What exactly is the gospel?

So tonight we are going to dive into Galatians chapter 1, and I am just so excited!  I can't wait to see what Jesus is showing you guys and what He has shown me.  I am like super blown away for sure.

So go read Galatians 1:1-10 :)

The reason I wanted to get into this is because there's so much to be gleaned here from this awesome little book that goes deeper into our hearts than we are sometimes comfortable with.  This will totally NOT be an exhaustive Bible study.  You ladies are hopefully getting that on Sunday mornings from your pastor.  My goal here is to grow, discipleship style.  Don't get me wrong.  I am not trying to disciple you.  Dude, I do NOT want replicas of me floating around!  I am scary!  Ask my hubs.  No really.  But in all seriousness, I see this blog post, this Tuesday night study, to be a time to be discipled by Jesus.  He promised us that He would leave behind the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth.  SO lets be unified together and dependent on the Spirit and gain some truth about Him from Him so we can glorify Him.  All of that to say, please be nice to me. :)  I will make mistakes and leave things out and do a ton of dumb stuff.  I am super good at being a dork. But here goes....

Okay, I totally know that most of you guys know this info, but bear with me.  Paul is writing the Galatians here because there was trouble big time going on in their town.  Paul had preached to them the plain and simple beautiful gospel, and there were Judaizers (Jewish believers in Christ who taught some gnarly stuff) that had come in and tried to change things.  Paul is straight up MAD in this letter.  His other letters to other churches begin by thanking God for them and then praying for them.  Paul doesnt do that here cause he is just plain angry.  He jumps straight into the crux of the matter, in verse 6

"I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to another gospel..."

The words turning away in the greek are one word and have the idea of a military man deserting his nation....it's a transfer of one's allegiance...to be a spiritual "turn coat."  YIKES!  What a crazy pcture right?  Well Paul isn't sugarcoating it here for sure.

So what were they turning their backs on?  What had they embraced?

The Gospel
Paul says they had turned away from from Jesus, from what he describes in verse 3-4...
"Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father..."
The Gospel is the Good News: 1.  We are really really bad.  Apart from anything we try to do to the contrary, we are worse than we can ever even imagine ourselves to be.  2.  We are really really loved.  Apart from our own efforts or mistakes, we are loved more deeply and fully than we could ever know on this earth.
So the gospel says that Jesus lived a perfect life so He could trade us out for our crazy messed up one AND that He died an atoning death because we owe a debt that we can't pay (Romans tells us the wages of our sin is debt) and that NOW because of the cross we are
forgiven
cleansed
accepted and
adored.
It is by GRACE (undeserved and not a thing I can do to earn it) and through FAITH (I choose to put the full weight of my trust in His work) that I come to make this transaction.  It requires repentance but is totally outside of my works.  Thats the plain and simple gospel.

Religion is mans attempt to be right with a Holy God.  The Gospel is the work that has already been done for us on the cross.

So whats the big deal right?  Well, the Judaizers had come in and in effect told the Galatian believers, "That's nice and all.  Yes, you need the Gospel for salvation...but now you need to start behaving and performing WELL."  They in that context wanted the believers in Jesus to follow the Jewish law, specifically Paul brings up circumcision.  Our context would definitely be different, but the concept is the same.  And since Scripture gets all gnarly upset about it, I think its worth paying attention to, don't you?

We are totally going to get into the nitty gritty over the next few weeks for SURE, but for tonight, I want us to examine our hearts.  Have we, as believers, leaned upon the gospel, the work of the cross, the Good News that I am incredibly loved and accepted, for our salvation?  Dude, thats number one for sure!!!!!   Do it!  That's way the main point.

But I think so many of us have fallen into the trap of "I need Jesus to save me from my drug and alcohol and sex addictions.  oh now I am saved, I better dress right, act right, do right....and I sure better not smoke cigarettes!"  But Jesus didn't die on the cross to rid the world of tobacco and spaghetti straps!!!!!!  Right!?!  Jesus died on the cross to forgive us of our sins and make us right with Him.  The semantics of the rest of our everyday life dont have to be so complicated.  I need to tear down the junk in my heart that says if I'm a "good" Christian I will BLAH BLAH BLAH and if I am a "bad" Christian I will BLAH BLAH BLAH.  Thats all DUMB.  There is no such thing as a bad christian or a good christian.  I think most of us would intellectually admit that.  But I KNOW that my heart and my actions have lined up instead with good/bad christian standards.  But Jesus is the standard.  Dude, I can be so dumb.

I want all of us to look at our hearts.  I am looking at my heart.  I know I have spent way too much time trying to do better, be better.  I mean, it's a natural thing right?  But I am supposed to be living supernaturally, right?  The Bible does lay out some clear stuff. And we want to go above and beyond, in our flesh.  Well, at least above and beyond the person next to me right?  See that's one of the main downfalls of a performance based relationship with Jesus.  It then leads us to have a wrong relationship with the people around us, right?  We either think too highly of ourselves (Im so great I would never even think of watching that movie wearing that bathing suit blah blah BLAH) or we think too low of ourselves (I am never going to be able to measure up, read my Bible enough, stop doing whatever it is I am struggling with) and in turn become desperate to win the approval of PEOPLE.  Instead we have a crazy amount of love and acceptance and humility waiting in the hands of Jesus.  We don't have to fall into this trap.  I was super challenged by a podcast recently that said you'll know how much you are applying the gospel to your every day life by the quality of your relationships with the people around you.  YIKES!  Does it bother me when I am treated poorly?  Does it bother me if someone else gets the credit?  Do I want people to give me my proper respect?  YUCKO to write it out like that right?  But if I am daily applying the gospel to my life, then I will feel pity for the person who has wronged me and a desire to pray for them....it won't matter who gets the credit....I will already know that I deserve no respect and that all glory goes to GOD!

Now, we will get into the difference between legalism and discipline and all that jazz later.  I promise.  For tonight, lets just spend some time examining our hearts.  I KNOW I will be! And theres SO MUCH MORE IN THIS SECTION.  I have like ten pages of notes going on over here....but I want to here YOUR hearts guys!  Hook a sister up with your beautiful hearts for Jesus.  What stands out to you?  I would LOVE to hear what The Spirit is speaking to YOU!