The unrivalled Gospel

Gal 1:1-9

• Gal 1:3; are you enjoying the freedom Christ as made possible? are you burdened again by the yoke of slavery?
• You may be feeling the yoke of slavery again if you agree with any of the following:
1. “The Christian life is well summed up as trying to do what God commands.”
2. “I feel like I don’t measure up to God’s expectations of me.”
3. “Rigid rules and strict standards are or have been at one time an important part of the life and teaching of my church.”
4. “I am motivated to serve God more out of a sense of guilt and obligation rather than joy and gratitude.”
5. “Freedom to me means I can do anything the Bible doesn’t forbid.”
6. “If I sin, I am forgiven so I just keep on asking for forgiveness and God is obligated to forgive – I am free to be forgiven!”
7. “The faith I am committed to is about Christian liberty – what I do is nobody else’s business but my own.”
8. “It seems like anything and everything goes in the average evangelical church today – I don’t like it. Whatever happened to separation from the world?”
9. “It was easier when we all kept the same rules – you knew who the ‘real’ Christians were.”
10. “I don’t know anymore what is okay and not okay – just give me a list of do’s and don’ts.”
• The “freedom” you’re living out is characterized either as:
1. trying harder (adding something to what’s required or your life)
2. taking advantage of God’s grace (subtracting something from grace)
3. living by faith in Son of God (Christ alone)
• Gal 2:20; you’ve been buried and reborn in Christ! (baptism)
• We have traditionally been shaped to live in the body by:
1. rules
2. natural desires/cravings
3. cultural expectations
4. religious standards
5. self-discipline
6. our own strengths & strategies
• All of these undermine the shaping work of Jesus
• You have been saved to live and be shaped by faith in the Son of God
• When shit hits the fan, we often revert back to our traditions/standards/strength
• Has Christ been pushed to the side? has the Spirit been neglected in the formation of our lives?
• “Whatever cultural practices seek to <???> trust in Christ and dependence on the Holy Spirit must be cleared away” – S McKnight
• So what shapes your life?
• The REAL gospel or the evil present age?
• the Good News is not the celebration of reformed human behaviour!
• The REAL gospel is a divine intervention in our lives
• Gal 1:1
• not from men, or man-made
• it’s a universal overhaul that requires God’s intervention 24/7
• The REAL gospel is an undeserved buyout with powerful results
• Gal 1:3-4
• the potency of Christ’s forgiveness has not only reconciled us but enabled us to be kept from returning to evil
• The REAL gospel is a radical life reshaping that passionately rejects human-made goodness in favour of life shaped by divine power
• Gal 1:6-9
• anything that adds to or gets in the way of formation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit alone
• anything you are doing without Christ is not Christian living (v6)
• Initial Application of bigFREE gospel living:
1. Are you reading the Word of God, the Gospel, to hear it or to let it in the way you want to live?
• Galatians is the “uncomfortable epistle”
2. Are your ways of “doing” God’s Word human constructs or manoeuvred to please people or truly based upon design of God?
3. Are you confusing the Gospel with styling, customs, cultural preferences or differences and traditions?
•  Gal 1:8-9; the Gospel we preached and you accepted
• FIGHT FOR THE GOSPEL!
4. Do you know the difference between supporting the right of other religions to exist and considering all religions equal?
• Are you trying harder and frustrated, insecure? Are you taking advantage of God’s grace and sinning?