Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Galatians 1:1-10
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  June 23, 2019

Wisconsin is no stranger to lighthouses. More than 50 dot the shores of Lake Michigan. And although most are no longer functioning, they did once serve an important purpose for the booming shipping industry. They kept those ships from wrecking. 

In a way, that’s the purpose of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Paul had travelled through this region, sharing the good news of the Gospel. He had proclaimed that Jesus had done everything for the Galatians. He had fulfilled the Law. He had taken away their sins. He had risen to prove God’s plan of salvation was complete, that heaven was waiting for them. They had been Called to Freedom. And all throughout the region, the people believed this good news with great joy. But soon after Paul left, others came in with a different message, a different gospel. This other gospel threatened to shipwreck their faith. It was a matter of life or death. And so Paul writes. 

For the next six weeks, we’re going to explore Paul’s letter. And today, we are going to see very clearly that in order to enjoy the freedom to which they and we have been called, there is No Other Gospel.

“Paul, an apostle—not from men, nor through a man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all of 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. He gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father—to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” When you read Paul’s letters, you get used to a familiar pattern. He starts by identifying himself, he has some friendly remarks, he offers up praise and thanksgiving for something that has happened. And so when you read his letter to the Galatians it jumps out at you that most of those things aren’t present. We find no friendly remarks. We find no thanksgiving or praise. Instead we find Paul getting straight to the point and he starts by laying out his qualifications. He’s an apostle. He’s an apostle called directly by Jesus himself along with God the Father. Why does he feel the need to put this out front? It’s pretty clear that there were opponents of Paul in these Galatian churches that were questioning Paul’s authority and his message. We certainly get that sense from verse 10. Paul says: “Am I now seeking the favor of people or of God? Or am I striving to please people?” Paul was being accused of preaching his message just to be popular. How damaging to the gospel this would be if people started believing this. So Paul needs to nip this in the bud right away. This is not his message. This is not for popularity. This is God’s message. This is divine. This is from the same God who raised Jesus from the dead. This is from the same Jesus who gave himself for our sins to pluck us out of this present evil age, who freed us from our slavery to the world and sin. This is the message that Paul had shared with them, that they had received so joyfully. But something had happened.

“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ, for a different gospel, which is really not another gospel at all. There are, however, some who are trying to disturb you by perverting the gospel of Christ. Paul can hardly believe the reports that he’s hearing. He’s astonished at how fickle they are. How could they give up the good news of the gospel for something else and how could they do it so quickly? What was so appealing about this different gospel, which Paul says is really not another gospel at all? How were these opponents of Paul perverting the gospel of Christ?

While Paul doesn’t tell us in these verses here, we find out from the rest of the letter exactly what was happening. The opponents weren’t rejecting Christ. They weren’t opposed to Christ. What they were saying is to truly obtain what Christ had done, they needed to keep the Old Testament regulations. What they had done is really added the Law to the Gospel. 

Were the Old Testament regulations bad? Of course they weren’t. They had been originally commanded by God as good things. But their purpose had been fulfilled. They were no longer necessary. It wasn’t wrong for anyone to keep doing them, what was wrong was making them necessary for salvation. What was wrong was attaching conditions to the gospel that needed to be kept.

Is this still a problem we face today? You bet it is! We call it Moralism. The great weapon of Moralism is that we aren’t tempted with evil, we’re tempted with good. We like to make up our own rules that we think good Christians should follow and somehow equate our keeping our own rules with doing God’s will. We’ve changed from keeping the 10 commandments perfectly as the standard that God demands to something we’ve made up. We’ve lowered the bar of God’s expectations. We’re tempted to think that if we lower bar, then we can actually keep the commandments. And our nature is attracted to that thought because then we’re contributing. Then we get some of the credit. Even Christians, who like us confess that we are saved by God’s undeserved love alone are tempted to believe Moralism’s lie that what was begun by the Spirit can be finished by the flesh. 

The only problem is that even when we lower the bar, God’s standards haven’t changed. And soon we come to realize that we’re not even able to keep our own rules, never mind what God has laid out in the 10 commandments. And if we buy into Moralisms lie that we can do it if we just try harder, then pretty soon all we’re left with is a mountain of guilt threatening to crush us. 

But God doesn’t ask us to contribute to our salvation. There is no other Gospel other than the one Paul preached. Where we could never hope to jump over the bar of perfection, God climbed down over the bar to reach us. In Jesus, God put us on his own shoulders  and carries us across the raging flood and storms of sin, death, and the devil’s temptation to rely on ourselves. Jesus is the one who’s done it all. 

Just like these false teachers in the Galatian churches, Moralism adds an addendum to the Gospel. “Jesus has done it all” becomes, “You still have stuff you have to do after all!” At a minimum, this steals the joy and hope out of the Christian life. But it can do much, much worse. Believing Moralism’s lies can shipwreck our faith!

That is why Paul is so forceful, so adamant in these opening verses of his letter. Listen again:  “But even if we or an angel from heaven would preach any gospel other than the one we preached to you—a curse on him!  As we have said before, so I now say again: If anyone preaches to you any gospel other than the one you received—a curse on him!” Paul can’t be more serious. Anything or anyone that takes our focus off of Christ and what he has done should be cursed, damned to hell. That’s the force of what Paul is saying here. So dangerous and deadly is this perversion of the gospel, this mixing of Law and Gospel, that eternal death in hell is the only proper punishment!

God has Called Us to Freedom. This means that we get to serve God by doing his will to say thank you to him, not to try and earn his favor. The grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ with which Paul began this letter is what allows us to serve God in freedom. This is why Jesus came to this earth, to redeem us lost and condemned creatures, to purchase us and win us from all sin, from death, from the devil, not with gold or silver but with his holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death. All this he did that we should be his own and live under him and serve him in his kingdom. That’s the truth of the gospel. There is No Other Gospel which gives us that freedom!

And it’s that freedom which allows us to serve God wherever he has placed us. There’s no prescribed set of works that we have to accomplish, rules that we have to follow. We serve God as we carry out the roles he’s given us motivated by his love for us, empowered by his grace in our lives. May the Lord help us never to abandon the gospel for the lies of Moralism. For there is No Other Gospel. May I never pervert the gospel by adding to it. And may God preserve the preaching of the true Gospel at this place until he comes again. AMEN.