Welcome! Over the next week we will be reading through the book of Galatians together as a church! We’ll be reading a chapter each week day, beginning on Friday the 15th of May, and concluding on Friday the 22nd. We’re following the reading plan in the CBR Journal, which can also be found HERE.
Each day a member of the Redeemer family will be sharing with us some thoughts in video form, which can be seen above, previous days videos can be found on our Youtube channel. We’ll also be publishing blogs with more thoughts on the passages we’ve read, along with some ideas for those who want to study the passage further. We’re really looking forward to seeing God bear fruit in and through us as a church as we read his word, even during this challenging time.
Today Noble will be sharing with us his thoughts on Galatians 1 in the video above.
Paul isn’t always nice! At the very beginning of his letter, once we’ve read the initial introductions, we see Paul get straight down to the nitty gritty, and focus in on just where the Galatian church has got it wrong! They have been accepting the teachings of people which are disputing the truth of the gospel, so Paul can’t afford to be nice! He must get them off this course they have set for themselves as quickly as possible! Throughout this first chapter we are taught of the importance of reading and understanding the true gospel, which is encouraging for us reading now, as (I assume anyway) the fact you are reading this means you have taken the first step in learning the truth of the gospel, which is reading God’s word!
The language that Paul uses is blunt because it is of such importance, if we are convinced to pursue a man made version of the gospel rather than the truth, it can have devastating effects for our lives now, and for our eternal future. The only true gospel is that which we read in the Bible, that taught to us by Jesus Christ himself. This is incredible truth, that the words we have read this morning, and the words we will be reading over the next week together, are words which carry the power of God! How amazing that is!
When we discover the story of Jesus, the one who gave himself for us, we are invited into his family, we share in the hope that comes from being a child of God! In the same instant, as we accept that invitation, we are able to move out of the hopelessness of a life defined by our present circumstance. There is no human message that could ever achieve such an incredible miraculous transformation for us, which is why it’s great news that we’ll be able to discover even more of the gospel story together over the next week, I can’t wait!
Justin Wainscott is the pastor of First Baptist Church, Jackson, Tennessee and in his talk from February 2017 he further explores this topic from Galatians 1:10-24 in a message entitled - Not Man’s Gospel
“God turned a self-righteous Pharisee into one who would call himself the least of the apostles and the chief of sinners. . . . A man-made gospel will not do that.”
