Pt. 14 of the Series No Compromise Why Christianity Wins. This message is all about winning the world to Christ Through Servant Ministry and Love. What would it take to crack the hardness of Pagan hearts? **A casual perusal of the growth of the church in Christian History will reveal that there were a lot of issues the church fathers had to deal with—most of them theological—and some were tackled to avoid the spring up of cult-like groups. **For the church, it was these labors that won the day. Like, Paul in his defense of Grace, their labors kept the church on track and were often finalized in Church Creeds. **To the Pagan populations however, it wasn’t doctrine that mattered so much, as action. If the church was going to make any inroads into their lives they must see endurance, integrity, honesty, and LOVE What they needed to see was genuineness of character and deed.

In Galatians 4 we were introduced to the bondage of error and the freedom of Grace and Paul’s bewilderment that some would rather go back to the bondage of trying to appease God when God was already satisfied with the solution to mankind’s sinfulness through the sacrifice of Christ. The law was meant to reveal sin not meant to teach good – As if we needed to do good to appease God. Yet that’s what the Second Law the Pharisees promoted was all about The Pharisees particularly taught a man-made version of law that they expected all Good Jewish people to follow – it was really Law Keeping 101 and tantamount to living in a struggle Yet instead of bringing an abundant life it led to bondage and restrictions that no one was able to keep. John 1:17 - For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17 NKJV) Freedom and liberty is the message of Grace – Not freedom and liberty to sin but freedom to serve the Lord despite the sin that plagues us – Jesus set us free to serve the Lord without hindrance Gal. 5:1 opens with: Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. (Galatians 5:1 NKJV)

The sound is fuzzy - sorry! The foundation of the Book of Galatians is that Salvation is by Faith alone in Christ Jesus. Christians are to rely on the Goodness of God – The Righteousness of Christ— and the Faithfulness of God to fulfill His Promises for our Salvation In the beginnings of the early church that didn’t set well to a Jewish population who was used to doing and keeping laws to inherit eternal life. They could not get beyond having to keep the Mosaic law. What they did not see was that this Mosaic Law was only temporary until something better—something more liberating came – That was Jesus.