My Salvation Is All About God Series

A. Here’s a little cooking humor to get us started: There’s a Hollywood recipe for chicken soup and the instructions begin: “First, bring four cups of Perrier water to a boil.”

1. One cook reported that they found a very easy cookie recipe that said to put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat it, so they did as they were instructed and put everything in a bowl and left, but when they came back nothing had changed – I guess the recipe was wrong.

2. Another cook found a recipe that is gluten free, fat free, dairy free, and contains no sugar, they said, “it’s a breath of fresh air!” – I guess air is all that would be in it if it was free of all those other things!

B. In his book, Future Shock, Alvin Toffler tells about a large American food company that released the perfect cake mix.

1. The only thing that needed to be added to the mix was water.

2. You didn’t have to add eggs, or sugar, or anything else, just add water to the powder, pop the pan in the oven, and presto a delicious cake!

3. Problem was – no one was buying the product.

4. This puzzled the manufacturer, and so they conducted surveys and were able to identify the reason for the poor sales.

5. The manufacturer then reissued the cake mix with a slight alteration.

6. The new mix required the cook to not only add water, but also add one egg.

7. Guess what happened? The sales of that cake mix skyrocketed.

C. What is it about human beings that we feel that we have to do something more?

1. What makes us want to add something to what is already complete?

2. The apostle Paul wondered the same thing when it came to salvation in Jesus Christ.

3. People puzzled him and angered him when they wanted to add something to Jesus’ finished work of redemption.

4. Of course, those people weren’t adding eggs to a recipe, but were adding requirements for salvation.

5. And what were they adding? For starters, they were requiring circumcision, and the rest of the law of Moses in some cases.

6. This was a problem that Paul had to address throughout his ministry – he had to battle against people who were taking the pure Gospel of Jesus and adding to it.

D. Let’s turn to Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia and see how he addressed this issue.

1. Paul wrote: 6 I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling 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 what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! 9 As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him! (Gal. 1:6-9)

2. Paul’s astonishment came from the fact that the very believers that he personally taught were so quickly being led astray.

a. He had clearly taught them the truth and they had believed and received the Gospel.

b. They certainly knew better.

3. Paul used a provocative word in verse 6: “deserting.”

a. The word “deserting” is a military term that refers to a traitor, one who leaves the army of his own country and goes to work for the enemy.

4. At issue was the Gospel.

a. They were leaving the Gospel of Grace, for a different Gospel, which is actually no Gospel at all.

b. There is a little play on words here, since the term Gospel means good news.

c. The gospel they were turning to was not “good news” but was actually “bad news.”

5. This other gospel was a combination of the real Gospel plus the following of the Jewish law.

a. These false teachers were teaching Gentile Christians that, in addition to the Gospel, they were obligated to keep the Jewish Mosaic Law – the dietary laws, circumcision and the rest of the ceremonial law in order to be truly pleasing to God.

6. Paul wanted to make it clear that this other gospel was no gospel at all.

a. Paul preached a “Jesus only” Gospel.

b. A Gospel that is “a justification by faith alone apart from the works of the law.”

c. Paul taught a way of salvation that was “by grace alone, by faith alone, through Christ alone.”

d. The false teachers, sometimes called “Judaizers” taught a “Jesus plus” gospel, rather than a “Jesus only” gospel.