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Second Sunday after Pentecost
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Michael Moffitt, May 29, 2016


The Only Gospel


Text: Galatians 1

Not long ago I read a sign stressing the importance of using punctuation when writing. It gave the example of the sentence, “Let’s eat, Grandmother” because without the punctuation it has a totally different meaning, “Let’s eat Grandmother.” The comma is a very small little mark but when used properly it can convey a totally different meaning. The same thing is true with ideas. Something can be true but just by adding a seemingly innocuous change can actually completely change the idea altogether.

In Christianity this problem has been one of the most dangerous and most often used methods of Satan because the enemy can introduce a very small and seemingly innocuous change to a doctrine or teaching and completely change the meaning and/or emphasis of the message. We must be students of the Word.

Today we will begin a 6 week series on the Book of Galatians which I have heard compared to a skilled swordsman defending against a vicious attack. If the attack had succeeded Christianity might have become just another Jewish sect that depended on circumcision and the keeping of the law, instead of a total and complete dependence on God’s grace alone. If Paul’s opponents had won the day then you and I might possibly have never had the opportunity to hear the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I believe that this book is as relevant for us today as it was in Paul’s time because we share the same enemy and his methods have not changed and why should they, when they still seem to work. We want to be a church that teaches the true Gospel of Jesus Christ as it was handed down to us through the Word of God and the apostolic witness.

“Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:

One of the first things that an opponent will do is to seek to destroy the credibility of the person he is opposing. For a man like the Apostle Paul who had been given such a prolific ministry among the gentiles it was inevitable that Satan would move to discredit him in the eyes of those who he had already reached. During that time there were those who were Jews who had decided to follow Christ but believed that in order to be a Christ follower you must first become a Jew. This required that you be circumcised and then submit yourself to the burden of obeying the laws found in Torah.

They began by going into areas that Paul had evangelized and teaching that Paul’s gospel was incomplete and that in reality he wasn’t really an apostle. From their own point of view they were right. In Acts 1:21–22 the disciples in seeking to replace Judas Iscariot decided that the two requirements for being an apostle was 1) that you had been with Jesus during his ministry and 2) that you were a witness to the resurrection. Paul clearly did not fulfill these criteria and besides not long before he had been a powerful persecutor of the church. They didn’t know what Paul had experienced on the road to Damascus in Acts 9 but Paul knew who he was in Christ and understood the commission that Jesus had given to him. It is with that in mind that he begins this letter to the churches in the region of Galatia. He was an Apostle because he had encountered the risen Savior who had given him the commission and he didn’t need the affirmation of men.

I remember when I first started in full time ministry as Associate Rector at Church of the Holy Spirit-Orchard Hills in Roanoke. The young man who was our youth director wanted to introduce me to his father and lifelong distinguished Presbyterian minister. After the introduction his father turned to me and asked, “Where did you receive your training?” to which I responded, “In a Freightliner”. He turned around and walked away in disgust, letting me know that I did not measure up to his standard, which I agreed with. The reason that I was in fulltime ministry wasn’t because I felt I was worthy or had met some arbitrary standard but because God had called me there. I sometimes wonder if God sent me to seminary just so I could give an acceptable answer to such questions.

Paul knew who he was and asserted his authority right off the bat so he could get that objection out of the way. If Paul were not an Apostle of Jesus Christ then men could ignore him as another religious zealot and reject his gospel and Paul could not tolerate that because what he spoke was from Christ himself and had his authority so he defended his apostleship in order to defend his message.

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Paul sends the Galatians a message of grace and peace because this was the foundation of his gospel message in all his Epistles. These two words were loaded with theological content and fully summarize Paul’s gospel of salvation. The nature of this message was to restore peace with God, peace with men and peace within their own hearts. The source of the peace would only come through God’s grace, His unmerited favor, not dependent on human works or merit and this grace and peace would only come through Jesus Christ as he restored them to relationship to the Father. Paul quickly points out that this grace and peace which has been destroyed by our sins and was continually fed through the influence of the present evil age would only be restored by being reconciled to the Father through the Son. He packed a lot into one statement but this was the message that the troublemakers were attacking. It was only through God’s grace that had been revealed through the death and resurrection of Jesus, that peace could be restored and to add anything else to that made a mockery of the cross by claiming that the sacrifice was insufficient.

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

It is interesting that in every other Epistle of Paul he gives a greeting and then goes on to pray for them or praise their faithfulness or to thank God for them. Only in the Epistle to the Galatians does Paul get right down to business; no prayer, no praise, not thanksgiving or commendation but instead to goes right to the heart of this very serious problem. He lets them know that he is shocked that they have so quickly turned away from the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and instead chose to believe a lie. The word that Paul uses for “deserting” is very strong in meaning and actually means to switch sides like in politics or philosophy or to abandon your side like a deserter in the military. Paul is accusing them of being spiritual turncoats because they have turned away from the one who had suffered and died for them to follow after an entirely different gospel. Acts 20:24 shows the passion that Paul felt for this gospel,

“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

The work of reconciliation and grace was a gift from God from beginning to end. Men and women had nothing to do with the process because they had nothing to bring to God that would be sufficient to pay for their betrayal and sin.

Paul had written to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5:17–19:

17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

Now the Galatian converts who had received this gospel of grace were now turning aside to follow after another gospel, a gospel of works.

Paul and Silas ended up going down to Jerusalem to appeal to the Apostles there because this problem of the Judaizers was so great. Acts 15:1 records Paul saying,

“But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

The Judaizers were not denying that you must believe in Jesus for salvation, but they stressed that you must be circumcised and keep the law as well. In other words, you must let Moses finish the work that Christ had begun or more importantly you yourself must finish, by your obedience to the law, what Christ has begun. Essentially you must add your works to the unfinished work of Christ. Paul could not tolerate the teaching that the very principle of the law that had shown itself undoable for the Jews should now be required of the gentiles. The work of Christ is a finished work and the gospel of free grace. Salvation is grace alone, through faith alone, without any participation of human works or merit. The Galatians needed to understand the danger that they were in because they had so quickly deserted the gospel of Christ and to forsake the gospel was to forsake God himself. Paul would later write in Galatians 5:4,

“You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”

Paul sees the insidious nature of the attack against the gospel and reacts strongly to it, even to the point of calling down a curse from God on those who would teach or preach a different gospel than the one given to him by Christ and further revealed over time by the Holy Spirit. The word he uses for accursed is “anathema”, meaning accursed by God, unredeemable, eternally damned. The repetition of this threat twice is a literary device used for special emphasis of its seriousness. Those who require anything other than faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, no matter how impeccable their credentials, twist the gospel into another form, and are under God’s righteous judgment.

Why would Paul react so strongly to this? He knows the effect that false teaching has had on the Galatians and will have on the Christian church and so he is writing with apostolic authority against those who would come against the message of the gospel of Christ in the future. Paul confirms that he is a servant of Jesus Christ, not men and isn’t worried about pleasing men but serves to glorify the one who had set him free. His concern here is twofold.

1) He knows that the glory of Christ is at stake. To make men’s work necessary for salvation, even as a supplement to the work of Christ is claiming that the work of Christ is somehow deficient and unsatisfactory and that somehow sinful man can complete the work.

2) Paul knew that men’s souls were at stake. He wasn’t writing about some trivial doctrine but something that is foundational to the gospel. Also he wasn’t just writing to those who held false views but to those who were teaching them in contradiction to the words of Christ and to apostolic authority. These teachers were leading those they taught away from salvation and back to the oppressive nature of the law. Jesus himself had taught in Mark 9:42,

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”

Today we live in an age where it is considered intolerant and narrow-minded to have any clear and strong opinions about God and the authority of His Word, let alone to disagree to the point of calling down a curse from God. The popular view is that there are many ways to God and the gospel changes with the changing culture. Paul would never endorse these opinions because he insists that there is only one gospel and it never changes. There are to be sure other gospels being taught but they are not the true gospel but a perverted gospel that leads to damnation.

Let’s consider for a moment our Old Testament reading from 1 Kings 8. Solomon in his prayer of Dedication of the Temple acknowledges the glory and majesty of God beautifully.

“Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven, 23 and said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart;

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

It’s a beautiful prayer coming from a king that had been anointed of God and given unparalleled wisdom and discernment. God blessed him mightily more than even his father David. He was given wisdom more than any man before or after him and we can see examples of that wisdom in the Book of Proverbs and a beautiful example of the love we have with our creator as the beloved and the lover in the Song of Songs. All these things were given to him and yet he turned away from God and married foreign wives who turned his head to other gods, who were no gods at all.

Instead of words of praise from a heart full of gladness he ends writing as a king who had turned away from his God. Ecclesiastes 9:1–4,

“But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. 2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil,[a] to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.”

The joy was gone because he had fallen for a lie and suddenly experienced the futility of life instead of the joy of intimately knowing and loving his God. Of course the question is why he would have done that when God had given him such blessings. I think the answer is because the enemy worked on him a little at a time, a little compromise here and a little compromise there. The next thing he knew his kingdom was full of idols and his heart had grown cold.

There are so many examples in our world of those who are teaching a gospel that is not the true gospel but a lie that leads to ruin. We see in the prosperity gospel the emphasis on reaping a financial and worldly inheritance now as opposed to the example of giving up all for the sake of the gospel that was demonstrated by the apostles and church fathers. There is little or no mention of sin and the need of repentance because it is considered negative and surely a loving God wants us to be insanely happy. We see in cults like the Jehovah Witnesses and Mormon’s the insistence that Jesus is a created being who was not God but a created son like you and I. In many ways they sound very orthodox and lead many astray with their gospel proclamation that sounds a lot like Christian teaching, The Mormon’s even call themselves “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” but their gospel is one of keeping the law and not of acknowledging the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the creator God. Both deny the Trinity and the existence of Hell which has a real appeal to many but is still based on a lie. Some mainline denominations have allowed themselves to be influenced by the demands of an increasingly humanistic culture and now see the Bible as a reference book full of some positive ideas and mainly archaic teachings from another era. Fewer and fewer churches are preaching the true gospel which means that more and more believe a lie. It’s no wonder that the church in America has grown anemic because there is no Holy Spirit power behind the message. God will not inhabit a lie or pour out his Holy Spirit on the ministries of those who teach them.

God is calling us through Paul’s letter to the Galatians to be those who teach and live by the true gospel of Jesus Christ. It may cost us everything but the payoff is inheriting God’s eternal kingdom. Paul, the Apostles and church fathers saw this clearly and because they both lived and died we have Christianity still growing powerfully around the world. My prayer is that we will be those who honor the sacrifice of Jesus and the lives of those who have gone before us by preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ handed down to us through his Word. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Amen.

©2016 Rev. Mike Moffitt

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