The churches in Galatia are in “confusion”(1.7). There are brewing conflicts that are revealing the deeper problem at the heart of the matter: a distorted view of the Gospel. This has huge implications because the Gospel we live in, is the Gospel we live out. Some in the Galatian church were trying to make the Gospel a matter of circumcision and other works of the law. This was at odds with “the Gospel of Christ.”(1.7) The Apostle Paul’s big point in the opening lines of Galatians is that there is no other Gospel. This reminds us all today that we need to have clarity about “what is the Gospel?” Misalignment on the Gospel, will create misalignment everywhere. So what is the Gospel? In these opening words in Galatians, the Apostle Paul doesn’t give a simple summary statement— as he does in 1 Corinthians 15—- but weaves his explanation throughout these opening words. In one word, the Gospel is “Christ”(1.7). In many other words, the Gospel is “the grace of Christ” (1.6) “ who gave himself for our sins”(1.4) “was raised from the dead”(1.2) to “rescue us from the present evil age”(1.4). This is all to say that the Gospel is the good news of Jesus— and we desperately need to capture this today.
The churches in Galatia are in “confusion”(1.7). There are brewing conflicts that are revealing the deeper problem at the heart of the matter: a distorted view of the Gospel. This has huge implications because the Gospel we live in, is the Gospel we live out. Some in the Galatian church were trying to make the Gospel a matter of circumcision and other works of the law. This was at odds with “the Gospel of Christ.”(1.7) The Apostle Paul’s big point in the opening lines of Galatians is that there is no other Gospel. This reminds us all today that we need to have clarity about “what is the Gospel?” Misalignment on the Gospel, will create misalignment everywhere. So what is the Gospel? In these opening words in Galatians, the Apostle Paul doesn’t give a simple summary statement— as he does in 1 Corinthians 15—- but weaves his explanation throughout these opening words. In one word, the Gospel is “Christ”(1.7). In many other words, the Gospel is “the grace of Christ” (1.6) “ who gave himself for our sins”(1.4) “was raised from the dead”(1.2) to “rescue us from the present evil age”(1.4). This is all to say that the Gospel is the good news of Jesus— and we desperately need to capture this today.