No Other Gospel

No Other Gospel

galatians 1:1-9

Paul is not tolerant when people he loves are being told lies about God, because he knows that such lies will reduce their lives, impair the vitality of their spirits, imprison them in old guilts, and cripple them with anxieties and fears.

~ Eugene Peterson, Traveling Light: Galatians and the Free Life in Christ

Main Idea: We must hold fast to the gospel of Christ, who alone secures grace and peace for us.

I. The Messenger of the Gospel (1:1-2)

Paul begins his letter to the churches in Galatia by asserting his apostleship; the “apostles” were a special group (including the Twelve plus a few others) commissioned personally by the risen Lord Jesus to serve a foundational role in the church. 

  • Eph. 2:20: [the church is] “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.”

Why did Paul thus assert and defend his apostleship?... It was because the gospel that he preached was at stake. If Paul were not an apostle of Jesus Christ, then men could, and no doubt would, reject his gospel. This he could not bear. For what Paul spoke was Christ’s message on Christ’s authority.

~ John Stott, The Message of Galatians: Only One Way

II. The Message of the Gospel (1:3-5)

Paul “bookends” his letter (1:3, 6:18) to the Galatians with a reminder of grace. God’s grace toward the undeserving is at the heart of the message of the gospel (John 1:14, 16), and is the only basis for ‘peace’ with God.

The bridge from grace (1:3) to glory (1:5) is the finished work of Jesus Christ through the cross and resurrection (1:1), who “gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.” All of this was “according to the will of our God and Father,” foretold in the OT Scriptures.

III. The Matchlessness of the Gospel (1:6-9)

Paul is astonished that the Galatians were so quickly at risk of ‘deserting:’

  • What Paul had taught them (the gospel)

  • Who had saved them (God himself)

  • How he had saved them (in the grace of Christ)

The rest of Galatians indicates that these false teachers were “distorting [lit. ‘reversing’] the gospel of Christ” by contending that Gentile Christians must accept circumcision (5:11-12, 6:12-13; cf. Acts 15:1), become culturally Jewish (4:9-10), and observe the Mosaic Law (3:10-11) in order to truly be a part of the people of God. 

If the Galatians accepted this teaching, they would actually be “reversing” the gospel, because ‘another gospel’ is not another gospel; to “add” to the gospel is actually to subtract, and an ‘almost gospel’ is no gospel at all. 

There is a clear and present danger that the devil may take away from us the pure doctrine of faith and may substitute for it the doctrines of works and of human traditions. It is very necessary, therefore, that this doctrine of faith be continually read and heard in public… There is no middle ground between Christian righteousness and works-righteousness. There is no other alternative to Christian righteousness but works righteousness; if you do not build your confidence on the work of Christ you must build your confidence on your own work.

~ Martin Luther, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians

Cling tightly [to the gospel] with both your hands; when they fail, catch hold with your teeth; and if they give way, hang on by your eyelashes!

~ Charles Spurgeon

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