GCV Blog

Grace Church of the Valley blog.


The true Gospel boggles my mind with its beauty and power. The entire book of Galatians elevates the glorious Gospel and its manifold, wondrous results, but Galatians 3:25-29 recently caught my attention. Here are just a few blessings resulting from the Gospel.

Freedom
Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the tutorship of the Law. That's a huge blessing, because the Law taught us we could never please God. It taught us God was holy and we are not, and no amount of effort on our part could ever rearrange that equation. The Law is good, but left only with it is to be left with despair.

But oh the glorious Gospel, which taught us that Christ-like righteousness was possible for us! The work we could never do ourselves is done, and the grandness of the Gospel is its effective availability. We are free from our inability to ever reach God, free from the hateful power of the flesh that demands our cooperation, free from the tyranny of a destructive lord.

We have a new Master throught the Gospel. But even though we live in service to One we must obey as Lord, who has every right to dictate our every action and demand our entire allegiance, we also have been blessed with the intimate position of sonship.

Sonship
We are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Magnificent repurcussion of Gospel, that the high and holy God would use the familial, intimate, close relationship of sonship to tell us what we are. The true Gospel brings us into intimate contact with the high and holy one who inhabits eternity and makes His last name ours.

The Father had one Son for all of eternity. When He choose to add you to the family, He stooped to call you son as well. Your sonship comes through that of Jesus Christ, and you get it because you are one with Him.

Oneness
If the Spirit has added you into the body of Christ (baptized), you are one with Christ. You have dressed yourself with Him. In computer terms, your "skin" is that of the unique Jesus Christ. Because everyone else who obeys the Gospel receives this same union with Christ, we are all one with each other. Gone are the racial, ethnic, sexual distinctions men prefer to use. Worth, status, meaning: all are lost to be replaced only by Christ.

Once upon a time, long ago, a promise was made to a man named Abraham. That covenant made Abraham's descendents the special property of Christ. If you belong to Christ, then you must belong to Abraham. 

Heritage
You enjoy the unique position of heir to Abraham because of the covenant. God promised Abraham a lineage of untold numbers. He promised Abraham would bless the nations. He promised eternal loyal love. You are part of the fulfillment of that promise, and you are an heir to those promises.

What a glorious Gospel! Every thrust of Galatians exalts this Gospel. It does so as it denounces false gospels (1:6-9), defends Paul's authentic ministry (1:10-2:21), describes justification to be by faith (3:1-4:8), and declares the freedom found in the Spirit (4:9-5:15).