Gospel
means good news. The Gospel is the good news that God became human, lived a
sinless perfect life, died on the cross as our atoning sacrifice for sin, rose
from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of the Father to make
intercession for us.
The
Gospel of Jesus is a Gospel of grace. It is based on God’s love and grace, not
our worthiness or our human effort.
In
Galatians 1:6-10 Paul deals with the Galatian believers abandoning the true
gospel and following something that was not really the Gospel of Jesus.
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
says that as he looks at what the Galatian believers are doing, he is
astonished. In 21st century language, Paul is blown away. He watches
what is going on and he shakes his head in total wonder.
Paul
is not just astonished at what they are doing but also at how easily they changed
what they believed and how quickly the change took place.
So,
what had happened?
They
had turned from two things.
They
had turned from the One who had called them into a grace-based relationship
with God. They had turned from Jesus.
It
doesn’t mean that they stopped believing in Jesus as Messiah or Lord or Savior.
It means that they had added something to the grace of God.
They
had turned from the true Gospel of Jesus. The Gospel that Paul had shared with
them. They had not rejected the Gospel completely. They had added to it.
Satan
is great at confusion. He loves to distract and confuse.
Satan
did it to:
Eve
David
Solomon
Peter
Judas
The
result is always believing a lie; not rejecting all the truth, but mixing a
falsehood with the truth and thus creating confusion.
Raise the Roof and
Remove the Walls
is about believing the truth of the Gospel.
Galatians
1:7-9
Which
is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into
confusion and are trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ. But even if we or an
angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you,
let him be eternal condemned. As we have already said, so now I say again: If
anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be
eternally condemned.
Just
because someone calls it the gospel does not mean it is The Gospel.
Paul
says that a gospel that is not really The Gospel is being preached to the
Galatian believers. The result was confusion.
Paul
says in 1 Corinthians 14:33 that God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
God is truth and speaks truth and so He will never attempt
to confuse us. If you are facing confusion in the spiritual aspects of your
life, it is not God. It is Satan. Ask God to give you understanding and clarity
and He will.
Raise the Roof and
Remove the Walls
is living in truth and peace, not confusion.
Paul
declares a severe curse on anyone who is trying to share a different gospel
than the one Jesus gave to Paul and that Paul had been teaching. He says may
they be “eternally condemned”.
That
is strong. Paul is saying that eternal condemnation is the fate of someone who
purposely tries to deceive and confuse followers of Jesus.
In
Matthew 18:6 Jesus says, “If anyone causes any of these little ones – those who
believe in me – to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large
millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
Jesus
is serious about protecting His children from anything that would cause them to
doubt or stumble. Paul reiterates that same idea not once but twice.
Raise the Roof and
Remove the Walls
is recognizing that God is serious about protecting His children from things
that would spiritually harm them.
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 questions.
Question
#1: Am I trying to win the approval of men or God?
Question
#2: Or am I trying to please men?
The
answer to the first question is that Paul is focused on what God wants, not
man. The answer the second question is that Paul is not trying to please
people.
Matthew
6:33 tells us that we are to seek first and above anything God’s kingdom and
God’s righteousness. We are to seek God and what He wants.
When
we do that, it will be at odds with the values of this world and the people who
have bought into those values.
Personally,
I like being at odds with the values of this world. I love it when people who
are living by the values of the world look at me and think I am weird. Twice in
Deuteronomy God calls His people a peculiar people.
Raise the Roof AND
Remove the Walls is
following God’s values, not the world’s values.
Paul
says that if he tried to please people and win their approval he would not be a
servant of Christ.
We
are called as followers of Jesus to serve Him.
Serving
Jesus means:
We
desire to do His will.
We
seek His will.
We
by the power of His Spirit obey Him.
Paul
sought to do God’s will and did not care what people thought or said or did.
Raise the Roof and
Remove the Walls
is serving Jesus.
The
key to knowing what the true Gospel is and not being confused -
The
key to serving Jesus and not being distracted by world-based values and what
others think -
Is
God’s Word!
We
have to spend time in the Bible.
The
Bible teaches us what the Gospel is.
The
Bible teaches us who God is.
The
Bible teaches us what God’s will is.
Knowing
the truth allows us to recognize the false.
Jesus
is the truth.
What
Jesus teaches is the truth.
Following the One Who
is the True Gospel, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
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