In the last post, we learned that God himself is what makes us distinct. God as our distinction doesn't mean that we stand alone. Paul says he is an apostle not from man nor through man, but his posture is not that he stands alone. Instead, look at verse 2. And all the brothers who are with me.
The Gospel Forms Community
Jesus didn't just call Peter; he called Peter, James, John, and the rest of the 12. God created Adam and said, "It is not good for man to be alone. God forms a community through his Word. The problem with the church in Galatia is that these false teachers were infiltrating the community with false teaching. If the Galatians adopt these false teachings, they will stand contrary to the faith once delivered to all the saints. In other words, they would not be in a Christian community and thereby not in fellowship with God.
In our individualistic society, we need to be clear here. We need community. We need each other as the body of Christ. Right now, we are still scattered because of the pandemic. We have technology that allows an opportunity for casual fellowship, but online worship will never replace gathering together. It can't. You can't really have church gathered in a chat room. Chat rooms might be necessary sometimes but are never are a replacement to making every effort, as much as you are able, to come together to worship.
The gospel forms community. The gospel means fellowship.
The Gospel Means We Are Part of the Family of God
Galatians 1:3 says, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ…. According to the will of God our Father…Through Jesus, the Son of God, we become sons and daughters of God. Our knowledge of God comes to us as Father - we know him in his relations to us and how he relates to the other members of the Trinity - Father, Son, and Spirit. The gospel means we get to share in this divine fellowship.
God our Father, Christ our Brother, the Spirit filling our fellowship divine. God is not just the Father through Jesus the Son. He is our Father.
This is why we can say,
Jesus is the Gospel
Jesus, God in the flesh, gave himself for our sins. As the Nicene Creed puts it, for our sake and our salvation he came down from heaven; was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried and rose again on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures.
J.I. Packer summarized the gospel this way, "God saves sinners." How God saves sinners is what makes grace amazing! He initiated salvation. He sought us. He redeemed us by his blood. The gospel only comes through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Any other message that does not highlight the "It is finished" of the cross is not good news.
This message was originally delivered to the saints called First Baptist Starkville in Fall of 2021.