God's Authority; God's Message

The first day of school, you are generally just gong to meet you teachers and get an idea of what the class would be like. No very memberable. But, I remember the first day of English class my 7th grade year. My teacher stood up. She was a very small lady with short brown hair. As she was telling us how the class was going to unfold, she said this, “If you don’t remember anything else, I’ve paid the cost to be the boss!” That’s all that really matters. She was saying, “In this classroom, I am the one with authority. You should listen to me.”

That’s essentially what Paul is saying in chapter 1 of Galatians. As we learned in the introduction last week, Paul is dealing with false teachers who have made their way to the Galatians church. The Galatians churches would have been far more Gentile church.

However, these false teachers came into these Gentile churches arguing that Gentiles had to become circumcised, the sign the at God gave the Jews to show they were in covenant with him and becoming law keepers along with rest of the Jews in order to follow Christ.

Paul is going to argue vehemently that is not the case. He argues in the letter that salvation come soley by grace through faith alone in Christ. He was opposed to any form of works based righteousness. He’s also going to argue that was true for the Jews as well, but we will deal with that later on.

His argument of salvation by faith and not by any form of law keeping or works is so well articulated in Galatians that some have described Galatians as a preamble to the book of Romans which is Pauls great detailed theological treaty.

*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.” (To which we can see Katherine rolling her eyes in the background.)

So the Judiazers were teaching opposite to Paul’s doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone. So in Galatians 1, Paul is arguing for his authority over the Judaizers. He’s making the case why the Galatians Christ must listen to him over these false teachers.

I want you to listen for that theme as we read Chapter 1 this morning. I’m going to approach these messages a little differently. I want us to read the entire chapter. Then I’m going to go back and point out some places that he argues for his authority and thus his gospel over the false teachers.

(Read the text and pray)

Galatians 1:1 ESV

1 Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—

So, as we mentioned last week that he begins by arguing for his apostleship in the same way that the original 12 were apostles. But does anyone find it strange that he starts by saying his apostleship was “not from men nor through man, ” (1:1)

Paul had already been an apostle from men. See “apostle” is not a uniquely Christian term or role. It simply meant “sent one.” It could be used in that day for an emissary sent on behalf of a king or some other authority who represented there authority. The emissary or the apostle (sent one) spoke on behalf of the one who sent them with the authority of the one of sent them.

Paul had already been an apostle from men. You remember on the road to Damascus, he was sent by the Sanhedrin to persecuted and imprisoned Christians. He was sent with their authority with their purpose.

So, when Paul starts by saying that he is an apostle “not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father.” (1:1) He’s saying, “I use to be sent by men with the authority of men. But now I’ve been sent by God. You see now I’m sent with a greater authority, with a great message, to do a greater work.”

He was sent by God, that’s more than the false teachers could see. The Galatians should listen to him and so should we.

In vv.3-4 Paul gives a blessing and in it he spells out the basis of the gospel. I covered that last week so we will move on.

I do want to point to an important note about the significance of abandoning salvation by grace alone to one requiring the law keeping.

Galatians 1:6 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—

Notice he says that they are quickly deserting “him.” He makes it clear that they are not simply abandoning a theological position, but they are abandoning a personal, loving God who displayed his love through grace.

+It needs to ring in our ears that if you abandon Christ’s gospel, you are abandoning Christ.

We should note how quickly they forsake Christ. Less than two years from hearing the gospel from the Apostle Paul himself. Paul is astonished. It’s not as if there was a long struggle where they put up a defense for the gospel of grace Paul preached to them and were eventually worn down.

They quickly gave up something old for something new. But they also quickly gave up something true for something false.

+That says something to the church today. We want people to quickly come to Christ. But often time when people quickly come to Christ; they often forsake Christ just as quickly when something new and tantilizing comes along. That is evidence of false salvation from a false faith. True saving faith perseveres.

In v.6 Paul accuses the to turning to “a different gospel.” Which makes us ask, “What makes it different.” The thing is that the Judaizers were still teaching that salvation came through Christ. But that it was Christ plus lawkeeping. Christ plus works.

Not everyone who says they follow Christ actually follows Christ’s gospel. If you are not clinging to Christ’s gospel of grace you lose the benefits of the gospel. Which what he saying in v.7.

Galatians 1:7 ESV

7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

He is saying that it is the distortion of the gospel that is causing the trouble to your souls. The word he uses for “trouble” here is a word used to describe the opposite of Christ’s usual give of “peace.”

John 14:27 ESV

27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

When you add the necessity of works to the gospel, you destroy any hope of having an assurance of salvation which brings peace. You always wonder whether you have done enough. And so you live forever in doubt and worry that God doesn’t accept you. But the gospel of Christ says you are accepted by God in faith. As God accepts Christ, God accepts you.

So important is that truth Paul says in v.8

Galatians 1:8 ESV

8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

An angel is typically seen to be a messenger from God. You would think that if an angel brought a message we should believe it because it is an angel that brought it. Paul even says, “if we brought you a different message don’t even believe us.”

Paul is saying, “When it comes to the gospel, the status of the person does not validate the message. But the nature of the message validates the messenger.”

-Paul says, “It doesn’t matter if it’s an angel that brings it. If his message is not salvation by grace through faith alone, then it is not God who sent it.”

And let the person who brings the false message be accursed! He says it twice.

Galatians 1:9 ESV

9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

The word cursed here is “anathema.” It means be under the curse of God. It was understood that a person should flee from anyone under the curse of God. But they Galatians have done just the opposite from fleeing from these false teachers. They listened to them with itching ears longing for more.

In v. 12, Paul goes back to the issue of authority. From whom did Paul receive this gospel? Is he passing it along after learning about it from the original 12 apostle. Did he learn it in a catachism in Sunday School?

No. He makes the point in vv.16-22 that after his conversion he spent very little time with the apostle.

Galatians 1:16–22 ESV

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; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. 20 (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.

If he didn’t receive the gospel from the apostles, the ones who had been with Chirst, where did he receive it?

From Christ himself.

Galatians 1:12 ESV

12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Christ brought it to him in a supernatural way. Paul says that the evidence of it’s authenticity is seen in how it has changed his life.

In vv.13-14 Paul recounts how zealously he had once persecuted the church.

Galatians 1:13–14 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.

But notice God’s grace toward Paul in the gospel.

Galatians 1:15 ESV

15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,

God chose Paul before he was born to be redeemed and used for his glory in reaching the Gentiles. That’s called election. An election solely by the grace of God.

It was an election that resulted in God revealing Christ to him on the road to Damascus. And an election that resulted as his life spent on mission reaching the Gentiles with the gospel.

Paul was so radically changed that when he settled in Syria and Cilicia that they said of him,

Galatians 1:23–24 ESV

23 They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.

They recognized his gospel. They respected Paul’s authority because the messenger. They glorified God because of Paul message.

3 Walk Away Points:

1. A false gospel can never bring glory to the true God.

2. A false gospel can never bring salvation to real sinners.

3. May we never let an inferior gospel lead us to an inferior god.