Restoring the Gospel

Restoring the Gospel


It is not unusual for the paintings of great artists to be identified by their creator. “It’s a Picasso”, “It’s a van Gogh”, “It’s a Rembrandt”, etc. tie the artwork to the artist. The Apostle Paul had created an artistic masterpiece for the churches of Galatia. He did so in the original preaching of the gospel to them, where he “publicly portrayed” (Galatians 3:1), like a masterful artist, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, his gospel preaching when he came to Galatia could have been identified much like the paintings of great artists: “It’s a Spirit-empowered Apostle Paul”. Sadly, due to the destructive, even “bewitching” influence of the Judaizers, that “portrayal” - that marvelous picture of Jesus Christ - had been marred. The New Testament book of Galatians is Paul’s response to the errors introduced into the church, so serves as something of a restoration effort: Paul’s divinely inspired letter to remind them of what they seem to have forgotten, emphasizing the two-fold message of “faith alone” in “Christ alone”.

In this sermon, we will consider Paul’s rather alarming words to the Galatian churches and have that "portrayal" of Christ set before us in a fresh way.