Good News of Grace
8/13/25 Bible Thought (Galatians 1)
There is a fascinating human drive to earn favor or acceptance with God.
Truly, many world religions have this as their basis, and even many who claim to be Christians probably do not properly understand the gospel of grace. I would say a very common view in America amongst nominal Christians is that “Good people go to heaven, and bad people go to hell.”
In light of this fundamental belief that we earn our way to God, the true gospel of Jesus Christ seems utterly scandalous.
Indeed, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians,
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18).
This becomes even more plain as we open another of the apostle’s God-breathed letters—one delivered to the churches of Galatia.
Throughout the book it becomes abundantly clear that the Galatians were leaving behind the gospel of grace in favor of keeping the law, the requirement of circumcision being a chief part of this.
In essence, they were returning to that natural human tendency to earn their way to God, rather than acknowledging that Jesus Christ is the way (John 14:6) and that the way is paved with grace.
In the opening chapter, the apostle criticized the church for their quick departure from the gospel in favor of another (Gal. 1:6). Yet, with this he also acknowledged there is no other gospel! (Gal. 1:7).
The gospel is the good news of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.
Apart from Christ, there is no good news and as such there is no other gospel. The good news of salvation from sin, death, and final separation from God is only found in Jesus Christ. Any other message is bad news—or at best, bad news dressed up as good news.
The gospel is a heaven-sent message (Gal. 1:12). It was not man’s ideology, because again, it is the antithesis of man-made religion.
Man-made religion says, “Do” but Christ says, “Done.”
Man-made religion says, “Good people go to heaven” but the gospel says, “There are no good people in heaven, only forgiven people.”
Every saint was once a sinner, and every sinner can become a saint through Jesus Christ’s shed blood.
When Jesus gave His life upon Calvary’s cross, He cried out, “It is finished” (Jn. 19:30). His work was finished, which means that our salvation was and is finished.
We rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ that is given as a free gift (Rom. 6:23). It is by grace, not of our own works (Eph. 2:8-9). It is solely the result of His work, we merely receive the gift through faith.
He lived the perfect and sinless life we could not live and then died the death we deserved to die.
“For our sake he [God] made him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
The message might not make sense. It might seem utterly backwards. But it is the truth, sent from heaven, on our behalf.
It is good news of grace, and it is the only truly good news.