Intro to Galatians

Today, we start a new series of messages from the book of Galatians. The goal today will be to give you an overview of this letter written by the Apostle Paul and then we’ll look at the first 9 verses.

One of the challenging things as we read these letters written to a specific group of people at a specific time in history is knowing how to exactly apply them to the time and place we live today. Sometimes there are cultural issues that might seem strange to us, likewise, we have some things in our culture that would be quite strange to the church at the time of this letter.

One of the major pieces we’ll see dealt with in this letter that is a somewhat settled thought in the church is the idea of grafting in gentiles with the Jewish people in one church. While we are not requiring circumcision as a requirement to join the church like Paul heard the Galatians were doing, we too must take care not to require meeting the standard of law before becoming part of the body.

This is really the major theme of this letter. Paul covers this in chapters 3-6 from various perspectives. He uses contrasting items to make clear what the Gospel is about and what it is not about. Here are some of those contrasts:

True Gospel vs. False Gospel (we’ll see this in our passage today)

Faith vs. works in chapter 2 and 3

Law vs grace and Liberty vs legalism - chapter 3 (Tendency toward one or the other)

Sonship and freedom vs slavery chapter 4 and 5

Fruit of the Spirit vs desire of the flesh - chapter 5

Condemnation vs Restoration - chapter 6

All throughout this letter, Paul is setting them straight on how an improper focus on the law as a means of salvation and justification is not the Gospel. Instead there is a freedom in Christ that doesn’t negate the Law, however, it sets us free from the bondage of it.

Our salvation and justification is by faith in Christ alone…not in works.

The confusion around these point of works vs faith has Paul really upset. He’s so upset that his normal thankfulness for the church that we see in other letters is missing. He gets right to the purpose of his writing which is to correct them. Look at this passage in chapter 4...

Galatians 4:19–20 NIV

19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!

Paul feels like he is in pain…the pain of childbirth…again because of this issue. This issue has Paul perplexed about them. I would add that the tone and subject matter of this letter has Paul really worried and concerned for their walk. They are not staying true to the Gospel as they’ve allowed others to “add” to the Gospel of Jesus.

The meat of this letter and his concern for them is in chapters 3-6. Aaron and I were talking about this book as we were planning out this series and we both really just want to get to the meat of chapter 3, but that would leave out two chapters that God saw fit to include. To exclude any passage of scripture would be deserving of a letter like this from a man of God like Paul. Since we are not a church who picks and chooses scripture, we are a church who honors all of God’s word, we’ll spend a few weeks in Galatians 1 and 2.

We’ll see in these first two chapters a laying out of Paul’s credentials to be able to speak to the church about their shortcomings. We don’t really see this in any of the other letters in this way.

The short explanation of this is that this letter was likely the first of the letters Paul would write to the various churches. Here is a quick overview of Paul’s life up to this point. These are all events that are spoken of in the book of Acts...

In Acts 9, we see Paul’s conversion. This was around 34 AD

Acts 9 also tells us that he would spends the next 10-12 years preparing for ministry and preaching Jesus in Jerusalem, Damascus and Tarsus.

A few chapters later in Acts 13 and 14, we see Paul be sent out on his Missionary journey where he would preach and set up churches in various towns. This would have been around 47-48 AD. It is believed that it was during this time that he helped establish the church that this letter is written to.

It is thought that toward the end of this missionary journey, Paul heard about what was happening in Galatia and he likely wrote this letter sometime in 48-49 AD. In 49 AD, after this letter, the other apostles would meet at the Jerusalem council and would settle this issue of circumcision of Gentiles once and for all.

Since that word from all of the Apostles had not come yet, Paul needed to address it with the church in Galatia.

But who is this Paul, and what authority does he have? That was really the question that needed to be answered. In a way, it is a question to be answered by anyone who speaks or preaches God’s word. We have to know that we can trust the person. We have to know that the person is not just giving their own opinion.

This is why we ordain people into the ministry. We are in effect saying that through our examination and relationship with the person, we believe they are called to the ministry they are being ordained into. It’s why we have a process by which we select and ordain elders in this church.

We don’t just let anyone come and preach or teach. We have know that they are going to represent the right gospel. That Jesus will be glorified and taught.

Paul spends the first few chapters laying out why what he has to say about freedom in the Gospel can be believed and taken as truth.

We’ll talk more about that in coming weeks.

Let’s take a look at the first 9 verses of Galatians 1.

Galatians 1:1–2 NIV

1 Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—2 and all the brothers and sisters with me, To the churches in Galatia:

Paul used this introduction as an apostle in most of the letters he wrote, but this was likely the first time he did. He makes clear that he was sent in this role not by men or a single man, but by Jesus and God himself.

This is an important distinction and claim made by Paul. This gives weight to his words that might not otherwise be there. There is an authority in these words.

Look at verse 2…these words are not just Paul’s words, but they also come from the brother’s and sister’s who are with him. Some of them are likely those who brought the news of this departure from the Gospel to Paul. They likely had a conversation and prayed about this situation and agreed that Paul should write a letter to them in response.

This happens here at Crossroads sometimes. The elders will receive word about a certain situation and we’ll appoint someone to go and address that situation. Many times it’s me because of my role, but we do so prayerfully and in unity together…just as I suspect this letter was written in that way.

Galatians 1:3–5 NIV

3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

This is all the greeting they get. Many of the other letters have 10 or more verses dedicated to his thankfulness for them or some positive aspect of their faith. Here Paul gets right to it. This truly sums up the point of this letter. “Jesus gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age.”

If you hear nothing else today, hear this. Jesus gave himself for you, for your sins, that you might be rescued from this present evil age.

Paul will spend a lot of time pointing out some of their error and the contrasting truth of the Gospel, but here Paul just lays out the truth.

Often we think we need to point fingers to that which is wrong, but a better strategy is just to point to what is right…to make Jesus the focus of our words and attention. When they train treasury agents to be able to detect counterfeit money, they spend a majority of their time handling and examining the real deal.

Spurgeon said this about this verse.

The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. XLII The Object of Christ’s Death (No. 2,483)

I have heard of one who preached much against certain errors, but there was another servant of the Lord who never preached against those errors, but who always proclaimed the gospel right out straight; and when one asked him why he did not attack the errors, he said, “I do preach against them most effectually. If there is a crooked stick about, and you want to show how many crooks there are in it, you need not do anything except lay a straight one down by the side of it, and the crookedness of the other stick will be detected at once.” So the apostle admires, extols, and adores the Lord Jesus Christ, and thus, in the best possible manner, introduces what he has to say concerning the errors of the Galatians. Oh, for a burst of sunlight from the face of Christ! Then would the shadows of to-day soon fly away. They who have never seen him may love modern novelties and falsehoods; but if they have beheld his face, and have been won by his charms, they will hold that he who is the same yesterday, and to-day and for ever, is infinitely to be preferred to all the inventions of men. I could say no less than this when I noticed the position in which our text is placed.

It is better to take hold of the truth, examine it, trust it, love it, recite it and make it our focus rather than to examine the lies.

Galatians 1:6–9 NIV

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

Paul is pretty emphatic here about what he thinks about those who would try to lead God’s people astray. Who would try to preach a gospel that is contrary to the Gospel of Jesus.

I think this happens in subtle ways at times even in the most well meaning churches. If we are not careful, we can place additional requirement on people for their salvation.

Salvation is by faith and not works, but if you’re really saved you’ll come to small group.

Justification is by faith and not works, but we’re going to require you to give if you want to come to our church...

Jesus and…fill in the blank. It’s not Jesus and... it’s Jesus.

Now with that said, there is this tension that exists within the followers of Christ. We end up doing things, we do good works, because of our faith in Christ, not to justify our faith in Christ.

We read God’s word, not because it saves us, but because we get to know our savior better by reading it.

We pursue holiness not because that gets us into heaven, but because it puts us in unity with the Holy Spirit who is in us.

I think we can sometimes overlay our experiences with authority onto what we think our experience will be with God.

I grew up thinking that the only way to please my mother and father was to be perfect. I’m not saying that it was their fault, they loved me and did the best they can, with overlaying their childhood experiences onto their parenting…but I can say that through counseling over the years, I’ve realized that this idea that I have to be perfect has at time crept into my relationship with m heavenly father.

When I am not perfect…news flash…it’s often…I am hard on myself and I miss the grace and freedom that is in Christ. He has given himself for all of my sin to rescue me. That was verse 4, not only that, but he has called me to live in the grace of Christ - verse 6.

When I add perfectionism to my worldview lens, I am taking away from the Gospel of Christ. I am perverting the gospel. Does that mean I can do what I want…no way! It does mean that as I pursue a relationship with Christ, grace will abound. As I work out my salvation, Christ will be there to pick me up, give me a pat on the back and encourage me to be more like him the next time.

***Slide for this:

Christ wants to rescue you. He wants to set you free. He wants to pour out his grace on your life.

***Possible Altar call and prayer - leave slide up during

Series Title Slide after