The Gospel: From and all about Christ

Introduction

Authenticity and authority. Two important ideas when dealing with certain things. For instance, when you go to open up a food item and it looks like some of it is missing, or it doesn’t look right to you, how important is the seal’s presence or absence in that moment? How important is it that the food hasn’t been tampered with, that it is authentic?

Or, when you are about to compete in a competition, how important is it that the person telling you the rules is one of the ones who will be judging that competition? How important is it that they have the authority to do so?

These are two important situations where authenticity and authority matter, but what about if the stakes were even higher? For instance, what if this was a question of your eternity?

Today we are going to see that Paul and his message are both authentically from God and backed by his authority as well. This is important because both our freedom in this life and our eternity rest upon the message that we will hear throughout the book of Galatians.

Exposition

Verses 1-2 - Paul's message is not of human origin, but divine

Paul writes to the Galatians as an Apostle, a sent one. His sending or commissioning, however, is not by men or through men, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father. In other words, the message that Paul is writing has the stamp of divine authority on it.

When we think about who has the authority to tell us what God says and what God requires, we can think of it in two ways. The first way is that someone like me, a preacher, can tell you what God says. And as much as what I say is what God says, then my message is from God. This is a great example, but the reality is that preachers are actually trained by men and in some sense are granted authority or given the ability to deliver this message from God. And as much as they are being faithful to the Scripture is as much as they should be listened to. So, their authority really comes from God, not from themselves or their own person, but in some sense their authority is derived from men. In other words, you don't have to listen to me. And so, we might think of preacher’s like me as apostles with a little "a". Yes, they are sent by God in some sense, but it is through men, through the laying on of hands. So, though I have been duly ordained by men, and you all may recognize my abilities to preach and teach the word, proclaiming Christ, my authority is really only backed by how faithful I am to he message of Christ and him crucified.

The second way is that God can directly give someone a commission to deliver his exact message. In other words, God divinely calls them and reveals to them not only what he wants them to say, the exact words, but to whom he wants them to say it to. This is an apostle with a big "A". They are sent directly by God and through God. Their authority is not derived in any way from men. God has put his stamp of approval on them and their message. It is authentic and authoritative.

Paul makes a statement in verses 1-2 that his authority, his "sentness", his Apostleship, does not and did not come from any humans whatsoever. No, God directly called and commissioned Paul to go to them and to teach them the gospel, the good news about Christ.

Yes, he may be with some other brothers, who are ministering along side him, but the reality is that he was sent by Jesus Christ and God the Father. Paul's commission, his sentness, is not of human origin but divine.

Thus, before he barely even begins, he establishes his authority in the most certain of terms. He gives a knockout blow on his first punch. Paul has been given the authority to deliver the true message of the Gospel by the very risen Lord, Jesus Christ himself, oh, and God the Father too!

The Galatians have no choice but to listen to him. If they deny him or his message, they are denying the very voice of God himself. The risen Savior, in whom they supposedly trust made Paul his messenger. Jesus Christ sent Paul to tell them the true message of God.

The Galatians and you and I have no choice but to listen to this letter to the Galatians. Jesus Christ and God the Father commissioned Paul to explain the way to right relationship with God. This way is set before us in this book:; it is authoritative and authentic.

Verses 3-5 - The Gospel in a nutshell

Next, in verses 3-5 Paul gets to the formal greeting. His desire is that the Galatians experience the grace and peace of God their Father and the Lord Jesus Christ that they are supposed to have because of what Jesus did for them.

Grace

What is grace? Grace is God's divine unmerited favor. In the Greek, charis, grace has the idea of kindness or favor. In the Hebrew, hesed represents this same idea of kindness, favor. It is God giving you what you and me what we don't deserve. There is nothing of merit in this word. It is God looking down upon you and I and smiling. It is his kindness shown to us or his smiling face looking at us.

I think it is best expressed in Numbers 6:24-26, the Aaronic blessing that God told the priests to give to his people. "The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace."

This is God’s grace to us and it leads to our peace. Here in this ancient and classic blessing, we have the two ideas that Paul greets the Galatians with in his introduction. Grace and peace. God's grace to his people is when he blesses us and keeps us. It is when he looks at us and smiles. It is when he does things that lead to our ultimate peace. So, grace is God's favor and smiling face upon us.

Isn't it funny, not in a ha ha sort of way, that we so rarely think of God looking down upon us and smiling. We rarely think that God loves us and enjoys us or delights to be with us. Instead we are constantly thinking that he is upset with us because of our constant failures, and so we try to do things to make him happy with us. But in so doing, we are actually living in misery quite often.

What Paul is going to tell us in Galatians is that we have it all backwards. We don't deserve anything that God gives us. It is grace from first to last. It is God loving us and being merciful to us.

We don't bring anything at all to him except nothing, our empty, broken, sinful selves. We have nothing to offer God apart from what he will give us.

Nothing is the requirement to come to him, nothing at all. If we bring something, we disqualify ourselves for grace. Why? Because if we brought something it wouldn't be grace would it? It would be us meriting our approach to God.

Peace

In the Greek eirene, peace can be understood as harmony. In the Hebrew, the word for peace is shalom, a state of concord or harmony with self, others, and the world.

Shalom was a friendly greeting, a wish for peace from enemies, a wish for inward peace, and a state of everything being right in life and in the world. Really, it is the idea of harmony with everything.

Our biggest problem is that we are not at peace. We all want it, but we are at war with the world, ourselves, others, the Devil, and often with God.

Paul is wishing that the Galatians would experience the unmerited favor and pleasure of God. He is wishing that they would live in a state of inward and outward peace, both with God and with men.

The problem is that without a right view of self and the gospel, there is no way to experience God's grace and peace. Paul wants the Galatians to really and truly know the peace of God in Christ Jesus that can guard their hearts and minds.

The only way to grace and peace

In the first part, verses 1-2 we see that Paul is called and commissioned by God to give them this message. Here we see what the message is and to what end it should drive. The grace and peace that God gives comes not through anything that the Galatians did. No, it comes from the Lord Jesus Christ who rescued them from their sin by giving himself as a sacrifice.

Here is the gospel in the simplest of terms. We need grace and peace because we are at war with God because of our sins. We can't get this grace and peace unless Jesus rescues us by himself dying as a substitute for us, on our behalf.

But what is really amazing about this is that it wasn't just Jesus that wanted to do this for us, it was our God and Father. Yes, God the Father willed, or desired, that Jesus would give himself as a sacrifice so that we might experience his grace and enter into his peace.

Jesus loves us. God the Father loves us. He is not some distant, angry God who is waiting for you to mess up and then he will throw the book at you. He isn't some angry bully that Jesus is standing between you and him. No, the Father loves you and willingly gave his one and only Son up for your and my sake.

But notice also, Jesus didn't do it reluctantly. Jesus willingly "gave himself" for our sin. He took the eternal wrath of God upon himself so that we could be rescued from ourselves and the evil world we live in.

Thus, both the Father and the Son wanted or desired to rescue us so that we would be reconciled with God. Though it is not in this text, it is a good place to note that he Holy Spirit wanted it too. He empowered Jesus for his ministry and he also regenerates us, giving us a new heart, and he comes and makes his home in us once we are redeemed.

This is Trinitarian love. This is Trinitarian willing or desiring that brings us into fellowship through Jesus Christ. This is love so incredible, so amazing that it is hardly comprehensible. How could the eternal God, perfectly holy and happy in and of himself choose to send his Son, bear our sin, and then live in us?!?

Is it no wonder that Paul finishes off his greeting with a doxology, a praise. He wants God to receive glory forever and ever. He wants God to receive the fame and get the respect he deserves for not only being who he is, but for doing what he did for us. If salvation is by works then those who are working get the glory, but if salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, by Christ alone, then it is for the glory of God alone.

What a great way to start out a letter to a group of churches that are in a very bad way! The message I am about to tell you comes from God himself.

So, in short, Paul’s introduction brings outs the themes that he will deal with throughout the letter. The first is the divine origin of his apostleship. The second is his gospel message, the absolute sufficiency of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ to save us from our sin and reconcile us to God and it’s implications for our lives.

Think of it like this, what Paul is saying in a little different words, “I am not speaking on my own authority, but in and through the authority of the lamb of God who died and rose again. I send you greetings and desire that you experience God’s unmerited favor and the wholeness that only he can give, but I want you to know that I am consumed with this message of the absolute necessity and sufficiency of Christ. What Christ did, died for our sins and then rose again from the dead is the greatest of all messages. God did it all from first to last. Don't rely upon yourself, after all, you didn't do anything. Trust in Jesus and know that both he and the Father love you very, very much.”

Application

In our lives in Christ, we are so often completely confused. We know that it is by faith alone in Christ alone, but practically, we don't live like this. We feel that we have to earn God's favor. And most of the time we think, yes, God really loves me, look what he did for me in Christ, but we have such a hard time believing that God actually likes us. We have a hard time thinking that God actually wants to spend time with us.

Why is it? Well, we think that God will be pleased with us only if we do things right and make him happy by bringing home an "A" on our report card, how we have been living over the past undetermined amount of time.

And so, when we fail, which is everyday, we think to ourselves, "Wow! God must not be happy with me right now." So, we think that we must work harder to earn his love and favor. This eventually leads to our despair because e are constantly failing. So, we run and hide from God because we think he thinks we are a screwup.

This works itself out practically when we don't pray much or don't read our bible because of whatever reason. In these moments, we think that God must really be upset with us. So, we end up avoiding him and take ourselves further down the proverbial rabbit hole. This is a huge problem.

Any thinking that somehow believes that God is pleased with us by what we bring to him is missing the mark. If you think you have to bring something to God to bring him pleasure, you have missed Jesus and you are living outside of the Gospel. The Gospel is God's free grace. It is God's unmerited favor. It is God’s kindness that brings us into peace with him and a state of wholeness.

But what do I have to do? This is the burning question. Isn’t there some requirement? Isn’t there something that is required of me?

Yes, there actually is a requirement. It is that you bring nothing at all. If you think you have to bring something then you are disqualified to come. We, like the man who brought his son to Jesus, must say, "I believe! Help my unbelief!"

When Jesus was asked what are the works, plural, of God, how did he reply? He said that the “work” of God, singular, is that we believe on the One who God sent, Jesus Christ. That is it. It is that simple. Yet, because of our sin it is that complex.

We must hold on to Christ and his completed work for us. Here is the reality: Jesus Christ worked and earned all the favor that you could ever need. When we are united to Christ by faith it is all Jesus. If you try to bring something of your own, you are actually discrediting what Jesus did. It is In Christ Alone.

Does this mean we can do whatever we want? Of course not. What it means is that whatever we do bring doesn't earn us anything, it is just an offering of thanksgiving for being perfectly loved, fully accepted and deeply cherished by God for nothing of our own doing. This is the message of the Gospel.

Let me quote one of my favorite songs, "Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched, Weak and wounded, sick and sore; Jesus, ready, stands to save you, Full of pity, joined with power. He is able, He is able; He is willing; doubt no more. Come ye needy, come, and welcome, God's free bounty glorify; True belief and true repentance, Every grace that brings you nigh. Without money, without money; Come to Jesus Christ and buy. Come, ye weary, heavy laden, Bruised and broken by the fall; If you tarry 'til you're better, You will never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous; Sinners Jesus came to call. Let not conscience make you linger, Nor of fitness fondly dream; All the fitness He requires Is to feel your need of Him. This He gives you, this He gives you, 'Tis the Spirit's rising beam. Lo! The Incarnate God, ascended; Pleads the merit of His blood. Venture on Him; venture wholly, Let no other trust intrude. None but Jesus, none but Jesus; Can do helpless sinners good."

This is the song of one entranced by grace. Are you caught up in grace like Paul? If so, Jesus is the first thing that will come to your mind, like Paul. He couldn’t even get his greeting out without praising the person and work of Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, and the desire to see God glorified. He sees that salvation, relationship with God, is in Christ alone, and he has the authenticity and authority to tell us this because this message is actually Christ’s. It comes by his authority and is absolutely authentic. It is in Christ alone.