One Gospel

Sunday Worship 18 January 2009
Speaker: David Tan
Text: Galatians 1

Paul’s letter to the Galatians is one of the key books of the New Testament defending a pillar of the Christian faith, which is justification by faith. Addressed to churches in what is now modern Turkey, Paul wrote to denounce teachings that had perverted the gospel of Jesus that he had been entrusted to preach. In Paul’s mind, these new teachings were not only false teachings, but were really no gospel at all (I:7)

What were features of these false teachings that occasioned Paul’s letter?

First, Galatian believers – primarily gentile Christians - were told that in order to practise the Christian faith fully, they had to maintain Jewish laws such as circumcision. In other words, the Galatians were told it was not enough to believe or follow Jesus but also conventions of OT laws.

Second, Paul saw how such wrong thinking led to wrong expression of faith. Wrong thinking always results in wrong living, and ultimately takes a person farther from the God they wish to draw near to. So Paul wanted to explain what freedom in Christ looked like – how do you identify a Christian who has been set free from his old life.

These false teachings struck Paul as completely wrong as well as dangerous: they challenged the true gospel by insisting that salvation did not depend on faith in Christ alone. It also contradicted Paul’s teaching that justification – or being made right with God – rested on Jesus’ finished work alone.

What is the true gospel then?

The one and only true 'gospel' is the good news of how men and women are made right with God.

Ch1:1-5 spell out in a nutshell the one and true Gospel: It begins with God the Father. He sent Jesus to die to rescue us from “this evil world.” In v1 it also says that God raised Jesus from the dead. And by rescuing us, God has displayed his glory today and throughout all eternity (v5).

The Gospel is therefore the good news of salvation from evil and sin; it is NOT about higher standards of morality, it is NOT about self-knowledge or how to be a good person. As Paul wrote in Rom 5:10:

For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

What makes the good news 'good'?

The gospel is good news because it tells us plainly that salvation was God’s initiative; God took the first step. Salvation was God’s plan (1:4). It involved sending His son Jesus to offer it to us free with his nail-pierced hands - which is grace (1:3) - involving no human agency.

God has done for us what no human effort or enlightenment could ever do. It also tells us who this God is who saves because we cannot save ourselves. More than being saved or justified, the language that Paul uses here and elsewhere refers to salvation as ‘reconciliation’, which is ultimately a restoration of relationship with the living God.

When Paul referred to his conversion experience (vs13-18), he was not only defending his call to preach the gospel. It also served to contrast how Paul’s own self-righteousness - “advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers” (1:14) - did nothing to advance a personal relationship with God.

So what are we saved for?

Everyone who is saved is called by God. Everyone who has been called is saved for service. But he whom God saves, he first humbles. In the case of Paul, it meant a rejection of claims to being a faultless Pharisee (Php 3:4-6) and a call to a lifetime of missionary activity among the Gentiles. We are all not called to be like Paul, but we are certainly saved for service and good works (Eph 2:10)

The message concluded with a reference to the Church’s theme for the year as found in Jesus’ words: “As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you” (Jn 20:21) The purpose of our life is to live for others – just as Jesus did, as Paul did. The congregation was reminded that it is this life that is worth living. It is also the most important thing we can teach our children. It finds it fullest expression in people who have found peace with God through faith in the one and only gospel of Jesus Christ.