At the heart of the Christian faith is the good news.

Steve Brown:
At the heart of the Christian faith is the good news. Let’s talk about it on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Welcome to Key Life. I’m Matthew executive producer for the program and our host is author and seminary professor Steve Brown. The church has suffered under, do more, try harder religion for too long. And Key Life is here to proclaim that Jesus sets the captives free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Today we’re moving to a different text. We spent a good many days talking about Paul’s definition, the self-talk that he gave himself and his critics to assure himself of God called him to what he would just doing in the name of Jesus Christ. Now we’re moving into the second chapter and we’re going to spend a very long time talking about the gospel, which means as you know, good news. The good news, you wouldn’t think so, looking at some Christians. You know, this really is good news. I mean, what would you pay if you could never feel guilty again and know that you were forgiven? We interviewed a wonderful young man this past week, it’ll be posted or it’s already been posted, but it was a, we do a talk show called Steve Brown Etc. And we interviewed a young man that’s, he and his sister had been given up by their birth mother, when they were infants and they were adopted and they met their birth mother on a national television show. And he is the most exciting Christian that you would ever want to meet. And he said, when you connect your story and you do have a story with God’s story, it’s a greater story. Well, that’s true with the gospel. Once you connect your life with God’s story, and God’s story’s the gospel, forgiveness and mercy and kindness and patience and love, coming from him first, he makes the first move. And if that doesn’t make you feel good, there’s something wrong with you. And so we’re going to take significant amount of time and define exactly what the gospel is, now I’m reading from the second chapter of Galatians. I’m going to start at the first verse and then read through the sixteenth verse, but that’s not the end of the paragraph. We’ll get to that. When we get to that, this is what Paul says.

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went by revelation and I laid before them (but privately before those who were of repute) the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, less somehow I should be running or had run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. But because of false brethren secretly brought in–who slipped in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage–to them we did not yield submission even for a moment, that the truth of the gospel might be preserved in you. From those who were reputed to be something (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality) –those, I say, who were of repute added nothing to me. But on the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for the mission to the circumcised worked through me for the Gentiles) and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only they would have us remember the poor, which very thing I was eager to do. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he ate with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And with him, the rest of the Jews acted insincerely, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their insincerity. But when I saw that they were not straight forward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?” We ourselves who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ in order to be justified.

Oh my. You know, if you didn’t want to know what Paul thought, you shouldn’t ask him cause he’s gonna tell you, I mean, this guy is, he is so real that he says what he thinks and he doesn’t care what anybody says about it. Now, it doesn’t mean that you have to emulate the apostle Paul. I mean, Paul himself was a sinner. He admitted it. He talked about foolish things that he had done when he wrote the Corinthians in the Second Letter. So, that’s not the part that’s inspired, but what he says is, it’s revealed propositional truth, and a good place to begin to define exactly what the gospel is, but note the short statement that Paul made. And we’ll land the plane there and talk more about it tomorrow. That we are saved, not by the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, the son of God. And that’s it. Period. You can think about that. Amen.

It’s Wednesday. And sometimes on Wednesdays, when I have a little bit of time, I’ll take some time to answer some of the questions that you, by the way, we get so many questions from you guys, and we love them all, and you, we take your question and you seriously. You can ask a question. Anytime you want, 24 seven, you just call 1-800-KEY-LIFE and record your questions. Sometimes we put that on the air in your actual voice, or you can send your question to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
Maitland, Florida 32794

If you live in Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

Or you can email your question to [email protected] And if you can help us financially, please do. I realize that so many of you can’t or don’t feel called to, and that’s okay. Say a prayer for this ministry, but when you help us, you help a lot of other people, and that makes you a champion. So if you can be as generous as you can and we’ll rise up and call you blessed. All right. This is an email question. “How do I know if I’m living God’s will or my will?” You don’t. You know, I’ve got some good news for you. Forget it, you know, sometimes you’re doing it right. And sometimes you’re not, sometimes you’re doing God’s will, and sometimes you’re not doing God’s will, but let me tell you what Jesus said, which is the good news. The good news is this. If anyone’s will, is to do his will, he will know. In other words you may not know in a cognitive way, like these are the three things that I’m supposed to do today, or this is the job I’m supposed to take next week, but you will know as you live your life, that this is the will of God and you’re following it. That’s a promise. So what are you supposed to do? Quit worrying about it. Quit looking at your navel with time, quit trying to analyze everything. Live your life. My life’s verse is from Ecclesiastes and it’s this,

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.

God arranges the circumstances, he is, as it were, a poker player, dealing the cards. You play those cards as best you can. Sometimes you’ll do well. And sometimes you won’t. But you let him determine the direction in which you go and do as you desire. My late mentor, Fred Smith used to say, it was funny to him. It was kind of like God took a bunch of toys, put them down on the floor in the front of us and said, go at it, enjoy it, do what you want, have fun. And we refused because we don’t know which toy we’re supposed to play with, which direction to go. And Fred would say, that’s crazy. We worry too much about the will of God. And there’s one other thing that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, and this is what he said.

This is the will of God, your sanctification.

In other words, the will of God is that you be set apart, sanctified as it were for whatever he has to you. And so let me suggest a prayer to you and you’ll find it helpful. Lord, without any exception or reservation, I place myself on the alter before you, as a sacrifice, a sacrifice of worship. I’ll be it, an unworthy sacrifice, wherever you want to send me, whatever you want me to do. I’m for it. And then God will say, well, good for you, now go out and live your life and quit worrying about whether or not you’re doing my will. I’ve told you probably several times about my wife Anna. When we were in college and we were dating, I didn’t have any money. I was running a laundry and getting 3 cents a shirt and trying to, trying to pay for a college. I didn’t have a car. I didn’t have any money. I would say to Anna, I wish I had some money, so I could take you to dinner or to a movie or something. And she said to me, what she said to me on a number of times in the many years we’ve been married. She said, honey, I don’t care where we go. As long as I’m with you. Take that to God and then quit worrying. Gotta go. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.