Galatians 1:1-5...

1 "Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead—2 "and all the brothers who are with me: To the churches of Galatia. 3 "Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 "who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. 5 "To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” ()

The theme of this whole book is that salvation is by the free grace of God received through faith in the righteousness of Christ apart from any works of the law.

Purpose:

First, to emphasize again the very heart of the gospel, justification by faith alone in Christ’s righteousness apart from the works of the law.

Second, to call the Galatian Christians to prove the reality of their spirituality through living by faith in Christ, a life in which the fruit of the Spirit would abound.

Third, to destroy the message of the Judaizers by showing that it was a false gospel.

Today we’re just going to look at the introduction ok?

1 "Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead—” ()

So he starts off with an immediate assertion of the immediate divine origin of his apostleship and of the gospel he preached (v. 12).

Who was first named Saul, but Paul is what he called himself. It was a very common Roman name.

The word “Apostle” means “messenger”. These are messengers uniquely sent by the risen Christ and bearing His delegated authority.

Paul claims the authority of an apostle to lay the foundation of the church (; ; , ; ; ).

His apostleship and calling came directly from God Himself (1:11–2:10).

And where does Paul say he got his apostleship?

1 "Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead—” ()

2 "and all the brothers who are with me: To the churches of Galatia.” ()

So Paul had some brothers with him in service with him, those who are in agreement with his doctrine.

3 "Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 "who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” ()

To help Christians—especially recovering Pharisees—rediscover the gospel of grace,

where should one start?

Well, before receiving the gospel again for the first time, people have to know what the gospel is.

So the obvious place to start is with the gospel itself.

This is precisely where Paul begins his letter to the Galatians.

He starts with the good news about the cross and the empty tomb.

The gospel is made up of these two great saving events—the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Whenever Paul preached the good news, he started with the facts.

He simply recounted what Jesus Christ had done in human history to save his people from their sins.

This is the strategy he adopted when he wrote to the Corinthians:

1 "Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand 2 "and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 "For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 "that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” ()

Paul adopted a similar strategy when he wrote to the Galatians,

only this time he started with the fact of the resurrection:

“Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” ().

This Jesus was no ordinary man. But He was indeed a man (read ).

This Jesus is the God-man whom God the Father raised from the dead.

This proved God’s victory over death. But the resurrection didn’t take away our sins.

This is where v4, the crucifixion comes in.

Paul describes this saving event by saying that the Lord Jesus Christ 4 "who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” ()

First, it shows the willingness of Jesus to go to the cross.

The crucifixion was a voluntary self-sacrifice.

Jesus gave the most precious gift of all. He “gave himself” ().

He “gave himself up” (), or he “gave himself for us” ().

No one took Christ’s life away from him; he freely gave it away: 17 "This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. 18 "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”” ()

This is also emphasized in the gospel of Matthew, where an unusual phrase is used

to show that at the moment of His death Jesus “yielded up His spirit” ().

Second, this verse shows the purpose of the cross.

The reason Christ gave himself away was “for our sins” ().

A transaction took place on the cross.

We were the ones who deserved to die because we owe God an infinite debt for our sin.

But Christ took our place on the cross.

He became our substitute, our sin-offering.

He gathered up all our sins,

put them on His own shoulders, and

paid for them with His death.

Thus the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was not merely an example of supreme sacrifice,

but an actual atonement for sin.

It enabled God to forgive us by satisfying His pure justice.

We learn from this substitutionary atonement how impossible it is to pay for our own sins.

Full atonement requires nothing less than the blood of Jesus Christ, the very God.

Our confidence lies in the fact that Jesus gave his lifeblood for our own personal sins.

Third, this verse shows the effect of the cross. Christ was crucified “to deliver us from the present evil age” ().

When we think of the cross, we usually think first of the atonement.

As we have seen, Christ died to pay for our sins.

But Christ was also crucified to deliver/set us free from this evil age.

The gospel is a rescue, like being released from servitude or freed from prison.

By “the present evil age,” Paul means the course and current of this world’s affairs as corrupted by sin.

Meaning the totality of human life dominated by sin and opposed to God.

Ours is an age of

corruption,

decay, and

death.

It is dominated by the evils of

war,

murder,

oppression,

slavery,

incest, and

abortion.

Jesus died on the cross to save us from all of it, not just individually,

but together, as a new humanity.

Fourth, this verse shows the origin of the cross. Christ died “according to the will of our God and Father” ().

The execution of Jesus of Nazareth was not an unforeseen tragedy,

a mere accident of history;

it was part of God’s plan for the salvation of sinners.

The apostle Peter said as much to the very men who nailed Jesus to the cross.

In his famous sermon in Jerusalem, he declared, 23 "Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him.” ()

These facts do not contain a single word about anything we do.

They simply document what God has done in human history through Jesus Christ.

The gospel is not about what we do for God; it is about what God has done for us.

God the Father is the one who came up with the gospel plan.

God the Son is the one who made the willing sacrifice, in keeping with the Father’s will.

God the Father is the one who raised Jesus from the dead.

Together the Father and the Son accomplished our salvation through the cross;

together they announce it to the world through the teaching of the apostles;

and together they apply it to our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, all the glory goes to God, which is precisely how Paul ends the beginning of his letter:

5 "To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” ()

If salvation is God’s work from beginning to end, then all the honor and majesty belong to him forever.

Literally, His glory “is into the ages of the ages,” which,

iterally, his glory “is into the ages of the ages,” which, unlike this present evil age, will never pass away.

unlike this present evil age, will never pass away.

If all the glory goes to God, what comes to us is only grace,

which is what Paul’s letter to the Galatians is all about.

It holds out “grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” ().

These are not pious clichés; they are God’s free gifts for sinners.

Grace is the favor God has shown to undeserving sinners through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And grace is exactly what recovering Pharisees need.

We are tempted to forget, sometimes, that Jesus is all we need,

and when we forget, we need to rediscover the gospel of God’s free grace.