23 Feb No other Gospel

Galatians 1:1-10

Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— ² and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: ³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵ to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. 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.

Every Christian is a recovering Pharisee. We talked about this few weeks ago, how inside of us there is a tendency toward self-righteousness. Here is what I mean. You and I understand the gospel. We know that God’s acceptance of us has nothing to do with us but Christ’s perfect work on our behalf. But let’s be honest. Even though we know that God accepts us because of Christ, secretly we suspect in our heart that God loves for us is conditional upon our behaviour. So, in a day that I did my morning devotion and obey God’s commandments, I feel that God loves me more. In a day that I did not do my morning devotion and disobey God’s commandments, I feel that God loves me less. Anyone with me or am I the only one? What happens is if we are not careful, we become a performance-driven Christian. We know the truth of the gospel and yet we lived our day to day based on how well we perform. The book of Galatians is written for people like us.

The book of Galatians is like dynamite of God’s power. God used this book to transform the lives of many great Christian heroes in the past. More than any other book in the Bible, Galatians emphasises the fact that we have yet to understand the gospel. The gospel is this: we are far more sinful than we think we are, and we are far more loved in Christ than we dare to hope. It means that we will never fully know the gospel. Our role is to grow in the gospel. If we think we know the gospel, it only shows that we don’t. When we think we know the gospel, we move on to other things. But that only proves that we don’t know the gospel. Because those who know the gospel know that you don’t move on from the gospel. There is always more to the gospel. So, this is the irony of the gospel. If you say, “I know the gospel” it means you don’t. But if you say, “I only begin to understand the gospel. There is so much more to the gospel that I don’t know” you get the gospel. The problem with the churches in Galatia is that they think they already know the gospel and they move on to other things besides the gospel. And Paul sent them a letter to rebuke them.

It is very important for us to get the gospel right as a church. If we get the gospel wrong, we get everything wrong because our belief determines our action. Let’s say that Bobby and Brandon are in love with Sally. They both professed their love for Sally, and both got rejected. Bob goes home very angry and Brandon goes home depressed. What happens? They experienced the same rejection. But why are they responding very differently to the same circumstance? The difference is in their beliefs. Bob is angry because he is saying to himself, “I can’t believe Sally just said no. I am like one of the best guys ever. I am good looking, rich and capable. Sally cannot see me for who I am. Who does she think she is? One day, I will make her regret her decision. I’ll make her wish that she could be with me and I will laugh at her.” But Brandon is different. Brandon is saying to himself, “I can’t believe Sally just said no. I am not good enough for her. I must be ugly and worthless. My life has no meaning. No girl will ever want to be with me.” What caused Bob and Brandon to have different responses is not their circumstances but their beliefs. It is important for us to have the right beliefs because it determines our action. If we get the gospel wrong, we get all of Christianity wrong. The gospel is the one thing that the church must not get wrong. The problem is that the gospel is the one thing that many churches get wrong.

Tonight, I want to talk about what the gospel is and what the gospel is not. Sometimes the best way for us to understand what something is to know what it is not. I only have two main points for the sermon: the gospel; no other gospel. But before we go there, I want us to talk about Paul first. Apostle Paul is the writer of the book of Galatians. And Galatians is possibly the first letter in the Bible that Paul wrote. And Paul spent the bulk of chapter 1 and 2 to defend his apostleship. There is an important reason for it as we are about to see.

Paul an apostle of Christ

Galatians 1:1-2 – Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— ² and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia.

Right off the bat, Paul wants us to know that he is an apostle. And he is not just an ordinary apostle. Paul clearly says that he is an apostle not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ. With another word, Paul is saying that his authority as an apostle does not come from men but directly from Christ. What’s happening? Why did he brag about his apostleship? The word apostle is a common word that is used to describe a messenger who carries the authority of the person who sent him. The equivalent of today is someone who carries the power of attorney. If you have the power of attorney, it means you can act on behalf of the other person who gives you the power. And in the Bible, there are two kinds of apostle. Apostle as in someone who is sent by the church with the church’s authority to act on behalf of the church, and apostle as in the twelve disciples of Christ who is sent directly by Christ with Christ’s authority to build Christ’s church. You can think of it as Apostle with a capital letter a and one with small letter a.

Here is what happen. Paul is the one who founded the churches in Galatia. Paul taught them the gospel of grace. But not long after Paul left to continue 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 Paul’s gospel is not complete. After all, Paul is not one of twelve apostles. He did not receive his teaching from Christ directly. But Jesus’s twelve apostles did. And we are here to teach you what is lacking in your understanding of the gospel. The gospel is great, but you need more than the gospel to be saved.” And when the people in the churches of Galatia heard this, they embraced these false teachers and neglected the gospel that was taught by Paul. Paul heard about what happened and he wrote a letter to them. He opened his letter by saying, “My apostleship is not from men nor through man. I received my authority directly from Christ Jesus and God the Father.” With another word, Paul is saying, “What I taught you and what I will say in this letter is not something that comes from men. It is not my opinion. It is the message directly from Christ. My gospel is not my own. My gospel is the gospel of Christ. Christ is the one who gave it to me, and he sent me as his apostle to teach you his gospel.”

This is very important. I can say that the sermon that I preach is not a message from men. I can say that. To the degree that I am faithful to the Bible, to that degree I can confidently, “I am not preaching my own sermon. I am not preaching my opinion. I am sent by Christ to preach the word of Christ.” But I cannot say the second part. I cannot say that my sermon is not through man. Why? Because everything I know about the Bible came through men. It came through my teachers, my dad, John Piper, Timothy Keller, and books that are written by men. And even my credential as a pastor came through human beings. I was sent through man. But Paul is different. From 1:11 to first half of chapter 2, Paul will argue that the gospel he received was not taught by man but by Christ. Paul got his gospel directly from Christ. Therefore, he is not a second-rate apostle. That means when we read Paul’s letter, we are hearing Christ speaking to us. Paul’s word is Christ’s word. So why did Paul go to such length to defend his authority? Because the gospel of Christ was at stake. People were questioning Paul’s gospel and Paul was defending himself in order to defend the gospel. So, what is the gospel?

The gospel

Galatians 1:3-5 – ³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵ to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

We spent the whole sermon on this last week, so I’ll be very brief this time. Three things that we can see about the gospel from these verses. First, Christ gave himself for our sins. The word ‘for’ in English can be translated a few different ways. It can mean that Christ gave himself because of our sins or it can mean that Christ gave himself on behalf of our sins. Good thing we don’t have to guess. The Greek word that is used in this verse is one that means on behalf of our sins. Get this right. Christ not only died because of our sins but Christ died on behalf of our sins. There is a substitution that is happening. Jesus not only took the punishment of sin, but Jesus also became sin and we became righteous.

J.D. Greear puts it this way. It’s like taking a final exam that is worth 100% of your grade and you don’t study at all because you are too busy watching Korean Drama on Netflix. When you read the exam’s question, you have no idea what the answer is. You don’t even understand the question. But then sitting right next to you is the perfect student who always gets 100 in the exam. Right before you have to turn in your exam, he takes your answer sheet and writes his name on it. And he gives you his perfect answer with your name on it. So, you end up with a perfect grade while he fails the exam for you. This is the gospel. The gospel is not simply God forgives you of your sin, the gospel is God became your sin so that you became righteous. And you contribute nothing to your perfect grade. All you bring to the table is your failing exam, your sins. This is the only exchange Jesus will make with you. Your sins for his righteousness. That’s it. Nothing else. And the moment you make that exchange, you are fully righteous. You are not a quarter righteous and half righteous. You are 100% righteous because Christ is 100% righteous. Therefore, God’s affection for you does not waver. God loves you today as much as he will love you a trillion years from now when you are perfect.

Second, Christ delivered us from the present evil age. This is crucial. Christ did not help us. He delivered us. He rescued us. We did not need Jesus to help us. We were not people who needed help. We were people who needed to be rescued. The gospel is not we were spiritually weak and in need of Christ to give us spiritual booster. The gospel is we were spiritually dead and in need of Christ to resurrect us. And he did. He gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age. It does not mean that we are no longer living in the sinful world. But it does mean that Christ has set us free from the slavery of sin and evil. We are still living in this present age, but Christ has already rescued us from the present evil age. Our allegiance is not to this present evil age, but we belong to another King and another kingdom. We are living in this present world with the power of the world that is to come. So, if you are still struggling with sin today, hear the good news of the gospel: Sin no longer has dominion over you. Christ has set you free from the slavery of sins. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You are fully forgiven of all your sins. And that’s where you find the power to break free from sins. What you need is not greater self-discipline and more resolution. What you need is to go back to the cross of Christ and find freedom from sin and condemnation.

Third, the gospel is according to the will of God. The gospel is not man’s invention. I mean, who can come up with such content? That the God of heaven and earth would come and seek sinner and substitute himself for sinner so that sinner might become righteous and experience eternal life reigning with God. Only God could come up with the content of the gospel. And Paul is very clear here. God is the origin of the gospel. Everything happened according to the will of God. Our salvation was planned by God from eternity before we do anything good or bad. That is why God receives all the glory forever and ever. He is the one planned and executed the gospel to perfection. And what is our role in all of these? Nothing. God is the one who does all the works. We are simply the beneficiary of grace. And grace is given freely according to the will of God. You cannot earn grace. Grace to you and glory to God. We receive grace, God receives the glory. The gospel is not about what we do for God but what God in Christ has done for us.

No other gospel

Galatians 1:6-7 – ⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Every commentary I read highlights the weight of what happened in this passage. Usually, after Paul wrote his greeting, he would pray and thank God for the churches. You find this rhythm in all of Paul’s letters except Galatians. Why? Because Paul is angry. Paul is upset. But Paul isn’t simply blowing off steam. He is not writing a letter that he regrets later. That’s you and me. How many of you ever send a text message or email that you regret later? That’s what we do when we are angry. Praise God WhatsApp understands our problem and allows us to delete the message that we sent. “This message was deleted.” There was one time someone was angry at me and sent me a long message. I peeked at the message and saw a lot of curse words in it. But I didn’t open it. Later I opened the message and the message was already deleted. So, I asked innocently, “What was the deleted messages?” And the person replied, “I was just going to ask you for a book recommendation, but I changed my mind.” Smooth. Not so with Paul. Paul is angry and he does not regret what he wrote. He is not defending himself but the gospel.

Paul is astonished that the churches in Galatia are so quickly deserting Paul and his gospel. The word deserting actually is a strong word that means to transfer one’s allegiance. So, it’s like this. I am a big Manchester United fan. I watched almost every single game. If you know anything about Premier League, then you know Manchester United is not doing good at all right now. But it does not matter if they are doing good or bad, I am with them. They are my team. If they win, I win. If they lose, I lose. They have my allegiance. But let’s say one day I show up at RSI wearing a Liverpool jersey. And not only wear a Liverpool jersey but I preach with a Liverpool jersey. There are only two possible explanations. Either I have lost my mind and switch allegiance, or I lost a bet. And this is why Paul is astonished at the churches in Galatia. “What are you doing? Last time I left you, you were a big fan of the gospel of Christ. You gave your allegiance to Christ. You were all in for the gospel. You were wearing the gospel of Christ jersey. But what are on earth are you wearing right now? You are wearing a “L” jersey? L for Law and Liverpool. Seriously guys?”

Let me tell you what happened. Not long after Paul left Galatia, a group of teachers came from Jerusalem that teaches that the gospel alone is not enough. This is what they teach. Acts 15:1 – But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Paul says that what they are teaching is not gospel. There is only one gospel and that is the one that Paul teaches. And the variation of that gospel is no gospel at all. The gospel says that everything that we needed for salvation has been done by Christ. It is finished. Christ did all the work and all we need to do is receive it by faith. But the false gospel says that the gospel alone is not enough. And let me be clear on this. What the false gospel teaches is not to take anything away from the gospel but to add to the gospel. They are not trying to remove the truth. They are trying to add to the truth of the gospel. What the false gospel teaches is, “Yes, the gospel is awesome. The gospel is good. You need the gospel. But you also need other things besides the gospel to be saved. You need to be circumcised.” Circumcision is a symbol of obedience to the law of Moses. If I can put it in modern term, false gospel says that in order to be saved, you need the gospel, but you also need to obey the commandments of God. If I can put in a formula, false gospel looks like this: “Salvation = faith + obedience.”

Some of you might think, “Wait. What is wrong with that formula? It looks legit to me.” There is one big problem to this formula. The moment you add anything to the perfect work of Christ, it is no longer perfect. In fact, it destroys the perfect work of Christ. Galatians 2:21 – I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. If there is anything I can do to earn my salvation, then Christ died for no purpose. Let me illustrate it for you. Look at the picture of this painting. For those of you who love art, you know what this painting is. For those of you who don’t understand art like me, it looks like a picture that my 7 years niece draw when she was bored. This is actually one of Picasso’s masterpiece called “Les femmes d’Alger.” It is the most expensive work of art. It was sold for $179.4 million USD in 2015. That is a lot of money for one painting. Let’s say that this painting comes to my possession. I stare at this painting for a while and I realize that I can make the painting looks better and sell it for more money. I can add a few strokes of colour to make this painting looks more alive than before. So, I add a few of my brilliant strokes to Picasso’s masterpiece and then I try to sell it an auction. The painter is now Picasso + Yosi. How much do you think it will worth? I am lucky if I can sell it for $100. Why? Because by adding a few strokes of my own, I destroyed Picasso’s work. Or look at this cup of water. This cup consists of 100% water. But let’s say I add a drop of poison. That’s it. Just one drop. So, the cup is now 99% water and 1% poison. Anyone thirsty? This is what Paul is saying. If you add just a bit of your work to Jesus’ perfect work, if you accept even just one small addition to the gospel, then Christ is worthless to you. Now go back to Galatians 1:6. That is why Paul says that when we turn from the gospel, we are not only turning from a set of belief, we are deserting him, a person. When we turn to a different gospel, we are deserting God. To turn from the gospel of Grace is to reject the God of grace. This is no small matter.

Paul then continues to say that the false teachers distort the gospel of Christ. The word distort actually means to reverse, to turn it upside down. And this is exactly what happens. Let me show you the difference between the true gospel and the false gospel. True gospel is: “Faith = salvation + obedience.” It means that when you believe the gospel, the result is that you receive salvation and you produce obedience in your life. Therefore, obedience matters! But we need to put obedience in the right place. Obedience is the fruit of faith in the gospel and not a condition of salvation. If I can use Timothy Keller’s words, you are accepted first and then you obey. But the false teachers reverse the order. False gospel is: “Salvation = faith + obedience.” With another word, you need to obey God first before you are accepted by God. This is the distortion of the gospel and I believe this is the church’s greatest problem. The church’s greatest problem is not those outside the church who oppose the gospel but those inside the church who distort the gospel. Look at what Paul says next.

Galatians 1:8-9 – ⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

This is a very strong word. Paul says that if anyone preaches a gospel that is different from the one Paul preached, let him be accursed. The word accursed is the Greek word “anathema” which means cursed by God and devoted to destruction. So, this is what Paul is saying. “If another teacher comes and preaches a different gospel, that teacher is cursed by God. If one of Jesus’s twelve apostles, Peter, John or James comes and preaches a different gospel, he is cursed by God. If an angel shows up and preaches a different gospel…” Now, think about it. It is not a human who shows up. It is an angel from heaven. What would you do if an angel shows up in RSI and says that the gospel that we believed is wrong? Paul says, “If an angel shows up and preaches a different gospel, that angel is cursed by God.” But Paul does not stop there. Paul also includes himself on the list. He says, “If I come to you and say that the gospel that I preached was incomplete and now after many years of study I have a better more complete version of the gospel, Gospel 2.0…” Can we agree that it is normal for someone to make a mistake and change their mind? But Paul says, “If I do that, if I come to you in the future with a different gospel, do not listen to me. I am cursed by God.” Wow. The Galatians must have thought, “Paul, that is a very strong word you just wrote. Are you sure you mean it?” And Paul does not want to leave them in doubt that he meant everything he just wrote. So, he repeats himself to make a point. Anyone that preaches a different gospel than the one Paul originally received from Christ is cursed.

Let me put it in our context for you. If there is a miracle worker who can raise someone from the death but he preaches a different gospel, if there is someone who can perform sign and wonder but he preaches a different gospel, if there is a professor of theology but he preaches a different gospel, if there is a megachurch pastor who has tens of thousands of people in his church but he preaches a different gospel, if there is a TV preacher who is on air every single day but he preaches a different gospel, and even if I as your pastor preach a different gospel, let us be accursed. Do not listen to us. Listen. It is not the messenger of the gospel that validates the message. It is the message of the gospel that validates the messenger. The gospel preached by Paul is the only gospel not because Paul is the one who preached it but because it is the only gospel given by Christ. The gospel is the gospel because it is Christ’s gospel.

Why does Paul put so much weight in us having the right gospel? Two reasons. First, the glory of Christ is at stake. We talked about this earlier. The moment you tamper with the gospel, Christ’s death is meaningless. If there is anything we can add, remove or change to the finished work of Christ in the gospel, then Christ died for no purpose. Second, our salvation is at stake. If the gospel is the power of God for our salvation, then to distort the gospel is to take away the power of God for our salvation. It’s like this. Let say that I give you my debit card. You can use all the money in my bank account freely. Does anyone want my debit card? So, you take my debit card and I tell you that the PIN number to my debit card is 1234. But you say, “That is too hard to remember. I am just going to stick with my own PIN number. 0000.” So, you go shopping and you enter 0000. What happens? It is declined. You can enter 0000 but you will never access my money that way. If you want my money, you must enter 1234. If we want to experience the power of God for salvation, we cannot tamper with the gospel. The only access to the power of the gospel is by faith in Christ alone.

Paul concludes by saying, Galatians 1:10 – 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. It is a lot easier for him to tamper with the gospel for the sake of getting along with other people. But Paul would not do that. He would rather offend people for the sake of the gospel. Why? Because Paul is the servant of Christ. He is not trying to please people but the one he is trying to please is Christ. And that is the way we should think about the gospel. It is so much easier for us to tolerate those who preach a different gospel for the sake of peace. But if we do that, we are simply trying to please people and not Christ. But we are servants of Christ and we believe that the gospel alone is the power of God for salvation. Therefore, we rather lose the affirmation of people around us than lose the power of God that saves us.

Application

Let me give you three quick applications. First, there is no other gospel. There is only one gospel that saves. It is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. There is no other variation of the gospel. There is only one gospel: the gospel of Christ. It is the only gospel that can save people from their sin. Three objections. One, “What about the nice, moral people out there? Are they not saved?” No, they are not. While morality can keep you out of jail, it cannot keep you out of hell. If morality can save you, Jesus did not need to die. You need something far greater than morality. You need perfect righteousness and only the gospel gives you that. Two, “What about other religions? They are sincere in their beliefs. Are they not saved?” No, they are not. Sincerity cannot save anyone. You can be very sincere and very wrong at the same time. A runner can run as fast as he can in a race and yet runs in the wrong direction. Three, “Aren’t we being exclusive in insisting that there is only one way of salvation?” Yes, we are. Christianity is the most exclusive but inclusive religion there is. It is exclusive in insisting that there is only one way of salvation and yet it is inclusive in that all it takes for you to be saved is to put your faith in Christ. Anyone can do that. From the richest to the poorest, smartest to dumbest, oldest to youngest. We should not complain that there is only one way of salvation. We should be amazed that there is a way for us to be saved. You and I are the recipients of the greatest news in the universe. The God of heaven and earth has made a way for us to be saved through faith in the death, life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are called to be the carrier of the gospel to everyone around us. And the same gospel that saved us can save people around us. So, let us share the gospel boldly knowing that the gospel is the power of God for salvation.

Second, beware of false gospels in the church. There are many variations of the false gospel in the church. But I think it essentially comes down to these three thoughts. One, we are saved by the gospel then we mature by our own strength. They teach that yes you need the gospel to become a Christian, but then to mature as a Christian you need to use your own strength. God has done his part and now it is up to you to do the rest. You must discipline yourself with your own strength. This is not the gospel. The gospel is not only God saves you, but God is working in you to enable you to mature in him. It is God’s work from beginning to the end. Two, we need to add to the gospel. Again, this teaching says that you need the gospel, but you also need other things besides the gospel. So, they begin to make their own laws. For you to be saved, you need the gospel and you can’t smoke. Or no clubbing. No party. Obey the 10 commandments etc. Hear me loud and clear. Although there is good intention behind all those prohibitions, they are not the gospel. It is faith in Christ alone that saves. Period. Don’t mix up the implications of the gospel with the gospel itself. The gospel is not what you have to do but what God in Christ Jesus has done for you and that is the power of God to change you. The power for us to do comes from the fact that it is done. Christ’s work is done. It is finished. Don’t add anything to the gospel or you destroy the gospel. Does obedience matters? Yes! But they are the implications of the gospel and not the gospel itself. Three, we must earn God’s favour. They say that for God to bless you, you need to read your Bible. You need to pray. You need to serve in the church. They are basically saying that God’s love for you is dependent on your performance. If you do well God will bless you, if you do bad God will not bless you. Therefore, Christianity becomes all about your performance. My friend, this is not the gospel. The gospel is that Christ has already performed for us so that we no longer live based on our performance. We live based on Christ’s performance for us. Christianity is not an effort-less religion. The gospel is not against effort, but the gospel is against earning. You cannot earn or merit God’s favour. It is given to you solely based on Christ’s perfect performance for you. But once you experience the life-changing power of the gospel, you use all your effort to please God not in order to earn his favour but because you already have his favour. It is God’s favour in you that enables you to live your life for God.

Third, we are free to live for Christ. Every day you open your eyes in the morning, you are given a choice. Who will you live for? You must live to please somebody. Who is it? Is it yourself? Is it others? Or is it Christ? Here is the rule of thumb. If everyone loves you, you are not living for Christ. Because if you are trying to please Christ, you will have haters. Sometimes pleasing Christ will please others. But sometimes it won’t, and it will hurt us. But whose pleasure do we seek? Are we bold enough to tell people who do not know Christ and who are living in sin that unless they repent and believe in the gospel, they won’t be saved? Or are we still trying to please people by keeping the gospel to ourselves? Here is the good news of the gospel. You do not need to please people because you already have the affirmation, attention and affection of the God of the universe. What else do you need? The gospel freed you to live for Christ. Have you experienced the gospel? And are you proclaiming the gospel wherever you are?

Discussions:

1. Why does Paul takes time to defend his apostleship? Is it okay for us to use this principal to defend our personal right? Why and why not?
2. The gospel is according to the will of God. Why is this a good news?
3. What is the teaching of false teachers in Galatia and why does Paul thinks it is a very serious issue?
4. Explain the difference between the true gospel and the false gospel. Can you give examples of false gospel that is being preached in churches today and explain why they are false.
5. “It is not the messenger of the gospel that validates the message. It is the message of the gospel that validates the messenger.” How can we apply this in our church’s life?
6. What is the role of “effort” in our Christian life?
7. Gospel people are free to live for Christ. In the light of this passage, give specific daily life examples on how we can live for Christ.