Years ago I remember reading an editorial at the back of “World
Magazine”. It was the successor to “Eternity Magazine” that went belly-up
almost twenty years ago. Anyway, the editor was talking about how much the
apprehension of biblical truth is like bagging groceries. He explained that in
his mid-western town there was a grocery store that employed learning disabled
men and women as baggers – persons that take the groceries off the belt, after
purchase, and load them into bags. He noted that every so often the store
manager would have to hold a remedial class in grocery bagging when gallons of
milk would be placed on top of loaves of bread. The editorialist said that it’s
a lot like the Gospel in the life of a Christian. The Gospel’s not something
you hear once and you’re done with it. Instead, it’s a message that must be
beat into our heads daily, because it’s so foreign to what we think. And that’s
the beauty of Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
Someone has said, “The amazing thing about Paul’s letter to the
Galatians is that it is the essential message of Christianity. It’s a message
not primarily for non-Christians, but Christians. It’s a family letter.”
According to Dr. Merrill Tenney, former Dean of Wheaton College
graduate school and general editor of the Zondervan
Bible Dictionary, “Christianity might have been just one more Jewish sect
and the thoughts of the western world might have been entirely pagan had
Galatians never been written.”
Tim Keller says, “For years I thought what most Christians think –
the Gospel is for people who don’t believe in Christianity. I thought it was
primarily a tool of evangelism; the milk of biblical truth. But I now know
differently. You never move on. The Gospel is the milk and the meat of biblical
truth.” It is the fullest of the Full Gospel. It is as essential to the
believer as it is the non-believer. If you have been a Christian for two
minutes, two hours, two days, two weeks, or two decades, you need the Gospel as
much as when you had not yet heard it.
If you are confused, you need the Gospel. If you are suffering you
need the Gospel. If all is rosy and wonderful you need the Gospel. And if you
are sliding back into old habits, old sin patterns, etc., it is the Gospel that
you need. And that’s why Galatians is so crucial. It is what no growing
Christian can ever neglect. And that’s why the portion of Galatians we will
focus on this Sunday – Galatians 1:3-12 – is so important. For here we find
four marks of the Gospel that stand as a test to determine whether we
understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ at all. In preparation for Sunday you may
wish to consider the following:
- After last week’s message someone sent me the following quotes: “Trust Him with your inability to trust Him.” Do you agree?
- How about this one? “He cannot love you more…and He will never love you less than He does right now.” Do you agree?
- How are both quotes compatible with Galatians 1?
- How many times does Paul use the word, “Gospel” in his writings? Is it more or less than other New Testament authors? Where does he get it?
- How does the Gospel prove that Jesus is not primarily an example?
- How does Paul refer to the Galatians’ abandonment of the Gospel in verse 6?
- What does he mean when he says God “called” them?
- What does the word “distort” mean in verse 7?
- What does this mean, “The less amazement you have about the Gospel, the more you show you don’t know it”?
- What is the essential reason for Paul’s astonishment in verse 6 and following?
