“What really is the Gospel?”

A verse by verse study of Galatians

Leader: Lorne Pritchett

What Really is the gospel_(1).png — “What really is the Gospel?”

There is much confusion, and even disagreement in the modern society and the church about what the Gospel really is. Some of us are not so much ashamed of the Gospel but we are afraid of it. Afraid of what it may call us from and afraid of what it might call us to. But the Gospel is only one thing. It is ‘this’ and ‘not that’. Galatians is the most succinct and clearest statement of the Gospel in the Bible. While the Gospel is abundantly prophesied in the Old Testament (read Deuteronomy 30) and is declared in every NT book, it is often confused and sometimes even contaminated in modern retelling. Galatians is the place to answer the questions like :

What did Jesus believe He was doing on the cross?

Are the books written by the Apostles as authentic as the words of Jesus?

What is the authentic Gospel?

What is a ‘Christian’?

‘How can I become a Christian’

‘Was I born a Christian?

‘What is the difference between religion and Christianity?’

‘Is Jesus the only Savior?’

This study is a study of scripture and anyone can attend. It asks only one thing, ‘What does the text say?’ No other source of information will be considered equivalent to the text. This study, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, will seek to understand the text. However, while all interpretative statements are important, no interpretation can be considered infallible! Interpretations must be reconciled to the teaching of the whole Bible. In other words, we have to understand that a text without a context often leads us to a pretext.

How we will handle questions? And by the way – no question is stupid! It is by genuinely questioning that we advance our understanding.

The Leader may respond in several ways;

1. I don’t know!

2. I will have to give that further reflection before I can answer.

3. Let’s park that question and come back to it later

One final thing. The leader will be using the New Living Translation as our base translation for the study. You can either buy a NLT bible, download it on your hand held device, or download it and print Galatians until you are able to acquire one should you decide to. The leader will explain his choice of translations in the introductory session.