The Unity of the Gospel

In an article from Lifeway which is a Christian publication it shares a story of a man named Michael Santos

Earning Freedom is the account of how Michael Santos rebuilt his life. At age 19 he was sentenced to 45 years in prison for heading up an illegal drug organization.

Inside prison he developed a plan to educate himself, network with a support group, and continue to contribute to the good of society as he prepared to enter the world again.

He earned two degrees, built a website, wrote several articles and books, and helped other prisoners develop skills to cope with life in prison.

After serving 25 of his 45-year sentence, he was released and today continues to write and speak about the power of human determination and will.

Santos' story, though admirable, is a story of self-salvation.

While we should celebrate the common grace of willpower, determination, and perseverance, we must understand how the gospel radically redefines the role of human effort in salvation.

Grace cannot be earned; it is a gift to all who believe. Anyone with a different message should be accursed (Gal. 1:9)!

But the Galatian churches struggled to understand this. Paul recounted a few events in his ministry to stress the importance of salvation by grace alone.

Let’s read Galatians 2:1-10

Now to recap:

in Galatians 1 we see Paul defending his authority as a Apostle

He says if anyone preaches a gospel contrary to what they heard even if its from an angel let them be accursed by God

Paul then gives a snapshot of his life before Christ and how he was transformed after he encountered Christ.

Now 14 years later we see Paul returning to Jerusalem and that’s where we are at.

First we see...

The private conversation (Gal. 2:1-2

a. Three reasons for Pauls, Barnabas and Titus’s visit.

The visit was prompted by revelation from God.

Now Paul wasn’t going on his own initiative as if he needed the other apostles’ approval. It’s been 14 years and he still didn’t think it was necessary.

He received his gospel message directly from the Lord Jesus Christ and knew the Lord had called him to be an apostle.

But it was the Lord who wanted him to go up and not for Paul’s sake of learning but for the sake of silencing the Judaizers and removing doubt in the minds of the congregations of Galatia in regards to the authenticity of Paul’s apostolic authority and message.

Later we’ll see more of God’s purpose in sending him but for the time being we need to note that Paul went, not because he really felt like he needed to, but mainly because God told him too.

When he went, he took along his ministry partner Barnabas, and Titus, a Greek convert that Paul had made who was not circumcised.

There’s a principle to be made here in that Paul only went where the Lord wanted him to go and we should too.

We should prayerfully and carefully seek to know God’s will for our lives and sometimes He takes us places we never even thought of.

Go where the Lord wants you to go and do what the Lord wants you to do.

The key to growing in the Lord and knowing His will is to openly surrender every aspect of our lives to Him.

ii. The visit was to present them with the true gospel

Paul submitted to them his gospel. He shared his teachings honestly and openly before them and because there was so much controversy over the issue, they also did it in private.

I believe they did it in private because they didn’t want there to be any pressure in the meeting from anyone. It’s kind of like two parents discussing how to respond to their kids’ questions.

You don’t want one parent saying one thing and the other saying another thing. Kids don’t need to see that in the conversation.

Parents need to come together in private, discuss the matter at hand, and then return with a unified stance and message for the children

iii. The visit was to reassure that Paul wasn’t running alone

When Paul says he feared that he might be running or had run in vain, I don’t think it means he had doubts or needed reassurance about his gospel but that he feared that all his hard work and toil had become or was becoming useless

Next is...

2. The public coming together ( Gal. 2:3-5)

a. Titus wasn’t compelled at all to be circumsized

b. False brethen brought in to be spies of the liberty they had in Christ

c. They didn’t give in to the spies at all(not even an hour)

Now we have...

3. The personal confirmation (Gal. 2:6-10)

a. God shows no partiality even to the influental. We shouldn’t use people and love things but we should love people and use things

b. Paul was entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised such as peter was entrusted with it for the circumcised.

because it was the same God working in and through both

c. Paul along with James, Cephas and John were the pillars

d. The other apostles gave Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship

i. They recognized the grace given to Paul and shook his hand, saying, “We’re with you, Paul. We’ve got your back. You ever need anything, you let us know. Be sure to remember us as well.”

ii. The apostles gave Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship to continue on working mainly with the Gentiles, while James and Peter and John continue ministering to the circumcised.

iii. That is what is so great about the Benton/West City ministerial alliance. That churches from different denonminations, different traditions, and different beliefs can come together and share in “the right hand of fellowship” together and partner with one another in ministry.

e. They asked Paul one thing “to remember the poor”

i. Paul said this remember the poor was something he was eager to do.

ii. This is something that the church as a whole is poor at doing. That’s why the goverment has to do it.

iii. I’ve heard stories of churches not welcoming the poor because “They contribute nothing to the offering plate” and things like “We don’t want those kinds of people here”.

a. Well those are the kinds of people that Jesus died for!

b.We need to be careful not to have a pious and self righteous attitude toward people who are less fortunate than us. Because God has a sense of humor and one day we can become one of those less fortunate people.

4. Some Applications and challanges to remember

A. The Gospel does not change

The gospel is the gospel and it always will never change. Nothing can be added to it and nothing removed.

Man must acknowledge himself as a sinner before a holy God whom his sins have offended and realize that the only remedy is found in Jesus Christ who paid for those sins so that he could be born again by the Spirit of God and receive eternal life.

The Gospel is simple. People aren’t confused about the message. They are confused about us!

The greatest cause of disbelief are Christians who profess Jesus with their mouth but deny him by how they live.

B. Don’t sugar coat the gospel to those who need to hear the truth