Galatians 1:11-17
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Announcement: (Pew Bible; pg. 1003)
There are lots of motivations and things we do to try to change our behavior. But the truth is there is only one message that can bring God-honoring change. That is the message of Jesus Christ.
One of my goals in 2020 and beyond is to begin reading more biographies.
I’ve always thought, “you know, if you’re going to read about someone’s life, read a good biography about someone who actually accomplished something! Read books about famous battles of great wars and the men and women who risked and gave their lives for our freedom.
One of the points of autobiography is to explain why the person has made the decisions they did and the rationale behind the person they are. They want you to know from first hand experience the things that shaped them and made them important people.
Salvation does Not Come from Man. ()
Salvation does Not Come from Man. ()
Paul starts off by telling them that, “…the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel...” If Paul’s gospel had come from God, it would have surely been based on some kind of works - be it the Law of Moses or any other law. Just like every other system of religion out there that depends entire upon our ability to either do or not do… That’s not the gospel that Paul preached. That’s not the Gospel that can change us for eternal good.
No, the gospel that Paul preached is the only message that can change us for eternal good.. because…
The Gospel is not Invented by Man. (vs. 12)
The Gospel is not Invented by Man. (vs. 12)
Paul says this in two ways. He did not “receive it from any man nor was I taught it...” This is probably a dig at the Judaizer teachers in Galatia. The Old Testament came by God’s revelation over the course of 1,500 years. But what had happened in the last 400 years before Christ was that rabbis had interpreted it, and then interpreted their interpretations, and then interpreted those. Instead of studying the Scriptures directly, the Jews of Jesus’ day studied the interpretations of the rabbis. The result was that human interpretation and tradition was often misunderstood as God’s revelation.
That’s not how Paul came upon the Gospel. He wasn’t taught from some rabbinical school. Instead, he tells us that....
58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.
Acts 7:
Acts 7:
Stephen’s sermon infuriated them! So much that they killed him! And guess who was there overseeing the execution? Saul - who would later become Paul! This was not a message he was willing to receive on the basis of any
The Gospel is Revealed by God.
The Gospel is Revealed by God.
The Gospel is Revealed by God.
The Gospel is Revealed by God.
His Gospel came directly from the source! Paul had seen the risen Christ on the road to Damascus and it changed everything for him! And then went back to the Scriptures themselves and studied them in light of Christ, and saw that this was God’s plan all along! His veil had been removed, and he now understood that God’s plan had always been to bring Christ into the world, to accomplish the Gospel for us, and bring about His kingdom through Christ, our risen king!
Paul had definitely heard about Jesus before! There is no way that he lived in Jerusalem and did not hear about Jesus and what he was doing. He may have even been among the Pharisees that argued and accused Jesus on many occasions. He definitely heard about Jesus from Stephen, and Stephen’s sermon had made him so mad that he oversaw his execution and began his persecution career!
But then he had a personal encounter with the Risen Christ! Paul came face to face with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus and it changed everything for him! And then went back to the Scriptures themselves and studied them in light of Christ, and saw that this was God’s plan all along! His veil had been removed, and he now understood that God’s plan had always been to bring Christ into the world, to accomplish the Gospel for us, and bring about His kingdom through Christ, our risen king!
One of my first Bible teachers, Dr. Harold Wilmington, wrote a massive book called Wilmington’s Guide to the Bible. On the first few pages he says, “The Bible is not a book that man could write if he would, and it’s not a book that man would write if he could.”
When I was in college I took a World Religions seminar. On the first day of class, the instruction had a copy of several copies of different “holy” books he would hold up and say, “This describes how the Hindus believe they can come to God.... This book describes how the Muslims believe they come to God....” After a few of those, you can imagine what happened next. He held up a copy of the Bible and said, “This book is describes how Jews and Christians come to God.” He may have been right about those other books, but the Bible is not a book that describes how we work our way to God, but how God came and revealed himself to us!
I
Paul’s Gospel came directly from the source! This is no mere human message! This is not a salvation that someone would make up. Man has had at least 6,000 years to come up with a gospel that saves! And yet, time and time again it is always some system of works righteousness. Never grace! Everything from false religion to unbiblical Christianity has one thing in common - I accomplish my own salvation.
Man has had at least 6,000 years to come up with a gospel that saves! And yet, time and time again it is always some system of works righteousness. Never grace! Everything from false religion to unbiblical Christianity has one thing in common - I accomplish my own salvation.
But what God accomplished in Paul on the Damascus Road was not some flash of personal insight, or some kind of moment of brilliant intellectual inspiration. It was an life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ! It was the beginning a a new life. The old Paul passed away. The new Saul, raised to walk in newness of life in the resurrection of Jesus emerged!
23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.
Acts
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
His work made the great accomplishment.
14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,
16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?
:14-
And this is the same thing that happens to us when we turn to Christ in faith!
He prepared us for our salvation in the Old Testament, to bring us to Christ. He has revealed his salvation to us in the Person and Work of Christ. And now, he is continuing to reveal salvation to us when our veil is removed and he brings the light of Christ into our hearts.
14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.
15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.
16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.
15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.
16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
This is something like my own testimony. I honestly cannot remember a time when I did not believe that God was real. I had no doubts about the Gospel. I just didn’t care. I just had no time for it, until the power of the Gospel came over me when I was 15, and suddenly this was something I knew my entire life was going to be changed by. That’s not accomplished by anything in me - but only the power of God through the Gospel.
Only when we turn to the Lord Jesus Christ do we have the veil removed from over our eyes that we see the truth of Christ and salvation of our soul! This can only come from God, through the Gospel of Christ!
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
We see this same truth in the life of Peter.
17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
That’s why it’s so important that even this morning - if you are beginning to understand that Christ is Lord and that His life, death, and resurrection is the only means for your salvation - if you’re beginning to think that you’ve been leaning on your own understanding, trusting in your own goodness and wisdom - it’s so important that you don’t ignore that! That is the Spirit showing you that you need a Savior! Do not ignore it! Don’t suppress it! Respond to Christ in faith!
[Transition] That is the only way you can know salvation, not only because it’s the only message from God, but because....
Salvation is not Accomplished by Man. ()
Salvation is not Accomplished by Man. ()
In verse 13, Paul is going to go into his personal testimony. This is not just something he teaches! This is not just mere, abstract thoughts about life and God! This is something that is coming from the deepest well of his soul! He knows this because possibly more than anyone, he tried to accomplish his own salvation!
It is not accomplished by What We Avoid. (vs. 13)
It is not accomplished by What We Avoid. (vs. 13)
Paul mentions his former life in Judaism. This is the common way we refer to the Jewish religion today. But this term is actually not that common in Paul’s day - especially in the New Testament. It only shows up 3x in the New Testament, and 2 of them are here! (See ) This seems to be the term that was used when they really wanted to stress the idea that “We are not like you.” Of course, you don’t need to know that to know that this is what Paul was about before his conversion. In , Paul talks about how he had impeccable credentials, and one was that he was a Pharisee. The name “Pharisee” means, “separated, or separated ones.” One of the primary ways that they thought they were right with God was by keeping themselves away from anything that they regarded as unclean.
One of the ways that this expressed itself in Paul was that he persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.” His goal was to stamp out anything that flew in the face and threatened his sense of self-righteousness. Just like anything else that flew in the face of his tradition, he wanted to get rid of it…
Look at how he describes his persecution in
9 “I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
10 And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them.
11 And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
. He thought the
He thought the
But it wasn’t just in what he sought to avoid....
Paul was so zealous that he recognized the grace of God as a threat! He “…persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it...”
It is not Accomplished by What we Achieve. (14)
It is not Accomplished by What we Achieve. (14)
He says here that we has “…advancing in Judaism beyond many that were his own age....” In a religion that stressed separation from evil and works righteousness, Paul was the best! For Paul, there was no room for suggesting that in order to be right with God, he needed the righteousness of another! He had all the credentials and more that these Jewish legalists had! He had been strict in his following after the Law- even better than most his own age!
When it came to following the Law of the Jewish people, he says, “…so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers...” When it came to following the letter of the law, no one has ever done it better than the Pharisees, and I’m not sure that you’re gonna find a better Pharisee than Paul before coming to Christ! Paul would have regarded anything that did not promote the absolute devotion to the Law as something to be destroyed!
The whole idea of salvation by grace through faith was completely foreign to Paul prior to coming to Christ! And that’s the point! There was in nothing in Paul’s thinking or convictions before Jesus that would have suggested that he was going to come to Christ! There wasn’t the slightest hint. No one - especially Paul himself - would have ever thought that he would have become even a believer - much less a teacher of Christ - much less a missionary - and even still an apostle!
What was it that could turn such a hardened, overly zealous, self-righteous Pharisee into a fully committed disciple of the very Christ he tried to destroy?
Look at vss. 15-16!
But all that changed when he encountered Jesus!
15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;
It was the God who called Paul in his grace and revealed his Son in him! It was the power of the Gospel that changed everything in Paul!
But none of that made him right before God
Only the Power of Jesus Christ can do that! This is why Paul says in Romans…
Only the Power of Jesus Christ can do that! This is why Paul says in Romans…
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Notice, it is the Gospel that is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes! That’s the whole point of this section of Galatians - of Paul’s testimony - that only the Gospel can bring about the kind of powerful change that changes a person from a hater of God into someone who loves God with all their heart; someone who despises righteousness and holiness to someone who pursues it with all his heart; someone who is self-righteous to one who fully embraces and welcomes the righteousness of Christ as their own!
This is something like my own testimony. I honestly cannot remember a time when I did not believe that God was real. I had no doubts about the Gospel. I just didn’t care. I just had no time for it, until the power of the Gospel came over me when I was 15, and suddenly this was something I knew my entire life was going to be changed by. That’s not accomplished by anything in me - but only the power of God through the Gospel.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
It cannot be accomplished by man at any level! It is the power of God revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that changes everything!
There is no mixture of our accomplishments with God. Salvation is fully and completely the work of Jesus Christ! Which brings us to the end of our passage this morning!
Salvation is not Completed by Man. ()
Salvation is not Completed by Man. ()
I’ll just make a brief comment about this....
Salvation is by God’s Grace. (vss. 15-16a)
Salvation is by God’s Grace. (vss. 15-16a)
Salvation is by God’s Grace. (vss. 15-16a)
Salvation is by God’s Grace. (vss. 15-16a)
Look how Paul describes that experience on the road to Damascus. He says, “…when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me...” This is an amazing statement of the wholeness of salvation! Notice that there are 3 parts to this! God set him apart. God had set Paul apart for his purposes and had a plan for his life. Furthermore, God “…called him by his grace…” He called him out on that day, calling him both to salvation and to the kingdom purposes that God had for him. And he “…revealed his Son to him...” Who was it that was revealed? It was Christ! It was set apart by God, called by grace, and revealed the Son.
This is an amazing summary of salvation! That salvation is completely and totally a work of the Lord for us! God the Father planned our salvation. God the Son accomplished our salvation through His life and Work on our behalf. And God the Spirt Applied our salvation through the process of calling us, or drawing us to God! Salvation is of the Lord! From beginning to end! And this is so important to understand!
Paul is going to demonstrate further that…
Salvation is not Completed by Human Means.
Salvation is not Completed by Human Means.
Paul says that once this salvation transaction took place, he did not immediately consult with anyone - in fact, there was no need for him to go to Jerusalem! There was nothing else he needed to do. Instead, he went away into Arabia and then returned back to Damascus.
There was nothing he needed to to go Jerusalem for! There was no rite nor ritual. There was nothing he had to go through. He was now in Christ!
This is what we need to understand! Salvation is completely, entirely, 100% by grace! There is nothing we add to it! In fact, the moment we add anything to it to complete the transaction, we nullify it!
5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.
6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
It is 100% one or the other. It is either 100% grace or 100% works. There is no straddling the fence on this.
Yes, there are things we do in our salvation. For example, we ought to yearn to be with God’s people every chance we get! I believe we ought to be in church every Sunday. Church ought to be the reason why we don’t do everything else on Sunday morning, not everything else being the reason we don’t attend church! But that is an outgrowth of love for one another comes from being in Christ. We don’t attend because of some legalistic requirement!
Yes, we ned to be baptized. That is the first commandment of our life in Christ. But the one who is in Christ ought to desire to demonstrate through God’s ordained means that he is now in Christ! This is how God told us to profess our faith, and every born again Christian ought to have that desire to do so! But that is an outgrowth of the Gospel! Not a requirement of it.
Yes, you ought to give a portion of your income for God’s purposes in the church. But that is not some divine extortion scheme where you’re buying God’s blessing or paying off God’s curse! It comes from a desire to see God’s kingdom growth in the community and a desire to invest in the kingdom of God. Because God loves a cheerful giver!
These are just a couple of examples. We could go on. The point is that the gospel changes us from the inside out. The Gospel is completely accomplished by God. It is not helped by human means. It is the only message that changes a life for eternal good!
If you’re here this morning and in need of change, the change you need comes in and only through the Gospel of Christ! You cannot in any way save yourself!
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
If you’re here this morning and you are perhaps understanding for the first time that you are in need of salvation from Christ, would you consider to come this morning and talk to someone? We would love to have a conversation with you so that you can know that you have the salvation of Jesus Christ.