Galatians Part One Dive

IS THE CROSS ENOUGH?

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul is furious and for good reason–the churches are walking away from the truth and simplicity of the gospel, embracing a gospel that is ‘not a gospel at all!’

G 1: 6-7 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all.

In the 1st Century, there was an order to the letter openings, beginning with who it was from, who it was to, ‘grace and peace’ and ‘I thank the gods for you’. But Paul diverts from the normal to show how passionate he is about this topic. They would have got the message like a slap in the face! No ‘thank God for you’, no greeting, just straight ‘I am astonished’–they would have known they were in trouble!

What has got Paul so mad? We find that out by going back to the date it was written; in Galatians, it’s only 15-20 years after the death and resurrection of Christ. This is really early in Paul’s letter writing, and most scholars believe this is actually the first letter he wrote. Even though it’s so soon after the pinnacle moment of the death and resurrection of Jesus, already some false teachers had decided that the gospel is too simple. They said the cross isn’t enough to get you saved or keep you in the people of God, you need to add to it!

Paul was passionate that we are saved by grace by believing that Jesus Christ is Lord. And in that one moment of belief, the fulness of the victory of the cross is given to you. The victory to overcome the enemy, the power to be healed, to be set free, the power to overcome sin–the power of the cross and resurrection of Jesus gives us eternal life and freedom.

But for the false teachers coming from the Jewish faith, it couldn’t possibly be that simple. There had to be more to show you are a part of the people of God–you at least had to be circumcised to be included in this gospel message. You had to obey the law to show that you are truly the people of God; eat the right foods, attend a festival or two, add the law of Moses–something!

Imagine Jesus hearing this. Imagine saying that to His face after the resurrection! He has completed His mission–it is finished! But imagine saying, “Well done Jesus but it’s just not enough to save me!” Paul is so furious because they were basically saying, “Thanks Jesus for the cross but I need to add works to my salvation. I need to have some outward signs that show you that I am truly saved. This is too simple, there has to be more conditions that my flesh can jump through, there has to be some rules that I can perfect.”

This sounds crazy, doesn’t it? How could they have been so misled, so stupid? No wonder Paul is cranky. Yet we do this today in our churches! Can you think of anything that has been added to the salvation process (the decision of whether a person goes to Heaven or hell) that is simply not gospel? I asked this in my Galatians class and we wrote a whole board full of conditions that are piled upon Christians: you have to attend church, you have to tithe, you have to go to connect group, you have to go down the front and say the salvation prayer, there must be visible change before I can confirm that you are saved. Time and time again even I have said, “I think they are backslidden as I haven’t seen them in church for a while”, or, “I’m not sure if they are going to heaven, check out the way they act.” But is that right? Is the gospel that limited?! We discussed it in our class, and it was a heated and incredibly eye opening when we all came to the realisation that even today, we add things to the gospel message that simply have nothing to do with grace, faith and Jesus! Purely human tradition that we have added so that we can measure someone’s salvation.

This put a holy fear into me and the students. If we can so easily turn and preach a different gospel to what Paul preached, I want to make sure that I know what the gospel is, so I don’t move away from it. What about you TYB?

So, what is the gospel that Paul is so fiercely guarding? When you are doing a word study in the Bible, here’s a great little trick that I have learnt. Pick a word, study it in the book you are reading, grab some NT and OT examples and then in a Bible dictionary. So to find out what Paul means by ‘gospel’ in Galatians, I start with the book that I am reading.

I highlight every time it is used in the Book of Galatians and write out next to it any descriptions that the text gives you eg. it’s a gospel of power, we can turn to a different gospel
Then jump onto Bible Gateway, put the word into the key search and that will show you where it is used in the Old and New Testaments. Journey through some of the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and add to your list of what your word means. Eg. Romans tells us it is the gospel is power of God, it’s good news to those who hear it etc.
Then grab a Bible Dictionary and look up the word ‘gospel’ this is going to show us the definition.

Let me show you what we get out of the word ‘gospel’ by doing the above search. Let’s start in Galatians:

G 1:6 tells us that we can turn to a different gospel, there is a choice.
G 1:7 tells us that the different gospel is not ‘good news’–no gospel at all!
G 1:7 also tells us that our good news can be perverted
G 1:8 tells us that if we preach another gospel other than the one Christ preached, we are under a curse–this is getting serious now! I want to make sure I am preaching the right gospel. This is repeated again in G 1:9.
G 1:11 the gospel is not of human origin–it’s from God
G 2:2 Paul got his gospel message approved by the Apostles
G 2:5 he was fighting for the truth of the gospel–no wonder he is so passionate about this gospel in this book
G 2:14 Peter acted against the truth of the gospel when he wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles

The pinnacle description of the gospel is found in Galatians 2.

G 2:15-21 a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.

Faith here means ‘belief’. The good news is that we are saved from sin, going to Heaven, children of God, purely by our belief in Jesus Christ, not by anything we do or have done.

Then I went to verses outside the Book of Galatians in the New Testament. My study showed me that the gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). In the Bible Dictionary it showed me that the gospel means ‘good news’ and in the 1st Century it was the good news of the king returning in victory. The good news that the victory had been won! When Paul preached good news to the Gentiles, he is not telling them a system of ‘human tradition’ or ‘conditions’ on how to get saved–no! He is telling them that he has the answer for their problems: Jesus Christ died for their sins so that they can have eternal life, victory over darkness, over the power of sin, over sickness now–before they have done anything, before they act and look like a Christian (whatever that is!). Just by believing that Jesus Christ is LORD. It is purely by grace that we receive this incredible gift, not by works so that no man can boast (Ephesians 2:9).

Salvation is that simple, freedom is that simple, healing is that simple. It’s not about how much you pray, how good you are, how many times you go to church, what you wear, your past, your present or your calling. These are purely an outward expression of the inward transformation of your heart when you get saved, not the condition of your salvation. You’ll want to go to church because you want to hang out with other Christians, you’ll want to tithe because you want to support all God is doing on the earth.

It is all about what Jesus did in His death and resurrection and no human condition or human tradition should be added to that incredible moment! The cross is enough to get you into Heaven, the cross is enough for healing, to save your family, to set you free from sin. Don’t doubt the power of the cross and add human tradition and systems just because they make it tangible!

So, yes, Paul gets a little passionate about these false teachers telling the Gentiles they have to be circumcised to truly be accepted as God’s people! And he explodes in Chapter 5:12, “If only those who are making trouble for you would cut the whole lot off!”

That’s passionate, that’s Paul! Have fun in Galatians TYB!

Galatians Part One Dive

IS THE CROSS ENOUGH?

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