This morning we begin a study in the book of Galatians. In this powerful epistle both the credibility of Paul’s apostleship and the very gospel of the grace of God were coming under the attack of the legalists and the ritualists of the day. Right at the outset Paul defends his divine calling from God to proclaim the gospel. He cites The Father and the resurrected Lord Jesus as the Ones Who gave him both the calling and the message.
The message of this book is as needed today as it was when it was written. Man-made religions and legalism are alive and well. There is a pluralistic, all-inclusive kind of ‘spirituality’ that is running rampant across the globe. Contrary to popular opinion, there are not many roads to God, there is only one. And that road is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Nothing more, nothing less and nothing else. Legalism has also crept into the ‘blood stream’ of the church in many variations and forms. Basically speaking, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not Christ plus anything! Christ Himself IS the gospel.
May the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ break the shackles of legalism and ritualism that we may walk in the beauty and freedom of the undeserved and unmerited grace of God.
