I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
Galatians 1:6-7
Paul’s letter mentions, "the grace of Christ, the gospel of Christ," and "a different gospel."
Words do count. The Scripture says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...."
(For me, the implications of what God the Holy Spirit is expressing in these phrases, through John the apostle, a revelation of the very nature of God.
The mighty God who created all of the cosmos, "Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spread them out like a tent to dwell in..." Isaiah 40, still exists as a mighty holy Triune Being. However, He exists and has always existed as a Being Who passionately desires to be known by mankind. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.... No man has seen God at any time: the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained him." John 1:14, 18
For me, the implications are that God--as He exists , as Jesus Christ has demonstrated--perfectly fits the person of God. John 3:16 tells about."For God so loved the world that He gave His own least begotten Son,, That Whoever Believes in Him Should Not Perish but Have Eternal Life.")
Perhaps the best explanation is what the "grace of Christ" is NOT.
It is not this "different gospel" or " perverted gospel?" Earlier, our study started with a statement by Theologian and author,
"The addition of anything to the "grace of Christ–(whether baptism, church memberrship) circumcision and other requirements of the Jewish law as necessary
for salvation was not so much an addition to the gospel as a perversion of it. It nullified the principle that salvation is bestowed by grace and received by faith, and gave man a share in the glory of salvation which, according to the gospel, belongs to God alone. The whole scheme as proposed by these Judaizers was a different gospel from that which Paul and his fellow-apostles preached it; it was, in fact, no gospel at all."
F.F. Bruce, LETTERS OF PAUL pp. 18-19.
(Words within parentheses are mine, but this study on God’s grace supports the idea)
Grace is a word like charity. When something is given in charity–it is a gift. In fact it must be a gift. InIf you have to pay something or do something the word is robbed of it’s meaning. It is no longer a gift, nor is it charity. If you pay something for grace, or do something for grace than grace is robbed of it’s meaning like charity.
Lewis Sperry Chafer, GRACE, p.22
Then the Apostle Paul starts really laying it on the line.
KOINONIKOS
Galatians 1:6-7
Paul’s letter mentions, "the grace of Christ, the gospel of Christ," and "a different gospel."
Words do count. The Scripture says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...."
(For me, the implications of what God the Holy Spirit is expressing in these phrases, through John the apostle, a revelation of the very nature of God.
The mighty God who created all of the cosmos, "Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spread them out like a tent to dwell in..." Isaiah 40, still exists as a mighty holy Triune Being. However, He exists and has always existed as a Being Who passionately desires to be known by mankind. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.... No man has seen God at any time: the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained him." John 1:14, 18
For me, the implications are that God--as He exists , as Jesus Christ has demonstrated--perfectly fits the person of God. John 3:16 tells about."For God so loved the world that He gave His own least begotten Son,, That Whoever Believes in Him Should Not Perish but Have Eternal Life.")
WHAT EXACTLY DOES THE WORD "GOSPEL" MEAN?
Noah Webster’s dictionary says the word comes from the Saxon word "godspell." As mentioned words count. The word "gospel" is actually translated from the Greek word:: euangelizo or euangelizo which means declare, bring (declare, show) glad (good) tidings. The Galatians were turning away from the "glad tidings of Christ to "a different gospel–a perverted gospel."
What is the "grace of Christ?"
Perhaps the best explanation is what the "grace of Christ" is NOT.
It is not this "different gospel" or " perverted gospel?" Earlier, our study started with a statement by Theologian and author,
"The addition of anything to the "grace of Christ–(whether baptism, church memberrship) circumcision and other requirements of the Jewish law as necessary
for salvation was not so much an addition to the gospel as a perversion of it. It nullified the principle that salvation is bestowed by grace and received by faith, and gave man a share in the glory of salvation which, according to the gospel, belongs to God alone. The whole scheme as proposed by these Judaizers was a different gospel from that which Paul and his fellow-apostles preached it; it was, in fact, no gospel at all."
F.F. Bruce, LETTERS OF PAUL pp. 18-19.
(Words within parentheses are mine, but this study on God’s grace supports the idea)
Grace is a word like charity. When something is given in charity–it is a gift. In fact it must be a gift. InIf you have to pay something or do something the word is robbed of it’s meaning. It is no longer a gift, nor is it charity. If you pay something for grace, or do something for grace than grace is robbed of it’s meaning like charity.
"It may be concluded that the word grace, as used in the Bible in relation to divine salvation, represents the uncompromised, unrestricted, unrecompensed, loving favor of God toward sinners. It is an unearned blessing. It is a gratuity. God is absolutely untrammeled and unshackled in expressing His infinite love by His infinite grace
(1) through the death of His Lamb by whom every limitation which human sin could impose has been dispelled,
(2) through the provision which offers salvation as a gift by which human obligation has been forever dismissed, and
(3) through the divine decree by which human merit has been forever deposed. Grace is the limitless, unrestrained love of God for the lost, acting in full compliance with the exact and unchangeable demands of His own righteousness through the sacrificial death of Christ.
Grace is more than love; it is love set absolutely free and made to be a triumphant victor over the righteous judgment of God against the sinner."
Lewis Sperry Chafer, GRACE, p.22
Then the Apostle Paul starts really laying it on the line.
KOINONIKOS
THE CHURCH CANNOT BE THE BUILDING
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