Galatians 1: Christ Revealed

Galatians 1:6–10

Paul’s Emergency Mode

Philippians 1:1–6 ESV

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 1:1–5 ESV

Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Paul begins defensively. He gives some insight right away into the issue. He addresses them as an apostle, an early church leader. And an apostle who wasn’t voted in or who influenced his way in, or who manipulated his way in, but rather one who God delivered and called in. PAul is deliberate to say this is not from humanity but from God. This lays a foundation about how Paul will communicate the reality of the Gospel.

There is no addition in the Gospel

Galatians 1:6–9 ESV

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

If you take Jesus and add anything at all, Paul says, it is no Gospel. It is taking something that is already sufficient and then, in adding your own touches, removes what it true about the Gospel in the first place.

Christ has offered Himself to us as something perfected for us to be given new and eternal life in Him. And when we add our own twist to it, we end up twisting the original work, and Jesus plus anything else ends up being no Gospel at all.

Your works plus Jesus is no Gospel

Your ideology plus Jesus is no Gospel

Your ministry plus Jesus is no Gospel

Your politics plus Jesus is no Gospel

Does that mean that Christ doesn’t have works or ministry or politics? No of course not, but if you have trusted your works and Jesus then we begin to have trouble. If we trust our politics as an equal means to the Gospel, or if you think that politics will bring about Gospel responses, then it is no Gospel at all.

Christ is Revealed

Galatians 1:6 ESV

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

Galatians 1:11–12 ESV

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

There is a singular power in the work of Christ. There is authority in what He claimed and what He taught and what He did. It is unrepeatable and unmatchable. Paul is saying that the Gospel is it’s own authority and does not belong to anyone. No one has claim on it to try and improve on it or make it better.

We don’t add to it, but we must act from it.

We often add things to the Gospel because we are anxious it won’t be enough on its own. It won’t do enough, act well enough, fight hard enough, say enough, or work well enough. We are anxious that maybe the Gospel can’t do enough for us or for our world. And so we need to strap things like power or relevancy or influence or works in order to get the Gospel to “just do something!”

But we miss out when we do that. We make trades. We end up just trying to work our way to salvation, or trying to enforce our way to salvation, or trying to entertain our way to salvation. And it won’t work. We end up frustrated.