SERIES SUMMARY

As strange as it is, from the earliest days, the church struggled with understanding the Gospel—what the gospel is and how the gospel is lived out in daily life. In Paul’s day, there was a group called the Judaizers who taught that for Gentiles to become Christians, they first had to become Jews. It wasn’t enough to simply put your faith in Jesus; it was faith plus adherence to the Mosaic Law. However, the Good News of the gospel is that we are made right with God by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Anytime you add “plus anything,” you destroy the gospel. Galatians, “the letter that saved the church,” is all about clarifying the gospel and calling us to abandon any form of rule-based Christianity. It’s about how to live in and live out grace by the power of the Spirit. It’s about bearing the fruit of relating well to people so that we reflect the character of God in any circumstance.

SERMON SUMMARY  

Paul continues to show us the error in our thinking that we begin the Christian life by faith, but we live out the Christian life by rule-keeping. When it comes to being accepted by God—standing in right relationship with God—faith and works, gospel and law, promise and performance cannot be mixed. They are like oil and water.

But that doesn’t mean the law doesn’t have an important purpose in God’s plan. The very fact that there was a need for the law to reveal and restrain wrongdoing shows us our need for God himself to rescue us and make us right by grace. And that he did in Christ!

*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.