Galatians in a Nutshell – part 1 (Galatians 1:1-5)
Galatians in a Nutshell – part 1
Galatians 1:1-5
February 16, 2014
In the book of Job, one of Job’s friends (Bildad)
Asked Job a very important question.
Job 25:4 “How then can a man be just with God?”
Now that is a good question.
How is it that a man can be declared righteous before God?
Bildad wasn’t debating whether or not man was sinful.
Bildad knew man was sinful.
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Today people would debate whether or not people are actually sinful at all, but Bildad wasn’t debating that. He knew man was sinful.
Bildad also wasn’t questioning the necessity of righteousness.
He knew God was righteous and he knew man needed righteousness.
He understood that unless sinful man achieved
He righteous standard of God, there would be no salvation.
Bildad understood those things, he was not debating them.
The question for Bildad was
How could sinful man achieve that righteousness?
• If man is sinful…
• If God requires him to be righteous…
How is it that man accomplishes that goal?
And that is a very important question.
And a question that has been at the center of much debate
Throughout the history of the church.
In fact, it was that very question that sparked the movement
Known as the The Great Reformation.
When the reformers squared off against the Catholic church,
They were in agreement that man was sinful,
And they were in agreement that man needed to be righteous.
What they disagreed about was how man achieved that righteousness.
And throughout history there have been two basic systems of thought.
1) He earns that righteousness through religious effort
(Law, Effort, Tradition)
That is what we call legalism.
Man holds to some sort of religious code or religious standard and because he is so good, he actually ascends to the level of obtaining the righteousness God requires.
And it might surprise you to know that by far
More of the world holds that view than the second.
Most people believe that effort is the means of obtaining righteousness.
Now they may disagree on which actions are most important,
But they still believe that their works is what will do it.
• It may be circumcision
• It may be praying 5 times a day
• It may be faithful church attendance
• It may be random acts of kindness
• It may be circling the world on a bicycle
They may disagree on the specifics, but they all agree that
There is work to be done to obtain righteousness.
That is the first system of thought as to how a man is just with God.
2) He receives righteousness through a gift
Meaning he cannot earn righteousness through his efforts,
And so it must be something that is given to him by someone else.
Obviously that someone else, must be someone who possesses it,
For I can’t give you what I don’t have.
So the objective would be to find someone who possesses righteousness
And then see if they will share it with you.
And that argument is at the center of this letter to the Galatians.
“How can a man be just with God?”
Well, to give you the background of the letter, turn with me to Acts 13.
TURN TO: ACTS 13:14
Unlike Philippi, Galatia was not a town or a specific church.
Galatia was a region.
In Acts 13:14 Paul and Barnabas arrived in Galatia and came to “Pisidian Antioch”
Now we don’t have time to go back over the sermon Paul preached there (you’ll have to go back and listen to that from our Acts study)
But in Pisidian Antioch Paul preached a tremendous gospel message
Centered on the resurrection of Jesus, and initially it was well received.
But when Paul’s message reached a level of extreme popularity,
A problem arose.
(13:44-52)
• So the Jews rejected the gospel and drove Paul out, but not before many Gentiles were saved.
• From there Paul traveled to Iconium, but Paul faced the same opposition there.
(14:1-7)
• Again Paul was driven out of Iconium because of Jewish hostility.
• So Paul came to Lystra, and because Paul worked a miracle in Lystra he instantly had a platform and was speaking the gospel, but the militant Jews in the area wouldn’t let it go.
(14:19-20)
• So Paul was actually stoned by Jews in Lystra and then went to Derbe.
In Derbe Paul preached and many were saved and then
Paul returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch.
Now I give you that because I want you to understand the region.
It was a Jewish stronghold.
Imagine going into the Sudan or some other Islamic stronghold
And preaching Christianity there.
Some might be getting saved,
But the intensity and hatred is intense against you.
That was Galatia.
Only it wasn’t Islamic persecution, it was Jewish persecution.
Now in each of those cities Paul did leave a church.
Because of the Jewish animosity, the churches were primarily GENTILE CHURCHES.
But they received the grace of God and were saved.
However the Jews were not willing to just stand idly by
And accept these Gentile churches.
(15:1)
And there was the debate.
The Jews said that faith in Christ was not enough
To make a man acceptable to God.
The Jews required that circumcision (adherence to the Law)
Was also necessary.
And not only was this debate real,
But a group of these Jews, known as the Judaizers
Were approaching the churches of Galatia
And preaching this message of necessary circumcision.
They were attacking Paul’s credentials
They were attacking Paul’s message
And the sad reality is that were having success
Because the Gentile converts in the region of Galatia
Were about to be circumcised.
When Paul caught wind of this, he was furious
And the result of his anger is the letter to the Galatians.
John MacArthur called it “a flashing sword, wielded by a burning heart.”
In other words, this is a fiery, passionate letter.
Galatians 6:11 “See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.”
It gives the allusion of him scribbling fast because he has so much to say
And his pen won’t move as fast as his heart.
You can also see this fury throughout the letter
Galatians 3:1-3 “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
Galatians 4:10-11 “You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”
Galatians 4:16 “So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?”
Galatians 5:4 “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”
Galatians 5:12 “I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.”
Galatians 6:17 “From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus.”
Obviously Paul is hot!
It is a fiery, passionate letter.
And one of extreme importance
John MacArthur also wrote,
“The book of Galatians has been conferred with such titles as the Magna Carta of spiritual liberty, the battle cry of the Reformation, and the Christian’s declaration of independence. It is clearly the Holy Spirit’s charter of spiritual freedom for those who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Many church historians maintain that the foundation of the Reformation was laid with the writing of Martin Luther’s commentary on Galatians. The great German Reformer said, “The epistle to the Galatians is my epistle. To it I am, as it were, in wedlock. Galatians is my Katherine [the name of his wife].” It was out of his careful and submissive study of Scripture, especially the book of Galatians, that Luther discovered God’s plan of salvation by grace working through faith, a plan unalterably contrary to the thousand-year-old Roman Catholic teaching of salvation by works.
Merill C. Tenney wrote of Galatians: “Christianity might have been just one more Jewish sect, and the thought of the Western world might have been entirely pagan had it never been written. Galatians embodies the germinal teaching on Christian freedom which separated Christianity from Judaism, and which launched it upon a career of missionary conquest. It was the cornerstone of the Protestant Reformation, because it’s teaching of salvation by grace alone became the dominant theme of the preaching of the Reformers.”
(MacArthur commentary – Introduction)
So obviously this is a vitally important letter to your theology.
In this letter Paul defends that salvation is in fact by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
And he sets out to squash all forms of legalism which would persuade men to try and earn the salvation that Christ alone can provide.
So tonight let’s begin looking at the text.
There are 4 points I want you to see. (2 tonight)
#1 THE SOURCE OF PAUL’S MESSAGE
Galatians 1:1-2
Now ordinarily when you read one of Paul’s letters
It really starts off somewhat softly.
He will remind that he is an apostle and then mention something
About how he thanks God for them.
But this letter is way different.
Paul is preaching from the very beginning.
See one of the tactics of the Judaizers was to debunk the gospel by debunking the man who preached it.
Their attack was just as much personal as it was theological.
If they could shoot holes in Paul, they could shoot holes in his gospel.
We saw the same thing with the Corinthians.
They accused Paul of being boring and meek and timid
2 Corinthians 10:10 “For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.”
Or even as we read this morning:
2 Corinthians 13:3 “since you are seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me, and who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you.”
And the same sort of thing was happening in the Galatian region.
So Paul sets out from the beginning to squash such rumors
In order to defend the gospel that he is preaching.
He first reminds that he is “an apostle”
The word simply means “sent one” but as far as the New Testament is concerned it carries much more weight and authority.
• An apostle was one who was an eye witness of the resurrected Jesus and one with special authority from God to proclaim truth.
John 20:21-23 “So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
And that is not to say that the apostles had authority to forgive sins.
That authority is God’s alone.
Rather the apostles now had authority to declare
Whether or not a person had in fact been forgiven.
We have that authority through the New Testament,
They had it inherent from the Holy Spirit.
• Furthermore, these men were the instruments the Holy Spirit used to inspire the Scriptures.
Their preaching was accompanied with miraculous validity
And their words were authoritative.
Hebrews 2:3-4 “how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.”
2 Corinthians 12:12 “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.”
1 Thessalonians 2:6 “nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority.”
So apostles held a special place in the transition of the church.
They are the men who wrote the New Testament.
And because the New Testament wasn’t available yet,
God allowed these men to stand upon their own authority,
And gave credibility to that authority by granting that signs and wonders
Be done through them.
And that is the first point Paul makes.
You may be doubting me and listening to them, but you need to remember that I am “an apostle”
And that is not all.
“not sent from men nor through the agency of man”
Whereas the Judaizers had been sent by the Pharisees and the Jewish traditionalists, Paul was not sent by any of them.
• No man told him to preach the gospel,
• No man trained him to preach the gospel.
• He didn’t learn this in a seminary,
• He didn’t learn this in Sunday school
Paul learned this directly from Christ.
“but through Jesus Christ and God the Father”
He will expound on that a little more later,
But you remember that no man pulled Paul aside and told him about Jesus.
Jesus Himself confronted Paul and taught him the truth.
Paul was handpicked and directly trained by Christ Himself.
This certainly gives Paul a level of priority over the Judaizers.
Namely because the One who taught Paul
Has more power than the one who taught them.
Paul learned from “God the Father, who raised Him from the dead”
Paul’s instructor has power.
And so did Paul’s message.
And so regardless of what the Judaizers had told the Galatians
It was Paul who was actually speaking God’s message
About God’s Savior with God’s power.
And that was not all.
Paul also said, “and all the brethren who are with me”
In other words, Paul’s message was the adopted message of the church.
Paul was not the radical, the Judaizers were the radical.
Paul’s message was the message of God and the message of the church.
Today we get some radical folks who branch off
And preach thoughts from their own imaginations.
And certainly in regard to that we study the Scriptures to find the truth.
But we also remember church history and remember what
The official doctrine of the church has always been.
The church throughout the ages has already determined the orthodox view on the trinity – One God in three persons
The church throughout the ages has already determined the orthodox view on Christ – Both God and man
The church throughout the ages has already determined the orthodox view on salvation – by grace through faith
Any man who comes contrary to that
Has been and is today labeled a heretic.
And so Paul is saying, “Look, I am divinely commissioned and I am preaching the orthodox message of the church – not them”
And so I am writing “To the Churches of Galatia:”
That is a fiery way to start the letter.
Paul is letting it be known from the start
That he and not the Judaizers has the truth.
The Source of Paul’s message is God, not man
#2 THE SUBSTANCE OF PAUL’S MESSAGE
Galatians 1:3-5
Again it is hard to miss Paul’s passion because by the third verse of this letter he is already getting to the point.
There are no frills, there is no sentimentality, there is no small talk
Immediately after listing his credentials
Paul states as plainly as he knows how what this letter is about.
These three verses could be called “Galatians in a nutshell”
And in these verses there are three things Paul wants
1) RECEIVE GRACE (3)
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,”
This is far from some sentimental statement.
This is precisely what Paul wants for the Galatians.
He wants them to receive grace and peace
And he knows that Christ is the only means of achieving that.
The opposite of grace is obviously works.
And Paul doesn’t want them trying to earn their salvation.
He wants them understand that if you throw grace out,
There is no salvation.
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
The simple gospel message is this:
• Man is sinful, unable to justify himself before God
• But God in His grace provided salvation for sinners through the sacrifice of His
holy Son
• And now God will freely apply the righteousness of Christ to any man who
places his faith in Christ.
If you lose that, you lose salvation.
Romans 3:20 “because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”
And so throughout this letter Paul will be pushing grace, preaching grace, defending grace, offering grace.
And the reason is that with grace comes “peace”
And when we mention “peace” we aren’t talking about inner tranquility.
We are talking about the absence of war.
Romans 5:1-2 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”
By God’s grace our sin is forgiven and we get peace with God.
Apart from grace our sin remains and we are God’s enemies,
Under His wrath, doomed for destruction.
So grace is a big deal.
And he hits that point right off the bat.
I want you to receive grace and get peace.
Receive Grace
2) REMEMBER CHRIST (4)
“Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,”
See the Judaizers would come in preaching circumcision and Law.
“You have to be circumcised to be saved”
That brings up then a very important question.
If you have to be circumcised to be saved, then what did Christ do?
And the answer at the very least has to be, “NOT ENOUGH”
So Jesus died, so Jesus rose, so Jesus ascended,
But if you still have to do something to be saved,
Then obviously His work was only partial.
His work must have been incomplete.
His work must have been insufficient.
• And so without realizing it, those who promote legalism of any kind in reality do the greatest disservice to the work of Christ.
• Those who require any work of the flesh to secure salvation, in effect, belittle the work of Christ to just another insufficient gesture.
But you and I know Christ is much more than that.
He “gave Himself for our sins”
He was holy, He was sinless, He was perfect
But He died to pay the penalty of sin He did not commit.
Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
That is what Christ did.
He “gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age,”
Christ came and died to free us from sin and rescue us from destruction.
And if that is not enough, then understand that He did this
“according to the will of our God and Father”
That means that Jesus was and is God’s plan of salvation.
When God determined to save sinners, His number one plan,
His only plan was Christ.
And some people fail to understand this.
• Some people think God’s first plan was to put man into a perfect garden, but
that failed.
• They think His next plan was to send the Law in order to direct men toward
righteousness, which also failed.
• And so His third plan was to send His Son to die in their stead so they could
be saved.
But that isn’t true.
Christ was always the plan.
Christ was the only plan.
Ephesians 1:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”
Salvation through Christ was settled before the foundation of the world.
• The garden was not a means of salvation, the garden revealed the destruction
of sin.
• The Law was not a means of salvation, the Law revealed how sinful man really
was.
Christ has always been God’s plan of salvation.
And Paul wants the Galatians to realize that.
Don’t go after another salvation, don’t listen to another plan.
Don’t add to Christ and don’t take away from what He did.
• He is the One who paid your debt
• He is the plan of God
• He is the One who offers grace and supplies peace
Remember Him?
Do not disregard the work of Jesus – Remember Christ
Receive Grace, Remember Christ
3) GLORIFY GOD (5)
“according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.”
And this is another major issue.
If man does something to cause himself to be saved, then who gets the credit for that? (man does)
Which is why legalism is so attractive to people.
Humanity naturally flows toward legalism, because in legalism I can do something to get saved and then get all the credit for it.
And I can look down on you for not being what I am (i.e. Pharisees)
That kind of salvation is not only false,
But it is detestable because it steals God’s glory from Him.
And Paul says, that is the last thing I want.
I want the real gospel with the real savior
So the glory can really go where it is supposed to.
This was the battle cry of the reformation.
As Calvin and Zwingly and Luther and those like them waged war against the legalistic machine of the Catholic church.
The reformation was described by Steve Lawson like this:
Draw a small building with a foundation, three pillars, and a roof.
On the FOUNDATION write SOLA SCRIPTURA it is Latin for “Scripture Alone”
• Those men had no use for the Pope’s edicts or his supposed papal authority.
• They did not need the church’s traditions or legalistic codes.
• They were not interested in their unbiblical assumptions and beliefs
They only wanted Scripture as the sole authority
For what they believed and for what was true.
SOLA SCRIPTURA was the foundation.
On that foundation stood THREE PILLARS.
SOLA GRATIA which means “Grace Alone”
They studied the Scriptures and believed that works could not save.
The only way man could be saved is if God offered grace.
The next foundation was SOLA FIDE – “Faith Alone”
Man had to respond to God’s grace
And the only response God accepted was faith.
And the third pillar was SOLUS CHRISTUS – “In Christ Alone”
And they held that salvation could be achieved no other way but through the redemption of Jesus Christ.
So the foundation of the reformation was Scripture Alone
The three pillars of the reformation were Grace Alone, Through Faith Alone, In Christ Alone
And that then led to the ROOF of their structure.
SOLI DEO GLORIA – “For the glory of God alone”
That when we study the Scriptures
And we see how salvation really occurs,
There is but one person who gets the glory, and it is God.
• It is He who calls sinners
• It is He who justifies sinners
• It is He who sanctifies sinners
• It is He who glorifies sinners
And when a sinner is saved, it is not possible to give glory to the sinner,
Or even the person who preached to him.
The glory is God’s and God’s alone
That basic structure was the framework of the Great Reformation,
And the BLUEPRINT for that structure
Came from right here in the book of Galatians.
So Bildad, “How can a man be just with God?”
By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone
That is Galatians in a nutshell
