Enjoy God, Embrace People, Experience Growth
SUNDAY SERVICES – 8:30am & 10:30am

No Other Gospel

No Other Gospel
February 19, 2016

Scripture: Galatians 1:6-10

I. If you lose the Gospel, you lose God.

A. The word Gospel means good news, and we see the content of this good news in Galatians 1:3-5. And Paul says this is the only Gospel there is. At the end of verse 6 Paul writes about how the Galatians were turning to a different gospel. But then he makes it clear in verse 7: “not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the Gospel of Christ.” There is only one message of Good News. What happens when you lose the Gospel? We find one answer in vs. 6.

B. Who was it that the Galatians were deserting? God. It was God who had called them into a relationship with Himself through His Son Jesus. But if the Galatians were going to abandon the Gospel that came through Christ alone they would lose God in the process. Deserting is a word that is used in a military context of someone who is a traitor to his country. If you turn your back on the Gospel about Jesus, Paul says, you are turning your back on God. You are betraying God, your betrayal is personal, and you will lose God if you lose your faith in the only Gospel.

II. If you lose the Gospel, you lose grace.

A. We were called in the grace of Christ (vs. 6). Grace is an undeserved gift that you receive. No one ever deserves to be forgiven. We receive the grace of God decisively in the person of Jesus. The troublemakers in the Galatian church thought that God had revealed Himself decisively in the Law of the Old Testament. So, if you wanted to know God you had to be obedient to all the Law. But the Gospel said that the main purpose of the Law was not so that you could know God. The main purpose of the Law was so that you could know your need for a Savior: Jesus Christ.

B. No one can keep all of God’s Law. So what do we all need? Grace. And where do we find that grace? In Jesus alone. We are saved then not by our good works in obeying God’s Laws. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. If you want a so-called Gospel where your good works earn God’s favor, let’s see what Paul says about that in Galatians 5:4: “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” If you are trying to earn your way to heaven you have fallen away from grace.

III. If you lose the Gospel, you lose heaven.

A. Paul repeats an important message in vs. 8-9 about what happens to a person who preaches something other than the one true Gospel: that person is accursed. To be accursed is to be set apart by God for destruction like the Canaanites of the Old Testament. So when Paul is saying in vs. 8 that if I and some of my missionary friends were to start preaching a different gospel we would be accursed, he is literally saying, “I’ll be damned if I preach another gospel. I will go to hell if I preach a different gospel from the only Gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.” Paul knew that if he lost the Gospel, he would lose heaven. He would be under the wrath of God.

Application:
If you have not yet believed the Gospel, do so today. Then live the rest of your life gob-smacked by the Gospel.

Sources:
The letter to the Galatians
Commentaries on Galatians by Douglas Moo and Philip Graham Ryken