SERMON SUMMARY  

Put simply: You can only understand the Gospel through the Scripture—at the same time—you can only understand the Scripture through the Gospel. Or, let me say it the other way around: You cannot understand the Gospel apart from the Scripture, and you cannot understand the Scripture apart from the Gospel. Scripture is not about me inviting God into my story, to make my story come true. No, it’s about God inviting me into His Story of making the world new.

SERMON SCREENSHOTS & KEY POINTS

As we pick back up in Galatians 3, we hear Paul tying the story of the church in Galatia into the larger Story of Scripture. The Galatians had begun a relationship with God by grace through faith in Jesus, and at that moment, they received the Holy Spirit. But some Jewish teachers of the law had convinced them that “faith alone in Christ alone” was not sufficient—they also needed to follow Jewish ceremonial laws, like circumcision, eating kosher foods, and observing Jewish holy days. It seems that they had been told by these false teachers that they needed to become “sons of Abraham” in order to be true children of God. So, in 3:6-9, Paul takes them back to Abraham, “the man of faith,” to show them that the way into a personal relationship with God has always been by grace through faith. God’s way of salvation has always been by faith in God’s promises. The “big idea” of this passage and of this message is found in verse 8—“And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham.” This is an absolutely amazing, astounding verse of Scripture. There are two “bipolar” truths embedded in this verse. First, you can only understand the Gospel, through the Scripture. And second, you can only understand the Scripture, through the Gospel. Or said in reverse: You cannot understand the Gospel apart from Scripture, and you cannot understand the Scripture apart from the Gospel.

First, you can only understand the Gospel through the Scripture. Verse 8 shows us that Paul has a very high view of the Jewish Scriptures. He believes in: The inspiration of Scripture (2Tim 3:16; Matt 19:4-5; Acts 4:25); the infallibility of Scripture (meaning, all Scripture is trustworthy); and the sufficiency of Scripture (meaning, not only can you trust it, but you can entrust every part of yourself to it’ Heb 4:12; Eph 6:17, “the sword of the Spirit is the word of God, and the reverse is true here as well, the sword of the Word is the Spirit. Meaning, the Spirit never works apart from the Spirit and vice versa ).

Second, you can only understand the Scripture through the Gospel. Jesus makes this clear in John 5:37-47 and Luke 24:25-27, 44;45). He says, all Scripture is about Me, points forward to Me, and culminates in Me.

Through Scripture, God is inviting you to live into His Story of making this world new. It’s not about you inviting God into your story to make your dreams come true.

*We are a church located in Greenville, South Carolina. Our vision is to see God transform us into a community of grace passionately pursuing life and mission with Jesus.