I recently read Andy Stanley’s new book Irresistible, and while I’m still mulling over some of the content, I’m coming into strong agreement that we tend to make the gospel too complicated. When the early church was getting started, for the first couple centuries, there was no New Testament, and for the Gentiles that Paul and others preached to, there was no “Old Testament” either! So what did they preach? Simply the resurrection.

And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. (Acts 4.33, ESV)

Paul, addressing the sophisticated Athenians said:

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17.30, 31, ESV, emphasis mine)

Our church has just started small groups to study Galatians from now until Advent, and the main message, boiled down, is quit adding stuff! Let’s focus on Jesus, his death and resurrection. 

Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (Galatians 1.1 – 5, ESV, emphasis mine)

Our study guide was written by N. T. Wright, and I really like this early comment:

The gospel isn’t a system of salvation or a new way of being religious. It’s the announcement that Jesus, the crucified Messiah, is exalted as Lord of the whole world; therefore he is calling into existence a single worldwide family.

It’s not “a new way of being religious.” One of our group members has been reflecting recently on her spiritual journey. She came out of one pseudo-Christian religious system based entirely on works and keeping certain ritualistic practices only to find herself moving from one church to another trying to learn, in N.T. Wright’s words, the right “new way of being religious.”

Finally, she is realizing how much God loves her and is learning to enjoy her freedom in Christ.

I could go on and on about this, but I’d better stop for now! I’ll close with this: the Apostle Paul was very clear in Galatians in a verse one of our group members thinks is the most important verse in the book. (It’s hard to choose just one, but he might be right!)

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily. (Galatians 2.21, MSG)