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Posted: 6/27/03

LifeWay Family Bible Series for July 6

Nothing but the blood of Christ can save

Galatians 1:6-12; 2:15-21

By Tim Owens

First Baptist Church, Bryan

Someone once asked an evangelist how he accounted for the thousands of religions in the world. The evangelist stunned the questioner by observing there were not thousands of religions in the world, but only two. He said, “One religion says that we are saved by doing something, but Christianity says we are saved by having something done for us.” His statement sums up the message of Galatians.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians because certain preachers were perverting the gospel of grace and faith in Jesus Christ. As Paul began his letter, he did not follow his customary pattern of expressing gratitude for the readers after his opening greeting. Rather, he launched into a scathing rebuke against the Galatian believers and their desertion from the gospel of faith in Christ.

The book of Galatians answers the relevant life question: What is the true gospel? The answer is quite simple. The true gospel is the good news that people are made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Galatians 1:6 presents the issue leading the Galatians away from Jesus Christ–adding to “salvation by grace through faith.” Paul was amazed the Galatians, who had eagerly accepted his gospel message, could so quickly embrace another message that contradicted the gospel. To add to Christ's redemptive work on the cross was “deserting the one who called you.” The Galatians were guilty of deserting the true gospel that is rooted in the sacrificial death of Christ for a “different gospel” that was based on human works.

This other gospel was not really a gospel. The word “gospel” means “good news.” The Judaizers' “gospel” could not make a person right with God, so the Judaizers' “gospel” was no gospel at all.

Today many religions and religious denominations claim to preach “the gospel of Jesus Christ.” However, a closer examination of their message reveals the fact that they claim a person is saved by faith in Christ and by observing religious customs such as baptism, church membership or keeping laws, rules and regulations. Galatians 1:7 teaches that adding to the finished work of Jesus Christ in order to be saved perverts the true gospel.

Galatians 1:8-9 pronounces a divine curse on anyone who perverts the gospel of Christ by adding to it or subtracting from it. Anyone perverting the gospel is to be “eternally condemned.” Paul was stating a solemn warning: Anyone perverting the true gospel would be in danger of eternal destruction. Christians should be extremely careful to evaluate every message about Christ on the basis of Scripture, not on the basis of the personality or human credentials of the messenger.

Apparently, the Judaizers thought Paul was making it too easy for Gentiles to be saved. They accused him of reducing the requirements of salvation, because he was preaching the Gentiles were under no obligation to practice Mosaic rituals like circumcision.

Today one may hear the same charge against those who preach that salvation is by grace and not by works. Such teaching is often referred to as “easy believism” or “cheap grace.”

Galatians 1:11-12 strengthens the claim that Paul's message of grace was of divine, not human, origin. Had Paul invented the message, it would have been much like that of the Judaizers, since Paul was a Jew himself. That his message proclaimed salvation by grace alone indicated it was from God. It was on the road to Damascus that Jesus Christ intervened in Paul's life, at which time Paul embraced the grace of God.

Galatians 2:16 represents the heart of the Galatian letter–justification before God is only possible through faith in Jesus Christ. The word “justification” refers to God's action of declaring the sinner righteous on the basis of Christ's death on the cross. Keeping the commandments and the law of God can never make a person right before God. When Christ lived a sinless life and died on the cross, he fulfilled the law's requirements for every believer.

When men and women become Christians, they identify with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. To be “crucified with Christ” means to acknowledge that Christ died in the sinner's place on the cross. He suffered the punishment from God all people deserve. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is present in every believer to give victory over sin and ultimately over death itself.

Being united in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ means the old life of the believer is finished. In Christ, the believer has risen to a new life. Christ lives inside the believer, giving the believer new desires for holiness and obedience. It is not that believers do not sin again. They do, but believers do not delight in sin. The whole tone of life has changed. Everything is different, because through faith Christ has invaded the believer's life.

In Galatians 2:21, Paul brings his message to a sharp point: If any human works are necessary in order to be right with God, then Christ's death was incomplete and unnecessary.

Question for discussion

Does the phrase “a Christian wouldn't do that” indicate there are some things a Christian must do or some actions that would prohibit Christ from redeeming a life?