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October 26, 2008
“There Is Only One Gospel”
Galatians 1: 1-12
October 26, 2008
I know that on this coming Friday many of you will be involved in one way or another in celebrating Halloween. But I hope you know and that you will remember that there is something else to celebrate on October 31st. October 31st is not only Halloween, it is also Reformation day. This coming Friday will be the 491st anniversary of the day on which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther nailed some papers on the door of the chapel of Wittenberg University. On those papers were the 95 Thesis. These were 95 concerns he had with the practice of the sale of indulgences.
The sale of papal indulgences had to do with the viewing and veneration of religious relics: hair from the virgin mary, pieces of the cross, pebbles from the tombs of one of the saints, etc. The Pope in Luther’s day had authorized the sale of the right to view these relics with the guarantee that such purchase and proper veneration of these relics would take some time off the time that one would have to spend in purgatory. In other words, The sale of indulgences involved the purchase of the grace of God.
Martin Luther was at that time a Priest in the church and a professor of New Testament at the University of Wittenberg. He had recently completed studies in the NT books of Hebrews, Romans, and Galatians. From his studies he had come to the conviction that God’s grace in all cases and especially the grace of Forgiveness of sins was God’s free gift. He believed that the sale of indulgences constituted the selling of God’s grace and was therefore wrong.
The 95 theses were a list of 95 criticisms he had of the sale of indulgences. The posting of these 95 statements was an invitation to any and all comers to discuss these concerns with him in a public forum.
There was no act of rebellion involved nailing of these papers to the door of the chapel. The door of the chapel served as the bulletin board for the University. Martin was simply posting his invitation to discuss these issues on the university bulletin board.
These theses did not deal with the subject of the existence of Purgatory or most of the other issues that would be dealt with during the Reformation which would follow. Luther just wanted to discuss the reasons why he thought the Scriptures condemned the sale of indulgences.
And so the reformation really began with Luther’s understanding that the Holy Scriptures were the final authority in all matters of faith and behavior. Where he came into conflict with the church of his day was that he believed that the authority of the church was subject to and derived from the Scriptures. Others in his day believed that God had given the Church its own authority that was independent of and equal to the Scriptures.
Martin Luther, bless his heart, had no idea that what he was doing on October 31st would get him into trouble or begin a pivotal event in Church history and world history. He just wanted to challenge the church on a matter in which he considered the Church to be in error.
In that vein, and in his honor, I have decided to have us look at the first 12 verses of Saint Paul’s epistle to the Galatians. I have a reason for directing your attention to this passage.
In these verses, in the spirit of Luther and probably showing him the way, St Paul was challenging the churches in the district of Galatia to deal with some errors of belief that had crept into their churches.
It was the Evangelistic work of St. Paul in the district of Galatia that had brought the churches there into being. The people who believed in Jesus as a result of his preaching joined together and formed churches. But after Paul and his companions left the area, other Christian leaders came and told them that they had to abide by the Jewish dietary and circumcision laws to be Christians.
Paul wrote to the Galatians and accused them of abandoning the true message of and about Christ.
Because of the urgency of his task, Paul did not spend much time in this letter on his introduction and greeting. Also because of the nature of the letter, he started making theological statements in the very first verse.
In verse 1 he makes some doctrinal statements. He proclaims that he had been sent to them as an Apostle “Through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.”
In using the name and title Jesus Christ, Paul is making a statement. Christ is not the last name or surname of Jesus. It is one of his titles. Christ is the English transliteration of the Greek word Christos which the Jews used as the Greek equivalent for their word Messiah, which meant, the anointed one. The Jews believed that God was going to send a special savior to them and the world. He would be especially chosen or anointed or ordained by God for his task. Their title for this coming savior was Messiah, or Christ. In using the words JESUS and CHRIST together Paul is reminding his readers that Jesus is the Messiah, the only savior sent by God.
In referring immediately thereafter to “God the Father” Paul is reminding them that Jesus is also the Son of God.
Paul also reminds them in this sentence that God the Father not only sent Jesus, but Raised him from the dead. One of the most basic and essential doctrines of the Christian faith is that Jesus physically and bodily rose from the dead. I have had people tell me that they think that Jesus rose spiritually from the dead and that the disciples and apostles spoke and wrote of it as physical to impress its reality on others who did not personally experience it. Now I have gotten to the point where I realize that people will believe whatever they want, but I also know that the Bible clearly proclaims that Jesus Physically rose from the dead. It is up to God to decide if the belief in a spiritual resurrection is a sign of true conversion and true repentance. God will decide whose beliefs to accept and not accept, but such beliefs are not confirmed by our scriptures. The Bible only speaks of a physical resurrection of Jesus.
In the third verse, Paul, now into his greeting, mentions the sacrifice of Jesus for us. He writes of “…the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age…”. Another of the basic doctrines of Christianity is that Jesus died to pay for our sins. He died so that God could forgive our sins. This forgiveness allows us to rise from the dead as Jesus did and to enter the eternal kingdom we sometimes refer to as Heaven.
But Paul doesn’t here mention our eternal salvation in those terms. He wrote that Christ gave himself up for us to set us free from this present evil age. Now getting us into heaven is a part of setting us free from this present evil age. But the power of Jesus’ resurrection and the power of the Holy Spirit also helps us to free ourselves from the evil of this world while we are still here. After we become Christians we are supposed to use God’s power to resist the urges to sin that come to us in this world.
As Paul actually begins to address the situation in Galatia, he expresses astonishment or dismay that they are turning to a different Gospel. Then specifies and writes “not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ”
As I said earlier, some Jewish Christians had come to the churches in Galatia and had convinced the Gentile Christians there that in order to be complete Christians they also had to embrace the feasts, commandments, dietary rules and especially the circumcision requirement of Judaism.
Paul said this was a terrible addition to the Christian faith and doctrine. Why? Because such requirements implied or stated that faith in the saving work of Jesus was not enough, that something humans could do was also required.
The true Gospel or message of salvation is that Salvation only depends on the death and resurrection of Jesus. We become a part of that salvation solely by our faith in Jesus. Nothing else we can do will make us a part of the Kingdom of God. It is only Christ’s death that enables us to receive salvation.
Paul states that any one who teaches or preaches anything that is contrary to what Paul has taught and preached is to be cursed, to be under God’s curse.
Why? Because they opposed Paul? No. Because there is only one true message of Salvation. It was not a product of men or of Paul’s imagination or scholarship. It was reveled by God to Paul. It was also revealed to the 12 Apostles by God in Jesus.
There is only one true revelation of God, only one message of salvation. You will find it in the Bible. All others are false and are to be avoided.
This can be tricky, because when these false gospels or false messages of salvation come, they often come through the church. In Paul’s day it was false Christian leaders who taught other ways to salvation. In Luther’s day it was the Pope and Cardinals who taught that forgiveness of sins could be purchased from the church.
Not all messages that purport to be Christian are. Be careful, even if Christians tell you some new teaching, check it out against the true Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is presented in the New Testament.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at October 26, 2008 05:44 PM