Today’s text (Galatians 2:11-21) gives an account of a rare moment in church history when one apostle publicly rebuked another. We learn many important lessons from this story. We learn of the power of negative peer pressure. We learn that even the spiritual giants can do wrong sometimes. We learn the importance of standing up for the truth of the Gospel even when it is intimidating or embarrassing. We learn that the truth of the Gospel is worth fighting for. The Gospel has been perverted and twisted in many ways throughout the years by both Christians and cults. What is the Gospel? It is so simple yet so powerful that whoever simply believes it can be saved. The danger comes when anyone defines the Gospel as Jesus plus something else. The Gospel is simply Jesus. Faith in Jesus saves.

 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son intothe world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God.” John 3:16-18, HCSB.

“Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it. You are also saved by it, if you hold to the message I proclaimed to you–unless you believed to no purpose. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, HCSB.

“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12, HCSB.

“… we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.” Galatians 2:16, HCSB.

“I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” Galatians 2:21, HCSB.

Reminding you once more that it’s all about Jesus!

Pastor Mike