This morning, as I was reading the Bible, I came across the following verse: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chron 16:9). It is a great verse. Wouldn’t it be amazing if as this verse says, I could have the confidence that God was intimately aware of our lives and circumstances, and that He was providing strong support behind the scenes for us? However, when I read this, my instant reaction was not a sense of hope but a feeling of despair. And when I shared this verse with Vanita, she later told me that she had also felt a similar sense of despair. This despair came from the realization that we know all too well that our hearts are not perfectly in tune with God, so this promise could not possibly apply to us. Since this is where both of our thoughts went immediately, I wonder if you also feel this way when you read such promises from God in Scripture. If so, I pray that this article will encourage you.

The reason I felt this this sense of despair, was because I interpreted the phrase “those whose heart is blameless toward Him” to mean “those whose heart is perfectly in tune with, and in total submission to God”. Living on this side of eternity, I fall far short of this bar. Although this may seem to be a valid way of reading this verse, the Bible tells us that this is not the whole story. If you think about it, this is not what the verse is actually saying. It was not for those who are perfect, but for those whom God does not find cause to blame for anything, thus making them “blameless”. Normally both the words “perfect” and “blameless” would mean the same thing. However, the word “perfect” literally describes someone’s behavior and character. The word “blameless” describes how God views that person. And thankfully, God does not make “blameless” synonymous with “perfect”. God has done something remarkable, so that we can be blameless although we are not close to being perfect. He has done this for all those who have put their trust in Jesus. Several verses come to mind “For our sake He (God) made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God” (1 Cor 5:21). “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). “He (God) has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isa 61:10).

This is why Jesus came. He came in order to die the death that I deserved, and face the wrath of God that I deserved, and in turn to give me His own righteous perfection. When God looks at me, He does not see my sins but He sees the perfection of His Son. I am reminded of a song I learned as a youth:

I am covered over with the robe of righteousness that Jesus gives to me;
I am cleansed forever by the precious blood of Jesus and He lives in me,
What a thrill it is to know my Heavenly Father loves me so, and gives to me, my Jesus,
When He looks at me He sees not what I used to be, but He sees Jesus.

Because Jesus bore all the penalty for my sins, there is nothing left to make me guilty. I stand tall in the presence of God as a person whose heart is blameless toward God. I can personally apply the promise of 2 Chron 16:9 as a truth in my own life. God is giving strong support to me and my family right now even if I cannot see it, and I can trust Him and take comfort in that.

The apostle Peter says that Gods “precious and exceedingly great promises” have been given to us, to give us the divine power to live godly lives that are pleasing to Him (2 pet 1:3-4). As I read the Bible, I discover that the Bible is flooded with such promises. In fact this verse in 2 Chronicles 16:9 is just another way of saying that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). Do I “love Him“? Yes I do, although imperfectly. Have I been “called according to His purpose“? Yes. And that was not my doing but His! He called me by revealing Himself to me and showing me that He had died for my sake, and invited me to have a reconciled relationship with Him. So by this promise, I can be assured that in every single situation my family and I are in, God is working all things out individually for our good. I do not have to live in defeat and despair. The assertion here is that all my life experiences will actually be used by God to draw me closer to Him in a way I do not fully understand, and one day I will find that it was ultimately good for me. As J I Packer says in his book Knowing God, regarding an extension of this promise in Romans 8:32: The meaning of “He will give us all things” can be put thus: one day we will see that nothing – literally nothing – which could have increased our eternal happiness has been denied us, and that nothing – literally nothing – that could have reduced that happiness has been left with us. This is so amazing, it is hard to completely grasp or believe. But if God is who He says He is, this is true!

So I now take great comfort in the knowledge that the promises of God apply to those who belong to God. Those who have fallen at the mercy of God, and who have received that mercy because of what Jesus did on the cross for them.

The Whole Bible Comes Alive

When we start reading the Bible with the lens of the gospel in this way, it comes alive. We find that God is a strong warrior who works on behalf of those who put their trust in Him. We see this time and time again in the Old Testament, as we read about His dealings with people in various circumstances and from various stations in life. As we read, our hearts are warmed with the realization that God has not changed. Our God today is the same God (Heb 13:8). Then when we continue reading into the New Testament, we get to understand the how and the why of all this – centered around the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus. In fact, these are insights the Old Testament believers never fully had! It all coalesces together into a beautiful whole – God’s Word to us – which has given us every thing we need to live our lives trusting Him, especially through “His precious and exceedingly great promises” (2 Pet 1:3,4)

Let us look the story of Job from this perspective.

A Fresh Look at the Story of Job

The story of Job, starts this way: “There was a man … whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright” (Job 1:1). The story of Job is about a man who was “blameless and upright“. God uses these exact same words in describing Job to Satan in Job 1:8 and Job 2:3 – blameless and upright. The Bible makes it clear that this is how God viewed Job.

But this immediately begs the question. Was Job some kind of holy superman who was very different from the rest of us? How could God possibly say that Job was “blameless and upright” if he was anything like we are? Well, it turns out that Job himself was aware that he fell short of God’s absolute standards. He said: “How can a man be right before God? If one wished to contend with Him one could not answer Him once in a thousand times” (Job 9:2-3). Like Job, if we were to stand before God as Judge on the merit of our lives, we would be found guilty, a thousand times. But Job does not stop there. He goes on to say “I must appeal for mercy to my accuser” (Job 9:15b). And we are also in exactly the same situation. Without mercy we, like Job, have no hope. But Job knew His God well enough to know that God indeed was merciful. A lot of Job’s struggle is not that he thought he was perfect and did not deserve to suffer, but that he could not reconcile his circumstances to the nature of the God that he had come to know and worship. (This was also partly because Job did not have the knowledge that this life is not all there is, as we do now. But we also sometimes feel this way).

However, Job did have hope in His God. He later said: “Even now, behold my witness is in heaven. And He who testifies for me is on high. … He would argue the case of a man with God as a son of man does with his neighbor” (Job 16:19,21). Although he knew that he himself would not be able to stand and argue in the court of God’s justice, he also knew with the eyes of faith that there is One in heaven who could! And Job was right. Looking at it in the light of New Testament revelation, we know that Jesus was that witness Job was talking about. “If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Thus, even though Job did not fully understand it, he was able to say to his friends in the course of his conversation: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:25-26). The word “redeem” means “to buy something for a price, or a ransom“. That is what Jesus did for Job, and for every one of us who have put our trust in Him. He gave His life as the ransom price to save our souls, and bring us to God. “you were ransomed … not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19). Job was spot-on, and spoke the truth – and now we understand why.

So when we read about Job, we should not think: “Job was such a righteous man. I can never live up to that standard. This story does not have any relevance to me”. Or worse: “I need to step up my game so that God will favor me like He did Job”. That is the opposite of what God really wants us to learn. The story of Job is ultimately about the God of Job. He is a God whose wisdom and knowledge infinitely surpasses ours and who is in control of all things, and yet He is also a God who is merciful and gracious and who abounds in steadfast love. As we read this story, we should realize that Job needed redemption and salvation just as much as we do today (and his friends did too, as we get to learn later). Although he did not know about Jesus, he had put His trust in God with the limited revelation he was given. God in turn considered Job righteous, just as He did with every other Old Testament saint (e.g. see Gen 15:6), on the basis of the at-that-time-future work of Jesus on the cross. This is why God could  call him a “blameless” man, just like you and I are blameless before Him (see Heb 9:15). Job’s story is a foreshadowing of our own stories. It tells us that although in Christ we are blameless in God’s sight, God may have reasons why  He wants us to go through extremely trying situations, just like He did for Job. Our final restoration and vindication may not happen in this life, but God guarantees that it is coming, and that it will extend to all of eternity!

Hope for the Future

Thus we get comfort from Scripture. The entire Bible is ultimately a story of God. We read about Him and learn about His character. Every single Bible story (Old and New Testament) is about how people lived. But we also get the additional divine revelation about how God responded to them. We read stories there which serve as warnings to us (see 1 Cor 10:6) or as encouragements to us (see the entire chapter of Hebrews 11). We learn how God thinks. We read about His awesome holiness that would burn any of us to a crisp if we were to go anywhere close. Yet we read about the great mercy and compassion He has towards us even though we do not deserve any of it. We read about His Beloved Son whom He sent, who at great cost opened the way to God by His death on the cross, shielding us from the lethal rays of God’s righteous holiness by His own blood (John 3:16). And we also read the countless promises that assure us that God is faithful. “For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him” (2 Cor 1:20). As we read, we learn to trust in Him more and more, to fall in love with Him, and to turn aside and worship.

This is what enables us to press on and live by faith and hope, through the most trying of circumstances.

Now Paul goes through that same history again, contrasting people’s condition under the law Gal 4:1-3), with their condition when in Christ (Gal 4:4-7). He then makes an impassioned appeal, asking them how they could want to go back to their old condition (Gal 4:8-11). In the process we see a little bit of the heart of Paul for the Galatians (Gal 4:12-20).

We Were Slaves (Gal 4:1-3)

Imagine a young boy who is the son of a rich man owning a vast estate. One day it will all be his. Indeed, it is already his by promise. However, in experience he does not have access to it, because he is still a child. Although he is lord of everything by title, he “is no different from a slave” (Gal 4:1). Moreover, he will remain in bondage until the date set by his father (Gal 4:2). In the same way, Paul says when we were children, we “were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world” (Gal 4:3).

What are these “elementary principles”? It can perhaps mean elementary things, like the ABC’s of faith, in contrast with Christ who is the “Alpha and Omega”. Children only know elementary things and have limited knowledge. It can also mean the basic elements such as earth, wind, water fire,. It also has undertones of demonic oppression. Legalistic superstition and demonic domination are closely linked.

Basically, Paul is saying that just like an heir who is a child, we were once in bondage to various things.

We Became Sons and Heirs (Gal 4:4-7)

Then there is a great “but”. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son” (Gal 4:4). This is the heart of the Christmas story that we have just celebrated. Jesus came at just the right time. That involved a wait for over 1,300 years!

Various factors made this the perfect time. Rome had conquered all of the known world. They created roadways that enabled travel to remote places. Also, the Greek language had become common across the entire Roman empire, and that gave a certain cohesion to society. It was a time when the Greek and Roman gods were beginning to lose their popularity. Further, the law of Moses had done its work in preparing people for Christ by holding them in its tutelage and prison, giving them a longing for the freedom which Christ could give them.

And at just the right time … Jesus came!

Why did Jesus come? Paul gives four reasons.

1. To redeem us (Gal 4:5)
2. To enable us to receive adoption as sons (Gal 4:5)
3. To send the Holy Spirit into our hearts (Gal 4:6).
4. Being sons of God means being heirs of God (Gal 4:7)!

We looked at the meaning of being redeemed last time. It has the sense of setting free by the payment of a price or a ransom. We were slaves. Jesus ransomed or redeemed us, and set us free from slavery. The price was the blood of Jesus, shed for us on the cross. That was why Jesus came. That is how He redeemed us.

Jesus also came to enable us to receive adoption. Paul describes it in Romans like this: “You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons” (Rom 8:15). We were not just set free from bondage and slavery, but we were adopted into the family of God. What a privilege that is!

Then Paul says that because we have been adopted into God’s family “God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying Abba! Father” (Gal 4:6). A similar passage in Romans says: “You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:15-16). “Abba” is an Aramaic word. It is the way Jesus addressed His Heavenly Father in His native language. It is like “appa” in many Indian languages – you can see the sense of intimacy in the relationship. The Holy Spirit gives us this sense of intimacy with our Heavenly Father.

Finally, Paul says “So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Gal 4:7). He puts it this way in Romans: “and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:15-17). Being an heir of God is mind-blowing. This is made crystal clear by Paul saying this means we are “fellow heirs with Christ”. What is Jesus Christ’s inheritance?  All of God’s creation. The bible says that we get to share this with Jesus! As children of God, we become fellow heirs along with Jesus Christ. Jesus is the “only begotten Son of God”. We are adopted sons of God. Because Jesus redeemed us to become sons, we will share all of God’s inheritance with Jesus. I.e. We will inherit and rule the entire universe. This is much more than we can imagine, but it is explicitly stated this way. Jesus rules “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but the age to come and He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church” (Eph 1:21-22). And it then goes on to say: “which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph 1:22). Jesus rules all things, and as His body, we will be the means by which He fills all things! 

Let us not be obsessed with our meager “bucket lists” in this life. We will have eternity to explore and enjoy any galaxy and planet to our heart’s content. We cannot even imagine the kind of inheritance we will have in Christ one day! “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined – all that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor 2:9). 

How Can We Go Back? (Gal 4:8-11)

Paul says “formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved” (Gal 4:8). He then continues, “But now you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God” (Gal 4:9). A change has happened. The slave had been adopted and had become a son. Why would that son want to go back and become a slave again?

We just talked about being sons and heirs of God. This has a mind-boggling implication. As sons, we have not only “come to know God”, but also “to be known by God”. Let that stew for a moment. Can you imagine “knowing” the Creator of the Universe? How is that even possible, except that He in His grace has chosen to reveal Himself to us. But even more stupendous: Can you imagine being intimately known by the Creator of the Universe. That He knows us personally among the billions of people in the world? There is a verse which says that He has engraved us in the palms of His hands (Isaiah 49:16 ). So Paul’s question is: if we have been exalted to the position of sons and heirs with all the privilege and freedom that it entails – why would we want to go back to the things to which we were enslaved in the first place?

Wiersbe points out the following differences between sons and slaves.

• Son has the same nature as the father, slave does not
• Son has a father, slave has not
• Son obeys out of love, slave obeys out of fear
• Son is rich, slave is poor
• Son has a future, slave does not.

Paul says “you observe days and months and seasons and years” (Gal 4:10). In other words, why would you go back to the very things from which Jesus Christ rescued you? Why would you trade that vibrant relationship with Jesus for external formalism? Think of the folly of this. It makes sense for the Prodigal Son to say “I am no longer worthy to be called a son, make me as one of your slaves” (Luke 15:19). But the Galatians were saying “You have made me Your son, but I would rather be a slave”. That is utter foolishness.

What does this mean for us today? Does this mean Christians should not celebrate Easter and Christmas, or worship on Sundays? No. Paul is referring to bondage to ceremonial practices.

Today it would be superstitious things Christians may do. Some obvious examples are if we read our horoscopes in the morning newspaper, and then change our behavior based on what we read. It is subtle, but it means we are putting our trust in something that God says is wrong (e.g. see Lev 19:31). Same with having our palms read, or using astrologers to figure out who we or our children should marry. The list can go on.

There are also actions that may not be wrong in and of themselves, but if we feel something is wrong if we do not do those things, then it is a kind of bondage. For example, it is a good thing to pray before we embark on a journey, and ask God to guard us and keep us safe. However, if we think that this gives us a special kind of protection, in such a way that if, for example, we forget to pray when we start the journey, and quickly pray during the journey because we think we are vulnerable because we forgot – that is bondage, and that is wrong.

The same principle can be extended to almost every other thing we do, including praying first thing after we wake up, reading the Bible every day, going to church every Sunday, etc. I know a couple who was proud that they had never missed going to church any Sunday for 40 years. Going to church is good. Making it a rule to go to church every Sunday is bondage. How about eating meat on Fridays, or fasting in Lent, etc. None of these are evil, and doing it may be good if done with the right motives. But doing them with the wrong motives to earn some kind of merit before God would be worse than not doing it at all. I hope you get what I am trying to say. Each of us can evaluate our lives, and see how this applies, and repent and submit it to God.

Paul’s Heartfelt Appeal (Gal 4:12-20)

As we move on to Gal 4:12-20, we see a different side of Paul. The curtain is opened for us to see his human, deeply emotional side. He first calls the Galatians “brothers” (Gal 4:12), then “my little children” (Gal 4:19), and he then likens his concern to them as being “again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Gal 4:19). In the first three chapters of Galatians, “we have been listening to Paul the apostle, Paul the theologian, Paul the defender of the faith; but now we are hearing Paul the man, Paul the pastor, Paul the passionate lover of souls” (Stott).

Paul starts by saying “become as I am, for I also have become as you are” (Gal 4:12). What does he mean by saying “become as I am”? He said the same thing when he was in trial before king Agrippa. When Agrippa asked ‘In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian”? (Acts 26:28). His response in Acts 18:29 was in effect: “I do not want you to become a prisoner like me, but I want you to become a Christian like me”. All of us should be able to say the same thing. That we are so satisfied in our relationship with Jesus with His freedom, joy and salvation, that we wish other people to be like us.

Paul goes on to say “for I also have become as you are” (Gal 4:12). He is referring to his attitude to them when he visited Galatia. He did not “stand on a pedestal”, so to speak. He put himself in their place, and identified with them. This is in accordance with his principle: “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Cor 9:19-22).

Here is a good principle for us. Our desire in reaching those who don’t know Jesus is to make them like us, in our faith and relationship with God. But in order to achieve this, we need to identify with them and walk alongside them, as we present Jesus to them.

Paul goes on to recount the Galatians’ attitude to Paul. He starts by saying “you did me no wrong” (Gal 4:12). He then says “you know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you” (Gal 4:13). We do not know exactly what happened here. Commentators suggest that possibly Paul contracted malaria, so cut short his visit in the mosquito-infested swamps of coastal Pamphylia. They speculate that this is why John Mark may have lost his nerve and gone back home (Acts 13:13), and a very sick and fever-ridden Paul may have headed north to the invigorating mountainous plateau of Galatia. However, this is speculation, and Acts does not give any indication that Paul became sick in this way. So more likely, this is a reference to what Paul described elsewhere as his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor 12:7). It does seem that Paul was constantly plagued with ill health. His “thorn” can be translated as “a stake thrust into my body”, which suggests intense pain. If Paul’s ailment was not just incapacitating but also unsightly then Paul may be saying “you resisted the temptation to show scorn or disgust at the state of my poor body” (Gal 4:14). They did not show disgust to the messenger or the message because of Paul’s bodily condition. They instead, received him as a messenger from God or as Christ Himself. So he asks them, “what became of your blessedness”? You received the message and came to know Christ. What happened? What happened to the extreme devotion you showed to me (see Gal 4:15)? Why are you treating me as your enemy now, because I told you the truth (Gal 4:16)?

We then go on to see Paul’s attitude to the Galatians. Paul contrasts his attitude to the Galatians, with that of the Judaizers. “They make much of you …. that you may make much of them” (Gal 4:17). They flatter you so that you will exalt them. It is not for your best interest. In reality, “they want to shut you out” (Gal 4:17). I.e., they want to cut you off from Christ so that they can be exalted. Paul in contrast does not care about his own exaltation, but that of Christ. He says “I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Gal 4:19). A true preacher or teacher will not seek his own glory, but Christ’s. This is a good test we can apply to discern false teachers. If someone is building up their own kingdoms or seeking their own glory, it is a red flag.

Application

By way of application, I would like you to consider the experience of two Johns. John Wesley and John Newton.

John Wesley’s experience is a good illustration of what it means to be a Christian. As a post-graduate in Oxford, he formed a “Holy Club”. He was the son of a clergyman and already a clergyman himself. He was orthodox in his belief, religious in practice, upright in conduct, and full of good works. He and his friends visited inmates of the prison and the work-houses of Oxford. They took pity on the slum children of the city, providing them with food, clothing and education. They observed Saturday as the Sabbath, as well as Sunday. They went to church and to Holy Communion. They gave alms, searched the Scriptures, fasted and prayed. This describes so many of us today. However, they were bound to the fetters of their own religion, because they were trusting in themselves that they were righteous, rather than putting their trust in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. A few years later, John Wesley in his own words, came to “trust in Christ, in Christ only for salvation”, and was given the inward assurance that his sins had been taken away. Later, looking back at his pre-conversion experience he wrote: “I had even then the faith of a servant, not that of a son”. Christianity enables us to be sons, not servants!

So how do we live the Christian life? Paul was perplexed at how the Galatians could have turned back to their old lives of bondage (Gal 4:20). However, this is easy for us to do as well. The way to avoid it is to constantly read the Word of God, and remind ourselves of the gospel, and of who we are in Christ. Doing this will help correct and re-orient our perspectives. John Newton’s experience is a good illustration of this. He was an only child and lost his mother when he was 7 years old. Later at the age of 11, he became involved in the atrocities of the African slave trade. He plumbed the depths of human sin and degradation. When he was 21, when his ship was in danger of foundering during a terrible storm, he cried out to God for mercy, and God reached down to Him! He was truly converted, and never forgot how God had saved him who was a former blasphemer. He wrote in bold letters and fastened over the wall of his mantelpiece, the words from the BIble: ”You shall remember that you were a slave … and the Lord your God redeemed you” (Deut 15:15). Let us also strive to remember this, so that we will have an increasing desire to live as sons of God.

I would also like us to think about how we witness. There is a place for tract distribution, or door to door evangelism. But that can never substitute for actually identifying with and walking alongside those to whom we witness. One of the reasons Paul was so effective is that he really identified with the people he was witnessing to.

What should be the attitude of a church congregation to their pastor? To begin with, it should not be by his appearance. He may be ugly like tradition says the apostle Paul was, or he may be good-looking. He may be sickly like the apostle Paul was when he visited Galatia, or he may be physically fit. He may have a pleasing personality, or he may be quite unimpressive. He may have unusual gifts, or he may be a faithful man with no unusual brilliance. But our hearts should not be swayed by these things. We should neither flatter him because we find him attractive or despise him because he is not. Further, our attitude should not be based on our own theological whims. The Galatians started off venerating Paul, but later became his enemy because he told them hard things. Instead, our attitude to our pastors should be based on their faithfulness to the apostolic message. Finally, we need to discern if our pastors or leaders are doing things that will exalt them or if their preaching and teaching leads us to become more like Jesus and to exalt Jesus. Those who flatter us or just seek to prop us up may not be true ministers of the gospel at all!

Coming to today’s text we will look at Galatians 3:1-14. Paul could have concluded his letter at the end of chapter 2. He has made his point, that justification is by faith alone. But thinking about the Galatian Christians, his feelings overwhelm him as they did in Gal 1:6, and he begins a whole new section for the next two chapters to buttress his statement of the gospel with theology. We will see the first few of his arguments here.

1. An appeal to their own experience (Gal 3:1-5)
2. The example of Abraham (Gal 3:6-10)
3. Two roads leading to two destinies (Gal 3:11-14)

“O Foolish Galatians! Who has Bewitched You”? (Gal 3:1)

Here is an interesting question. How could the Judaizers ever convince the Galatian Christians that the way of the law was better than the way of grace? Paul asks them “Who bewitched you”, or “Who cast a spell on you”? 

Of course Paul knows who deceived them. It was the Judaizers. However, there is a subtle hint here, that there is more going on. There is a spiritual battle being waged against their souls (1 Peter 5:8) which is being masterminded by Satan. Behind the false teachers, Paul sees the activity of the devil himself, whom Jesus calls a “liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

The reason this was so astonishing to Paul, is that it was “before [their] eyes that Jesus was publicly portrayed as crucified” (Gal 3:1). The word could be translated “placarded”, as in announced in a poster and waved in public. In other words, Paul is saying that “the message of Jesus as Messiah who died on the cross was plastered up in bill-boards before your very eyes” (Cole). Paul had preached about the death of Jesus with crystal clarity. Remember, Paul preached in Galatia exactly the way he did at Corinth, where he said, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). Paul did not allow his preaching to get distracted from the single point of the death of Jesus on the cross. So let us ask ourselves. Is this the focus of the preaching we often hear today? If not, we may possibly be listening to a false gospel.

Why is the gospel of works so enticing? Because it panders to our old nature. It enables us to compare ourselves with others, and to feel proud. It enables us to have a sense of superiority to others. This is why we are always tempted to add to the gospel. But to yield to that temptation is deadly, and our eternal destiny could be at stake.

When Paul says Jesus was publicly portrayed as “crucified”, the word is in the perfect participle. This means it was a once-for-all event, but the benefits of Jesus’ crucifixion are forever valid and fresh. The death of Jesus was completed, and it achieved its purpose perfectly. The gospel is not good advice for men, but good news about Christ. It is not an invitation to do anything, but a declaration about what God has done. It is not a demand but an offer.

This is why Paul is saying that if the Galatians had grasped the gospel of Christ crucified – that everything necessary for our salvation was accomplished by the death of Jesus on the cross, they should have resisted the spell of whoever was bewitching them. They were enticed because they did not carefully think through the implications.

Here is a sobering truth. The gospel needs to be grasped by our minds and not just by our hearts and our emotions. We need to think deeply and process its truth and make it our own. This is how we grow deep spiritual roots. Cole says “theology is nothing more than the ordinary rules of grammar and logic applied to the text of Scripture”. This is the gift that our education gives us as Christians. We can use all our study of language and grammar to help us understand the deep truths of God. Ultimately the only purpose of education is to help us understand God more. Everything else is chaff that will pass away and has no eternal value.

Was All This in Vain? (Gal 3:2-5)

Paul first appeals to the Galatians’ own experience. Usually it is dangerous to depend on our experience, so Paul will not stop here. This is a launching pad for him to buttress all his assertions from Scripture.

He asks them how they initially received the Holy Spirit. Paul is making an implicit assumption here that he states explicitly elsewhere. To have new life in Jesus Christ is to receive the Holy Spirit in our lives (see Rom 8:14). This is a good place for me to point out another false teaching that is prevalent among us today. There are some who teach that after accepting Jesus, we need to live a life of purity and seek after a “second blessing” called the baptism of the Holy Spirit that is evidenced by tongue speaking. Here Paul is clearly stating that our conversion is marked by our reception of the Holy Spirit. I would like you to keep this false teaching of the second blessing in the back of your mind as we go through today’s study, and evaluate it in the light of what the Bible says here.

Paul goes on to say “Did you suffer (or experience) so many things in vain – if indeed it was in vain?” (Gal 3:4). He is basically saying that if they go back to semi-Judaism, all that they experienced will be worthless. I.e. They will not be saved. Another way of looking at it, they “began in the Spirit” (Gal 3:3). That is they were “born again”. They had a new spiritual life. How can they feed that spiritual life by trying to be “perfected in the flesh” (Gal 3:3)? That does not make sense. They need to continue in the same way that they started. They cannot go back to what would only gratify their old natures.

Once Saved, Always Saved?

Clearly, Paul sees the possibility that all that the Galatians experienced could have been “in vain” (Gal 3:4). This is why he also says, “I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” (Gal 5:3-4). He also says, “I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you: (Gal 4:19). So regarding the maxim: “Once saved always saved”; is it true? By this, if we are asking, “Can a professing Christian fall away”? The Bible’s answer is clear. “Yes”.

The reason this is not necessarily the full story is because God makes certain promises, e.g. John 3:16. All those who believe “will not perish but have eternal life”. Jesus promises that He will not cast away anyone who comes to Him (John 6:37). He promises that “no one can snatch us from His hand” (John 10:28). Everyone who is “justified” will also be “glorified” (Romans 8:30). So those who look at this question from the standpoint of what is called “Reformed Theology”, point out that if God is true to His Word, He is promising to take the responsibility of keeping all those who come to Him in faith and are “justified”. Jesus is the good Shepherd who keeps His sheep (John 10:9).

But if that is true, how can a professing Christian fall away? Here is how we reconcile both these strands of biblical teaching. We have already seen from Galatians, that it is possible to “come to Christ” without putting our entire trust in Him. In today’s society, it is possible to come to Christ for the sake of all the blessings we think we will get if we become Christians. There are people who come to Christ because they think God will become their “bartender” who will give them whatever they want, be it health, wealth or prosperity. There are many reasons people may “accept Christ” but may not really understand the gospel, who do not come solely trusting the finished work of Christ. Sometimes I have heard preachers preach that if we come to Christ, God will take care of our problems, and our lives will become very fulfilled. That is not the gospel. If they give an altar call with such a message, many may come forward without really understanding the true gospel at all. Therefore, there could be many of us who think we are Christians, but in reality have believed a false gospel and are not saved at all. We may then attend Bible studies, go to church regularly, read the Bible and pray, and yet still not be saved. Then when difficulties come, we get disillusioned with God and lose our faith. This is what happened to the seeds that fell on rocky soil and among thorns. Both started to grow, but never bore fruit. Their growth was external without penetrating into their hearts. I.e. they appeared to be saved, but never were and so they fell away. This is why we sometimes see those who appeared to be strong Christians, preachers even, who have walked away from their faith. There is no guarantee that apart from repentance they will be accepted by Jesus on the final judgment.

Then how can we know we are saved? Never 100%. The Bible uses the term “assurance” of salvation. It is not a guarantee, but a gift given to us by the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit testifies with our spirits that we are the children of God” (Rom 8:16). When we are walking with God our assurance is strong. When we stop walking with God, He withdraws our assurance, along with the sense of His Presence, to draw us back to Him. This is God’s gift to His children, to draw them back to Him through this unease that they feel. Those who subscribe to the reformed view will go as far as to say the evidence of true salvation is that a person remains faithful to Christ until death. We may wander, but God will draw us back. Those who fall away and never come back have most likely demonstrated that they were never saved. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19). While we are on earth, we need to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (because eternity is at stake) (Phil 2:12). We need to battle against sin because our passions “wage war against our souls” (1 Peter 2:11) and because Satan seeks to devour us and destroy us like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8). Please note, only God knows who really belongs to Him. He sometimes disciplines sinning believers with death, but that does not necessarily mean they were not saved (see 1 Cor 11:30). If you have a loved one who accepted Christ and then walked away, and is now no more, only God knows if that person had really put his or her trust in Jesus. We cannot see the heart. For ourselves however, we are warned to keep watch over our own souls.

So in summary, is “once saved, always saved” true? There are some who would say “no”. Others would say “yes” and “no”. “Yes” is from God’s standpoint. God knows those who are His, and He will preserve them and keep them in His fold (2 Tim 2:19). However in either case, from a human standpoint, the evidence of our salvation is by the fact that we remain in the faith and bear the fruit of the Spirit (Matt 24:13). It is dangerous to just look back to a time in the past when we “accepted Christ”, and be confident we will be saved. Many will say to Him on the last day: “Lord, Lord, did we not do x, y and z” (Matt 7:22), and He will say “Depart from me, I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness” (Matt 7:23). It doesn’t matter what we professed in the past, or even profess now. If there is no evidence of new life in us, we need to heed Christ’s warning. Let us not be lulled into a false sense of security. Regardless of which view we hold, we can only be confident of our salvation to the extent we are walking with God. This sense of assurance sometimes waxes and wanes as we live our lives, and that is God’s way of making us “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”.

However we cannot face sin, trials or truly love if we are stunted by fear, because our motivation for doing such things will be wrong. We won’t seek God for His own sake. If you lack assurance of your salvation, you will question His care for you. So if you are wrestling with doubt, spend time studying the BIble, praising God and filling your mind with Scripture. Does this make you saved? No because these are works (see Eph 2:8-9). But doing this will remind you of the gospel. We need to be constantly reminded of Who God is, and what He has done – that we are saved by grace, not works! Don’t rely on your feelings. Trust His promises.

Abraham Become Righteous By His Faith (Gal 3:6-9)

Paul then points out that Abraham became righteous while he was still a “kind of Gentile”. Let us recall the story. Abraham was an old man. Although he had no children, God promised him a son. One day he took him outside on a clear night’s sky and showed him the stars and said “so shall your descendants be” (Gen 15:5). The bible then records “And he believed the Lord and He counted it to him as righteous (Gen 15:6). Remember what we said about “justification” last week. It is a declaration by God that we are “not guilty” and have a right standing before God. This verse indicates that Abraham was “justified” in this sense at that very moment. This was well before Isaac was born, and definitely well before God instituted circumcision as the sign of His covenant with Israel. Paul is therefore pointing out that Abraham was justified by faith, and not by works.

Paul then takes this a step further. He says that Abraham is the “father of the faithful”. He takes us back to an even earlier promise God made to Abraham. “In you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gal 3:8, referring Gen 12:3). Paul says this was the gospel that was first preached to Abraham. Everyone who has faith in God are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith (Gal 3:9).

Two Roads, Two Destinies (Gal 3:10-14)

Paul explains this further by providing two alternatives to the Galatians, both from the Old Testament.

1. “The one who does [the deeds of the law] shall live by them” (Gal 3:12 quoting Lev 18:5)
2. “The righteous shall live by faith” (Gal 3:11, quoting Hab 2:4)

These are two completely different paths, but both offer eternal life. Do you remember Jesus’ answer when the rich young man came to Jesus with the question “What must I do to obtain eternal life” (Mark 10:17)? Jesus answered the question. “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother” (Mark 10:19). God’s promise with regards to keeping the commandments was “do this and you will live” (Luke 10:28). The problem is, that no human being besides Jesus has ever kept all the commandments perfectly. And God’s promise of life through the law has a flip side. “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the Law and do them” (Gal 3:10, quoting Deut 27:26). This means every one who tries to please God by obeying the law is under God’s curse.

Then Paul goes on to say that Jesus took on our curse on Himself. He does this by pointing to the fact that by hanging on the cross Jesus was cursed, according to Deut 21:32 which says “a hanged man is cursed by God”. This was the same curse we are under because we cannot keep the law. Jesus was cursed by God because of our inability to please God. This is why Jesus cried out from the cross “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” (Mark 15:34)? He Himself bore God’s curse for our sins. This is why we are saved when we put our trust in Jesus. Our sins have been accounted for and we have been set free or “redeemed”.

Paul says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by being a curse for us” (Gal 3:13). Redemption always has the connotation of being “bought with a price”. It is used for slaves who were purchased, or prisoners who were set free. The actual price that obtains redemption is called the ranson. Paul is saying that Jesus purchased our salvation through his death on the cross. Jesus said: “The Son of Man did not come to serve but to be served, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). The apostle Peter says it beautifully: “you were ransomed … not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:19). His blood was “precious”. Our redemption was costly. Yet Jesus did this for us.

Paul also says Jesus became a curse “for us” (Gal 3:13). This has the idea of substitution. Jesus’ gave up his life as a substitute for mine. He died the death we deserved. He took our place and bore our punishment. We deserve God’s curse for our sin and Jesus bore that curse in our place. Therefore, when we put our trust in Him we are no longer under that curse. The penalty of sin has been paid. We are free!

So Paul is challenging the Galatians, just as he is challenging us today. Which road should we take? One, where the price is paid in full, and our freedom from the curse of the law has been secured in Christ? Or do we think we can help God by working for our salvation? If we do, we remain under God’s curse, and are not saved. This was what is at stake for the Galatians, and what is at stake for us, if we do not rely wholly on the cross of Jesus for our salvation.

Application

What the gospel is. The gospel is Christ crucified. It is His finished work on the cross. To preach the gospel is to publicly portray Jesus Christ as crucified. The gospel is not primarily a baby in a manger or the teachings of a wise teacher, or even just the empty tomb. The gospel contains Christ on the cross. Only when Christ is seen “publicly portrayed as crucified (Gal 3:1) is the gospel being preached. This was not just a historic event that happened 2000 years ago. It has relevance today, because Jesus bought our salvation on that cross. He died as our substitute, and faced God’s curse in our stead. We need to be confronted with this crucified Jesus, and we need to come to this crucified Christ for our salvation.

What the gospel offers. The gospel offers great blessing. God’s promise to Abraham was “in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed”. What was this blessing? First it was “justification” (Gal 3:8). Second, it is the gift of the Holy Spirit (Gal 3:5). These two gifts are interdependent. Both come together . Everyone who is justified get the gift of the Holy Spirit. This marks the beginning of new life in Jesus Christ – a life that bears the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). It is a life that lasts forever, where we will spend all our days in the Presence of the One who redeemed us as a people to Himself.

Although the gospel is free for us, it came at a terrible price. Paul says to the Corinthian Christians: “You were bought with a price, therefore glorify God with your bodies” (1 Cor 6:20). Jesus paid the ultimate price to redeem us. The ransom was His very life blood, that He shed for us. Let us not take this lightly, but let us bow down in gratitude and worship before this God who was willing to pay so much to set us free.

What the gospel requires. The gospel offers blessing. What must we do to receive it? Nothing. Just believe that it has already been won for us by Jesus who died on our cross to procure it for us. This is the gospel of both the Old and the New Testaments. It unifies all people of faith in the history of the world. One day we will all celebrate this gospel together with Jesus. A gospel of grace, through and through! What a blessing this is!

We just completed an introduction to the book of Galatians by looking at Gal 1:1-2. Here Paul greets the Galatian church, and reminds his readers that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ who was directly appointed by Jesus. He goes on to greet the Galatians: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 1:3). 

Grace has two connotations: sheer beauty, and undeserved favor. So, Paul’s wish that the Galatians experience grace is this. “May the beauty of the undeserved love of God be on you, so that it will make your life lovely too” (Barclay).

He then goes on to wish them peace. This would have had to remind his Jewish readers of the Old Testament concept of “shalom”. This means far more than “the absence of trouble”, or “a truce between enemies”, although these meanings are encapsulated in the word as well. It means “everything that is to a person’s highest good. Everything that will keep the mind pure, and the heart glad” (Barclay). This is what enables a Christian’s heart to be at serene, even if their body is being tortured. This is the kind of peace we will experience perfectly in heaven.

Christ Died for our Sins (Gal 1:4-5)

Paul then continues to say that this grace and peace is from Jesus Christ, who: “gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age” (Gal 1:4). It speaks about the love of God that caused Him to suffer for us when He saw the predicament, we were in. Our sins deserve the wrath of God, and Jesus dies to save us from that wrath. What are we actually saved from? We are saved from the wrath of God that is being stored up against human rebellion and sin. Without Jesus, since He is a just God, He will sentence us to an eternity in hell. This is what Jesus saved us from.

Paul also says that the purpose Jesus came was to die for our sake on the cross, and Jesus came “to deliver us from this present evil age” (Gal 1:4). By default, everyone is headed there, just like all the people in Noah’s time were headed for destruction by the flood. What Jesus did is also a demonstration of the power of God’s love to conquer sin and deliver us.

Paul also adds “according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal 1:4). This is to remove any thought that Jesus somehow coerced His Father’s hand to forgive us. Our salvation originated in the mind and the will of God the Father. He is as involved in our salvation as God the Son is. As Paul reflects on this glorious gospel he bursts into praise to God: “to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Gal 1:5)

This is a part of the core gospel. When any preacher soft-pedals around teaching about the wrath of God and hell – that all those who do not believe in Christ are headed to – they have taken away from the truth of the gospel. Many prosperity preachers and Word of Faith preachers today do not talk about the holiness of God or the wrath of God against human sin. They avoid these truths and focus on a more positive message of blessing and prosperity. They speak of the death of Christ as unlocking all physical and material blessings without mentioning that Christ came primarily to deal with our sin.

Here is a specific example – and I am just choosing one out of many. Joel Osteen is famous for his self-help pep talk, and if you have listened to him for any length of time, you may have noticed that he does not preach what he calls “fire and brimstone” messages. He focuses on the power of positivism. He has sold millions of books preaching a gospel that wants to make you happier and healthier. However, hell is an integral part of the true gospel. Ultimately Jesus said that we should not fear those who can kill our bodies, but He who can cast both body and soul into hell (Matt 10:28) – a sobering truth that should evoke a reverent fear of the Triune God. We should therefore recognize that Joel Osteen is not preaching the true gospel.

However, Joel Osteen is not the only false teacher. If anyone does not explicitly teach that Jesus died to deliver us from the penalty and the power of sin which will lead to hell, then that person is not preaching the same gospel that Paul preached. There is so much corruption in Christianity that many ministers and pastors no longer believe or teach the reality of hell (although they may not explicitly admit this, in order to preserve their jobs).

In comparison, when Paul took leave of the Ephesian church for the last time, this is what he told them: “I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:26-27). This shows us that Paul realizes what a serious responsibility he had, and he was implying that not to teach “the whole counsel of God” was to be guilty before God.

There is Only One True Gospel (Gal 1:6-10)

After this preliminary greeting, if we look at Paul’s other letters, he usually writes about how he is thanking God for them. Paul does this in every letter except this one!

By way of contrast, consider this. Paul even thanks God for His work in the Corinthian church but not in his letter to the Galatians. The Corinthian church was messed up. Persistent problems such as division, sexual immorality, social snobbery, considerable theological confusion about marriage, divorce, participation in pagan worship, order within corporate worship, and the bodily resurrection of believers. So, you look at them and see that they were a mess. The Galatian church’s issue is that it was characterized as having false teachers who taught that circumcision and obedience to the law along with Jesus were necessary for salvation. Paul says they are both wrong. Both need correction. We may think the Corinthians were really bad people. But when Paul writes to the Corinthians, he continues by thanking God for the Corinthians, as he does in every other epistle he writes except his letter to the Galatians! This is the only epistle that starts with a rebuke and does not have an initial thanksgiving.

For Paul, the external behavior is not deadly. It can be shepherded, provided that the truth of the gospel is not compromised. This is why He is so much more critical of the Galatian church than the Corinthian church. He says: “Not that there is another gospel”. To be sure there are those who pervert the gospel and are presenting it as the gospel, but those are not different gospels but perversions.

The text is a denial of pluralism. We are all not on different roads to heaven. Today we live in an age of moral relativism. We are encouraged to allow each person to live lives according to their truth. We tend not to think in terms of absolute truth, but that my truth can be different to your truth, and we need to let each other live and let live. However, no truth is right unless it embraces God’s truth as revealed in the gospel. Thus, those who do not believe this are not exempt, however broad and accepting they think they are. They will all be swept away together during God’s judgment as being a part of “this present evil age”.

However, the real danger is that it is not something that comes from other religions, but a counterfeit version of the real thing. It is even more subtle and deadly when it comes from people promoting a false gospel who are professing Christians. That is the danger Paul is addressing here. The false teachers likely belonged to the Church of Jerusalem and possibly knew the elders personally. It was an in-house distortion by those who called themselves “Christian brothers”

Paul’s letter to the Galatians is one of the best books to help us understand what the heart of the true gospel is. We will try and think about various teachings around us with this lens and see what we can learn. These false teachers often come from among us: “from your own selves will arise men speaking distorted things” (Acts 20:30).

Sometimes we tend to be impatient with thinking through doctrinal nuances. We think that too much knowledge is an enemy of emotion and feeling in our devotion to God. However, true knowledge of God enables us to love Him more fully. We have been commanded to love Him with all our hearts and also all of our minds (Matt 22:37). We think the Holy Spirit will guard us from error, so a rigorous study is actually a failure of faith. However, doing this makes us vulnerable to false teaching. The result is that we are so shallow in our understanding of the truth that we are swayed by any persuasive speaker and are literally “ripe for the pickings” of false teachers. I am grateful to God that all of you here have a desire to dig deeper into the Word of God and to know the full truth, even if that knowledge is costly.

To Turn Away From the True Gospel is Astonishing

Paul expresses his stunned surprise at the Galatians like this: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel” (Gal 1:6)

Why is it so astonishing? It is astonishing because:

• We are turning away from God who is calling us (Gal 1:6)
• We are turning away from grace (Gal 1:6, see Gal 5:4)
• We have stopped seeing the beauty of the crucified Christ (Gal 1:7).

Those of us who have been saved have been enthralled by the intrinsic beauty of the gospel. We bask in the love of God as revealed in it. It is a love that caused Jesus to be willing to suffer and to die on the cross for us in order to extend the most unmerited gift to us. It is a love that is completely unconditional and is being offered to us for free. Why would we want to desert this amazing God and abandon His glorious gospel? That is why Paul finds it so astonishing.

To Preach or Teach a Different Gospel is to Invite God’s Curse

However, the issue is not just one of great surprise and astonishment. It can be deadly. Paul says that it is so important, that even angels are not to be believed if what they preach contradicts the truth of the gospel. He says: “Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one that we preached to you, let him be accursed.  As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” (Gal 1:8-9)

The true gospel becomes false if we either add to it or we remove from it. In both cases it is no longer the true gospel. I am referring to what we believe to be the pure kernel of Christianity that is required for saving faith. That is the gospel that we believe, and it is critical we hold fast to the true gospel and vigorously guard against what is false. Of course, there are things we believe that lie outside this kernel, and we should show grace to other Christians who differ from us in these “non-essential” areas. But we do need to recognize what the absolute kernel of faith we believe is and evaluate that with Scripture. To get that wrong is to not be saved.

Examples of Taking Away From the True Gospel 

Thinking along these lines, that severs the credibility of Mormonism at its root in one sweep. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism claimed that He had visions of God and of Jesus Christ who told him not to join the established Christian church. He then had several angelic visitations which enabled him to write the book of Mormon, with the assurance that God would use him to re-establish the true Christian church. Paul tells us in no uncertain terms, that if we get our message from angels, it needs to measure up to biblical truth. Mormonism attacks the supremacy of Christ and His sacrifice for us and is therefore another gospel. I do not know if you have come across any Mormons. Here they are extremely passionate about spreading their faith and go house to house speaking to all those who will listen. However, what they teach is not the biblical gospel and therefore it is no gospel at all. We can dismiss it, regardless of how nice the people who share it with us appear to be.  Their niceness and sincerity do not compensate for the fact that their gospel does not come from God, but from the pits of hell, and all those who follow it will be accursed along with their founder.

Similarly, it helps us see clearly, that the God who is worshiped by Jehovah’s Witnesses is not another name for Jehovah. They claim they love God, but they do not believe Jesus is God. They do not believe that Christ died on the cross for our sins. Jesus clearly said that anyone who rejects Him rejects God Himself (e.g. John 8:42: “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me”

Examples of Adding To the True Gospel

For example, the “Church of Christ” teaches that only if you are baptized in one of their local churches, you are truly baptized, and that true baptism is a prerequisite to salvation. Thus, they consider themselves the only true Christians. Someone I know from that church once made a statement that it is better to be safe. It is like when you are going for a job interview, we take all our certificates with us, just in case. However, if you think through what he is saying carefully, he clearly does not believe that salvation is by Christ alone, and therefore what he believes is a false gospel.

Here is a very explicit example that helps us understand what is at stake here. In the mid 1500’s the Council of Trent was convened by the Catholic church to discuss the challenge of the protestant reformation. Among other things, they made these pronouncements:

• If anyone saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification … let him be accursed. (Canon 9).
• If anyone saith, that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ’s sake; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified; let him be accursed. (Canon 12).

The members of the Council were using Galatians 1:9 as the basis of their pronouncements. Their gospel says that salvation is not by faith alone but by faith + works. Effectively they are saying that those who believe the true gospel are accursed, but in reality, the very content of their declarations demonstrated that they are following a false gospel! So that curse they pronounced actually falls on themselves. Incidentally, these pronouncements were never recanted by the Catholic church. That makes the Catholic church as an institution apostate, even though of course, this does not mean that there are no true Catholic believers. Most Catholics do not embrace the true gospel and are therefore not saved, however sincere they may be (see Rom 10:2-3).

Unity in Diversity – Beware Of Adding To the True Gospel

There is room for us to differ in beliefs that are not part of the “essentials”. However, if we make any of those differences essential, then we are in danger of adding to the true gospel, and of distorting the gospel, making it false.  Such teachings can be identified with statements such as “You are only a true Christian if ….”. 

Let us now think about Seventh Day Adventists. We have liberty regarding the day we choose to worship God, or the day we want to use to practice the Sabbath principle. However, if we insist that the only correct Sabbath is Saturday or Sunday and the others are wrong, we are veering into the territory of a false gospel. This is a warning to all of us, whether or not we are Seventh Day Adventists. A Seventh Day Adventist is within the fold of evangelical Christianity. However, if that person believes others are not true Christians, then it is likely that they do not believe the one true gospel.

We can press this further and think about issues Christians do not agree within themselves. For example, let us think about baptism. As you know, there is division among Christians regarding whether we should be baptized as adult believers (i.e., believer’s baptism), or whether it is legitimate to baptize babies born in Christian households (i.e., infant baptism). This is a doctrine that is outside the core gospel, and in this case the biblical case is not rock-solid either way. However, I will go further to say that if anyone insists that one kind of baptism is the only legitimate kind, that person may be veering into the side of “another gospel”, just like the Church of Christ is. This may not necessarily be by what they are specifically saying but by what they emphasize. Baptism is required for Christians, but the manner and mode of baptism is not a part of the kernel of the true gospel that saves us. To elevate it to that position makes what we teach a false gospel.

We can go even further and start thinking about other kinds of teaching and preaching that we hear around us. For example, there is a lot to be learned from Pentecostal churches or the Charismatic movement. However, if anyone says that those who do not speak in tongues are not true Christians or that they are just half-baked Christians – that would make it another gospel.

The point I am making is, that if we need to clearly understand what the gospel is at its core. Neither less nor more of it is the true gospel. If we remove parts of it or add things to it is no longer the true gospel. We need to embrace others as fellow-believers, even if we disagree on matters outside this core – as long as both sides agree that it is outside the core. That is critical. If there is anyone who disagrees with what is core, then that is a false gospel – and at least one side is believing another gospel, and Paul says that eternity is at stake here. On the other hand, there is a lot of room for us to disagree with other genuine believers on matters of faith that are not part of the “essential core” for salvation, and yet to be able to have meaningful fellowship with them .

Credibility of Paul – He Does Not Seek Man’s Approval

Paul understands that what he has just said in Gal 1:8-9 will cost him a lot of friends. Who is not going to get upset when they are pronounced with a sentence of eternal damnation? 

Why should the Galatians believe him? For one, he has said that he is an apostle appointed by Jesus Christ Himself. Here he gives another reason. Paul explains that he is willing to speak this way because pleasing people is very low on his priority list. He cares about the glory of Christ and the salvation of sinners. If the gospel is distorted, both are lost – the sufficiency of Jesus’ work is distorted, and the salvation of sinners is hindered.

Following Jesus can cost us friends. It can cause people to speak against us. This is why Jesus said: “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). However, this does not mean that the number of enemies that we have is correlated with how spiritual we are. Paul did not desire to offend. Being pleasing to people is good, but only provided it does not compromise the truth. When the truth is at stake, our primary allegiance is to Jesus alone.

It is gloriously liberating when we stop being influenced about what other people think of us, and only care about what God thinks. Then everything we do will be integrated, because it is all related to One Person and Him alone!

As I was studying this passage, I realized that I tend to be a people-pleaser. Galatians shows me that I don’t need to be that way. In fact, when the gospel is concerned, I should not be that way. This study inspires me to be bolder for the truth.

Conclusion

Well, all this was quite an earful. I warned you that Galatians is a dangerous book! It tends to cut right to the core of what we believe and separates the truth from falsehood at its very root (see Hebrews 4:12). This can be convicting, and it can also cause us to lose friends! However, my prayer for you is that like Paul, keeping friends will be lower on your priority list compared to pleasing God. May He give you the discernment to do this well.

I also hope that our study today has given you some tools to evaluate the preaching and teaching that you hear. You will be surprised at how far many preachers have strayed from the true gospel that saves. Since we all have limited time, it may be wise for us to avoid feeding ourselves from teaching that deviates from the one true gospel, so that the Word of God can take strong root within our hearts.

I pray that God will grant us a love for apostolic authority, and a passion for the apostolic gospel. A passion that fills us with inexpressible joy that our sins are forgiven and A passion that shows itself in astonishment and sadness that people we love turn away, because they are turning away from the glory of the true gospel of grace alone through Christ alone by faith alone on the authority of Scripture alone and for the glory of God alone. What a tragedy that people would turn away from all of this to that which is not the gospel. May God also grant us a righteous anger against those who distort the gospel and destroy human souls and lead people astray, including our loved ones. May He grant us the courage to speak into the lives of friends and family who have somehow been deceived into believing another gospel, which is no gospel at all!

We are beginning a new study of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and today we will focus on what we can look forward to learning from this study.

Here is the first sentence in Cole’s commentary of Galatians. “The epistle to the Galatians is spiritual dynamite, and it is almost impossible to handle it without spiritual explosions”. This reminds me of the time I was in High School and loved dabbling with chemicals. I was too dumb to think about safety measures and had several explosive accidents due to my handling of the chemicals. God says that the gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith” (Rom 1:16). The word there is “dunamis”, from which we get the English word “dynamite”. Galatians brings the true gospel to sharp focus, so no wonder Cole would make such a comment!

Martin Luther’s great spiritual awakening came as he studied this letter. It cannot be read in a detached manner without personal involvement. It challenges our present-day superficial faith and provokes our opposition. It was a controversial letter. As we wrestle with the implications of this letter in this study, it will also challenge some of our assumptions and bring us face to face with what the true gospel is and give us the tools to discern many of the counterfeit gospels that are prevalent around us today.

My desire during this study, is not to get into such great detail that we “miss the woods for the trees”. Galatians is different to James, in that there is a line of thought and a sustained argument in this letter. My goal during this study is that we understand the thrust of Paul’s argument, and not so much each and every nuance.

If we are to ask, how we should summarize this entire letter, it would be this. It is a succinct statement and defense of Paul’s understanding of the gospel.

Occasion and Purpose

The answer to this question is very simple as we read this letter. This letter was written as a response to people who were troubling Gentile Christians in Galatia by insisting that to be a “good Christian” one had to already be or become a “good Jew”. Circumcision and keeping some of the ceremonial Jewish laws were also necessary for salvation. In other words, salvation was not by faith alone and in Christ alone. It was faith in Christ plus obedience to the law. Paul fought passionately against this, insisting that it was in fact a serious denial of the very heart of the gospel itself. The stakes were very high. By adding to the gospel, it was no longer just a variant of the gospel, but it had corrupted it to such an extent that it had become heresy.

As we study this book, and see the issues involved that caused Paul so much concern, we will learn how to think in a similar way, to discern the truth preached by different preachers and churches today. This was the main reason I chose Galatians for us to study at this time.

Someone has described this letter as a “sword flashing in a great swordsman’s hand”. Both Paul and the gospel were under attack. If that attack succeeded, Christianity might have become just another Jewish sect. So, Paul resists this attack vigorously.

It will be good for us, as we study this letter, to take this to heart, and to evaluate what it is that we believe at its very core. Is it the true gospel as will be explained here? Have we added to it? These are critical questions that we need to wrestle with as we work through this letter.

Date of Composition

Scholars have tried to synchronize Galatians with Acts, and the date of this letter depends on which visits to Jerusalem as described in Acts are referenced here. That would determine whether this letter was written before or after the Council in Jerusalem in AD 49. I will not get into a detailed discussion right now, because we will see it in more detail when we study the second chapter.

But there is another reason based on the contents of the letter itself, that helps us deduce its approximate date, namely, that the letter does not reference the Jerusalem Council or the decisions made there. That was the watershed meeting of the early church leaders described in Acts 15, which dealt with what was to be expected of new Gentile believers. Some commentators call the absence of Paul mentioning the Jerusalem Council, a “deafening silence”. It would have been enormously helpful to Paul’s argument if he could have mentioned the decision of the Council, that Gentiles should not be circumcised. This, after all, was a major point of contention between Paul and the false teachers influencing the Galatians. So, it seems likely that Galatians was written before the Jerusalem Council, which would place it around AD 48-49!

This would imply that this is the earliest letter that Paul wrote. At this time in the church’s history, the early church had not yet fully wrestled with the theological implications of Christianity in the context of Gentile inclusion into the church, and the church’s Judaism roots. Paul’s letter to the Galatians represents Paul’s systematic reasoning about what those implications were. We see the conclusions and assertions in Galatians were officially ratified in the Jerusalem Council meeting described in Acts 15.

Galatians 1:1-2

The Recipients

The letter is addressed: “To the churches of Galatia”. He calls them Galatians in Gal 3:1, and he refers to them as the “churches in Galatia” in 1 Cor 16:1. There is some debate about what region is envisaged (there is the “northern hypothesis” and the “southern hypothesis”). Considering it was relatively easy for the Judaizers to get to the churches in this letter, and because the southern part of Galatia which was more accessible, it is likely that the “southern hypothesis” is more correct. This is also consistent with our deductions regarding the approximate year this letter was written

In particular, this would mean the churches referenced are in four major cities, Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. These were places Paul evangelized during his first missionary journey and is described in Acts 13 and Acts 14. In each city was now a church. These were not different denominations, but different local congregations. Clearly there was a large Gentile contingent, but there were also some Jews there.

The Author

Paul begins his letter with a claim: “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father” (Gal 1:1).

Why would Paul start this way? Does this not make him a braggart? No! It was because the truth of the gospel was at stake. So, he defended his apostolic authority in order to defend the gospel.

Paul was under attack. People were questioning whether he was a genuine apostle, so this is how he starts his letter. He is an apostle. Paul says that his calling was not a human calling but “through Jesus Christ and God the Father”.

“Apostle” means “one who is sent”. In Mark 3:14 says “he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach”. Apostles were specially called men.

The bible identifies them as the original 11 (other than Judas) who were disciples of Jesus. Matthias was added to complete the 12 as narrated in the Acts 1. Here the criteria for an apostle included being a witness of Jesus’s resurrection. Paul understands that by Jesus revealing Himself in the Damascus road, he had been commissioned to be an apostle.

He says in 1 Cor 15:8-10 – “Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am …”.

The secret to Paul’s zeal was that he knew that he had been directly appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. This is what enabled him to endure so much suffering in his life.

Now here is the stupendous implication of this truth. When we read Galatians, we are hearing Christ. An apostle speaks with the authority of the One who sent him. Galatians is the very word of the King of Kings. Isn’t it sad that we cry out to God for revelation and make almost no serious effort to understand the deep things of Scripture – the very Word of Christ.

We can now ask the question, “when was Paul called to be an apostle”. The answer is surprising. We find it in Galatians 1:15. In his own words, he says that God “set me apart before I was born” and called me by His grace and was pleased to reveal His Son to me in order that I may preach Him”.

I want you to digest this for a minute. God had set Paul apart before he was even born. Paul was born well before Jesus began his public ministry. This means the inclusion of Gentiles into the fold of Christianity, was not an after-thought in the mind of God, because the rejection by the Jews, but part of God’s eternal plan. Isn’t that a small mind-bender?

Here is another one! God allowed Paul to take an awful detour and persecute the church for years. He allowed Paul to participate in the murder of the first Christian, Stephen. What a detour that was! And then God called Him after all this! This shows how mysterious God’s ways are. He does not think the way we think. This gives us hope as we pray for loved ones and for those who are rebellious against God. God’s grace is more powerful than their resistance!

I would like to make a final comment in passing – maybe the first controversial application from our study! The Bible says that the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets” (Eph 2:20). Thus, it is clear that there are no apostles today. The foundation has already been laid! There is a movement called the “New Apostolic Reformation”, which advocates for the lost offices of prophet and apostle. However, that is not biblical.

Application

Galatians is a dangerous book. It exposes what is a popular substitute for spiritual living that we have in our churches today – legalism or if I may call it “moralism”. Many Christians think they are spiritual because of what they do or what they do not do, or because of the leader they follow, or the denomination they belong to. Galatians will expose how wrong this is.

Wiersbe says that as he studied this book he was humbled as well as challenged. Humbled because he realized God is not too impressed with our ministries no longer how impressed they may appear from a human standpoint. He was also challenged because it confronts us to start living deeper. We need to let the Holy Spirit have His way.

We need to allow the Holy Spirit to take over our lives. This will give is freedom, not legalism. Cooperation with other Christians, not competition. Glory to God, and not praise to man. Then Revival”!

So, this is a dangerous book. It was dangerous for Paul to write it. It was dangerous for the Galatians to read it, and it may be a dangerous book for us to study. Perhaps we may lose some friends, as we wrestle with the truths we are confronted with in this letter. But it would be worth it. Paul’s battle cry is “It was for freedom that Christ has set you free” (Gal 5:1). This is the heart of the message of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Freedom in Christ! Freedom in service. Freedom in love. Freedom in forgiveness. Freedom from any kind of bondage. Jesus came to set us free.

Salvation – being saved – is a free gift from God!  It is not a reward for our good deeds or self-denial. There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn or give God in exchange for our salvation. It is a GIFT we don’t deserve. We are sinners who have been disobedient to God. We don’t deserve anything from Him. Yet God, in His love, has chosen to give it to us. It is called GRACE in the Bible. It is received only through FAITH in the Lord Jesus. There is no other way to get it.

In the Bible, we read:

“It is by GRACE you are saved, through FAITH… not as a result of works.

”This is the simple but wonderful truth of the Gospel!

We rejoice in our salvation. Now, what do we do? How do we live? In the Bible, God says: “I know the plan I have for you.”  Jeremiah 29:11

God has a plan and purpose for our life! Before our salvation, we had our own plans and we were going our own way, living selfishly for ourselves. Now we want to live our new life for Lord Jesus and follow his plan for us. God has lovingly planned a unique life for each of his children. It is not an empty life, it is a fulfilling life, full of good deeds He wants us to do for him. 

What are the good deeds God has for us? Serving God by serving others – like being kind-hearted, loving, and caring, helping people in need, praying for them, telling others about the Lord Jesus and his priceless gift of salvation, etc. The Lord Jesus will lead us along the way and the Holy Spirit will show us how to follow him. All the blessings God has for us will be found only along this path as we follow the Lord. Bible tells us: “God has created us in Christ Jesus to do all the good works which He has already planned for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 

My dear friend, as we rejoice in our salvation, let us eagerly pray and find out all the good deeds God is calling us to do.  And let us do them with joy!

Prayer: “Heavenly Father, please help me not to live a meaningless life only for myself. Help me follow the Lord Jesus and do all the good deeds which You have planned for me to do to serve others and bring You praise and honor.”

Why do I want to follow Lord Jesus? Because I have accepted Him as my Savior. A savior is a person who saves or rescues me from something. If I am drowning and someone saves me, he is my savior. Lord Jesus is my Savior because He has saved me from all my sins. I sin every time I break one of the moral laws given by God in the Bible. Such as: “Love God, honor your parents, do not lie, do not steal, do not want what others have, don’t be selfish but love others like yourself” and many more. These sins keep on adding. Soon I have a mountain of sins on me –sins against God. These sins separate me from a holy God.  I cannot go to Him and my prayers will not reach Him.  God will punish me for them.

 What am I to do? One day I hear the good news:

• That Lord Jesus Himself came down to earth from heaven to take my punishment!
• That He died on the cross in my place! I hear that He came alive again! 
• Three days after being killed and buried, Lord Jesus rose up alive again bodily!
• He is now in heaven. I hear that He is the Supreme Ruler of all the heavens and the earth!

The Bible says: “Believe in Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”  Acts 16:31, I believe this good news of Lord Jesus with all my heart! Do you believe also, my friend? Is Lord Jesus your Savior?

Prayer: “Lord Jesus, You are my Savior and my God.  I worship You.”

Then Jesus went home, and once again a crowd gathered, so that He and His disciples could not even eat. And when His family heard it, they went out to seize Him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.” (Mark 3:20-21).

I recently sat pondering these words as I nursed a wounded heart having been deeply hurt by loved ones who should have been our biggest cheerleaders. I once again was totally confused and could not understand the rejection we had received from family in the face of an act of sacrificial love that we had chosen to step into. And, this was definitely not the first time we had received this type of unusual response to acts of love. In fact looking back on our 26 years as a family, it had happened almost every time, without fail, when we had chosen to lay down our desires to obey His call!  Each time we had plunged joyfully head on into a situation showing deep love and care, expecting approval, for it appeared that we were doing a good thing, we instead were bombarded with criticism, condemnation or isolation – and strangely, almost no one publicly took our side to defend us. This usually upsets me, but this time, God was beginning to show me that following Him was counter-intuitive to the comfort and ease of the world, it was the way of the cross! He was allowing His truth to slowly sink into my shattered heart.

Rejection or betrayal by trusted loved ones is very painful. My natural reaction in the face of rejection, especially since my heart had been weakened by over two decades of trauma, loss, rejection, pain and suffering was to lash out, to get angry, to want to reject God, and often in these moments of pain I would conclude that good deeds were not worth the cost. I have been through these emotions on numerous occasions throughout my life even though I knew that harboring these thoughts was poisoning my soul. This past year had already been extra hard on me as I was physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted for many other reasons and now, this situation seemed to be adding unnecessary stress. And worst of all God seemed silent, not defending us or bringing light to the situation. The thought kept crossing my mind, was He really worth it – for we were sacrificially doing it mainly for Him?

My husband, the architect of the act of kindness was also confused by the situation but he was far more determined than me to believe that Romans 8:28 was true. That, all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purposes. He was hurt too but he had chosen to place a stake in the ground years ago to stand firm on the Word of God even if we are surrounded by storms. I was angry that he could continue trusting God‘s plan even during this bleak time while I felt I couldn’t. Thank God that his perseverance helped me tide through my unbelief. He led the way for me and our children to forgive and to not retaliate but instead to grieve the separation from God of those who were causing this hurt and to pray for them in love. He did this only by the grace of God – not because he is a saint. As we wrestled through this painful situation, we did have a few days of angry arguments on how to respond. But, as we wrestled, he blessed us by pushing forward and reading many a devotional and Bible passage on forgiveness, on vengeance done God’s way and the most intriguing of all, on the expected persecution when we choose to follow Jesus! God used these to permeate my very soul which helped me turn away from the storm to fix my eyes on Jesus, the Lord of the storm!

Rejection is a word that is commonly used in the adoptive world we have been a part of for the past two decades. Children often go through life feeling the depths of rejection and loss of their first families. Meanwhile, their adoptive parents often feel the rejection of the children they have chosen to love while also battling family and society as they walk through an unknown, uncharted parenting journey which is often counter-intuitive and in opposition to the establishment! It is sometimes excruciatingly painful and extremely lonely. The traumatized children lash out often unable to process their pain and loss and  parents need to do their best in love to bear their hurt and to cushion their pain. Trauma and rejection go hand in hand. Often it feels like we are dying a little at a time on the inside, being crushed until it seems like we are unable to even breathe again. Meanwhile, the world around us whispers, even shouts, that we are the crazy ones, for it is we who appear to be angry or upset. They seem blinded to our constant love in the trenches, where we are choosing to love and protect, give and serve many around us.  They don’t see the exhaustion as we walk the trenches with the brokenhearted, the lonely, the widow and the orphan. This kind of love and life being contrary to the norm causes most people to be unable to process it so it almost seems easier for people to criticize, reject or even walk away from rather than embrace and be challenged to do themselves. Often, darkness appears to have won!

Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to Him?” (John 10:20). Wow! This is the Son of God on mission here on earth that this passage is referring to. He did not have it easy. His own family thought He was a nut-job even though they would’ve known the miraculous circumstances around His birth and had experienced His heart having grown up with Him. They were blinded by sin and could only see insanity not God in the flesh. The Bible does not give reasons for their backlash and rejection – it just states that His family demeaned Him and rejected Him. All this while others loved and adored Him even if they didn’t fully understand. Only the power of the Holy Spirit could have caused Peter to proclaim this truth about Jesus: He (Jesus) said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 16:15-17).

Jesus’ message was and still is extremely offensive. If He was so tolerant and loving, why then was He crucified in a most horrific manner? We tend to underestimate the scandal of the gospel by thinking Christianity is a comfort religion. Jesus hated sin and He found the world offensive and constantly confronted and exasperated people. He stirred up the calm waters of religious expectations and common sense of His day. Most people could not accept His teachings as it stirred and convicted their very souls out of complacency and lethargy of faith and spirituality to sacrifice, surrender, repentance and forgiveness. This drove many people to fervently hate Him which led to His horrific crucifixion on the cross at Calvary. The sinless Son of God, murdered like a common criminal, publicly shamed, rejected, and completely alone. Mark 3:21 must refer to those of Jesus’ flesh, that is, those who shared a flesh-and-blood familial relationship with Him. At least at this point in Jesus’ ministry, His family was blinded enough by sin to mistake His teaching for the ravings of a man suffering a bout of insanity. But this text also has an important message for anyone who becomes a disciple, or follower, of the Lord. If even Christ’s own family did not understand Him and thought He was out of His mind, we should not be surprised that our relatives might think the same of us when we are faithful to our Savior….Dr. Sproul writes in his commentary Mark that “anyone who takes his faith seriously and speaks on behalf of Christ and His kingdom will be accused of fanaticism at some point.” When we follow Jesus, we will inevitably face people—perhaps even our closest relatives—who think we are strange, crazy, or maybe even evil. When this occurs, let us recall that Jesus Himself faced people who misunderstood Him. Still, He loved them, and so too must we love those who think we are lunatics or fanatics.

We are called to pray for those who persecute us. We are called to continue loving our enemies and doing good to those who hate us. This could be a parent, or a sibling, a spouse or a child, a relative or a friend, a neighbor or a coworker, a church member or a Bible Study leader, really anyone who has chosen to hurt or reject us…..God calls us to love as we follow in His footsteps, not in our strength, but with His peace, joy and love. We will experience perfect relationships one day in heaven with Jesus and with every person saved by His grace, our true family, for all eternity.

God said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So I am glad to boast of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. So I take pleasure in my weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions & troubles to suffer for Christ. When I am weak, then in Him I am truly strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

This is so true from our own life experiences. The true blessing and scandal of the gospel is in knowing God through the pain!