A Meeting Concerning A Potential Division...

At the church where I serve, we are spending this election season in a sermon series entitled vote no on religion. We are looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament in our Bibles today called the Book of Galatians and are discovering that this election has been going on for thousands of years. Every day, we cast a ballot in this election for one of two candidates. Either you cast a ballot to vote to live your life as a religious-centered person; or you cast a ballot to live your life as a gospel-centered person.

This week, as we continue to look at this letter, we will see Paul continue to defend himself against the accusations of those who proclaimed the false gospel of religion and promoted a religious centered lifestyle. And it is in his defense that we will see Paul reveal for us another timeless reason why we are to vote no on religion. So let’s look together at Paul’s defense, beginning in Galatians 2:1:

Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. It was because of a revelation that I went up; and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.

Paul begins this section of his letter to the churches of Galatia by continuing the share the testimony of his transformation from being a religious centered person to a gospel centered person. Last week, in Galatians 1:11-24, Paul shared how his religious centered life was turned upside down as a result of his encounter with Jesus Christ after He had been raised from the dead on the road to Damascus, which is also recorded for us in a letter that was recorded for us in the New Testament of our Bibles today called the book of Acts, in Acts 9.

Paul reminded the Galatians that early followers of Jesus were afraid of Paul and that only fifteen days after arriving in Jerusalem, Jewish religious people who were Greek ethnically responded to Paul’s presence by attempting to kill him. Paul wanted the Galatians to clearly understand that he never had the time or opportunity to learn and be taught a message that he had heard and learned from others.

Here we see Paul continue to share his story by explaining that fourteen years after fleeing Jerusalem, in what was now 47 A.D., that he and Barnabas returned again to Jerusalem. Now a natural question that arises is “what was Paul doing those fourteen years?” In Acts 11:25, we discover that Paul had been in Tarsus. Barnabas, who Paul mentions in Galatians 2:1, was sent to bring Paul from Tarsus to the church at Antioch. During those fourteen years, Paul had been sharing the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel throughout the region of Tarsus, which is located in Southeastern Turkey, to Antioch.

And after fourteen years of spending time sharing the gospel and being discipled by Jesus, Paul received a revelation from Jesus to go back to Jerusalem. So Paul, Barnabas, and Titus proceeded to travel to Jerusalem. Paul’s point here is that he did not make this visit on his own initiative, or at the request of the leaders of the church at Jerusalem, or by the church at Antioch. Paul’s visit was independent of any influence other than Jesus.

Paul then reveals the reason for the visit to Jerusalem in verse 2: “and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.”  Now this word submitted, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to lay something before someone for consideration. Paul is literally saying “I laid my gospel before them for consideration”.

However, he did so in private; in other words, Paul had a special meeting with the influential leaders of the church at Jerusalem. Paul then uses an athletic metaphor to paint a picture of the concern that he had: “for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.”  The word vain here conveys the sense of doing something that is without purpose or result.

You see, Paul was concerned that the gospel that he was publicly proclaiming to the non-Jewish world would cause division among those who were Jewish who were becoming followers of Jesus. Paul’s fear was the there would be a Jewish Christian Church and a Gentile Christian Church. Paul was concerned that the message of the gospel that he was publicly proclaiming would divide the church and thus hinder God’s kingdom mission. It was not that Paul thought that the message of the gospel that he was proclaiming was wrong; I mean he had received that message from Jesus Himself.

And Paul had been running; he had been striving and exerting himself to spread that message. And now Jesus had sent Paul down to the leaders of the church at Jerusalem to consider that gospel message to ensure that there would be unity and not division when it came to the message and mission of this new movement called the church.

Tomorrow, we will see Paul reveal what happened after the leaders of the church at Jerusalem considered the message of the gospel that he was proclaiming…

Questioning the Power and Authority of the Message...

This week, we have been looking at a section of a letter in the Bible called the book of Galatians. Wednesday, we saw Paul defend himself against those who were alleging the he was communicating a message that he had heard and learned from men by explaining that the message of the gospel that he was proclaiming was from the beginning a message that he received from Jesus Himself. Paul did not consult anyone and was not trained by anyone when it came to the gospel. As a matter of fact, Paul had not even been back to Jerusalem to speak with any of Jesus closest followers.

Today, we will see Paul continue to defend the message of the gospel and his mission in Galatians 3:18:

Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord's brother. (Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.)

Here we see Paul share with the members of the churches of Galatia the story of his trip to Jerusalem. In Acts 9:23-25, Luke tells us that after three years of frustrating the Jewish religious system and its leaders, the Jewish people decided that they would try to kill Paul. After being rescued by other followers of Jesus, who lowered him in a large basket over the city walls, Paul traveled to Jerusalem, where he became acquainted with Cephas, which is the Greek name for Peter. For fifteen days, Paul hung out with and got to know Peter.

However, Paul makes it clear that the only other early church leader that he had contact with was James, who was the half-brother of Jesus who would eventually become the Senior Pastor at the church at Jerusalem. Paul is sharing his story because he wanted the members of the churches of Galatia to clearly understand that he did not go to Jerusalem in order to receive a crash course of the message of the gospel. Paul’s trip to Jerusalem was not to attend class. Instead, Paul went to engage and develop a relationship with the leader of this new movement called the church and share about God’s transformational activity in his life.

Now a natural question that arises here is “well, how do we know that is the case? How do we know that Paul was only in Jerusalem for fifteen days?” Paul, anticipating this objection, addresses the objection with a parenthetical statement in verse 20: “what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.” And the reason that we know that Paul was not lying is because of what Luke records for us in Acts 9:26-30. In Acts 9:26-30, we discover that early followers of Jesus were afraid of Paul. It was only after Barnabas served as an intermediary that early followers of Jesus even wanted to hang out with him.

Then, only fifteen days after arriving in Jerusalem, Jewish religious people who were Greek ethnically responded to Paul’s presence by attempting to kill him. Paul’s point here is that he never had the time or opportunity to be taught a message that he had heard and learned from others. And this fact should serve as evidence of the proof of his authority as a messenger that was sent by Jesus with a message from Jesus as His representative. Paul then concludes this section of this letter by sharing what happened next in verse 21:

Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; but only, they kept hearing, "He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy." And they were glorifying God because of me.

Paul explains that just as it was in Damascus, Paul was ushered out of Jerusalem safely to Tarsus and he surrounding regions, known as Syria and Cilicia. And because he was over 130 miles north of Jerusalem and Judea, the churches that were located in Jerusalem and Judea did not know Paul personally. All the churches of Jerusalem and Judea knew about Paul was the stories that they were hearing from others about God’s transformational intervention and activity in his life. And God’s transformational intervention and activity in Paul’s life resulted God’s reputation being enhanced in the churches of Jerusalem and Judea. Paul’s point here is that he could not have received the message of the gospel that he was proclaiming from the churches of Jerusalem and Judea, because they had never met them since he became a follower of Jesus.

You see, the message of the gospel that Paul was preaching and proclaiming to the members of the churches of Galatia was not man’s message. Instead, the message of the gospel that Paul was preaching and proclaiming to the members of the churches of Galatia was directly from Jesus as God. And because religion finds its origin in humanity and is a message from humanity to humanity on how humanity can enter into a right relationship with God, it has no power or authority when it comes to rescuing us from our selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God.

Only God’s message of rescue through the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel has the power and authority to bring rescue from rebellion and relationship with God. And that is why we must vote no on religion. We are to vote no on religion because religion is man’s message, while the gospel is God’s message.

So, which message have you been voting for? Have you been voting for the message of religion, which has no power or authority when it comes to rescuing us from our selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God? Or have you been voting for the message of the gospel, which alone has the power and authority to bring rescue from rebellion and relationship with God?

Sharing a Story of Rescue from Religion...

This week we are looking at a section of his letter called the book of Galatians. Yesterday, we discovered that there were those in the churches who were alleging that Paul was not a true apostle and had no claim to any authority that came from Jesus and that he was not speaking as a representative of Jesus. Paul confronts those allegations by explaining that he received the message of the gospel through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, after being raised from the dead, appeared to Paul and disclosed to him God’s good news to humans which forms the message of the gospel. Jesus Himself, face to face, made fully known the message of the gospel to Paul.

And that reality gave Paul the authority, as an Apostle, along with the unique role and gifting to be the messenger that would deliver God’s new message regarding Jesus Christ and message of the gospel to the world. We saw Paul reveal for us a timeless reason that we are to vote no on religion because religion is man’s message, while the gospel is God’s message. Paul’s point is that the message of the gospel is not a human message. Instead the message of the gospel is God’s message.

Today, we will see Paul begin provide the evidence to prove that the message of the gospel was a message that he received from God without any human influence or interaction. So let’s look at the evidence together, beginning in Galatians 1:13:

For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.

Here we see Paul provide the members of the churches of Galatia his testimony of his life as a religious-centered person. You see, prior to encountering Jesus, Paul was perhaps the most legalistic religious person who ever lived. When Paul refers to his former manner of life in Judaism, he is referring to how he conducted his life as a part of the Jewish religious system.

For the Jewish religious person, their security and well being was found in the Law. The Law is the first five books that we have in our Bibles today, which the Jewish people called the Law or Torah. And Paul, like other Jewish religious people, took pride in the belief that their well being and security was founded in legalistically following and keeping the Law.

And in the same way today, religious people will often take pride in the security and well being that comes from doing something for God. For Paul and the Jewish religious people of his day, it was what they did for God that made them right with God.

Paul explains that he so embraced the Jewish religious system that he persecuted the church beyond measure and tried to destroy it. Paul not only harassed followers of Jesus, Paul hated the church; Saul despised early followers of Jesus. Paul arrested early followers of Jesus, Paul tortured early followers of Jesus; Paul participated in the murder of early followers of Jesus. In Acts 9:1-2, Luke tells us that Paul’s hatred for followers of Jesus was so consuming that he requested permission to travel all the way to Damascus Syria, which was a distance of 135 miles, so that he could arrest followers of Jesus and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial, in order to put an end to this new movement called the church.

Paul was consumed with hate and driven to fan the flames of hate in order to utterly destroy the message of the gospel. But not only was Paul passionately committed to protecting the Jewish religious system from outside threats; Paul was also passionately committed to legalistically following the teachings of the Jewish religious system. When Paul states that he was advancing in Jerusalem beyond many of my contemporaries, he is revealing the reality that he was at the top of his class in Torah school. Paul was totally committed to learning and following the Jewish religious system and its traditions as taught by the rabbi’s of the day.

Paul lived a legalistically religious centered life. His head, heart, and hands were wholly committed to a life and a lifestyle as a religious centered person. There was no one more legalistically religious than Paul. But something happened to Paul that radically changed him and the trajectory of his life forever, which Paul reveals for us in verse 15:

But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.

Here we see Paul share with the members of the churches of Galatia how his legalistically religious centered life was turned upside down as a result of his encounter with Jesus Christ after He had been raised from the dead on the road to Damascus. The story of this encounter is also recorded for us in a letter that was recorded for us in the New Testament of our Bibles today called the book of Acts. In Acts 9:1-9, Luke records for us the story of this encounter. In addition, in Acts 26, Luke records Paul’s sharing his encounter with Jesus as part of his defense before King Agrippa.

Paul explains to the members of the churches at Galatia that his encounter with Jesus was not a random occurrence. Instead, this encounter was a part of God’s Divine plan to advance His mission in the world. God, who is large and in charge of all of time and history, had set Paul apart even from his mother’s womb. In other words, before Paul had been born, God had chosen and selected him to fulfill a specific purpose. God had called, or chosen Paul, not because of what Paul had done for God as a legalistic religious centered person.

What religious centered performance for God could not do to rescue Paul from the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God, God did. As a result of God’s transformational intervention and activity in the world, God had chosen to rescue Paul from selfishness and rebellion and involve him in God’s mission in the world through Jesus life, death, and resurrection. God graciously chose to rescue Paul from his religious rebellion and to reveal His message of rescue through the message of the gospel. And God gave Paul the mission to be the messenger that would deliver God’s new message to the non-Jewish world regarding Jesus Christ and message of the gospel.

Immediately after his encounter with Jesus, who revealed and made known the message of the gospel and the mission he had been given, Paul explains that he did not consult flesh and blood. In other words, Paul did not decide to take up his encounter with Jesus and the mission he had been given with other human beings. He did not seek any feedback or opinions from other people. Paul did not travel to Jerusalem in order to consult with the leaders of the early church who had also seen Jesus after He had been raised from the dead.

Instead, Paul immediately began to engage in the kingdom mission he had been given to share the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel to the non-Jewish world. When Paul states that he went away to Arabia and returned once more to Damascus, he is explaining to the church at Galatia what Luke recorded for us in Acts 9:19-25. There Luke records for us that Paul entered into the synagogue of Damascus to share with the Jewish religious leaders and people the mission and message that drove him. Paul began to publicly and powerfully proclaim the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. The man who was supposed to pillage and destroy followers of Jesus was now the main missionary for Jesus, proving that Jesus fulfilled the predictions of the Messiah from the Old Testament.

Paul’s point to the churches of Galatia was that the message of the gospel that he was proclaiming was from the beginning a message that he received from Jesus Himself. Paul did not consult anyone and was not trained by anyone when it came to the gospel. As a matter of fact, Paul had not even been back to Jerusalem to speak with any of Jesus closest followers.

Tomorrow, we will see Paul continue to share his story…

We are to vote no on religion because religion is man’s message, while the gospel is God’s message...

During this election season at the church where I serve we are looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament in our Bibles called the Book of Galatians. We launched into this letter by discovering that whether you are a republican, democrat or independent; whether you are a member of the tea party of the occupy wall street movement; whether you would consider yourself active or inactive in politics, you cast your ballot every day in an election that has far more at stake that who will be the leader of the free world for the next four years. Every day, we cast a ballot in this election is for one of two candidates. Either you cast a ballot to vote to live your life as a religious-centered person; or you cast a ballot to live your life as a gospel-centered person. And in this letter, we will discover that this election has been going on for thousands of years.

This week, we will see Paul defend himself against the accusations of those who had embraced a religious centered lifestyle. And it is in his defense that we will see Paul reveal for us another timeless reason why we are to vote no on religion. So let’s look together at Paul’s defense, beginning in Galatians 1:11:

For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul begins that section of his letter to the churches of Galatia by confronting those in the churches who were alleging that Paul was not a true apostle. As we discovered last week, when the Bible uses the word Apostle, this word literally means sent one and refers to one who had seen Jesus after He had been raised from the dead. However, the members of the churches of Galatia were denying that Paul had been given the unique role and gifting to be the messenger that would deliver God’s new message regarding Jesus Christ and message of the gospel to the world. They alleged that Paul had no authority as a messenger that was sent by Jesus with a message from Jesus as His representative. Instead, they alleged that Paul was simply someone that was communicating a message that he had heard and learned from others. They were denying that Paul had claim to any authority that came from Jesus and that he was not speaking as a representative of Jesus.

Paul confronts those allegations by explaining that the message of the gospel that he was proclaiming was not a message that had any origin in man. Paul did not receive the message of the gospel from any man. Now the word receive conveys the sense of gaining control and receiving jurisdiction over something. In other words, Paul did not receive a commission to share the message of the gospel from any human being. He did not receive permission from any human author when it came to communicating the message of the gospel.

In addition, Paul explains that he was not taught the message of the gospel. Paul did not attend a class held by the Apostles to learn the message and teachings of Jesus. Paul was not enrolled in any distance learning program. Paul did not read a textbook or attend a seminar when it came to learning how to communicate the message of the gospel. Paul did not get a text message from someone with the gospel; Paul did not receive a Facebook post with the gospel; Paul did not receive a tweet with the gospel.

Instead, Paul explains that he received the message of the gospel through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, after being raised from the dead, appeared to Paul and disclosed to him God’s good news to humans which forms the message of the gospel. Jesus Himself, face to face, made fully known the message of the gospel to Paul. And that reality gave Paul the authority, as an Apostle, along with the unique role and gifting to be the messenger that would deliver God’s new message regarding Jesus Christ and message of the gospel to the world.

And it is here that we see Paul reveal for us a timeless reason why we are to vote no on religion. And that timeless reason is that we are to vote no on religion because religion is man’s message, while the gospel is God’s message. As we talked about last week, the simplest definition of religion is that religion is man’s attempt to do things for God in order to be right with God. Religion finds its origin in humanity and is a message from humanity to humanity on how humanity can enter into a right relationship with God.

Paul’s point to those who were alleging that he was simply someone that was communicating a message that he had heard and learned from others was to point to his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road as the proof of his authority as a messenger that was sent by Jesus with a message from Jesus as His representative. Paul’s point is that the message of the gospel is not a human message. Instead the message of the gospel is God’s message.

And in the remainder of this section of this letter, we will see Paul provide the evidence to prove that the message of the gospel was a message that he received from God without any human influence or interaction.

Tomorrow, we will begin to look at the evidence together…

The Consequences of the False Gospel of Religion...

This week, we are looking at the opening sections of a letter in the Bible called the book of Galatians. Wednesday, we saw a man named Paul reveal for us the timeless reason that we are to vote no on religion because religion is opposed to the gospel. Whether it is the religion of legalism or the religion of license, religion and the message of the gospel are diametrically opposed to one another.

The religion of legalism is opposed to the message of the gospel because legalism calls us to a life and a lifestyle that is based on our performance for God that will always fall short of being able to rescue us from the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God. The religion of license is opposed to the message of the gospel because licentiousness calls us to a life and a lifestyle that embraces the very selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God.

Today, as Paul continues in the opening sections of this letter, we see his response to those who were proclaiming the false gospel of religion in verses 8-9:

But 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! As 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!

To fully understand the significance of Paul’s word’s here, we first need to understand what Paul means when he uses the phrase “he is to be accursed”. The word accursed, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to be devoted to destruction. This word was used to describe the offerings that were made to God in the Jewish sacrificial system as a result of selfishness and sin. In other words, Paul is saying any the person who proclaims a message about how to be right with God that is contrary to the claims of Christ and message of the gospel that he had preached was to be viewed as under a curse and facing eternity separated from God in Hell.

Even if Paul Himself, or other close followers of Jesus that were called Apostles, were to later come back and change or distort the message of the gospel into the message of religion, they were deserving to be cursed to experience God’s right and just response of eternal separation from God in Hell for the selfishness and rebellion that led them to change and distort the message of the gospel.

Even if an angel from Heaven should appear in a forest to someone and direct them to golden tablets that were buried in the ground that proclaimed a message that was contrary to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel, they were deserving to be cursed to experience God’s right and just response of eternal separation from God in Hell. You see, I don’t doubt that Joseph Smith saw what he saw; I believe His story. I believe he saw someone disguised as an angel of light, who gave to him a message of the religion of legalism that calls us to a life and a lifestyle that is based on our performance for God that will always fall short of being able to rescue us from the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God. But that is not Paul’s point.

Paul’s point is that whether it is Joseph Smith and Mormonism, or Mohammad and Islam, or Buddha and Hinduism, or any other human or angelic being that proclaims a message that is contrary to the message of the gospel and promotes the religion of legalism or license, they will receive God’s just and right response of eternal separation from God in Hell for the selfishness and rebellion that led them to change and distort the message of the gospel.

And those who choose to embrace and place their allegiance in another message that promotes religion over the gospel is in fact still separated from God as a result of selfishness and rebellion that places themselves in opposition to the gospel and God. Paul then concludes the opening section of his letter to the churches of Galatia by defending his confrontation and condemnation of those who were embracing and proclaiming religion in verse 10:

For 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.

Now this verse, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Do you think that I am trying to persuade and appeal to men by condemning those who proclaim the gospel of religion and who promote a religion centered lifestyle? Do you think that I am trying to flatter people by proclaiming the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel? I mean how well is that going to work for me? Oh, hi let me introduce myself. I’m Paul, and I just want to flatter you by telling you that there is nothing that you can do to rescue yourself from your selfishness. There is absolutely nothing that you can do for God to make yourself right with God. So do you feel flattered? Do you feel persuaded that you are a good person now that I have shared that with you? Are we buds now? Can I come over and hang out at you place now that I have let you know that you are in desperate need of a rescuer? Will you be friends with me on Facebook now?

You see, the message of the gospel is not flattering to humanity, is it? No, it is not flattering to us. It is not flattering to us because there is something within us that thinks that there must be something that we can do to earn spiritual brownie points with God. The message of the gospel is not flattering to us because there is something within us that thinks we can manage our selfishness and rebellion through religious activity. The message of the gospel is not flattering to us because there is something within us that wants to make God like a therapist that gives us some good counseling and therapy so that our self esteem can improve and so our performance for God can make us right with God. The message of the gospel is not flattering to us because there is something within us that thinks that God will somehow be o.k. with a life and a lifestyle that embraces the very selfishness and rebellion that separated us from God in the first place because we have read in the Bible that God gives grace.

And that something within us is our selfishness and rebellious nature apart from Christ attempting to lead us to live religious-centered lives instead of gospel-centered lives. But whether it is the religion of legalism or the religion of license, religion and the message of the gospel are diametrically opposed to one another.

The religion of legalism is opposed to the message of the gospel because legalism calls us to a life and a lifestyle that is based on our performance for God that will always fall short of being able to rescue us from the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God. The religion of license is opposed to the message of the gospel because licentiousness calls us to a life and a lifestyle that embraces the very selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God. And as followers of Jesus, we are called to vote no on religion because religion is opposed to the gospel.

So how are you voting? Are you casting a ballot to vote to live your life as a religious-centered person? Or are you casting a ballot to live your life as a gospel-centered person?

Vote No On Religion Because Religion Is Opposed To The Gospel...

This week, we are looking at the opening sections of a letter in the New Testament of our Bibles called the book of Galatians. Yesterday, we see Paul clearly communicate the message of the gospel. The message that reveals that God responded to our selfish rebellion and sin by sending His Son Jesus, God in a bod, who entered into humanity and allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. The message that provides the opportunity for all humanity to receive the forgiveness of sin and enter into the relationship with God that they were created for by believing, trusting and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

We ended by recognizing that normally when we read a letter in our Bibles that Paul wrote to a church, Paul usually begins his letter by thanking God and then transitions to express his thanksgiving for the members of that particular church or group of churches. Normally Paul will thank the members of a church for their love, their faith, their generosity, etc. So that is what we would think would happen here. Today, however, we see that is not where Paul goes next, beginning in verse 6:

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Now when Paul uses the word amazed here, this word literally means to be extraordinarily disturbed about something. What was so amazingly disturbing to Paul was that the members of the churches of Galatia were deserting God. The word deserting conveys the sense of changing one’s allegiance. And it wasn’t just that they were changing their allegiance so as to desert God; it was how quickly they were changing their allegiances and deserting God. Most scholars believe that Paul planted the churches in Galatia in 47-48 A.D. Yet, less than a year after returning from planting these churches, they were already bailing on following Jesus.

So what happened? What was causing them to change their allegiance and bail? Paul provides the answer in the second half of verse 6. The members of the churches in Galatia were running from God, who had called them to relationship with Him that was based on grace, or God’s transformational intervention and activity, for a different gospel. The members of the churches of Galatia were choosing to embrace and place their allegiance in another message that was proclaimed to be God’s good news to humans.

In verse 7, however, Paul confronts the members of the churches of Galatia by explaining that the message that they are embracing and placing their allegiance in was really not another gospel. But what does that mean? The word gospel literally means good news and refers to God’s good news that was to be proclaimed to humanity. Paul’s point here is that the message that they were embracing was not God’s good news. The message that they were placing their allegiance in was not from God.

Paul here is revealing the reality that there is only one message of the gospel and what the members of the churches of Galatia were embracing and placing their allegiance in was not it. What was happening in Galatia, and what still happens today, was that there were people who, as Paul says, were “disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” There were people in Paul’s’ day, as there are today, who were causing inward turmoil and confusion by preaching a false gospel. There were people in Paul’s’ day, as there are today, who wanted and desired to change and distort the message of the gospel.

Instead of proclaiming and embracing the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel, there were those in the churches of Galatia, as there are today, who were proclaiming and embracing one of two different forms of religion. Now the simplest definition of religion is this: religion is man’s attempt to do things for God in order to be right with God. And throughout history, humanity has tended to attempt change and distort God’s message of rescue through the message of the gospel into one of two different forms of religion.

The first form of religion is the religion of legalism. For the legalist, the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel seems just too easy, too simple. For the legalist, the idea that there is nothing that one can do for God in order to be right with God is too hard to swallow. The idea that forgiveness and a right relationship with God is solely based on placing one’s confident trust in what God has done for us through Jesus seems incomplete. There has to be more than faith in God’s grace. So what a legalist does is make a list of religious rules to follow in order to be right with God. Legalism is a religion that can call for faith in Christ plus works for God in order to be right with God. Or legalism is a religion that calls for works for God apart from faith in Christ in order to be right with God.

The second form of religion is the religion of license. The religion of license maintains that as a result of God’s grace, we can do whatever we want and still be right with God. We can lie, cheat, steal, sleep around and have friends with benefits, because at the end of the day, we are saved by grace. For the religion of license, the idea that forgiveness and a right relationship with God is solely based on placing one’s confident trust in what God has done for us through Jesus seems to give us license. The religion of license responds to God’s transformational intervention and activity through Jesus life, death, and resurrection by embracing the selfishness and rebellion that Jesus came to free us from so that we would instead live a life that reveals and reflects Jesus.

And it is here that we see Paul reveal for us a timeless reason why we are to vote no on religion. And that timeless reason is that we need to vote no on religion because religion is opposed to the gospel. Whether it is the religion of legalism or the religion of license, religion and the message of the gospel are diametrically opposed to one another.

The religion of legalism is opposed to the message of the gospel because legalism calls us to a life and a lifestyle that is based on our performance for God that will always fall short of being able to rescue us from the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God.

The religion of license is opposed to the message of the gospel because licentiousness calls us to a life and a lifestyle that embraces the very selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God.

Tomorrow, we will see Paul respond to those who were proclaiming the false gospel of religion…

A Messenger on a Mission...

This week, we are beginning to look at a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament in our Bibles today called the Book of Galatians. And in this letter, we will discover that there has been an election has been going on for thousands of years. We either cast a ballot to vote to live your life as a religious-centered person; or we cast a ballot to live your life as a gospel-centered person. With your head, in other words how you think about a relationship with God; with your heart, in other words how you feel about a relationship with God; and with your hands, in other words how you practically live out your day to day life, you are either living your life as a religious-centered person or a gospel-centered person.

We will discover the difference between a religious-centered person and a gospel-centered person. And as we go through this letter my hope and my prayer is that God would move in our heads, our hearts, and our hands, so that we would come to a place as individuals where we vote no on religion and vote yes to living gospel-centered lives that reveal and reflect Jesus and His message of rescue through the message of the gospel to the world. Today we see where the book of Galatians begins, in Galatians 1:1:

Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead) and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:

The book of Galatians begins by introducing us to the writer and the recipients of this letter. We discover that the writer was none other than the Apostle Paul. When the Bible uses the word Apostle, this word literally means messenger or sent one and refers to one who had seen Jesus after He had been raised from the dead. Paul became the greatest missionary of the early church after to his encounter with Jesus Christ after He had been raised from the dead on the Damascus Road, which we read about in Acts 9. After that encounter with the resurrected Jesus, Paul was given the unique role and gifting to be the messenger that would deliver God’s new message to the world regarding Jesus Christ and message of the gospel.

When Paul states that he was not sent from men or through the agency of man, he is making it unmistakably clear that he was not sent to the churches in Galatia as an Apostle by men. Paul was not sent by some religious institution as a messenger to the churches in Galatia to represent them. Instead, Paul explains that he was sent the churches in Galatia by none other than Jesus Christ and God the Father. Paul was a messenger that was sent by Jesus with a message from Jesus as His representative.

Now where Jesus sent Paul was to the churches of Galatia. These were churches that Paul had previously planted in Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystre, and Derbe during his first missionary journey, which is recorded for us in Acts 13-14. These churches were located in the southern section of Asia Minor, or modern day Turkey. After Paul had planted these churches and returned from his missionary journey, he decided to write this letter to these churches around 48 A.D., which was within 20 years of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. This letter was written on the eve of the Jerusalem Council, which is recorded for us in Acts 15 and which we looked at during the co:mission series. After being introduced to the writer and the recipients of this letter, we see Paul open this letter in Galatians 1:3:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

Paul opens his letter to the churches of Galatia by wishing them grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. If this opening were to be communicated in the language we use today, it would have sounded something like this: “Greetings. May you experience God’s Divine Favor and well being from God the Father and Jesus Christ”.  Paul then reveals the reason why the members of the church of Galatia would have the opportunity to experience God’s Divine Favor and well being. The reason why the members of the churches of Galatia had the opportunity to experience God’s Divine Favor and well being was because Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.

To understand what Paul is communicating here, we first need to define some terms. When Paul uses the phrase gave Himself, this phrase, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to dedicate oneself for some purpose or cause. When the Bible uses the word sin, it is referring to acts of commission and omission that are committed against God and others that flow from our selfish rebellion against God and the word of God. This present evil age refers to the present condition of selfishness and rebellion that places us at odds with God and leaves us guilty of having a huge problem with God.

The timeless point that Paul is making here is that the members of the churches of Galatia, and humanity throughout history, have an opportunity to experience God’s Divine Favor and a state of well being with God because Jesus dedicated Himself to rescuing us from our acts of selfishness and rebellion that separated us from God. And this was not just something that Jesus dedicated Himself to; this was God’s desire for what He wanted to have happen. God’s desire was to send His Son Jesus on a mission to seek and save the lost from the selfishness and rebellion that they had embraced and that had separated them from God.

And it is in these verses that we see Paul clearly communicate the message of the gospel. The message that that while all of humanity was created for a relationship with God and one another, all of humanity selfishly chose to reject that relationship, instead choosing to love our selves over God and others. And it is out of our selfishness that we do things that hurt God and those around us, which the Bible calls sin. The message that reveals that God responded to our selfish rebellion and sin by sending His Son Jesus, God in a bod, who entered into humanity and allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.

The message that reveals that Jesus died on the cross, was buried in a tomb dead as a door nail, and was brought back to life as a result of the Holy Spirit’s transforming and supernatural activity in order to be our Lord and Savior. The message that provides the opportunity for all humanity to receive the forgiveness of sin and enter into the relationship with God that they were created for by believing, trusting and following Jesus as Lord and Leader. The message that results in hearts being captured, lives being transformed, and God receiving glory. The message of the gospel that results in the advancement of God’s kingdom mission and the enhancement of God’s reputation for all eternity.

Now, normally when we read a letter in our Bibles that Paul wrote to a church, Paul usually begins his letter by thanking God and then transitions to express his thanksgiving for the members of that particular church or group of churches. Normally, Paul will thank the members of a church for their love, their faith, their generosity, etc. So that is what we would think would happen here.

However, we will discover that is not where Paul goes next…