As we begin this passage, you may notice something unusual. Paul, in almost every other letter, begins with thanksgiving. Even when writing to the troubled church in Corinth, Paul could still thank God for His grace at work among them. But not here. Not in Galatians. There is no thanksgiving, no pause for polite greetings, no gentle buildup. Instead, Paul comes in with the shock of holy astonishment: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ…” Something had gone terribly wrong in these churches. They had started well, embracing the gospel of grace that Paul preached — salvation through faith in Christ alone. But now, they were turning to what Paul calls “a different gospel,” a distortion that added requirements to the finished work of Jesus. In this case, it was the teaching of Judaizers — insisting that Gentile believers needed to obey the ceremonial law, including circumcision, to be fully accepted by God. And, brothers and sisters, this is not just an ancient problem. The temptation to believe in Christ plus something else is alive and well today. Christ plus performance. Christ plus tradition. Christ plus a certain spiritual experience. The problem is, when you add anything to Christ, you don’t enhance the gospel — you lose it altogether. This passage is God’s urgent word to His church: there is no other gospel. Not then, not now, not ever. And so this morning, we will walk carefully through these verses to understand their meaning, to see how Christ fulfills them, and to hear how the Spirit calls us to cling to the one true gospel with unwavering faith. AM Service 16 November 2025, Lebanon Presbyterian Church (PCA), Abbeville, South Carolina, USA
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Nov 16 202532 min