Man to Man- I Live By Faith
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Introduction
Introduction
Paul wrote Galatians while he was in Antioch but this wasn’t his first time there.
Barnabas had been sent from Jerusalem to establish the new Syrian Antioch Gentile believers there in about 41 AD.
When he arrived he realized he needed help and went to find Paul in Tarsus, Paul’s home town.
25 Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul:
Barnabas found Paul and brought him back to Antioch.
26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
They then taught in Antioch for a full year.
There is a three year famine beginning 42 AD in Jerusalem and Paul and Barnabas take an offering to Jerusalem about 44 AD then return to Antioch.
Paul’s First Missionary Journey Acts 13:1–14:28 46 AD to 47/48 AD took him through the region of Galatia where he established churches going through Derbe, Lystra, Iconium. This is what we know as Turkey today.
When Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, they found that there was a dispute about circumcision and Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem for a meeting of the Apostles. They went to Jerusalem for a meeting of the Apostles to settle this doctrinal matter.
Now, having taught in Antioch, completed his missionary journey where he planted churches and appointed leaders to run them, and having participated in Apostolic meetings about doctrine, now, from Antioch, Paul writes the letter to the Galatians about 48/49 AD.
This was two or three years after Paul had been there establishing churches.
Note that this wasn’t written to a single church, but to all of the churches in this region and there were several.
Paul. the person, the preacher, called by God
Paul. the person, the preacher, called by God
Paul must establish his apostolic authority which he does immediately in
1 Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) 2 And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:
Paul establishes himself through two statements.
As an Apostle not appointed by any man or men, but by Jesus Christ. Oh, and God the Father. Oh, who performed the miraculous act of raising Jesus from the dead. What higher endorsement could anyone offer? The power of God was manifest in Paul’s life and calling by God.
And, through the endorsement of “all the brethren which are with me”. The Church at Antioch was the first place people were called Christians. It was from Antioch that Paul and Barnabas had been sent on their missionary journey that established the churches in Galatia. Everyone in the churches of Galatia would have known the background of Paul and Barnabas and that it was “the brethren that are with me” that had sent them initially.
Now Paul throws one more foundational statement at them in
3 Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
Grace and Peace - this comes from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ
The concept of grace defined as God’s active involvement
God is not standing far off waiting for some future millenium where He will bless His people.
Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grace)
God’s grace manifested in Jesus Christ makes it also possible for God to bestow on believers undeserved benefits that enrich their lives and unite them together in the church, the body of Christ. Their acceptance on the basis of grace endows them with a new status as children of God, members of the household of God, so that they relate to him as to their heavenly father (Gal 4:4–6).
So God’s grace is God actively working, as it says in Galatians 1:4 “that he might deliver us from this present world”.
It is with that deliverance, the manifestation of God’s power in our lives that we can experience God’s peace as we are freed from the turmoil around us.
But the peace here is not just being free from the turmoil, it goes much further than that and is defined as
Peace. Total well-being, prosperity, and security associated with God’s presence
Paul anchors their thinking on the gift of God, that Jesus gave himself for us as he said in
4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
and Jesus did this to deliver us from this present evil world.
Paul acknowledges that there is trouble in the world and it includes trouble makers, but Jesus came to deliver us from that trouble and from those that cause it.
The Perversion - another gospel
The Perversion - another gospel
Paul now expresses his shock that these people have been swayed, drawn away, that they are removed from “him that called you” as it says in
6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Note that they “are … removed from him that called” them.
Jesus said this in John 6:44
44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
We are “drawn” by the Father to be reconciled to Him, to become His sons and daughters. Jesus said this again in John 6:65
65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
This other gospel, this perverted gospel caused them to be “removed” from the “grace of Christ” that had brought them into right relationship with the Father.
Do you remember what we said about “Grace”? The concept of Grace is defined as God’s active involvement.
But Paul says they are removed from that “grace of Christ”.
They are removed from the “undeserved benefits that enrich their lives and unite them together”.
They no, longer have “Peace”, the total well-being, prosperity, security associated with God’s presence.
Now, they have disputes and trouble and Paul goes on to say in Galatians 1:7
Galatians 1:7 (KJV 1900)
7 … but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
These trouble makers bring another gospel, this gospel is not based on the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ but on the keeping of the law.
Paul’s next statement is very harsh for us because we have been taught to love everyone, to pray for everyone and it is very unusual for us to “curse” someone. But Paul says in Galatians 1:8–9
8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Paul says, If I preach a different gospel, or an angel brings a different gospel, or any man brings a different gospel, “let him be accursed”.
There have been ministers of the gospel that have changed their message, this is very dangerous ground for them.
A third of the angels of heaven were cast down to the earth with the devil and they will not bring the gospel of Jesus Christ, but will preach a message of rebellion against God.
There are people that don’t know God “through the Grace of Christ” but have established for themselves some religious practice to attain their own righteousness.
These trouble makers that Paul is talking about have taken the Law that was given to Moses as the way of salvation.
Paul will go on to describe the Law, not as wrong, but as a school master to bring us to a place where we can understand the need for the blood of Christ and come to accept His work on the cross. The law was to show us the way to faith in Christ.
In the next verses, Galatians 1:10 - Galatians 2:14 Paul talks about his history, his conversion and how God has worked in his life.
I Live by Faith
I Live by Faith
Paul says in Galatians 2:19 I through the law am dead to the law.
Then he says in Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ but he sin’t dead but he is alive just as Christ is alive.
Galatians 2:20 (KJV 1900)
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Paul’s message now changes from his history and the history of the Jews which was the Law as he says “Who has bewitched you” in Galatians 3:1.
Paul begins to talk about the “Spirit” as her asks them this question in Galatians 3:2
2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
This is the rhetorical question.
We all know how they received Christ.
It happened at Pentecost with the Apostles as the Holy Spirit fell on them.
It happened with Cornelius and his family as Peter preached the gospel to them and the Holy Spirit fell. Peter recounted the experience for the others in Jerusalem in Acts 11:15
15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.
This is what Paul is talking about. When we believe, the Holy Spirit is released and we experience the presence of God.
Now Paul ask them in Galatians 3:3
3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
No, of course they cannot be “made perfect by the flesh”.
No, they cannot keep the law, the law only makes us aware of sin.
It is the work of Jesus Christ to give his life for us that allows us to find live in “the grace of Christ” that Paul identified back in Galatians 1:6
They have experienced the power of the Holy Spirit, how can they go back?
Paul reminds them again that Christ has redeemed us in Galatians 3:13–14
13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
We have a “promise” from God.
That promise didn’t begin when Christ was born into the earth.
The promise came from God to Abraham as Paul says in Galatians 3:16–17
16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
The law came after the promise to Abraham.
Jesus is the seed that God promised.
Abraham may have thought that Isaac was God’s fulfillment. Yes, Abraham, and his wife Sarah were past the age of child bearing and yet God gave them a son.
But this was just the beginning of God’s plan.
Paul uses three words here that are significant.
The first is the “promise” in Galatians 3:14 where a “Promise” is a “declaration by one person to another that something will or will not be done, giving the person to whom it is made the right to expect the performance of whatever has been specified”.Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, Baker encyclopedia of the Bible, 1988, 2, 1766.
Then, in Galatians 3:15 Paul talked about “a mans covenant” where a “Covenant” is an “arrangement between two parties involving mutual obligations” Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, Baker encyclopedia of the Bible, 1988, 1, 530.
Then Paul talks about “inheritance” here in Galatians 3:18 where “Inheritance” is “The portion of possessions that transfers to an heir upon the owner’s death”. Chad Chambers, The Lexham Bible Dictionary, 2016.
18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
We have the promise from God that we will receive the Spirit through faith, that the blessing of Abraham would come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. God is doing this.
The covenant of the law required that we do these things and God would bless us. This depends on us keeping the law to receive God’s blessing. But, no one can
The inheritance we have through Christ is by faith. We simply trust God and believe what He says and accept Jesus Christ. We only need to receive what God has done.
You Are Sons of God
You Are Sons of God
There was a time when we were trapped under the law. Sin and death ruled until Jesus Christ redeemed us by His death, burial, and resurrection. Paul describes it like this in Galatians 4:4-7.
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
We are now heirs of God.
We are now citizens of God’s kingdom.
We are now Ambassadors for Jesus Christ
Paul encourages them to, in Galatians 5:1
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
We know what the gospel of the trouble makers was, it was their teaching that believers must keep the law to be reconciled to God.
Paul says “don’t be entangled again with the yoke of bondage”.
This teaching about keeping the Law resulted in a division between those that are saved by Grace through faith and those that only know the law.
So Paul says this in Galatians 5:14-15
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
The solution Paul offers is in Galatians 5:16–18
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
There is a war going on but it isn’t between one person and another it is a war between our flesh and our spirit. That internal war is projected out onto others and Paul goes on to describe what life in the flesh looks like in Galatians 5:19–21
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
However, when we bring our body under the control of the Spirit, we get the result described in Galatians 5:22–25
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Paul’s letter to the Churches in Galatia offer examples to us of what life in the flesh looks like - biting and devouring one another, turmoils and trouble!
It also gives us an example of what life in the Spirit looks like - love, joy, peace, as Sons of God in the grace of Christ.
There is a promise that God made for us to inherit.
Jesus Christ did the work to fulfill the law so we could have that inheritance.
It is our choice to let the flesh have its way or to live by the leading of the Holy Spirit as it says in Galatians 6:8–9
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for the promise of blessing that you made to Abraham. We thank you for sending your son Jesus Christ to pay the price for our redemption. And, we thank you for the outpouring of your Holy Spirit who is our comforter, advocate, and teacher. Forgive us if there is anything in our lives that is contrary to your best purpose and will for us. Strengthen us for the life we now live in the flesh. Teach us by your Spirit in Jesus name.