Getting the Gospel Right! - Galatians 1:6-10

 “Getting the Gospel Right!”
(or, "We must never forget!")

Galatians 1:6-10

Introduction: Memorial Day is a time to remember those who paid the ultimate price, and laid down their lives to preserve our freedoms. We must never forget! Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: than he lay down his life for his friends.” We can apply Jesus’ words to those who stood against foreign enemies and gave their lives for their country. That verse, of course, has its ultimate fulfillment in the event alluded to in the opening of this letter to the Galatians, specifically in Galatians 1:4, speaking of the One who gave himself for our sins, to rescue us from this present evil age… We must never forget! That message, the Gospel, is the foundation and the fuel of our faith, yet, amazingly, we can so easily begin to take for granted our salvation, forgetting the blood that was shed to make us free. The Galatian believers were losing their astonishment in the Cross of Christ, and were in danger of becoming spiritual deserters. They were being influenced by false teachers who were undermining the gospel message, and in the process, they were turning from the God in who alone was their hope of salvation.  

       The Bible claims to be the inspired Word of the living God. The central figure of the Bible is Jesus, the central message of the Bible is the Gospel. A preacher said,

“Many today dilute or pollute the Gospel. They dilute it by downplaying the fact that all humans are sinners desperately in need of a supernatural rescue. They pollute [it] by adding to it human effort or good works as a necessary element of our salvation. Both are a… perversion of the truth.”

       There are some who today profess Christianity, but they deny the core truths of the Bible. The miracles are explained away, even the historicity of the resurrection is denied. The necessity and the efficacy of the Cross is minimized.  Some would urge an ecumenical spirit of tolerance and inclusion, and want to affirm that Christianity is just one path among many that lead to God – in other words, it really doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you really believe it. Have you heard that?  Most of us are wary of the slippery slope of compromising the truth through “dilution.” We may be even more susceptible to spiritual pollution.  In Galatians we see a form of that more subtle threat, a danger that any of us can easily fall into, even out of a desire to protect the truth.   That danger is legalism.  We’ll see in this letter that even the Apostle Peter was not immune and, at least in terms of his practice, he had to be confronted and corrected by Paul.  Does the Gospel mean that we have license to sin? God forbid! Can we then add to or complete our salvation by our own effort? No way! Jesus paid it all! C.H. Spurgeon said it well, “If we try to add one stitch to the garment of our salvation, we’ll ruin the whole thing!” Let’s be sure we get the Gospel right!

The Maine* Idea: God is glorified when we steadfastly hold to His Word and do not compromise the Gospel of Christ.

I. Be determined! The Gospel of Christ is a firm foundation that must not be compromised (1:6-7).   I am not a builder, but some of you are. This I know, before you construct a building, you had better have a good foundation! I remember once on one of our trips down to the coast of Sao Paulo, near the city of Santos, there were two apartment buildings, maybe 10 or 15 stories tall, standing side-by-side. They should have been parallel to each other, straight up, but one was tilting about 15 degrees away from the other! Clearly something went wrong, there was not a proper foundation! Our faith must be grounded in the Gospel, that alone is God’s rescue plan for humanity!  Paul is amazed that they are so quickly being turned from the Gospel they had believed, by which they were saved!

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- ⁷not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 

       We were already alerted in the opening of this letter, in verses 1:1-5, that Paul was writing with urgency. He affirms his apostolic authority, and summarizes the Gospel that he preached in those few verses. That urgency continues here, and is evident in what is said, and in what is not said. This epistle is striking in what it does not say at this point: almost without exception Paul follows his initial words of greeting with thanksgiving to God for some aspect(s) of the recipients’ life and faith.  Even the carnally minded Corinthians received such a word (1:4)!  In this case it is as though Paul has no time for such pleasantries, he is compelled by the urgency of the situation to come straight to the point.  It was not simply a matter of practice, but it was the heart of faith, the foundation was being undermined, the Gospel was under attack, and Paul’s response is emphatic, “I am astonished…!”

       These false teachers were turning (a process) Galatian believers from the truth (they were being turned from God Himself).  Compromise is like that—most people who abandon orthodox Christianity don’t do it all at once.  They begin “snipping out” a verse here or there, questioning the historicity of one narrative, then another. Soon they are denying anything “supernatural.” Miracles don’t happen, God doesn’t speak, he doesn’t act in human history. Or, “This is only cultural; Paul would never say that today!” The “Gospel” in view here is the central message of the Bible, the truth of salvation by grace through faith, apart from works.

       The word “turning” here is interesting, some translations say “deserting.” According to John Stott it was a term used of transferring allegiance, of soldiers deserting or revolting, of someone abandoning one political or philosophical school for another, a “turncoat.”   These traitors compromised the truth of the Gospel and in so doing were “…turning from the One who called them…” They weren’t just turning from right doctrine, in doing that, in compromising God’s message of grace, in turning from the Gospel of God, they were turning from God Himself!

       We’ll see as we get into this letter that the specific compromise that was polluting the Galatian churches was a form of legalism, that is making rule-keeping a requirement of salvation. This is a danger to which we Baptists can be particularly susceptible. We rightly recognize that holiness, a transformed life, is a normal part of Christian living. We go wrong when we start defining spirituality by what we don’t do.  We essentially add our “rules” to the gospel and say this is what real Christians should look like. The problem is when we look for things that are not specified in the Bible and make them an essential criterion, in our view, of authentic faith. Is a movie theatre essentially immoral? Some professing Christians, at certain times and in certain places, have said so – and they wouldn’t care if there was a Billy Graham movie playing, a Christian shouldn’t go in there! That thinking probably started with good intentions, but something went wrong along the way. Salvation is not based on us being good enough. It is based on putting our trust in the only One who was good and is good, Jesus Christ.  He was without sin, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all… (Isa 53:6). God is glorified when we steadfastly hold to His Word and do not compromise the Gospel of Christ.

II. Be discerning! We must reject any teacher whose message is contrary to God’s revealed truth (8-9).  God does not contradict Himself!

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. 

       Paul uses the strongest language imaginable to make his point here: “Even if we…” He is saying that even if he, the apostle Paul, began to contradict the Gospel he had preached to them, which they had received,  “…or an Angel from Heaven…” He is using hyperbole to emphasize the point: Even if an Angel came down from Heaven and began to preach a contradictory message, “let him be anathema, accursed…” (vv. 8-9). That word has the sense, “be damned to hell”! By repeating it Paul is making sure they got the urgency of what he was saying.

       We must be diligent, vigilant, and have zero tolerance for preaching or teaching that is not true to the Bible. Now I am not saying that you should immediately call for a special business meeting if you hear me say something that seems a little off!  But don’t just let it slide either – make a note of it, and ask me about it. I am responsible to teach the truth, and you are responsible to be a Berean, and to go home and search the Scriptures to see whether or not those things are so!  I make it a habit to listen to my sermon recordings before I put it on the church website. Occasionally I’ll hit the pause button and ask myself, “What did I just say? That’s not what I meant to say!”  And I probably don’t catch everything, because I know what I meant to say! So, be a Berean. The Scripture is our authority.

       Paul then moves from the hypothetical to the actual, repeating the anathema: “…if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed…” He is not talking here about disagreeing on some fine points of theology—there are some things about which godly, sincere Christians disagree. We need to humbly seek the truth together. But if we are compromising the Gospel, the heart of the Christian message, that is a problem that can’t be ignored!

       Does the language Paul used sound strong to you? It is, and Paul intended it to be! The very heart of the Gospel message was at issue, human souls were at stake. Paul is saying this is not open to debate, it is not something about which we can agree to disagree. We need to get the Gospel right! Either we are saved by grace through faith alone, or by grace plus works, but it cannot be both. Spurgeon rightly warned, “If we try to add one stitch to the garment of our salvation, we’ll ruin the whole thing.” There is only one “Gospel,” the Good News that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  Plus nothing. God is glorified when we steadfastly hold to His Word and do not compromise the Gospel of Christ.

III. Be devoted: Though compromise might win the favor of men, we hold fast to the truth because that is pleasing to God (v.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.

       Finally, since the Gospel is God’s truth, and faith in Jesus is the only way to God, we can’t allow ourselves to be pressured into telling people what they want to hear. Our highest goal is to seek to please God. Paul writes in Galatians 1:10: "Am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ." In verses 8 and 9 Paul had just said something that will not win him many friends. It doesn't please most people to hear someone talk about judgment and Hell! People need to know that God is holy and just and that He must punish sin. He is also a jealous God, deserving of our whole-hearted worship, and He will not tolerate false religion. Our goal, always, is to make choices that please Him. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:1-4,

Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.  ² Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.  ³ But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.  ⁴ For I know nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord.”

      At least two things are at stake when the gospel is perverted: one is the glory of Christ; the other is the salvation of sinners. If the gospel is twisted, the all-sufficiency of Christ's work is dishonored, and the way to salvation for sinners is blocked. Faith comes by hearing… God is pleased, through the foolishness of the message preached, to save those who believe. There is no “plan B”! Therefore, in order to serve Christ—to advance his glory and achieve his saving purpose—We must oppose the perversion of the gospel, whether it pleases people or not. For the glory of Christ (Gal 6:14) and for the good of those who may yet believe the gospel (Gal 2:5), Paul is willing to speak the truth, even when it hurts.

       The lesson to learn from verse 10 is not that the more people you can displease the more spiritual you are! It wasn’t Paul's aim to alienate people. On the contrary, in I Corinthians 10:31 he says, "Do all to the glory of God. Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please all men in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage but that of many, that they may be saved." And in Romans 15 he says, "Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to edify him…” Commenting on this, John Piper said, “…it is good to please people provided that pleasing them is a means to their salvation and their edification and to God's glory.” We should speak up for righteousness, but we speak out of love, desiring that people recognize and respond to the truth of the Gospel. We urge men on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God! Whatever we do, whatever choice we make, our desire should always be to please God, to do all to the glory of God. Sometimes the choices we make will please God and please other people. Its nice when that happens. Sometimes making choices that we know will please God, will anger someone. We can be crippled in terms of living out our faith if we tiptoe around people, always striving for their approval. We need to ask, “What would Jesus do? What would He have me to do in the situation in front of me?” That is what matters.  We love Him, and want to please Him, because He first loved us.

What is God saying to me in this passage? God is glorified when we steadfastly hold to His Word and do not compromise the Gospel of Christ.  The fundamental truth of the gospel is that we are saved by the Grace of God, that is, by His unmerited, undeserved favor.  Grace alone. Nothing we do can add to our salvation – and as we’ll see in this letter over the next few months, we can’t do anything to earn it, perfect it, or to keep it. Unmerited favor, the free gift of God. Tim Keller said, “…the biblical gospel—Paul’s gospel—is clear that salvation, from first to last, is God’s doing. It is His calling; His plan; His action; His work. And so it is He who deserves all the glory, for all time.”

       As Americans, we should always remember the price that was paid, the blood that was shed, to preserve our freedoms. We should honor the fallen. As Christians, let’s always remember that Christ gave Himself for our sins, to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. To Him be the glory. Nothing in my hands I bring. By His doing you are in Christ. And yes, we are saved “unto good works.” In Galatians Paul calls it the “fruit of the Spirit.” We’ll see in this letter that we are not under the Law, we are free in Christ, free indeed.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage?  Where do good works come in then?  Faith works through love.  Because God has loved us, we love Him in return. And that love will overflow in our relationships, we love one another. And we love our neighbors, seeking their good, conducting ourselves in a way that won’t cause another to stumble.  That is good works, and the result of Christ working in us (Eph 2:8-10).  It comes in the form of the “fruit of the Spirit.”  We believe God. And God in us, changes us, transforms us, from the inside out.

     It is easy to become prideful, even to judge another because their life does not conform to our idea of what Christianity should look like.  Are there clear biblical admonitions that deal with the subject, or, is it an area where godly, sincere, believers disagree?  Jesus was rejected by some for being a friend of sinners.

       When it comes to the Gospel, let’s not be guilty of spiritual dilution or pollution. There is a tendency today to twist biblical doctrine, to deny absolute truth. It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you really believe it. Have you heard that? That is clearly wrong!  That is diluting the Gospel. But we also need to be on guard against spiritual pollution: Legalism amounts to grace plus works, that too is wrong.  Remember: "The secret of the Lord is with those who have been broken by his cross and healed by his Spirit." Galatians holds forth these two things: “…the cross of Christ as the only way a person can get right with God, and the Spirit of Christ as the only way a person can obey God.” Rejoice in His grace!    AMEN.

The Gospel and the Glory of God - Galatians 1:1-5

Getting the Gospel Right: The Letter to the Galatians, Part 1

The Gospel and the Glory of God

Galatians 1:1-5

Introduction:  We certainly hear a lot of bad news in the media these days. It gets attention and ratings I guess. I like the story of a boy who was at the front door trying to sell a subscription to a weekly newspaper, and he was very persuasive: “It only costs a quarter a week…” When he could see the hesitation of the person, the little salesman quickly added, “and the best thing about this paper is that it prints only good news!” That has a certain attraction to it!  In a world filled with trouble it is more and more difficult to find any “good news”!  Actually, all the bad news we see and hear should remind us that we live in a fallen world, people are broken and the world is broken because of sin. Every human desperately needs to hear the real “Good News,” the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

       We just finished our study of Mark, which set forth, in narrative form, the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today we start our study, which should last through the summer (and maybe into the fall), of a letter that was written which was responding to a challenge to the message of the Gospel.  Galatians is a letter that was written a group of churches which were experiencing an attack on the message that the Apostle Paul and Barnabas had preached to them: The Good News that Jesus, by His substitutionary death, provided the forensic basis for sinners to be reconciled to God, and that He rose from the dead proving that He accomplished what He came to do. That is the good news that God was, in Christ, reconciling sinners to Himself, and that because of Him, by grace, through faith, we can be forgiven and have peace with God. God is glorified as humans, by His grace, recognize their need and receive forgiveness through faith in Christ and his finished work.  Implicit in the “good news” however, is some bad news that people often don’t like to hear: apart from Christ we are sinners deserving judgement, and we cannot save ourselves.  It is that message that is the foundation and the fuel of the Christian life. And it is that message that we are sent to proclaim, by the authority of Jesus.

     Today we start a study of Paul’s letter to the Galatians and I hope you’ll read through, and study, and consider how you must respond to the message of this book.  It has been called by some the “Freedom Letter.” It has also been called a dangerous book to study since it can challenge some of our wrong preconceptions about what constitutes Christian living.  The Scottish pastor, P.T. Forsythe, captured the message of this letter when he said, "The secret of the Lord is with those who have been broken by his cross and healed by his Spirit." Galatians exalts these two things: the cross of Christ as the only way a person can get right with God, and the Spirit of Christ as the only way a person can truly obey God. Jesus has provided the basis for our reconciliation, and the Spirit provides the power for our sanctification. Anything that adds to or detracts from the all-sufficiency of what happened on the cross of Christ is heresy to Paul, “let him be accursed!”. That language is about as strong as it gets!

       Anything that puts human will or effort in place of conscious dependence on God, according to Paul is no gospel at all! And the reason we will see such strong language and emotion in this letter is because that is exactly what seems to be happening among the churches of Galatia. Some false teachers had been undercutting the message of the Gospel of Grace, and had begun to lead the people to put human effort where dependence on the Spirit belonged, and the works of Law where faith in the cross belonged. Remember the “Solas” of the Reformation: Grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone! Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to His cross I cling! That is Good News, and it is a message worth sharing! That brings us to the…

Maine* Idea: God is glorified when we faithfully share the Gospel of His Grace!

I. Our Ministry: We are under the authority of the Word of Christ, and we have authority as God’s spokesmen to bring his message (1:1-2). The first 2 verses talk about the nature and source of Paul’s authority.

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… 

       “Paul, an apostle…” The Apostle Paul uses various terms to describe himself and his ministry in his letters.  He is a slave, a steward, a workman, a servant. As in several of his letters, at the outset of Galatians, he specifically evokes the title apostolos, that is, Apostle.  The word has the idea of a “sent one,” more specifically, “one sent on a mission as an authorized representative.” In the near-eastern context, the Hebrew term shaliach had taken on a specific sense of someone commissioned by the sender, sent with his authority, as His authorized representative. He was to speak for and to be received as the sender. And he was not only sent, but sent with a commission (cf. 2:9).  In the cultural context the use of this term actually goes even further; shaliach = sent as an authorized representative, an ambassador, similar to the idea of “power of attorney.” The one sent spoke for, and with the authority of the One who sent him (Mt 10:40; I Thess 2:13).  In the technical sense this refers to the 11 disciples after the resurrection and to Paul, who encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus and received a direct, personal commission from him. Later Paul described the church as a building set on the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Eph 2:20). A foundation is laid once, and on it the building is constructed. The apostle had a unique, foundational ministry.  

       After identifying himself as an apostle, Paul then asserts negatively where his authority does not come from: this is unique to this letter and so demands our attention. Paul wanted to make it clear that his apostolic authority was not derived from any human or any group of people. He said it came, “…not from men…”  Some apparently were charging that since Paul was not one of the original 12, his ministry was secondary or inferior, he wasn’t a “true” apostle.  We see in Acts 13:2 that the church in Antioch did send him out, but under orders from the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:2) and in fulfillment of the word of Jesus.

       “…nor through a man…”  Some may have charged that since Paul had his Damascus road experience it was still necessary for Ananias to come to him, his apostleship was in some sense mediated by humans (and so inferior) [see Acts 9:15,16]. We’ll look more at this question as we work through the letter later this month. Note here what Paul says: his apostleship was directly conferred by Jesus himself.  This is the positive statement of the source of Paul’s apostolic authority: “…BUT, through Jesus Christ and God the Father…”  God in His power and glory, God who raised Jesus from the dead, whose power and grace made salvation available to men, this God has sent Paul as His ambassador. 

       One implication of this truth is that every Word of Scripture must be carefully studied, the meaning and intention of the author understood, and obeyed.    Paul claimed to be bringing the very Word of God.  We need to remind ourselves as we read this book that “All Scripture is inspired by God [God-breathed]… and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for training in righteousness…..” We need to receive this letter for what it is: the very Word of God. God has spoken to us. We must take Him at His Word. Believe God!

       The apostles were unique, bringing and writing the Word of Christ under the inspiration of the Spirit. They had a foundational role in the church as God was working in them and through them (notice Paul distinguishes himself from “all the brothers” in v.2). We are not apostles, but we do have the Word of God written. And God in His Word gives us authority to bring His message to the world (Acts 1:8; Mt 28:18ff). In fact, He has entrusted us with the truth! Remember the Maine* Idea: God is glorified when we faithfully share the Gospel of His Grace!

II. Our Message: We have been entrusted with the message of His grace (1:3-4).  We see the substance of Paul’s message alluded to in these verses, focused on the person and work of Christ.

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…

       First of all, in the expanded greeting Paul uses we have a prelude to the Gospel.  “Peace,” would have been a standard greeting in Paul’s day, as it is among Jews to this day, “Shalom.” Paul typically expands that by starting with the phrase, “…grace to you…” A key idea in Paul’s theology, this word became part of a Christian greeting that became widely used in the early church. Grace, charis, refers to “God’s unmerited favor…” One commentator said, “This is grace—God’s love expressed in Jesus Christ.  This love gives and suffers and finally conquers and delivers.” Jesus took what He didn’t deserve, God’s wrath against sin, so that we could receive the blessing that we didn’t deserve. The acrostic G.R.A.C.E. can be helpful: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Eph 2:8,9 “For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the [free] gift of God…”

       “…and peace…”  Not simply an absence of conflict but a state of life enjoyed by those who have experienced God’s grace.  In fact, peace is often ours in the midst of conflict and trouble.  It is a peace that is independent of outward circumstances, a “peace that passes understanding…”

       We see in verse 3 the subject of the Gospel. As the ambassador of Christ, the authorized representative, Paul is bringing greetings in Jesus’ name. In other words, he knows that he is bringing God’s word.  The full title is used “Lord Jesus Christ.” The title “Lord” in the New Testament is more than just “sir” or even “master” when it is applied, post-resurrection, to Jesus. It is the word used in the Bible mostly commonly read to translate “Yahweh,” “Jehovah.”  He is master, what’s more, He is God!  He is the Lord Jesus, His name meaning “Savior.” He is God our Savior, the Son of God who came into this world to suffer and die for our sins.  He is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Christ isn’t his last name, it’s a title that means “anointed one.” The scriptures predicted a coming savior, a deliverer and king.  Jesus fulfilled the prophecies made centuries before.  This Jesus is the central figure of the entire Bible: the Old Testament looked ahead to his coming, the Gospels and Acts show the outworking of God’s plan, and the epistles look back on the facts of the Gospel and reflect on the implications for how we should then live. I like the way J. Sidlow Baxter said it,

"Fundamentally, our Lord’s message was Himself. He did not come merely to preach a Gospel; He himself is that Gospel. He did not come merely to give bread; He said, "I am the bread." He did not come merely to shed light; He said, "I am the light." He did not come merely to show the door; He said, "I am the door." ...He did not come merely to point the way; He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

Getting the Gospel right has to have as its foundation knowing the One, correctly, as He is, who is the subject of the Gospel! That was one of the questions Mark took pains to flesh out for us in his Gospel: Who is Jesus? Answer: Messiah and Son of God, in the full, correct, Biblical sense of those titles!

      The descriptors that he uses of Jesus get at the substance of the Gospel (v.4). The redemptive work of Jesus Christ:

     1)  His work is substitutionary – “…he gave himself for our sins…” The same preposition is used in John 11:50. There Caiaphas said more than he realized, “…You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." He died to rescue a people for Himself. Our sins made the cross necessary - Jesus took our punishment (I Peter 2:24).

       2) His work was necessary – Why did he do it?  “…that he might deliver us out…” i.e., “…take us out for himself” to redeem us for himself (Acts 7:10,34).

      3) The norm, the reason governing this redemption is the sovereign will of God (4c).  "...according to the will of our God and Father..." There is a mysterious interrelation between divine sovereignty and human responsibility.  God is not obligated to save us, but he wills to save us.  Our “rescue,” our salvation, is “according to the will of God...” And so, as Paul told the Corinthians, “…of Him you are in Christ Jesus” (I Cor 1:30). And yet we are responsible to call men and women to repentance and call them to receive the free gift of eternal life through faith in Christ. So we urge people on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20). That points us to the Maine* Idea: God is glorified when we faithfully share the Gospel of His Grace!

III. Our Motive: In sharing His message we bring glory to God (1:5).  Paul’s over-riding motivation in all that he did was to glorify the Lord. God’s glory should be our motive as well:

…to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

       That means we are to live for His glory: As Paul said in I Cor 6:19,20…

¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰ for you were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body.

       In fact, it means that all we do, we should do for his glory: Paul said as much in I Corinthians 10:31-33...

³¹ So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.  ³² Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, ³³ just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

Paul speaks a doxology at a transition point in Ephesians, 3:20-21,

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever...

What is God saying to me in this passage? Yes, God is glorified when we faithfully share the Gospel of His Grace! You have been sent, commissioned by the Creator of the universe to be His representative, to share the good news, right where you are.  As we read Galatians, Paul will urge us to be sure to get the Gospel right!

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? There is a lot of bad news in the world. Don’t be discouraged, let it remind you why He came! You have received, and been entrusted with, the greatest good news, the Good News that God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. As we explore this letter, may we be led deeper in our understanding of the Gospel. Paul certainly had a unique calling and ministry as the Apostle to the gentiles. If you know Christ, you also have a unique calling. You are His ambassador to that group of people in your sphere of influence, your relatives, your friends, neighbors, co-workers. Do you remember from our study in Mark, when Jesus set free the Gadarene demoniac? The healed man wanted to get in the boat with Jesus and His disciples. Jesus said no, go to your own people, and tell them what the Lord has done for you. That is his word to us as well. We are His ambassadors, right where we live, and there are people around us who desperately need Jesus. How will they hear lest someone tell them? We need to be sure that we get the Gospel right… eternity is at stake. And then we can point others to the One who is the subject of the Gospel, our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.  AMEN.