Rescuing Freedom

*In the fall of 1983, a coup occurred on the Western Caribbean island of Grenada. Cuban-backed communists overthrew the government and installed a totalitarian dictatorship. Under martial rule, the people instantly lost their freedom and liberty. Over one hundred dissenters, including fifty children, were rounded up and marched into the fort of the capital city of St. George. They completely disappeared. A local pastor relayed the terror of living in the midst of this oppression. He believed that these innocent children were killed and dumped at sea.

This ploy did not go unnoticed. President Ronald Reagan quickly deployed a military rescue team to Grenada. They struck in the middle of the night. Within a day, the island was free again. The people of Grenada learned that liberty is most precious when it is suddenly taken away.

A similar coup occurred in the first-century church. Jewish believers—frequently called Judaizers—invaded the Galatian churches and through legalism stole the people’s freedom in Christ. They denied Paul’s message that salvation and maturity were through grace by simple faith in Christ. Rather, they taught that “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1; compare Gal. 6:2). Not only did these Judaizers contradict Paul’s message of grace, but they also denied his apostleship.

Sadly, many Galatian believers began believing these false teachers. They submitted to circumcision and other Old Testament laws to win God’s approval, gain eternal life, and mature in Christ. With all the external regulations, they felt like slaves as they tried meticulously to obey the law. Therefore, they were no longer free in Christ.

Then “to the rescue” came Paul, the liberator. His “smoking gun” was a six-chapter defense of grace known to us as “Galatians.” In this letter, Paul went to the very fort of legalism and through closely reasoned biblical logic destroyed its errors. His bold defense of grace restored the Galatians and saved the early church from a cultic division.

Because the message of Galatians frees Christians from the oppression of legalism, it has been called the “Magna Carta” of Christianity.

Martin Luther, the father of the Reformation, loved Galatians and considered it the best of all books. He even compared his love for this book with his love for his wife, Katherine. Luther said, “The epistle to the Galatians is my epistle. To it I am, as it were, in wedlock. It is my Katherine.”

So read and appreciate this book that was the catalyst for the Reformation. This defense of the gospel preserved grace for the Galatians and us.

(Anders, M. (1999). Galatians-Colossians (Vol. 8, pp. 4–5). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)

As this is the introduction to our 7 week study, let’s cover introductory material beginning with the Author.

I. Author: Who wrote the book of Galatians?

The Apostle Paul (v.1). That’s obvious to see in that the first three words of the letter are Paul, an apostle. His introduction of himself at the very beginning is customary for the time.

Many of you will be familiar with Paul. He had been known as Saul who had been a Jewish persecutor of the early church. Listen to Paul describe this of himself in his own words:

Galatians 1:13–16 ESV

13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 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;

We are also given in Acts 9, the account of the Lord Jesus encountering Paul on his road to Damascus to persecute Christians. Instead the Lord Jesus revealed himself to him and set him on a new course to be an apostle to the Gentiles.

Paul, described himself as an apostle. Which was was a big deal since. This is typically a designation that was preserved for the original 12 called by Christ and followed Christ. Though it was later used to describe a few others like Barnabas, Silas, and Timothy, for them it was the idea of messenger. But for Paul and the original 12, they were sent ones who Jesus chose to lay the foundation of the early church and to be the channels of God’s completed revelation. They were given power to perform healings and to cast out demons as signs of their divine authority.

But Paul was constantly having to defend his apostleship since Christ called him after his ascension. One of the requirements of apostleship was that you had to have seen the risen Christ. We see his defense in 1 Cor. 15:5-8.

1 Corinthians 15:5–8 ESV

5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

This is also why he mentions the Damascus Rd, in 1:16, “was pleased to reveal his Son to me.”

Paul wrote the letter, but he notes that his message comes from...

Galatians 1:2 ESV

2 and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:

So, the others Christians with Paul affirm the truth of this letter.

II. Recipients: Who received the letter?

Galatians 1:2 ESV

2 and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:

It’s important to know that this letter is not written to just one church, but to all the churches in the Roman Province of Galatia. So Galatia is not a city, but it is a region in Central Asia Minor which is modern day turkey. (show map).

These were churches planted by Paul during his first missionary journey. He had been there. He knew them. So, he had some inherit authority when speaking to them.

III. Date: When was it written?

Dating Paul’s letters can be uncertain and this is no exception. It ultimately comes down to whether you believe it was before or after the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, where the decision was made that Gentile Christians did not have to become Jewish in order to be Christian and thus did not have to be circumcised as a sign of the Old Covenant the way the Jews were or keep the OT Law.

That was the whole issue that Paul was dealing with in the Galatians churches. So, it seems that if this had already happened Paul would have mentioned it. The Jerusalem Council occurred in 48-49 A.D., if you hold to an early date then you can believe that Galatians was written around 48 A.D.

Others would say that this is an argument from silence, which it is. They would say that it was written after the Jerusalem Council, the early 50s. I would hold to the early date.

IV. Occasion: Why was it written?

It was written because Paul was mad. I mean that he was really mad. Listen the the emotion to how he begins his letter to them. He dispenses all the nicities and goes directly to...

Galatians 1:6–7 ESV

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

*Have You Lost Your Mind?-This happened quick within a couple of years they’ve lost the gospel.

The issue is that they are starting to listen to and believe a gospel different from the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel that he had taught them. It was a gospel of grace, not works. It was a gospel based on the finished work of Christ that could only be received by faith. It was not based on earning approval with God. It was gospel based having approval with God and living out that glory.

Leaving a gospel of righteousness of grace through for a works based righteousness.

In the verses just before these vv.3-4, Paul had given a blessing to the church. In this blessing, Paul clarifies the gospel.

Galatians 1:3–4 ESV

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

A. Christ died for our sins.

Paul makes it clear why Jesus died. “gave himself for our sins” The people of that day were trying to redefine the meaning of Christ’s death. They were trying to distort the gospel and redefine it to a different gospel. People have been trying to do that ever since. In our day it’s popular to hear that Christ died as a display of love. Or he died an example of how we should live our lives a selfless sacrificial people. But, Paul makes it clear that Jesus died as a sacrifice for sin. Christ’s death was a sin offering.

Later in Galatians, Christ’s death is described like this:

Galatians 3:13 ESV

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

Even through Jesus was perfectly righteous, he bore our sins and the curse and judgement that comes with our sin, death. He became the curse of God so that we could become the righteousness of God.

*John Stott quoted Martin Luther on these verses:

The Message of Galatians a. Christ Died for Our Sins

Martin Luther comments that ‘these words are very thunderclaps from heaven against all kinds of righteousness’, that is, all forms of self-righteousness. Once we have seen that Christ ‘gave himself for our sins’, we realize that we are sinners unable to save ourselves, and we give up trusting in ourselves that we are righteous.

1 Peter 2:24 ESV

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

If Christ had not died in our place, he could not have been raised from the dead in our place. And if he had not been raised Paul says that preaching the gospel would be in vain because all men would still be in their sins.

B. Christ died to rescue us from this present evil age.

Galatians 1:4 ESV

4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

The word used for ‘deliver’ could also be translated ‘rescue.’ That is certainly the meaning. Christ’s death rescues us from the slavery of this evil age.

Someone said that Christianity is a “rescue” religion. God sent Moses and Aaron to rescue the Hebrews from slavery and bondage under Pharaoh in Egypt. God sent an angel to rescue Peter from prison and certain death. God insured that Paul was rescued from several mob who wanted to kill him. Interestingly, this is the only time this this verb is used in a metaphorical sense to describe salvation. But that is what salvation is. Christ died to rescue us.

But what does it mean for Christ’s death to “rescue/deliver us from the present evil age? It can’t mean that Christ’s goal is to take us out of this world. After all, Jesus calls us to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. We have to be in it to do that.

Here’s what I think he means. The Bible describes two ages, “this age” and “the age to come.” What is interesting about that is “the age to come” has a “now/not yet” aspect to it. The age to come has already started though it will only fulfilled in eternity. So “this age” and “the age to come” are running parallel to each other now like railroad tracks.

Christ died to move us from this “present evil age” so that we could live in the “age to come” right now. Christ’s death give us forgiveness of sin, but it also gives us eternal life starting now.

C. Christ died according to God’s will.

Galatians 1:4 ESV

4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

The reason that we have salvation and Christ died for us is that it was the will of Father to bring it. It was not our will that we have salvation. And it wasn’t as if Christ had to talk the Father into it. It was his idea.

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus prayed in the Garden.

Luke 22:42 ESV

42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

It was not the Father’s will for that cup to be removed, because otherwise the world could not be saved.

It was the Father’s will that his Son might die and be raised again so that we might be forgiven of sin and be restored to him forever.

May we never change that glorious gospel to say that we must earn God’s favor. No, in Christ we have God’s favor. Therefore, we glorify him

We will do that this morning through the Lord’s Supper. 1 Cor.