance gospel. Which says it doesn’t matter who or what you believe or how you get there. We are all going to the same place

We have the erasing hell gospel. Which says Hell isn’t real. There are no consequences for our sin.

These all are false gospels and we have to be careful not to allow the world to influence the church.

That brings me to my second point of...

The Seduction

v7. which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Whoever they were, they were causing a disturbance in the church.

They were creating turmoil. They were “troubling” the Galatians

These people were agitators. Since they were stirring up trouble, the best term for them is “troublemakers.”

Many things can disturb the peace of the church, but these troublemakers were doing the most disturbing thing of all

The church’s greatest troublemakers (now as then) are not those outside who oppose, ridicule and persecute it,but those inside who try to change the gospel.

This is what the Judaizers were doing. They wanted “to distort the gospel of Christ” .

They were distorting things. They were taking sound theology and twisting it.

Remember that the people who came to the Galatians with this “other gospel” were baptized members of the Christian church.

Their teaching started something like this:

“We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

He is the Messiah, the chosen one of Israel, who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead.

You must repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ to be saved.”

The teachers who were getting Paul all hot and bothered were using the same terminology that he used.

They were preaching salvation in Christ. All they wanted to do was take it a little further.

The Judaizers wanted to add something to Paul’s gospel of free grace.

“Yes, yes, what Paul preaches is fine,” they said, “as far as it goes.

But we’ve been worshiping God for a long time, a lot longer than you Gentiles. In fact, we’ve been keeping the law of Moses for over a thousand years.

And you know what Jesus said? He said that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.

If you want the full gospel, you need to be circumcised in order to get it.

This is what Gentiles have always had to do to become part of God’s people.”

The next point we see is...

The Sin

8But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!

9As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

In Baker’s Encyclopedia of the Bible it says that accursed means “Invocation of evil or injury against one’s enemies. As practiced in Bible times, cursing was the opposite of blessing and should not be confused with profanity in the modern sense.”

Paul was speaking to and at his culture at that time. A popular secular belief at that time was that curses were linked to spirits that could be invoked to act on behalf of a person to perform certain deeds.

Along with this we have to remember that the audience paul was speaking to highly valued angelic beings. So he is telling them that it doesn’t matter whether it’s Himself, an angel, or anyone else. If they should preach a gospel other than the good news of Jesus than they are to be accursed and suffer the wrath of God.

Pauls speaks to the seriousness of this sin and its depravity because of it’s severe consequences. Many people then and now preach a false gospel that have led many people straight to hell.

Now we see Paul here who was an Apostle. A true pastor of pastors. He wasn’t one that would go with the flow, was he? That’s what made him such a great leader. Unfortunately today many churches just want a preacher and not a pastor. There is a big difference.

Paul was on a mission to please God and not man. It wasn’t Pauls will be done but, it was God’s will be done.

Now we see the last point from Paul in our text....

The Sorrow

10For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.

Paul here reminds them that he is not a people pleaser but a good pleaser. It sounds like he is being accused of being a people pleaser because he isn’t requiring the gentiles to be circumsized like the jews according to the law.

It’s almost like they were accusing Paul of being easy on the gentiles but this certainly wasn’t the case.

Paul spoke in his writings about a grace that wasn’t easy or cheap.

Cheap Grace creates a Church where the world finds a cheap covering for its sins

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, "they say", and so everything can remain as it was before.

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance,

Cheap Grace is baptism without church discipline,

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship,

Where people get confused is in the different types of law and a poor understanding of the text.

We are still to obey the moral law of the ten commandments and the judicial law of the land but most of the ceremonial laws are outdated. Such as wardrobe for the priests and dietary restrictions and religious festivals. We dont have provide animals for sacrifice anymore. Only the ceremonies of baptism, the Lords Supper and Marriage should still be done because they all point to Christ. Everything points to Him and is fulfilled in Christ.

We have to remember that the gospel of grace isn’t an idea, concept, or prayer but its a person. It’s Jesus Christ!

We have to be careful what we say is necessary for salvation. People say you need Jesus plus baptism. You need Jesus plus church attendance. Woman say you need Jesus plus a long skirt. Never pants.

That’s why Jesus plus nothing equals everything!