Do Not Mix.

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting the One who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse! (Galatians 1:6-9)

During Sunday's sermon Pastor Sam shared that it is a very serious thing when someone is preaching bad news instead of good news. The church in Galatia, in a short period of time, wandered away from the good news preached by Paul and attempted to adopt a "mixture" of things that don't mix: the sinful works of the flesh, a legalism demonstrated by observation of ancient Jewish law, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Where is our salvation? Certainly not in our sinful nature, and not in our embrace of legalism. It is God who saves. The Spirit of God touches our hearts and opens our minds to the Truth, and we accept the new covenant which was effected by the body and blood of Christ. We can say as Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside God's grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:20-21)

Are there areas in our lives where we have opted to "set aside God's grace", thinking that the Lord will excuse our indulgence of the sinful nature? Are we thinking that engagement in legalistic actions will somehow offset our failure to obey God's word? Or, are we solely grounded in the gospel of Christ, knowing that any other "gospel" is perversion?

"I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you; I will take the initiative and you will obey My statutes and carefully observe my regulations." (Ezekiel 36:26-27)