Is Jesus Really The Only Way To Heaven?
Text: Gal. 1:1-10
Introduction
1. Illustration: Since the death of Jesus Christ, 2000 years ago, 43 million Christians have become martyrs. Over 50% of these were in the last century alone. More than 200 million Christians face persecution each day, 60% of whom are children. Every day over 300 people are killed for their faith in Jesus Christ.— World Evangelical Encyclopedia
2. Now the question I want to ask you today is why would anyone be willing to do that for a lie?
a. If the Gospel of Jesus Christ were not the truth why would anyone be willing to lay down their life for it?
b. My contention with you today is that these scores of people are willing to lay down their lives because the know that Jesus is who he said he was, the Son of the Living God, and that he is the only way to heaven.
3. The Gospel is true because...
a. The Gospel Is Given By God's Authority
b. Jesus Is the Only One To Give Up His Life To Pay For Sins
c. All Other Avenues of Truth Are Counterfeit
4. Let's all stand together as we read Galatians 1:1-10
Proposition: Jesus is the only way to heaven and all other avenues to truth are a lie.
Transition: The first thing we learn from our text is...
I. The Gospel Is Given By God's Authority (1-2).
A. An Apostle
1. The year was probably a.d. 49. Paul and Barnabas had just completed their first missionary journey (Acts 13:2–14:28).
a. Following a brief stay on the island of Cyprus, they had visited Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, cities in the Roman province of Galatia (present-day Turkey).
b. In their travels they had met with both wholehearted response and deep-seated resistance.
c. Shortly after their return to Antioch, some Jewish Christians arrived from Judea.
d. These Judeans claimed that the Antioch church and its missionaries were diluting Christianity to make it more appealing to Gentiles, and they challenged Paul’s authority as an apostle (Life Application New Testament Commentary).
2. Paul opens this letter in a very unusual way. He begins, "This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead."
a. Like many polite ancient letters, Paul’s letters characteristically include a thanksgiving at the outset, but Galatians lacks one.
b. This lack suggests that Paul is angry, and following the proper rhetorical style for a letter of blame, he does not mind expressing his anger explicitly.
c. Letters normally opened with the sender’s name; less often, they included a description of the sender, where that was necessary (The IVP Bible Background Commentary – New Testament).
d. The issue in the Galatian church was they had allowed themselves to be duped by false teachers, and these teachers had also convinced them that Paul was the false teacher and not really an apostle.
e. Paul's world was more hierarchical and authoritarian. To understand this we must sketch what an apostle was in the Jewish and early Christian world.
f. The Greek term for "apostle" (apostolos) is parallel to the Hebrew word shaliach.
g. This Hebrew term was used to describe a personal agent, representative, or ambassador.
h. With this in mind, we can clearly see that Paul saw himself as an official representative of Jesus Christ.
i. He knew he had been called by Jesus Christ and been appointed an official apostle of Jesus Christ, and he knew the implication of being called an apostle.
j. Paul, then, writes as an apostle—as one who has been called personally by Jesus Christ, who therefore represents Jesus Christ, and who has a crucial role in the history of the church.
k. He claims at least that much in the second word of this letter. He expects the Galatians to listen (NIV Application Commentary – Galatians).
l. The great Reformer, Martin Luther, had this to say about the term, "'Apostle' is a modest name but one that expresses both humility and grandeur at the same time. The humility is found in the fact that he is sent as an obedient servant, and people's attention is directed to the sender" (Luther, Reformation Commentary, 7).
m. The point that Paul is trying to make here is that the Gospel that he preaches is the true Gospel, and he is a true messenger of that Gospel, because Jesus Christ himself gave it to him.
3. What Paul writes next is also significant. He says, "All the brothers and sisters here join me in sending this letter to the churches of Galatia."
a. Paul probably wrote from Antioch of Syria. Antioch was the hub of Paul's ministry and the earliest center of Gentile Christianity.
b. Paul did not stand alone (as his opponents in Galatia might have suggested), but in fellowship with a significant NT church (NLT Study Bible).
c. Paul was not out in left field somewhere with his message, but he stood firm with the entire early church.
d. He not only stood with authority, but he also stood in unity with the church.
B. Divine Revelation
1. Illustration: I would recommend you either believe God up to the hilt, or else not to believe at all. Believe this book of God, every letter of it, or else reject it. There is no logical standing place between the two. Be satisfied with nothing less than a faith that swims in the deeps of divine revelation; a faith that paddles about the edge of the water is poor faith at best. It is little better than a dry-land faith, and is not good for much. - C. H. Spurgeon
2. The truth of the Gospel begins on the authority of Sacred Scripture.
a. 2 Peter 1:20-21 (NLT)
Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, 21 or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.
b. The Bible is not a man made myth, as some suppose, but it is divine revelation.
c. It is not a story book filled with moral stories and pithy little sayings.
d. It is not a clever collection of fictional characters made to deceive masses of people.
e. It is the Word of the Living God, and everything contained in it, from Genesis to Revelation, is God's instruction to the human race.
3. The truth of the Gospel stands on the truth that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
a. Acts 4:12 (NLT)
There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
b. There is only one name given that leads to salvation, and that name is Jesus!
c. That name is not Buddha.
d. That name is not Allah.
e. That name is Dallilamah.
f. That name is Jesus, and if you want to be saved you must go through him!
Transition: The second reason that the Gospel is true is...
II. Jesus Is the Only One To Give Up His Life To Pay For Sin (3-5).
A. Jesus Gave His Life For Our Sins
1. Paul continues the introduction to his letter saying, "May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace."
a. Paul's greeting is the typical early Christian mixing of the Greek and Jewish greetings ("grace and peace").
b. However, Paul's greeting is not simply from one mortal person to another; the grace and peace Paul invokes upon the Galatians is the grace and peace "from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
c. Paul, in adding the origins of his greetings, distances his greetings from the secular world and makes them sacred and religious.
d. This greeting is one shared only by Christians (NIV Application Commentary – Galatians).
e. Grace denotes God's free and unmerited favor toward sinful mankind, supremely demonstrated in the work of redemption accomplished by Christ, while peace denotes a Biblical state of wholeness (Fung, NICNT: Galatians, 39).
f. Again I refer to the words of Martin Luther, who said, "The word's grace and peace summarize the whole of the Christian faith. Grace contains the forgiveness of sins, a joyful peace and a quiet conscience. But peace is impossible unless sin has first been forgiven, because the law accuses and terrifies the conscience on account of sin" (Luther, Reformation Commentary, 17).
2. Therefore, the reason that Paul can talk so freely about grace and peace is because "Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live."
a. Forgiveness of sins is important for Galatians but it plays a mediating role there.
b. For this letter forgiveness implies that work of Christ is sufficient.
c. To bring up forgiveness, then, implies that the Galatians have not yet grappled enough with how potent the work of Christ was.
d. To put this another way, while the Galatians may have thought they were forgiven by Christ, they did not realize that this forgiveness was also sufficient to rescue them from "this evil world" (NIV Application Commentary – Galatians).
e. The purpose of Jesus sacrifice on the cross according to God's will becomes, through faith, its result: by virtue of his sacrifice, those who put their trust in him are rescued out of this present age of wickedness - and, by implication, ushered into the age to come (Fung, 41).
f. Nearly all Jewish people in this period divided history into two main ages: the present age (under the dominion of evil nations) and the future age (when God would rule unchallenged).
g. Because the future Messiah has already come the first time, Paul can argue that Christians are already citizens of the future age of God’s kingdom (The IVP Bible Background Commentary – New Testament).
3. Paul concludes his introduction in a most appropriate way, by giving the glory to God. He says, "All glory to God forever and ever! Amen."
a. Glory belongs to God alone. Even if God had not done so much for us, he would still be the only one deserving glory from his creation.
b. As believers, we will be able to glorify our God through all the ages of eternity because of the promise of eternal life with him.
c. With a decisive Amen (“Let it be so,” “Let it come to pass”), Paul closed his introduction to this letter.
d. In these first five verses, Paul touched on what would be the intent of his letter: his authority as an apostle, and the fact that salvation is not by works but by grace through faith in Christ alone (Barton B. Bruce et al., Life Application New Testament Commentary, 762-763).
B. The Cross
1. Illustration: "One of the most frequently used phrases in Christian circles is "the gospel." Amazingly few adults know what this term means. It could either refer to its literal translation, "good news;" or to the perspective that salvation is available only through the sacrificial death and subsequent resurrection of Jesus Christ and a person’s acceptance of Christ as their savior. Less than four out of ten adults (37%) knew this; 34% had other, inaccurate perceptions of the meaning of the term; three out of ten adults did not offer a guess. Even among born again Christians, only 60% correctly identified at least one meaning of this expression. (1994)… [From Barna Research Online – Beliefs: Salvation. www.barna.org]
2. The Cross reconciled sinful man to God.
a. Colossians 1:20 (NLT)
and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
b. Because of our sins we were separated from God.
c. Because of our sin we deserved death.
d. But Jesus stood in our place.
e. But Jesus paid the price that we should have paid.
f. But Jesus shed his blood so that we could be made right with God again!
3. The Cross wiped the slate clean for us.
a. Colossians 2:14 (NLT)
He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.
b. Before the cross we stood guilty before God; after the cross we stand acquitted.
c. Before the cross we were covered in filth of our sin; after the cross we stand clean before God.
d. Before the cross our sins were ever in front of us; after the cross our sins are dropped into the sea of forgetfulness never to be remembered again!
4. The Cross gives us spiritual victory!
a. Colossians 2:15 (NLT)
In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
b. Before the cross we were in spiritual bondage; after the cross we are free in Christ.
c. Before the cross we were defeated; after the cross we are more than conquerors.
d. Everything begins and ends at the cross!
Transition: Because of the authority of the Gospel and the sacrificial death of Jesus we can say with confidence...
III. All Other Avenues of Truth Are Counterfeit (6-10).
A. Pretends To Be The Good News
1. Now Paul gets down to the nitty gritty about why he is so angry with the Galatians.
2. He says, "I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News..."
a. It has often been observed that this is the only surviving letter of Paul's that does not contain a thanksgiving for the church to whom he is writing.
b. It is then usually inferred that since Paul does not give thanks, he is either not thankful to God for them or he is so angry with what has taken place he cannot express his thanks.
c. The reason why Paul wrote this letter, and the reason we have it, is because the Galatians had "changed positions" on a crucial subject: the means of acceptance with God and the role Christ played in that acceptance.
d. Paul states that this change was opting for a system in which grace was not crucial and in which Christ’s work was not sufficient.
e. Paul states here that they were "turning away so soon from God" (v. 6); that is to say, their move was not just an intellectual one.
f. Rather, it was a desertion of God as made known in Christ; it was abandoning of their personal relationship with God.
g. While Paul suggests this was a move to a "different gospel," he goes on in verse 7 to clarify this by saying that this is "really no gospel at all" (NIV Application Commentary – Galatians).
h. The false teachers, Judaizers, were teaching that to be saved, Gentile believers had to follow Jewish laws and customs, especially the rite of circumcision.
i. Faith in Christ was not enough. They may have included in their teachings the need for faith in Christ for salvation, but they taught that additional requirements had to be met before true salvation could occur.
j. This twisted and changed the truth, and it infuriated Paul (Barton B. Bruce et al., Life Application New Testament Commentary, 763).
k. What Paul is saying is that if Jesus sacrifice wasn't enough then he died for nothing.
3. Paul continues by saying, "...but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ."
a. The move of the Galatians was not one of those views of legitimate Christian differences; it was total and devastating.
b. Paul counters here any suggestion of simple Christian differences.
c. When the gospel of grace in Christ is supplemented with the system of Moses, the result is not a perfected, fully mature gospel; rather, it is a gross perversion and a totally different message (NIV Application Commentary: Galatians).
4. Then Paul shows just how angry he is with them when he says, "Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed let that person be cursed."
a. Paul's final words here are potent. He invokes a curse on anyone (including himself!) who distorts the gospel.
b. curse: to invoke divine harm if what is said is not true or if one does not carry out what has been promised (Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Symantic Domains, 442).
c. The message Paul preached is the message that ultimately derives from the Lord because it is has been transmitted to others through his apostles.
d. Those who distort this message are rejecting the authority of Christ and are therefore cursed (anathema).
e. This word is used in the Old Testament for something consecrated to God for his destruction.
f. Paul is not talking here about church discipline; his language is far too strong for that.
g. He is invoking God's final damnation and wrath on people who distort the gospel of grace in Christ and substitute, in effect, Moses' law as the preeminent form of revelation (NIV Application Commentary – Galatians).
5. Paul concludes this section by stating that they were doing what he was accused of doing - trying to please people. He says, "Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant."
a. The double reference to "pleasing men," reflects the allegation of Paul's opponents, which probably was that he was trying to seek the favor of men by relaxing the terms of the gospel - more specifically by setting aside the requirements of the law - in order to make conversion easy for the Gentiles.
b. By using the word "still" Paul is referring to his pre-conversion life. In other words, what he is saying is that before he gave his life to Christ he was trying to please men, but now he is only trying to please God.
c. They were the ones trying to please man, not Paul (Fung, 49-50).
B. Counterfeit Gospels
1. Illustration: Counterfeit money is lacking in authority—-it does not have the backing of the federal government. A good counterfeiter can dupe some people into accepting his copy work as legitimate currency. But eventually, when the fake money is brought before the authorities, it will be found false and sentenced to destruction. Likewise, a false gospel lacks something very important: the authority of Christ. The preacher of a false gospel may believe it and persuade (others) to accept its message. Nevertheless, in the final analysis, there is no salvation in this fake gospel.
2. There is only one God; Jesus Christ!
a. John 14:6 (NLT)
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
b. All other religions are false religions.
c. All other ways to truth are dead ends in disguise.
d. All other gods are useless idols.
3. Jesus said beware of false Messiah's.
a. Matthew 24:24 (NLT)
For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.
b. They attempt to deceive.
c. They sprinkle a little truth with every lie.
d. They lead the blind astray.
e. But there is only one way to salvation.
f. But there is only one Savior.
g. But there in only one God.
h. Praise the mighty name of Jesus!
Transition: There is only one way to heaven, and that is through Jesus!
Conclusion
1. The Gospel is true because...
a. The Gospel Is Given By God's Authority
b. Jesus Is the Only One To Give Up His Life To Pay For Sins
c. All Other Avenues of Truth Are Counterfeit
2. Will you accept the truth of the Gospel?
3. Will you preach the truth of the Gospel?
4. There is only one way to heaven - by the cross.
