We’re going to look at the book of Galatians today. If you were with us last time, we said that in terms of importance, the book of Galatians should sit right on top with the book of Romans. Romans is the message of Grace and about the Person of Jesus, who we receive as our life. Galatians is the defense of that gospel.
Ever since the fall, man has always wanted to do something, in his flesh, to merit or benefit himself. When Adam ate from the tree of performing, man went from being a receiver to an achiever. Jesus set that record straight when He said,
”As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.
John 6:57(NASB)
We ourselves don't achieve significance, value, strength, peace, joy, or love, but we receive it all from Him.
Once we come to understand the good news of the gospel — that we have been restored back to a Person and delivered from an economy of works — that Person becomes the supreme center of our lives. This message was being tested in Galatia where people were saying, “You’ve also got to do this” or “You’ve also got to do that.”
In Galatians, the Apostle Paul is saying that when you do things with a mindset or belief system that you can somehow benefit from, apart from Jesus, you’re actually being removed from Him because your focus is not on Him. Paul states clearly in Philippians that God is his one thing, and that to know Him is what he pursues above anything else.
Listen to this,
”I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
Galatians 1:6-7 (NKJV)
I want to focus on that word “pervert” because it’s a good word. When you add any kind of demand, standard, performance, or behavior to Jesus, to either make you right or to make you experience right apart from Him, you’re leaving Him and that’s perverting the gospel.
I don’t think the word “pervert” has been translated correctly. Get your concordance, look it up to prove it for yourself. The word actually means “reversing the gospel.” It’s very clear when you look back at the garden of Eden. All man knew was God. He was like a fish in water who lives and breathes water. Similarly, we live and breathe God. When Adam chose to eat from the tree of right and wrong or good and evil, he put the focus on himself and his own performance, instead of on God. In doing this, he went from being a receiver to an achiever.
Jesus came to set all of that straight again by delivering us from the economy of works and putting us back into the economy of receiving.
Do you see what Paul was saying? If you add even one thing to that good news, you’re reversing the gospel. Examples such as “We’ve got to use the King James Version or the New American version,” “We baptize by immersion only,” or “You must follow the Ten Commandments.” Any time you say “You have to,” or that you need to achieve something, you’ve just reversed the gospel. You’ve taken your eyes off of Jesus and onto something else. You see, it’s not a partway move but an all or nothing. The moment you add one thing, you have turned away from Him.
Paul said that’s not good news and that’s not the gospel because you forfeit the full experience of Him when you look to anything other than Him. As he started that verse, Paul said, “I marvel” that you would do that. I’m astonished or I’m shocked because if you’ve tasted all that Jesus is, then you know there’s nothing else that can satisfy. He’s almost incredulous here when he questions, how could you do that? Having found the true source of life, how could you look for life in anything other than Him?
If you've been reversing the gospel, focusing on something other than Him as a source of life, stop and turn back to Him.
As Jesus said, we should live out of Him. Paul also said it well,
”When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Colossians 3:4(NKJV)
