This is the book of Galatians for beginners - the official title
of the series - this is lesson number 1 in that series.
And, of course, usually the introduction and the outline I try to do
in the first lesson. I want to begin
by saying that one of the very first attacks against Christianity
came directly against the Gospel itself, from
people within the church. You would think that the
attack against the gospel would come from outside the church, but the very
first really dangerous attack came from people who were members
of the church.
The attack that I'm talking about came from Jewish Christians who began to
insist that Gentiles - the Jews - there were the Jews and then there was
everybody else. So the Jews saw the world pretty much in two parts.
There's us, the Jews, and then the Gentiles. Everybody else, didn't matter
what nationality or country, if you were not a Jew, you were a Gentile.
Jewish Christians began to insist that
Gentiles who wanted to become Christians had to become
Jews first, before becoming Christians. This was one of the very
first attacks against the gospel in the very young
church. This meant that for a Gentile to become a Christian,
that person first - a man - had to be circumcised, and
then could be baptized. This is the proposal. This was
the teaching that began to emerge in certain parts, in
certain churches, in the Galatian region anyway, we'll talk about that in a second.
Gentile Christians in the region of Galicia were being
influenced by this pressure. And so Paul writes this epistle, epistle to the
Galatians, to respond to the problems that were being caused by this
particular teaching. So in this epistle, in our study, I have
several goals that I want us to pursue. First of all we're going to examine the
implications and dangers of this type of teaching, certainly for the Galatians, as
well as the dangers of the spirit of this teaching in every
generation.
There's no one around today that is forcing people to be circumcised in order to become
Christians. That's gone - that's gone away. But the spirit
of that remains. People who insist on certain
pre-qualifications before you become a Christian. Certain
pre-qualification that are not in the Bible. Things that men have made up.
So the spirit of that idea still lives with us today. And Galatians is a great book, great
epistle, to learn how to kind of counter that type of spirit.
Also want to review Paul's teaching on the doctrine of Justification by
Faith, which is the heart and soul of the gospel. Some people say, wait a minute, justification by
faith, isn't that a Baptist doctrine? No, that's a Bible doctrine.
Justification by Faith is the heart and soul of the gospel. And Paul -
remember I told you in another class, every book has a theme. And if you know what the
themes are, even if you can't memorize all the scriptures in that book, if you understand what the
themes of every book are, when something comes up and you're studying or discussing something
with someone, if you sense that they're having an
issue, faith issues and how we're justified by faith, you know that the book
you need to look at with them is the epistle to the Galatians, because he
deals with that idea in this particular epistle.
Thirdly, we're going to study the true meaning of freedom and how it is expressed in
Christian lives. Because Paul also talks about freedom here, very much in this
epistle. And then we're going to learn about Paul's early life as a
Christian himself. All right so let's talk about Galatians. Just some basic things here.
Galatia was a Roman province in Asia Minor.
And the letter to the Galatians was actually addressed to the cities in the
southern part of Galicia where Paul had established several
congregations on his first missionary journey. So there was no church named
"church of Galatia". Galatia was a region, there were many churches in that region.
So this letter is to all those churches in that region.
There are four that we know of. All of them established between
44 and 47 A.D. in what is now known as modern day Turkey.
The four congregations that we know of:
Antioch, we read about that in Acts 13;
Iconium, Acts 13:51; Lystra Acts 14:8; and Derbe, Acts 14:19-21.
Those are the four congregations
in Galatia to whom this epistle is addressed.
As Luke tells the story in Acts 13, the Jews, they were happy to hear the
good news of Jesus Christ. These Jews who were scattered throughout the
Roman Empire were happy to receive Paul and to hear of the coming of the
Messiah. So they were, they accepted that good news, many of them. They
became offended, however, and jealous when they realized that the
Gentiles, right,
remember I told you those are non-Jews of any nationality. They became upset when
they realized that the Gentiles were also included in the promise of
God. And they also were accepting Christ in great
numbers. Because as far as the Jews were concerned, the Messiah, that's our Messiah.
We're the ones waiting for the Messiah. We're the ones that put the work in. The prophets. And we're
the ones that have been punished, and we're the ones that were - the exodus, and in the
desert. We're the ones. He's our Messiah, not your messiah.
So there was trouble there at the beginning.
This protest by the Jews took the form
of a group that insisted that if the Gentiles were to become Christians,
they had to first obey Jewish laws and customs
to earn that right. So a lot of it was cultural.
A certain cultural pride mixed with religious fervor.
So this probably involved circumcision, and obedience to food laws, and
various Jewish religious customs, and so on and so forth.
So upon his return, talking about Paul now, upon his return to Jerusalem from
that region and from the work that he had done
there, Paul goes back to Jerusalem to report on his ministry.
Now, Paul is faced with this backlash in the
form of a group within the church referred to as the circumcision party.
They were called either Judaizers or circumcision parties. Judaizers because they wanted
people to embrace Judaism before they became Christians. Circumcision party
because the focal point of their message was, the battleground if you
wish, was the necessity to be circumcised before you
were baptized.
So in Acts Chapter 15 we read about Paul and the other apostles, as
well as the elders in the church in Jerusalem, discussing and
trying to resolve this matter. At this meeting Paul recounts
the blessings and power of God in preaching to the Gentiles. He tells them,
look what we've done. We've done miracles among the Gentiles. They're accepting Christ in numbers. We've
planted churches. Surely this can't be wrong.
And he is saying to the apostles that his ministry among them was legitimately ordained
by God. In addition to this God, through the Spirit, sent Barnabas and I
out to do this very work.
As a matter of fact, he's also recounting that he was originally called to
this work. That's why he was called. And during that meeting in
Acts 15 Peter also stands with Paul and confirms that Paul had,
indeed, been sent specifically to the Gentiles
by God's command. What's really interesting about
Acts 15 is that Paul the apostle, who had done miracles, he
speaks. And Peter the apostle, he speaks. And yet it's
left to James - never heard any miracles from James. He wasn't an
apostle. And yet he was a leader of the church.
James, one of the elders, stands up and he's the one that
makes the suggestion that they should write a letter to the church where the Gentiles are,
confirming Paul's ministry among them and reassuring them that they not be troubled
by any requirement to be circumcised. So this letter was delivered
to the church at Antioch. Antioch was not in the
Galatian region, it was in the north there. But there was a mixture of Jews and Gentiles in that
particular church. So the letter to the Galatians
was written soon after this meeting.
That's the point. That's why I'm mentioning this meeting. The elders, the apostles
discuss it, come to a solution, write a letter of instruction to the church
in Antioch, not requiring the Gentiles to be circumcised.
And so based on this, Paul, himself, writes
another letter and this time addresses it to the churches in Galatia.
Around 50, 51 A.D.
And what's interesting also, is that the letter to the Galatians, is not the
earliest of the New Testament books, certainly one of the earliest
New Testament writings to be circulated. We start Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - we think, oh
Matthew was the first letter. Well, no. Matthew was not the first
letter written. It's grouped together with the
gospel records. I think Matthew, simply because
he's addressing the Jews.
Mark's addressing the Gentiles, so to speak.
Luke is giving history. John is talking from a philosophical perspective.
The gospel from a philosophical perspective. Anyways, the idea is that the letter to the
Galatians may have been one of the earliest letters to begin circulating in the churches.
And it was important because the Gospel itself was being
attacked. If the Judaizers and the circumcision party, if they won
they would destroy what had been established by the
apostles thus far.
So the objective that Paul is trying to accomplish with the letter is to explain to
the Galatians several things. He wants to
explain to them the blessings that accompany salvation. That
these blessings were earned by Jesus's perfect faith and obedience.
And this is the most important teaching in the New Testament
concerning salvation. If someone were to say to you, I want you to rank the importance of
teachings - the number one most important
teaching concerning the gospel is that it is Jesus
who makes restitution for all sin on the cross. And that
His work on the cross fulfills completely
God's requirement for man's salvation. You attack that, you
take that apart, you've got nothing left. And I'll show you why a little later on.
Also, that we obtained the blessings because we are associated, or
united, or identified to Christ by faith.
That's the other important idea: we're associated with Him. We're in
Christ. There's so many different ways of saying the same thing and I've said that to you before and in
different classes. The Bible says sometimes the same idea. It gives it different words,
different approaches, always talking about the same thing.
And so the blessings that we receive, we receive because we are in Christ,
identified with Christ, believe in Christ, have faith in Christ. You can say
it 10 different ways. It's always the same thing.
And that faith is expressed biblically through
repentance, and baptism, and of course, faithfulness to Christ.
Thirdly, third idea, third objective:
we cannot earn these blessings by works of the law, or
ceremony, or benevolence apart from Christ.
And finally, those who try to do it this way, will fail. And not only fail,
they'll be condemned for it and you'll see how Paul, how strongly he words this
condemnation. If you look at the back of your sheet,
you have the
outline for this epistle. Very simple outline.
There is the greeting, which we will take a look at tonight - chapter 1: 1-5.
The rebuke.
The rebuke, meaning he's rebuking that church -
those churches - for beginning to fall
away and beginning to adopt these ideas that have
penetrated the church. Then there is the personal history,
Paul's personal history and there's a reason he gives his own personal history because
in attacking the gospel, the people who were teaching this were also attacking
him and his legitimacy. So he gives a bit of background
about himself. Then, of course, the meat of this
epistle, the heart and soul of it, a discourse on justification by faith.
Chapter 2:15 through 4:31. Right here brothers and sisters, this is
the heart and soul. You want to peel the onion? Go right to the center? It's right there. And then of course
exhortations, at the end, greetings. So let's
do the greeting tonight. We'll have time to do the greeting, beginning in chapter 1, verse 1
He says, "Paul an apostle
(not sent from men nor through the agency of men, but through Jesus Christ and God the
Father, who raised Him from the dead.)" So Paul
reaffirms his position as apostle because the Judaizers - and I'm going
to go back and forth. I'm not going to explain this too many times. When I say the Judaizers, when I say the
circumcision party, I'm talking about the same people. Because the
Judaizers in questioning the Gospel to the
Gentiles, as I mentioned before, they were also questioning Paul's
legitimacy. What he's preaching is not really the Gospel. We've got the
Gospel. So you attack Paul's teaching, you're attacking him too.
Now he did this in letters where his authority was questioned. In other words, he showed his credentials -
as a genuine apostle. And he did this
where, as I say, his authority was questioned or where he was not well-known. The
letter to the Romans, for example, he didn't know those people. First and Second
Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, right. But he
refrained from doing this in churches where he was already accepted.
Philippians, he goes straight into a compliment.
He goes straight into loving on the Philippians, because he knew them and they knew him, they accepted him.
First and Second Thessalonians, same idea.
He reminds them, first of all, that his apostleship was received from Jesus
Christ and God in the same way as the other apostles
received their apostleship from Jesus.
He doesn't say, I got my apostleship the same way as Peter did, but that's what
he's implying. If you accept Peter's authority, well, you accept mine too, because
I've gotten my commission the same way Peter got his commission - directly from
Jesus.
In other words, he was not appointed by the church council. You may be wondering
why was I talking about the church council in the meeting in Acts 15? He wanted to let the
Galatian churches know he wasn't some sort of envoy from the
apostles to give this message. He was an apostle. He had
legitimacy. He didn't need a letter of recommendation from the church in Jerusalem
to say and teach what he was teaching. And also he was not
appointed by Peter as a messenger. Notice he says the agent I've
not sent from men or through the agency of man. Meaning the other
apostles, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father. They're the
ones who appointed me, he says, as an apostle.
Now, it's important to establish this because apostleship gave
one the right to speak with authority in the name of Jesus. And Paul
claims this authority based on his legitimate and genuine apostleship received
from Christ. And here's what's not written here, unlike the
Judaizers.
They didn't receive any approval from any of the apostles or any
divine appointment from anyone. They were self-appointed. So he begins on the attack
right away. Very first line - offense - he begins with an
offense. So Paul does not deny the apostleship of the
other apostles, but he does not recognize any authority over
himself by any other group or apostle except the Gospel
itself and Jesus Himself. Those are the authority. The gospel's the authority over me.
Jesus is the authority over me, not the other apostles and certainly not the Judaizers.
So his reference to the resurrection, is the mark of the true apostle,
the personal witness of this event. He mentions it not as
doctrine, but as one who confirms this doctrine as a chosen eyewitness.
He says, through Jesus Christ who raised him from the dead. He's not
teaching, you ought to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. That's not what he's doing
here. He is saying, I saw Jesus raised from the dead. I
saw the risen Jesus and the only apostles that have
authority are the ones that saw the risen Jesus.
That's what he's saying here.
If anyone says, who gives you the right to be an apostle? Well, I saw the risen Jesus.
That's what gives me the right. And, of course,
his authority in doing miracles and so on and so forth to confirm his apostleship.
Verse two, we did say this was a textual study - verse
two. "And all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:"
We don't know who the quote brothers with him are, only that they're -
they share in the greeting. Paul reserves the title "churches
in God or Christ" in addressing the Galatians since they are on
the road to apostasy. He doesn't refer to them as that. He merely refers to them
as churches located in Galatia. In other places
he says, "to the church in Christ, to the church of God, at Philippi, or here
or there. But when he's talking to these guys he doesn't say that. He says the churches,
those groups that are in Galicia. It's correct, it's geographical, but it's not
complimentary.
So he's talking to those churches - Iconium, Lystra, Derbe.
Versus three to four he says, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father in the Lord
Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this
present evil age, according to the will of God and Father."
So he offers a usual blessing that they receive favor from God
and the peace that comes with the favor. This favor and peace
is connected to Jesus Christ of whom Paul says two things here.
One, that He is Lord. He uses the term to
signify deity and equality with God. The term "curios" in
the Greek. The term "curios" originally had secondary
meanings, but Jesus and later on the apostles and disciples came
to use this word when referring to Jesus and His divinity.
And then the second thing that he says about Jesus, very briefly, is that He
reviews the work of salvation and its ultimate results
that Jesus has accomplished. What work is that?
Well, first of all, that He offered Himself as a sacrifice for sins. Now he's going
to build his argument on this basis later on in this epistle. So we need to kind of
keep that in mind. Remember how Paul writes, and I've told you this in other epistles.
He sets up like an idea over here. He kind of sets it up and he explains it.
And then he snaps another idea over here and explains that. And then he builds a bridge to
another idea with a word or phrase and you've got another idea. And then he'll add
another layer of ideas in order to give you the whole picture.
So now he's laying down two basic ideas. One, that
Jesus is the Lord. And then secondly, the
work that He's done; that He has offered Himself as a sacrifice. This is the core of the
gospel, the atoning death, the payment of death, the earning of forgiveness by
Jesus on our behalf. A lot of times what people - the mistake that people
make is that they confuse repentance with restitution.
They think that their repentance needs to consist of
restitution. The restitution part, what
people owe God, the moral debt that they owe God for
their sins - the restitution - Jesus makes 100 percent of
the restitution required for all of our sins
through His cross.
That's basic - that's a hundred percent. He makes restitution.
Someone will say, well, what's repentance, then? Well, repentance is the recognition that you
caused that cross. The recognition that you are a sinner.
The recognition that you can't live this life. The decision that you will
begin to live your life in the knowledge and the
understanding that you're a sinner and you need Jesus Christ
to make restitution for you. Someone says, well, don't you try to get
better? Sure. Of course. I used to take drugs. I don't take drugs anymore.
I used to swear, I try not to swear anymore. Except when I'm playing golf and then it's a little
more difficult. But anyway, you know what I'm saying.
I was sexually impure. Well, now I'm going to work on being sexually
pure and try to avoid temptations.
But doing that doesn't make restitution
for my sins in the past.
The cross makes restitution for my sins in the past and my sins in the future.
Well then, what am I doing repenting? I am saying to God,
I believe. That's what I'm doing when I repent.
Every time I say no to this temptation or to this failing I am saying,
I believe God. I believe and I'm wanting to demonstrate my faith
by actively pursuing righteousness and holiness.
So many people, their Christian life is so
burdensome, because they think that their repentance is actually
making restitution for what they have done. And you know what, sometimes you can make
restitution.
I stole 20 dollars out of the wallet of a friend of mine, when I was a kid. And when I became a Christian I said,
you know buddy, 10 years ago I did a bad thing. I took money out of your
pocket and I just want to give you back 20 and I'm giving you 50 in interest - whatever.
You're making some sort of restitution, but could you really make restitution for everything?
We know that, right?
You had an abortion. How are you going to make restitution for that?
You told a lie about somebody. How are you going to make restitution for that?
You hurt yourself. You hurt your parents.
You put your parents in the poorhouse because of your crazy life.
How are you going to make restitution for that? They're dead.
So we need to understand that it's the cross of Christ that makes all the
restitution for our sins. My repentance
is a continual act of faith that I'm saying, I
believe God. And I'll show you I believe, because I'm making an effort to do what is right and to live
righteously. And with the Holy Spirit's help I grow in that ability.
So, back to Galatians.
What is he saying about salvation? Well, that Jesus offers Himself as the sacrifice, as the restitution for sin.
And then, B. That His sacrifice enables our salvation. It's
what it makes possible. He delivers us from the evil
age, sin, condemnation. Say it any way that you wish.
The work of Jesus and subsequent gospel is what sheds light in the world of
darkness, and ignorance, and sinfulness. Before Jesus came, the world
truly was in darkness and ignorance of God's will. They didn't know what God's will was.
The Jews were the only light. In the Bible,
they called the Jews "the light of the Gentiles".
They're the only ones that had light, that had
truth. And Christianity is the religion of
light and truth.
You don't believe that? Take a look at the other countries that have different religions. I don't mean different types
of Christianity.
I mean Hinduism and and Islam - so look at
those countries, look at those nations.
See the difference.
And then he says, and all of this is done according to the will and the
purpose of God. All of human history has worked towards
this end, Paul says to them. So in verse five
he says, "to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen."
Man was created in order to give glory to God. If your
teenager ever says to you, mom, dad, why am I here? And a lot of
times the parents don't know what to answer. Well, I don't know. Maybe if you go to college you'll understand
Perhaps you'll become an engineer and maybe you'll - no.
You are here to glorify God. As a homemaker, as
a doctor, as an engineer, as a lawyer, as a cop, as a tradesman, as a
plumber, as a nurse, as a banker,
as a preacher, as a teacher.
You are here to glorify God. Boy, if parents could just get that idea
into the psyche of young people, the rest of it will take care of itself.
This is the basic meaning to life -
giving God glory and honor. And in finding that meaning, man finds
peace and joy, and a sense of purpose, and eternal life.
Paul recognizes this fact and he reaffirms it in his greeting and also in
his assessment of the things done by God for man through Christ.
God deserves glory for what He has done. And He receives the glory that
He is due through the countless number of saints who glorify Him because of
and through Jesus Christ. Every time I say no to sin, every time I lift my
voice in song, every time I serve, in the name of Christ, a glass of cold
water to someone; two dollars to the guy on the side of the road who is panhandling;
everything done in the name of Christ, glorifies God.
Why does this make me happy and satisfied? Because that's why I'm here.
God is so glorious. I mean if He doesn't receive
glory, the universe will blow up.
What do you think Jesus meant when he said, if these little kids don't cry out to me, these
rocks - the rocks themselves are going to begin praising me.
God's creation must honor Him
in some way. And imagine, we've been created in order
to experience that giving of honor which gives to us
the highest level of our being, the highest level of our feeling, of our
nature.
And then he says, Amen.
Amen comes from the Hebrew word which meant surely, or to be firm, or steady or
trustworthy. The Anglicized version
of the Hebrew word amen, pronounced
"aw-mane" in Hebrew and was translated to Greek and Latin and
English.
It wasn't actually translated, it was transliterated. Like baptism - baptizo - the Greek word
baptizo. If they translated baptizo, it would be
"to immerse" - repent and be immersed in the name of Jesus, but they didn't
do that. When the translators came to that word, they didn't translate it, they
transliterated it. They just made an English word out of the Greek word.
So baptizo became baptized.
Well, in the same way aw-mane instead of verily and truly, it just became
amen. It was transliterated. It became an English word.
Used as a responsive formula with which the Jewish listener
acknowledged the validity of an oath, or a curse, or a willingness to
accept the consequences. Now the New Testament usage
as agreement with an offering of praise or blessing is how we use it now. It
was used in synagogue worship in this way. And as the
Jews were converted, the saying of amen at the end of praise, and
blessings, and prayers, and teaching, and so on and so forth, it kind of filtered into Christian
worship. The Jews began saying it, but eventually Christians began to
say the same thing.
Paul uses it in this way at the end of his greeting, confirming that it is a sure
and trustworthy thing
that Jesus died for our sins - amen, verily, truly,
for sure, absolutely. That Jesus was resurrected -
amen, verily, truly, for sure, absolutely. That this was
all done according to God's will - verily, truly, surely, of course.
That God deserves glory for all of this - amen, verily, truly, absolutely, for sure.
So Jesus used it to underscore His words and prophesy.
Many times Jesus would begin something by saying, "verily, verily I say unto
you." Well, what He was saying was, amen and amen I say unto you.
So He used it in that way. The apostles used that in their writings in
regards of blessings and praise and teachings. Amen to this or that.
The early church used it to signal their approval of what was being preached
and emphasized their faith in what was being taught. So if the prophet, or the teacher
or the evangelist, or the apostle was teaching, the church would say amen -
we agree, we accept, this is true, this is of God. So to
say amen in church, this is a biblical,
respectful, encouraging way to
demonstrate agreement and enthusiasm for what is being prayed about, or
taught, or preached, or sung. We need more of it.
So if you want to show approval or joy in worship and have the
chance - there's this big argument about applauding in church, right?
I've seen people write articles about it. I've seen churches almost split over the idea.
Something happens in church and some people applaud, some say, that's a
sin. You're not allowed to applaud.
How do we resolve this? Well, I think we resolve this by
understanding that applause is the secular way
of demonstrating agreement or approval. Saying
amen, is the biblical way of saying
approval, or agreement, or praise. Can both be
used? Sure. Of course. We're not offending anyone.
But if I wanted - if I wish to approve
something that is Biblical, I'll say amen, because
amen is the biblical way to confirm something.
If somebody has a 50th anniversary and somebody announces brother so-and-so and sister
so-and-so have their 50th anniversary, some people applaud.
Well, yeah. Sure, I approve. I'm happy for you.
Not necessarily a quote biblical doctrine or biblical thing -
that somebody has managed to stay married for 50 years.
And we certainly shouldn't divide over those things, but at least let's understand the difference. One is secular.
And one is biblical.
We'll stop there. I said we'd just do verses one to five.
So this is the nature of this class. If you've kind of come in to
see what it's like. This is what it's like. Line by line, verse by verse.