Sermons

Galatians - No Other Gospel

No Other Gospel… As I sat down to write a brief summary of Paul’s letter to the Galatians I read the following in a commentary preface, “Galatians exists for grace. We find grace at the beginning (1:3) and end (6:18) and in the middle (2:21). But the grace in Galatians is not cheap grace – it is costly. It is costly, because it calls to discipleship; it is grace, because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly, because it costs people their lives; it is grace, because it thereby makes them live. It is costly, because it condemns sin; it is grace because it justifies the sinner. Sadly, the Christian Church has had constantly to fight the temptation to turn this Magna Carta Christian liberty into a charter for cheap grace. As pastor-theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously asserted in the face of a spiritually insipid Protestantism dithering in a sea of cheap grace: “Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace.” Today, some seventy-five years later, our situation is still the same. Much of the church in North America is awash in cheap grace – and not to good effect. Ours then, is the same struggle: the fight for costly grace, for gospel rooted living. And Galatians, I trust you the reader will agree, is perhaps our choicest weapon.” Galatians Gospel-Rooted Living by R. Kent Hughes Our prayer is that this series in Galatians will drive us deeper into the gospel of Jesus Christ, where we demonstrate together what it looks like to live our lives through the power of the costly grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!