Title: Paul's Gospel Is Legit
Speaker: Nate Holdridge
Text: Galatians 1:10-24
Galatians Theme: Galatians describes a life that is free. It is a life in flight. If we cling to the true gospel, if we accept it for what it is, we can fly. But Paul wrote Galatians because the Galatian believers—and all future believers—were in danger. If we adulterate the gospel, if we add to it in any way, we will not fly. Like a bird chained in a birdcage, we will (at best) hinder ourselves from flying into God's ideal for our lives or (at worst) hinder ourselves and others from true salvation.
Overview: Our passage today helps us to consider Paul's gospel (and, thus, the theology that stemmed from his gospel) as legitimate. Neither he nor any other apostle in the first century delivered a man-made message but a divinely inspired and conspired plan of redemption through Christ's cross. It's an inconceivable message in that humans could and would not fully conceive of it. And we have a decision today—do I receive Paul's gospel and all the theology that flows from it, just as the early church, those closest to Jesus, did? Or do I reject Paul, his gospel, and his gospel theology in favor of how I see the world, truth, or even Jesus?
But, for those who have received the gospel message Paul (and others) preached, our passage also helps us consider the impact of that message on our own lives today. We aren't apostles. How we receive the gospel isn't vital to the underpinnings of Christianity. But Paul's testimony should reawaken in us an appreciation—not only for his gospel story—but ours. Paul's past life had a stranglehold on him, driving him even to the zealous murder of Christians, but Christ broke through and created a new man in place of the old. And, for as powerful as our pasts are, we must remember that Jesus makes all things new. If you are in Christ, you are a new creation, old things have passed away, and all things have become new (2 Cor. 5:17).
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