17 Sep Galatians 02: The life-transforming gospel

Galatians 1:11-24

¹¹ For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. ¹² For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹³ For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴ And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. ¹⁵ But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, ¹⁶ was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; ¹⁷ nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. ¹⁸ Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. ¹⁹ But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. ²⁰ (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) ²¹ Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²² And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. ²³ They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴ And they glorified God because of me.

Have you ever heard people sharing their conversion testimony? Today, we are going to hear the most famous conversion testimony in church history. Some preachers say that this is how God turned Saul into Paul. I know it sounds cool to say that God changed Saul to Paul but that is not true. Saul did not change to Paul when he became a Christian. Saul is his Jewish name and Paul is his Roman name. And Paul tells his conversion testimony a few times throughout the Bible. Why? Not because he wants to draw attention to himself. Paul tells his conversion testimony because it clearly shows the life-transforming power of the gospel. And here is what’s interesting about Paul’s testimony. Usually, when we listen to people’s testimony, it tends to be very subjective. They say things like, “I used to be addicted to alcohol, sex, drugs, etc. But when I met Jesus, I was set free from those addictions.” Or “I used to think that life had no meaning. I tried everything but nothing satisfied me. But when I encountered Jesus, I finally found purpose and meaning in life.” They speak a lot about what they experienced and how God changed their lives through the gospel. This is good and there is nothing wrong with it. But it is not enough. Paul will show us that the gospel is not only subjectively true but also objectively true. Because if the gospel is only subjectively true, then the gospel is not true. And it also works the other way around. If the gospel is only objectively true, then it is not life-transforming, and it is not the gospel. The gospel is the power of God that radically transforms life. It is a life-transforming gospel.

But let’s make it clear first. Do you know the difference between objective and subjective evidence? Objective evidence is about verifiable facts. Subjective evidence is about the effect the experience has on us. For example, you hear me often say, “Ka Iluh makes the best fried rice.” And I am not joking. Her fried rice is the bomb. So, let’s say I tell you that ka Iluh makes fried rice for you. By the way, this is just an illustration. Don’t go asking her to make fried rice for you. It won’t happen. Ka Iluh’s fried rice is given in the same way as salvation. Only those who are chosen get to taste it. And you don’t choose ka Iluh’s friend rice; ka Iluh’s fried rice chose you. But let’s say I tell you that ka Iluh makes fried rice for you. How do you know it’s true? How can I prove that the fried rice is really from ka Iluh and not some cheap imitation of it from my own cooking? I can show you the note that she wrote for you, or I can show you a video of her making that fried rice. That’s objective evidence. But subjective evidence is when you taste the fried rice for yourself and realize that fried rice this good can only be made by ka Iluh. Are you with me?

Let me tell you why it is important to know how the gospel transformed Paul’s life. Every day we are being exposed to all kinds of gospels that are not gospel. If you remember our last sermon, Paul is clear that there is only one gospel, and it is the gospel that Paul preached. It is the only gospel that has the power to save. And if we are Christians, all of us are saved by the same gospel. And that gospel must produce both objective and subjective evidence in our lives. We cannot choose one over the other. And we must not choose. Christianity is both head and heart religion. And this is important. If you come from a reformed background, they tend to emphasize objective evidence, the importance of head knowledge. What matters is doctrine. But if you come from a charismatic background, they tend to emphasize subjective evidence, the importance of heart emotion. What matters is experience. Almost everybody tends to value one over the other. But Christianity is radically different. Christianity is both. Head and heart are joined in the gospel. So, here is what we must get. The gospel does not bring the power of God; the gospel is the power of God. And the power of God comes into our lives through objective truth and this truth radically changes us. The gospel is both objective and subjective. We must embrace both. And we are not really Christians until we do.

I have three points for my sermon: the origin of the gospel; the objective evidence; the subjective evidence.

The origin of the gospel

Galatians 1:11-12 – ¹¹ For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. ¹² For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Let me refresh you on the context of the book of Galatians. Paul is the one who founded the churches in Galatia. Paul taught them the gospel. But not long after Paul left for his missionary journey, other teachers from Jerusalem showed up at Galatia and questioned Paul’s authority. Their line of questioning went something like this. “Well, yeah Paul is a good teacher. He taught you the gospel and that is great. But where did Paul get his gospel from? Who authorised him to preach the gospel? Let me tell you, Paul’s gospel is not complete. After all, Paul is not one of the twelve apostles. He did not receive his teaching directly from Jesus. But Jesus’ twelve apostles did. So, Paul is not the true apostle, and his gospel is not the true gospel. And we are here to teach you what is lacking in your understanding of the gospel.” That’s why Paul opened the letter by saying, “My apostleship is not from men nor through man. I received my authority directly from Jesus Christ and God the Father.” Paul defended his apostleship. And now in verses 11 and 12, Paul defended his gospel.

Paul says that the gospel that he preached is not man’s gospel. Let’s pause here for a bit. Paul is very clear that his gospel is not man’s invention. It cannot be. Do you know why? Because the gospel goes against human instinct. The default mode of the human heart is religion. What is religion? Religion is works-righteousness. It means that in order for us to be accepted by God, we have to work hard. We must earn it. We must strive for it. Every other religion teaches this. There is a standard that we must meet before we are good enough to receive salvation. This feels natural. But the idea of free salvation is extremely offensive to us. Let me give you an example. As many of you know, I am a high achiever. I am the type who is over-prepared for exams and whines for the whole day if I do not get a good grade. When I was still in college, I whined to my MC about Greek and Hebrew exams all the time. In every class, you will find two opposite spectrums. At one end of the spectrum, there are people like me, the high achievers. At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are the partiers who do just enough work to get a pass. Just out of curiosity, how many of you lean toward the high achiever spectrum? How many partiers? So, let’s say that the final Greek exam is worth 100% of the grade. I spend weeks preparing for the exam while the partiers cram everything a few hours before the exam. As expected, I did well on the exam and the partiers did very poorly. I look forward to receiving my grade while the partiers are already thinking about how they can appeal for mercy to the professor.

Two weeks later, we received an email saying that our grade was out. And when I check my grade, I dance and celebrate because I get a high distinction. Tears fall from my eyes as all my hard work pays off. After all the sleepless nights and weeks of studying, I deserved to get a high distinction. But surprisingly, the partiers also dance and celebrate. They not only get a pass, but they also get a high distinction. The professor gives everyone in the class high distinction. What happens next? Everyone should be happy that they get a high distinction, right? Of course not. Do you know who will write an email to the professor, the dean of students, the principal, and the minister of education, complaining about this bizarre incident? Me. While the partiers could hardly believe their good fortune, I am outraged. I am extremely angry at the fact that those who deserved to fail received the same top grades as I have. It is unfair that the partiers who hardly did any work received the same grade as me who did all the work. Can you see where I am going? We are by default creatures of earning and deserving. The fact that we receive salvation simply because of God’s grace is extremely offensive to us. We do not like the gospel because it crushes our pride. The gospel tells us that salvation has nothing to do with us and is solely based on God’s decision. We want to be the subject of salvation and not the object of salvation.

And if we think this is only a problem for non-Christians and Christians are not affected by it, we can’t be more wrong. Even when we believe the gospel, we continue to look to our performance to tell us how we are doing before God. We continue to mix the order between justification and sanctification. Here is the right order: justification (our acceptance as righteous before God) leads to sanctification (our progress in holiness). Because we are justified by grace, because we are accepted for what Jesus has done, we can live a life pleasing to God. Justification leads to sanctification. But we often switch the order, don’t we? Here is the order we live: sanctification (our progress in holiness) leads to justification (our acceptance as righteous before God). On a day-to-day basis, we rely on our sanctification for our justification. In other words, we think God will only accept us if we are pleasing to him. This is what feels natural. But the gospel goes against our natural instinct. The gospel tells us that the work of salvation has been done. All we can do is receive freely. We are already accepted by God before we do a single thing for God. This is counterintuitive. It humbles us. That is why the gospel is not man’s good news about God but God’s good news for man. It does not originate from Paul’s head but from God’s heart.

Paul then goes on to say in verse 12 that he did not receive the gospel from any man, which means the gospel is not a tradition handed down from the previous generations. He also says that he was not taught the gospel, which means he did not learn the gospel from any human teachers, including the apostles. But he received the gospel through a revelation of Jesus Christ, which means that God himself made the gospel known to him. So, get this. The gospel is not an invention or a tradition but a revelation. Paul is not only an apostle sent by Christ, but his gospel also originated from Christ. Paul’s message is not his message but Christ’s message. Paul’s gospel is not his gospel but Christ’s gospel. Paul’s words are not his words but Christ’s words. In other words, Paul is saying, “My gospel is not something that came from men. It is not my opinion. I did not invent it. My gospel is the gospel of Christ. Jesus is the one who gave it to me, and he sent me to teach it to you.”

So, what does it mean for us? Get this. The Christian faith rests not on any human leaders or supernatural experiences but on the divine revelation of the gospel. Are you hearing me? This is important because there are many churches today that define their faith based on the church leaders. If the church leaders say A, they believe A. But if the church leaders change their minds and say B, they believe B. And this is extremely problematic. The church leaders say, “Don’t question me. I am God’s prophet. God has anointed me, and you must listen to me. Do not touch the Lord’s anointed.” So, people put their faith in the church leaders and close their eyes to the truth. And this leads to all kinds of gross spiritual abuses. But we can’t do that. Paul is clear. The gospel has authority over church leaders. If the church leaders say something that is not in line with the gospel, then we must reject it. The church leaders do not judge the gospel. The gospel judges the church leaders. On the other hand, we have lots of people who define their faith by personal experience. They say what matters is a personal experience of God. But if you remember what Paul said earlier, even if an angel comes to us, it doesn’t matter. If an angel comes to us and says, “I want to be your pastor,” here is what we should do according to Paul. Ask the angel, “Mr. Angel, which is the right order? Justification leads to sanctification or sanctification leads to justification?” Ask the angel about the gospel. And if the angel gets the order wrong, kick him out of the church. Because our experience means nothing if it’s not in line with the gospel. It doesn’t matter if we have a dream, it doesn’t matter if we hear voices, it doesn’t matter if we have a vision. Our experiences do not judge the gospel. The gospel judges our experiences. Why? Because the gospel is a revelation from God. I am not saying that we can’t trust our church leaders of personal experiences. I am saying that those should not be our ultimate authority. Whatever is not in line with the gospel must be rejected. The gospel originated from God. But how can we be sure that the gospel originated from God? Paul will give us the objective and subjective evidence.

The objective evidence

Galatians 1:13-14 – ¹³ For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴ And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 

The first objective evidence Paul gives is his life. He reminds the people in Galatia of his former life. In doing so, he refuted the idea that the gospel came out of his own reflection, reasoning, and thinking. Think about it. Paul did not want to have anything to do with Jesus Christ and Christianity. He did not dislike Christians, he hated Christians. He was a devoted pharisee. This means that he not only studied Scripture, but he lived it out the best he knew how to the point that he persecuted and tried to destroy the church because of his zeal for his Jewish faith. And he saw nothing wrong with it. He saw persecuting and killing Christians as righteous acts. Paul was like an ISIS member who is committed to killing everyone who threatens their faith. If we could make a list of the most unlikely people to become Christians, his name would be at the top of the list. Over the years, I have had people come up to me and say, “Yos, I don’t think God would accept me after everything I’ve done. I don’t think God would forgive me. You don’t know who I was and what I did.” If that’s you, listen up. I might have no idea who you were and what you did but listen to Paul. Paul would say to you, “Mate, have you checked me out? If you have, then you would know how unworthy I was for God to save me. What did you do? I killed and persecuted Christians for fun. I gave my life to destroy the church. Hitler and Osama were like kindies compared to me.” That’s why Paul calls himself the chief of sinners. The question is, what does it take for a man who was devoted to killing Christians to become a devout Christian? Every effect must have a cause. What is the cause of Paul’s changed life? No human effort could have changed Paul. No apostles could have persuaded Paul. The apostles were his archenemies.

So, why did Paul change? There could only be one answer: God. And that’s what happened. Paul went to the high priest in Jerusalem and asked him for a letter that would allow him to persecute Christians in Damascus. Paul passionately hated Christians. But on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians, a light from heaven shone around him and he fell to the ground. What happened? Jesus appeared to Saul. Here is a question. Who initiated this encounter? It was definitely not Paul. Paul was on his way to kill Christians. God was the one who made the first move. It was God who orchestrated the Damascus Road experience. And God did not need Paul’s permission to do it. He just did it. And this experience changed Paul’s life forever and he became a preacher of the gospel. The only possible explanation for Paul’s transformation from the destroyer of the Christian faith to the builder of the Christian faith is God. And listen. If God can save and change Paul, God can save and change anyone. God can save and change you. This is the first objective evidence of the gospel.

The second objective evidence Paul gives is the harmony of the gospel. Galatians 1:16b-24 – I did not immediately consult with anyone; ¹⁷ nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. ¹⁸ Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. ¹⁹ But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. ²⁰ (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) ²¹ Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²² And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. ²³ They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴ And they glorified God because of me.

Paul says that after he became a Christian, he did not immediately consult with anyone. He did not go to Jerusalem to see the apostles. But he went to Arabia and Damascus for three years. We do not know what he was doing during those three years. We can speculate, but the point is clear. Paul did not consult anyone about the gospel. He did not receive the gospel from the apostles, nor anyone who might be connected to the apostles. God revealed the gospel to him in its fullness during those years of solitude. And it was only after those three years of solitude that Paul went up to Jerusalem and met Peter and James. He did not meet any other apostles probably because they were still afraid of him. And he was only in Jerusalem for fifteen days. If the gospel was unknown to Paul before this, there was not enough time for him to learn it from Peter and James. I am sure Paul learned many things about Jesus’ life from Peter and James. But one thing Paul did not learn from them is the gospel. Paul already knew the gospel. He did not get the gospel from Peter and James. And then Paul went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. He was still unknown at the time. But the people who heard Paul preach glorified God because of Paul. They recognized that Paul’s transformed life was a trophy of the gospel. Paul’s transformed life and Paul’s message can only be attributed to the power of the gospel. There is no adequate explanation of Paul’s life and message apart from the life-transforming power of the gospel. That’s why they glorified God because of Paul.

And listen to what Peter said about Paul’s teaching. 2 Peter 3:15-16 – ¹⁵ And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, ¹⁶ as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. Two things. First, if we ever read Paul’s letter and say, “This is really hard to understand,” be encouraged. We are not alone. Peter said they are hard to understand. Maybe Peter read Romans 9 and he was like, “predesti-what?” And second, Peter recognized Paul’s letters to be Scriptures. This means Peter believes that everything Paul teaches is God’s word. Why is this important? Because Peter is one of the twelve apostles. He is one of the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life and teaching. And Peter writes that Paul’s gospel is God’s word. Even though Paul did not receive his gospel from the apostles, Paul is not teaching a different gospel from the rest of the apostles. Paul’s gospel is the same as the apostles’ because there is only one gospel. This is the second objective evidence of the gospel.

The subjective evidence

Galatians 1:15-16a – ¹⁵ But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, ¹⁶ was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles

The gospel must be objective, but it also must be subjective. The gospel is not only a preposition, but it is a power. It is not only something we know but also something we experience. It’s not either or, it’s both. Timothy Keller puts it like this. “If you haven’t experienced the gospel, you don’t know the gospel. If you say, “I know the gospel, but my life hasn’t changed,” you don’t know the gospel.” Let me put it in our daily life context. If we say, “Well, I know God has forgiven me, but it is really hard for me to forgive myself,” we don’t know the gospel. If we say, “Well, I know Jesus’ righteousness is my righteousness, but I am burdened with guilt and I feel insecure,” we don’t know the gospel. If we say, “I know God loves me perfectly, but I feel like I need to constantly prove myself,” we don’t know the gospel. We can say a thousand times we know the gospel, but we don’t. Because the gospel is not just knowledge; it is a power. And when the gospel comes into a person’s life, it utterly changes that person.

Look at what Paul writes. If we look at all the verbs in verses 11 to 14, Paul keeps saying, “I.. I… I…” They are active verbs in which Paul is the subject. But in verse 15 he suddenly changes. Instead of “I,” suddenly God is the subject and Paul is the object. What does it mean? One of the ways we know we experience the gospel is when the gospel comes to us, it is not so much something we decide on but something that happens to us. It is not so much about us trying to find God, but God seeking us. We see ourselves as the object of action rather than the subject. We sense a power dealing with us from outside of us. Paul says that he was not looking for God. It was the grace of God that called him. It was mercy that found Paul. The gospel is not that we pursue God, but God pursues us. You and I did not deserve to be saved at all. In fact, we did not even want to be saved. We hated God. We were God’s enemies. Just like a thief hid from the police, we hid from God. But there is not a millimetre in this universe that is beyond God’s reach. He pursues us to the end of the earth because of his grace alone. And God’s grace pursues us not because of anything we do or don’t do, but because we were set apart by God. Paul writes that God had set him apart before he was born, and God was pleased to reveal Jesus to him. It means that the only reason Paul was saved, the only reason we are saved, is because God was pleased to do so. God did not set his grace on us because we were worthy of it, but simply because God took pleasure in doing so. Let me put it in simpler terms. God does not set his heart on us because we are beautiful; He sets his heart on us simply because he loves us. Full stop. This is the gospel.

But that is not the end. Why was God pleased to reveal Jesus to Paul? So that Paul might preach Christ among the Gentiles. In other words, God revealed Christ to Paul so that he could reveal Christ through Paul. Do you see? The grace of God does not stop at our salvation. The grace of God saved us and called us to his service. And this is what separates mere religious people from gospel people. Gospel people have more than an intellectual belief in Christ; they sense a personal relationship. They know this personal relationship is not given simply for their personal joy, but they know they have a responsibility to reveal Christ through their lives. Can you see the 180-degree change in Paul? He was a fanatical hater of the gospel who became a bold preacher of the gospel. And not to the Jews. He became a preacher of the gospel to the Gentiles, the very people he hated as a radical Jew. The gospel radically transformed Paul’s life.

So, the question is, has that happened to you? Have you experienced the life-transforming power of the gospel? Or do you simply know about the gospel but never experience the gospel? Can people who have known you for a long time see the change in you and glorify God because of you? Because you can’t separate the objectivity and the subjectivity of the gospel. Listen. Objectivity (truth) without subjectivity (experience) will become knowledge that puffs up. Subjectivity (experience) without objectivity (truth) will become an emotional sensation that leads astray. You can’t choose one over the other. The gospel is both. The gospel has objective truth that is unchanging and those who have experienced the gospel are transformed.

And here is a part that I did not see until I read Keller’s commentaries on the passage. I’ve read Galatians many times but only in the last few months have I realized it. Paul says that God had set him apart from before he was born. Do you know what that means? It means that the grace of God had been shaping and preparing Paul all his life for the things God was going to call him to do. This is astonishing. Let me quote Timothy Keller. “Paul had been resisting God and doing so much wrong, but God was overruling all his intentions and using his experiences and even his failure to prepare him first for his conversion, and then to be a preacher to the Gentiles. The Old Testament knowledge; the zeal; the training; the effort he was using to oppose God and his church – all were being used by God to break him and to equip him to be God’s instrument for building his church. God has been working all along to use Paul to establish the very faith he opposed.”

When I read that, my finite mind exploded. God had planned for Paul to be an apostle to the Gentiles before there were any apostles. All this was planned by God from the very beginning. God did not swoop down on Paul five seconds before Paul committed his life to God. But God used absolutely everything, the good and the bad he did, the good and the bad done to him, God put them together as a way of setting Paul apart to become the person God wanted him to be. Do you know what it means? It means that if we are Christians, everything about us, the good and bad things we did, the good and bad things done to us, God is so great he has woven them all in to make us the people he wanted us to be. The gospel gives us a new lens through which we can review our own lives and see God preparing us, even through our sins and failures, to become carriers of the gospel in the world. Listen carefully. No matter what we do, no matter how hard we try, we will never do anything but further the purposes of God in the world. Including our sins. Paul tried very hard to destroy the church. And in the end, God turned it around and used everything in Paul’s life to grow the church. God is so great and so sovereign that he can use our sins to accomplish his good purposes. The gospel is a life-transforming gospel.

And I want to end in verse 10. I know we covered this verse in the last sermon, but it is extremely relevant to Paul’s testimony. Galatians 1:10 – For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Let me ask you some questions. The gospel that Paul preached – is it from God or man? Then why do we have to fear man? There are two ways for us to live. We can live with the fear of man, or we can live with the fear of God. And Paul says that the gospel has set us free from the fear of man. What is the fear of man? The fear of man is when we elevate the importance of people so that we crave their approval or fear their disapproval. It means their praise and condemnation speak louder to our hearts than the approval of God. For many of us, this is why we are afraid to share the gospel with others. We do not want to offend people. We do not want to lose their approval. We want people to like us. And let me be honest, this is my biggest problem in life. I am a people-pleaser. Oftentimes, I rather keep the gospel to myself than offend people around me with the gospel. Life is hard enough already without me needing to offend others with the gospel. But do you know what that is? That’s the fear of man. Then, what is the fear of God? The fear of God does not mean we are scared of God. It means we are in awe of God. We are amazed by God. We are captivated by God. And here is the thing. The fear of God and the fear of man cannot coexist. One must go. If we are still trying to please man, we cannot please God. Christians cannot be a man-pleaser.

So, how does the gospel remove our fear of man? Not by destroying our desire for approval, but by satisfying our desire for approval. Do you know why we fear people? Because people can humiliate us. People can reject us. People can threaten us. And all those things happened to Jesus. At the cross, Jesus was humiliated. He was stripped naked and crucified as a criminal. At the cross, Jesus was rejected. The people that he came to save rejected him and God the Father also turned his face away from Jesus. Jesus was rejected by heaven and earth. At the cross, Jesus was not only being threatened; he was executed. Why did Jesus go through all of that? So that when we put our faith in Jesus, we no longer have to fear people. In the gospel, we see God covers the humiliated, accepts the rejected, and protects the threatened. In the gospel, we see a God who is pleased with us, smiles at us, and has given us his complete approval, not because of something we do, but because of what Jesus had done. The only person whose opinion matters in the whole world sees us as absolute beauty. We are holy, righteous, and blameless in his sight. The gospel gives us deep security that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more and nothing we have done to make God love us less.

If we know this, if we experience the gospel, then we don’t have to fear people. It does not matter what everyone in the world thinks about us, the sovereign God is always pleased with us in Christ. So now we can boldly share the gospel with the people around us. Look at Paul. He is not afraid of offending everyone in the church of Galatia with the gospel. Not because Paul hates them but because Paul loves them dearly. He knows the truth of the gospel is non-negotiable and there is only one gospel. Any other variation of the gospel is not gospel, and it robs them of their joy in God. So, Paul risks his relationship with the Galatians for the sake of their joy. The question is, will we do the same? Will we share this life-transforming gospel with others? Because the gospel that has transformed our lives has the power to transform others as well. If we are still trying to please man, we cannot be a servant of Christ. Let’s pray.

Discussion questions:

1. What struck you the most from the sermon?
2. Why is it very important to have the right order of justification and sanctification?
3. “The gospel is not an invention or a tradition but a revelation.” Give some implications of this truth.
4. What happens when you remove the objectivity of the gospel? What happens when you remove the subjectivity of the gospel? Can you see the tendency in you to choose one over the other?
5. How does the gospel free us from the fear of man?