{"id":2524,"date":"2022-11-07T15:47:39","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T20:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/?p=2524"},"modified":"2022-11-08T16:10:14","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T21:10:14","slug":"my-gospel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/teachings\/my-gospel\/","title":{"rendered":"“My Gospel”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“My Gospel”<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Paul did not learn the Gospel from books or in some classroom. He received it by revelation directly from God (Gal 1:12)<\/em> and was confirmed by the apostles (Gal 1:18; Gal 2:2)<\/em>. He so identified his life with the Life of the Gospel that he named it \u201cmy Gospel\u201d \u2013 a challenge to every born again believer to make the Gospel just that personal in their life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romans 16:25 (ESV)
Now to Him who is able to *strengthen<\/em> you according to MY GOSPEL<\/em><\/strong> and the preaching of Jesus Christ\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that verse, the word \u201cstrengthen\u201d can also be translated as \u201cestablish, fix, settle, make stable, make firm.\u201d Paul knew the power of the amazing Gospel. He said, \u201cI\u2019m not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes\u201d (Rom 1:16)<\/em>.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
However, Paul was extremely protective of \u201chis\u201d Gospel! He explained that those who preach any other twisted version of the Gospel would be \u201canathema\u201d which is a strong Greek word meaning \u201ccursed by God\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Galatians 1:8-9 (ESV)\nBut even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed<\/em><\/strong> (\u201canathema\u201d).\nAs we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed <\/em><\/strong>(\u201canathema\u201d).<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Why was Paul so angered? These Galatians were gentiles (non-Jews) and had marvelously received the Gospel and experienced God\u2019s grace. But there was a particular group of Jewish Christians that were telling these Galatians that it was necessary to keep certain laws if they wanted to be saved. Paul says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNO WAY!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Galatians 2:21 (ESV)
I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Consider this example. A close friend who truly loves you spends much of their life\u2019s savings to buy you a brand new, top-of-the-line Mercedes Benz. You know that car\u2019s cost and their sacrifice, so you beg your friend to please let you pay for part of it. At first, your friend refuses, but upon your insistence, he finally agrees to let you give him $1.00 for the car. Imagine your friend’s utter disappointment when he hears you have been driving around town, boasting that you bought a Mercedes Benz from your friend for only $1.00! You just reduced your friend\u2019s sacrificial love down to $1.00. What a travesty!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is precisely what these legalistic Jewish Christians were trying to get the Galatian believers to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No wonder Paul was so upset! He loved his Savior, and it angered him to think that anyone would add laws and works to the Gospel to reduce to nothing God\u2019s ultimate and high-cost sacrifice of love for us. God\u2019s love is 100% free. If we add works, laws, and man-made rules to the Gospel, we cheapen God\u2019s love and nullify all Jesus came to do!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul then delivered this strong rebuke to these Galatian Christians:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Galatians 3:1 (ESV)\nO foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched<\/em><\/strong> you?<\/pre>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
The Gospel is the Good News that Jesus Christ came to die and rise again to pay our sin debt in full so that we can come to God; be washed and cleansed by Jesus\u2019 Blood; be saved by His amazing grace, and experience the new birth into God\u2019s family! It\u2019s FULLY BY GRACE and NOT OF WORKS so that no one can ever boast (Eph 2:8-9)<\/em>. The Gospel also provides all we need to be established and strengthened by God\u2019s love and power so that we might be transformed into all God called us to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s never be fooled or \u201cbewitched\u201d<\/em> by any other twisted version of the Gospel! In fact, let\u2019s get so deep into the Gospel of Jesus Christ and allow the Gospel to get so deep into us that the words \u201cmy Gospel\u201d will fit as easily in our lips as they did for the Apostle Paul:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
“I am not ashamed of My Gospel<\/strong><\/em>
for it is the POWER OF GOD to salvation<\/em>
for everyone who believes!”<\/em><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“My Gospel” Paul did not learn the Gospel from books or in some classroom. He received it by revelation directly from God (Gal 1:12) and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[497,11],"tags":[296,101,102,499,186],"class_list":["post-2524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gospel","category-teachings","tag-free-gift","tag-gospel","tag-gospel-grace","tag-legalism","tag-salvation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/My-Gospel_Holding-Bible_ENGLISH-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1320&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8ofw-EI","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2524"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2546,"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2524\/revisions\/2546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slentz.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}