Galatians: No Other Gospel

In Galatians 6, Paul concludes his argument that the cross of Christ and the gift of the Spirit have brought the observance of the Jewish law to an end. If love guides our hearts, religious traditions (i.e. circumcision) and rules become irrelevant. Love, embraced as a guiding orientation of other-centeredness, will always lead us to do the right thing.

What do you live by? What keeps you going, gives you energy? What are you passionate about? Do you live for your work, for your family, for the weekend when you can surf/cycle/sing? Or do you live by an internal code, that tells you to "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"? Or maybe you live life for all you can get out of it, making the most of each day as it comes.
In Galatians 5, Paul suggests another way to live: live by the Spirit. What might this mean? What would your life look like if you took his advice?

God sent Jesus not to create religious followers but to make children. To bring and redeem humanity back into our intended relationship with Him. Through faith in Christ we receive the gift of His Spirit that speaks again and again the message that we are His children. The call then is to live as the adopted sons and daughters of God and no longer as orphans.  

In the 3rd chapter of his letter to the Galatians, Paul argues passionately and provocatively that the death and resurrection of Jesus changes everything. He challenges his readers to look forward, to who they are becoming, instead of looking back to how things used to be.

Last week we began our look at the letter of Paul to the Galatian churches. We hear his clear call to hold fast to the gospel of Jesus Christ. To take caution to not add anything to Jesus. This week we dig deeper into the reality of what God has done through Christ to give us a new identity as His children.

How do we view the gospel? What is the gospel? How are we made and kept right with God? What do we have to do to maintain a right relationship with God? Galatians makes the astonishing claim that the gospel is not only the way to enter the Kingdom of God, but is the way to live as a part of the kingdom.