Here, I’m going to paraphrase the Galatians problem: the Judaizers came to Galatia and said to the Galatians Christians, “we hear that you have been converted by the apostle Paul.” And they responded and said, “Yes, he came with a wonderful message of salvation, this wonderful good news and we are rejoicing in it.” The Judaizers would respond, “Yes, we thank God that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour. But what Paul preached was not a complete message.” And they would say, “Really? We thought he gave us the full counsel of God.” “Oh, no. What he said is true but it is incomplete. Surely you dont expect to go to heaven simply by believing in Jesus Christ. Thats too good to be true. Friends, God expects you to do something. He expects you to be circumcised. Thats why He gave it to Abraham. He expects you to do good works and He expects you to keep the Law of Moses, otherwise you will never make it to heaven.” And these poor Galatians Christians were deceived by this perverted gospel. Paul is astonished that they could so easily be sidetracked from the gospel. But the tragedy is that we can fall into the same trap. That is why we should carefully study this epistle to the Galatians. It is our only way of guarding against this terrible enemy of the gospel. Paul tells us that this gospel that he preached originated from Jesus Christ Himself and not from any man, not even the apostles. In other words, Paul is saying here, “the day you refuse to accept the gospel that I gave you, you are not refusing my message; you are refusing the message of Jesus Christ Himself.” So this becomes a serious matter. Oh, yes, if the message that Paul preached was his idea, if it was some human invention, then there was no danger of turning their backs to this message. But, if the message that Paul preached was not a message from man, either from him or from the other apostles, but it came directly from Jesus Christ, then it becomes a very serious matter to turn our backs to this message. The truth of the gospel, friends, is: (1) Unchanging. Paul, Peter and the other apostles all preached the same gospel. The emphasis, the style, may be different since Peter preached to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles. They may have approached the message from a different point of view, but the message, the essence, the substance of the message was identical. (2) The truth of the gospel must be maintained. The devil has not taken a vacation. He is here today to pervert the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and he tries every means through humanism, through the New Age movement, through infiltrating the Christian church with new truth which is no new truth but a perverted gospel. We, as Christians, must maintain the purity of the gospel because perverting the gospel is one of Satans most powerful ways to pull men and women out of Christ. Paul told the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11:3 and 4 that just as Satan deceived Eve by his subtlety, he would try and deceive the Corinthians by his crafty ways. And Satan, who is the father of lies, is still alive today and, in the name of an angel, he will come as an angel of light and try to pervert the gospel in your life and in my life. As we conclude this first chapter of Galatians, it is very clear that Paul is an apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is important that we listen to his message because almost half of the New Testament is Pauline epistles. It is Paul whom God set aside to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. When Christ came to this world, He came primarily, not to explain the gospel, but to be the gospel. It is Paul that God set aside to expound the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul is the theologian of the New Testament and the message he proclaimed which is recorded in the New Testament is a message that came to him from Christ Himself directly by revelation. In chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians, verse 7 onwards, Paul tells us, that because of the abundance of revelation that he received, because of the danger of pride infiltrating his heart, God allowed Satan to put a thorn in his flesh to keep him humble. As we study this wonderful, important epistle to the Galatians, my prayer is that you will be rooted and grounded in the truth as it is in Christ and that you will allow nothing and no one to sidetrack you from this truth. This is my prayer, as Jesus said to His disciples, that you shall know this truth and the truth will set you free. There is only one gospel, there is only one message, that can reconcile a holy God to sinful man and that is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This reconciliation already took place when Jesus died on the cross. All that is left is for mankind to be reconciled to God. May God preserve you from being sidetracked from this gospel. Amen!
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 02:03:28 +0000
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