Paul’s consistent message to the Corinthians was that Christ died on the cross, a message of Christ’s weakness. Paul reminded the Corinthians that the mighty power of God had been demonstrated through weakness, not through power.Christ’s own life was testimony of this fact. Through Christ’s weakness, God worked in a powerful way. Through Christ’s death on the cross, God provided salvation for all those who believe.
Just as God had demonstrated his power through Christ’s weakness, he was doing the same in Paul’s life. It was through hardships, persecutions, and even a stoning that God had shown his power. The power that God gave Paul was the strength to serve the church.
Paul was a man of prayer. He was deeply concerned about the spiritual growth of the Christian church, so he spent his nights and days praying about those who had accepted Christ as a result of his ministry. Although the Corinthians had caused him much trouble and grief, Paul had never stopped praying for them. He prayed that God might give them the wisdom and the power to do what was right. He wasn’t praying for their success, so that, in turn, he would appear successful. His prayer was for the Corinthians’ success, even if it meant that people might consider him to have failed. Just as Christ was willing to suffer insults and die on a cross in order to serve all of humanity, Paul was willing to become a failure in order to serve the Corinthians and the truth of the gospel.
Now, we begin a new book - the book of Galatians. In Paul’s time, Galatia was the Roman province located in the center section of present-day Turkey. This letter was to be circulated among the churches planted by Paul and Barnabas during the first missionary journey—in Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium.
Paul begins this letter by reminding his readers that Jesus died for our sins, not his own, for he was sinless. Jesus’ sacrifice was ultimate, voluntary, and substitutionary. This is called “substitutionary atonement.” Christ died for our sins, in our place, so we would not have to suffer the punishment we deserve (1 Peter 2:24).
This was not an accident; it occurred just as God our Father planned. God made a way of salvation—the ultimate sacrifice of sending his only Son to die on the cross, taking the penalty for humanity’s sins. People can only be saved through Christ.
This reminder was of the greatest necessity for they had forgotten the message of the Good News. In truth, Paul was amazed at how easily the believers in the Galatian churches had given up the Good News of the gospel of Christ for the “bad news” that the false teachers had brought them. Paul’s concern was not over alternative viewpoints of interpretation; he was warning Galatian Christians about turning from the truth to lies, from what was right to what was wrong.
Paul expressed shock at the Galatians’ behavior. He found it difficult to comprehend that the believers were turning away so soon from God. He denounced the Judaizers’ perversion of the gospel of Christ. Using strong language to deal with this life-or-death issue, Paul said that God’s curse should fall on anyone, even himself, who preaches any other message than the one originally brought to them. In fact, even if an angel comes from heaven and preaches any other message, that angel should be forever cursed.
(This passage strongly refutes the claim by Mormons regarding the source of Joseph Smith’s teaching, that the angel Moroni appeared to him.) If the truth is changed, the teacher is false, regardless of his or her qualifications, accomplishments, or experience. Paul has already noted that there is no other gospel, thus any other message would be false. The gospel teaching must not be changed, for the truth of the gospel never changes.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
Let me ask you to complete these common American phrases: If it sounds too good to be true…. It is. We make money the old fashioned way, we … earn it. There’s no such thing as a ... free lunch. There is no gain without … pain. God helps those who … help themselves.
You see, everything about the American way of life teaches you get what you earn in life. You get what you pay for. We value work, sweat, effort, performance. It is called the American Work Ethic. And it’s good. The only problem is it causes a difficulty in us relating to God because God does not relate to us on performance. We put God in a box. We think He is like us. We think that since so many of our relationships are based on performance, so must my relationship with God. WRONG!
How does God relate to us then? By GRACE - in a relationship through His son Jesus Christ! The Bible says that everything God does in our lives, every blessing we have in our lives, comes by grace as a free gift. You don’t earn it, you don’t deserve it, you don’t work for it. It’s just a free gift of God. And the Bible says that everything you enjoy in your life is a gift of grace.
The idea of GRACE is this this = God's Riches At Christ's Expense.
My salvation is not dependent on me doing enough good works, it is dependent on the work Christ did on the Cross.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
Folks, there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell you’re going to make it into heaven on your own effort. No way. You can’t be good enough to go to a perfect place. There’s no way you’re going to ever work, earn or buy your way into heaven. You can’t be that good. It’s not going to happen. The Bible says there’s only one way you’re going to get into heaven. It’s a gift from God. By God’s grace.
This is the fundamental difference between Christianity and every other faith or religion. If you were to study all the other religions of the world (and I have; I’ve studied them all in detail) you could summarize every other religion in one word – “DO”. Because you have to earn your way to God. Depending on the religion, there’s a different list of do’s.
The lists differ but every one of them have one thing in common. You have to earn God’s approval, you have to earn God’s credit, you have to earn your way into heaven by doing certain things. That is in stark contrast to what the Bible says. The Bible says the exact opposite. Romans 3:24 says “All of us need to be made right with God." How is this done? "By His grace which is a free gift through Jesus Christ.” Christianity is summed up in the word "DONE".
The work has been done by Jesus Christ on the cross.
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