The Gospel of Grace

We live in a time of cultural diversity. This diversity carries over to our religious or spiritual beliefs. We have many different spiritual beliefs in our culture and the proper view, according to our culture, is to see them as all equal and thus equally correct in their viewpoints. This is true even when the spiritual views are completely opposite of each other.

Paul addresses the Galatian believers about what belief they are really following.

Galatians 1:6

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

Paul is blown away by the fact that these Galatian believers are so quickly turning from the Gospel based in the grace of Jesus to a gospel that is not based on grace.

Grace is the fact that God loves us, not based on us or our performance, but on Him and the fact that He loves us. He loves us without us deserving or earning it.

Grace is the core of the Gospel, and without it, there is no Gospel.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is the grace of Jesus.

Galatians 1:7

Which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

There are three things about this “different” gospel.

It is no gospel at all. It is a false gospel.

It causes confusion. God is a God of order, not of confusion.

It is a perversion of the true Gospel. It twists the truth of God into a lie.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is following the truth of God.

Galatians 1:8-9

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so we say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

Paul says that if anyone is proclaiming a gospel other than the Gospel that was proclaimed to them by Paul, which is found in God’s Word, may he be eternally condemned. Paul says that not once, but twice.

This is not a light statement. It is intense and direct.

Why is Paul so unyielding on this point? It is because, when the Gospel is perverted, it affects the eternity of others. We are told in Romans 1:16 that the Gospel is God’s power that brings salvation to everybody who believes. The Gospel is the Good News that, when believed, brings salvation. If the “gospel” that is proclaimed is not the truth, it will not bring salvation but a false sense of security. It will bring death, not life.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing the truth of the real Gospel which brings life.

Galatians 1:10

Am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul asks two rhetorical questions.

Question #1:  Am I now trying to win the approval of men? The answer is no. We as the church, the people of God, are not to try and make people like us. We are God’s people and our desire is to please Jesus. When we try to please men, we lose our focus of seeking Jesus, His kingdom, and His righteousness. Our focus has to be the Kingdom of God.

Colossians 3:2 says we are commanded to set out minds on things above, not earthly things. Our desire should be to please God.

Question #2: Or am I trying to please men? The answer again is no. If Paul was still trying to please men, he would never had rejected Judaism and surrendered his life to Jesus as Lord. When you see what people were trying to do to Paul, it shows that his focus was not on pleasing people.

Paul then says that if he was still trying to please people, he would not be a servant of Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being servants of Jesus and desiring to please Him, not people.

In 1 John 2:15 we are told not to love the world or in anything in the world. If we do, then we don’t really love the Father.

The love of the world means I have don’t love God, because if I love God I cannot love what is opposed to God, and the values of the world are opposed to God.

That is why there is one truth, not many truths. If the Gospel of Jesus is true, then whatever doesn’t agree with that Gospel is false and doesn’t have the power to save and transform us. It is why all religious and spiritual views cannot be equal. They are not all true.

The Gospel of Jesus is at times offensive. The Gospel points out three things that offend many.

The Gospel says all have sinned and come short of God’s standard.

The Gospel says that no person can save themselves.

The Gospel says that only in Jesus is salvation found.

Those truths are very offensive to many people.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing that the real Gospel can be offensive because it points out painful truths.

If we allow God to enable us to look past those offensive things, we can see the power and joy of the Good News of Jesus.

The Good News: Jesus came and sacrificed His life to pay for our sin and offers that sacrifice to everyone.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is getting past what is offensive to the Good News of salvation through grace in Jesus.

The chorus to Creed by Rich Mullins says:

And I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am

I did not make it;

No, it is making me

It is the very truth of God,

Not the invention of any man.

Let the Gospel of Jesus make you who He wants you to be.

By the Gospel of Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                               Joe