The one true gospel is unique for at least two reasons: 1) Because it’s origin is not in man, but in God. Paul says “Him who called you in the grace of Christ” because it’s not we who call God into our lives; He calls us into His life. 2) Because it says that our acceptance before God is based sheerly on His grace, not our works. This is good news for us! And this is exactly why Paul is “astonished” that the Galatians were “deserting” this for a “another gospel”—a false gospel. Trouble-makers had influenced the Galatians by communicating this message: I obey, therefore I am accepted by God. But that is the complete opposite order of the gospel, which says God accepts me fully in Jesus, therefore I obey. The order matters. Our good works don’t produce God’s approval. Rather, God’s gracious approval of us in Christ produces our good works. There are many who “distort the gospel of Christ” today, just like these trouble-makers did in Paul’s, but all of their messages are essentially the same—Jesus + something = everything. But to change the gospel is to lose the gospel entirely. In addition, to change the gospel message invokes a curse upon those who preach it, as Paul says, “let them be accursed” (eternally condemned). We must hold fast to the message of the one true gospel as delivered to us in the Bible: Jesus + nothing = everything. The good news is that we are justified before God by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

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