In Job 25:4, Job’s friend Bildad asked, “How then can a man be just with God?” We think that is an excellent question. And the answer is found only in the gospel. “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)
The gospel has always contained the blueprint for obtaining God’s righteousness, but the problem is that not everyone is preaching the true gospel. The Galatians were victims of such a problem. They had been “bewitched”, they had been hood-winked. Someone came and preached to them “another gospel” which Paul had not preached. And they had quickly deserted Him who called them by the grace of Christ in favor of this distorted gospel. It was not a message that spoke of righteousness obtained by faith, but rather a message that said righteousness is obtained by works of the Law; namely circumcision.
The letter to the Galatians is a furiously written letter meant to squash such a damning message. John MacArthur called this letter, “a flashing sword, wielded by a burning heart.” Others have called it “The Magna Carta of spiritual liberty” or “The Christian’s Declaration of Independence”. Martin Luther 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).” Merill C. Tenney wrote, “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.”
Come study Galatians with us on Sunday nights and see why it is such an important part of your theology and why it holds such a special place in the hearts of so many!
Sola scriptura! Sola fide! Sola gratia! Solo Christo! Soli Deo gloria!
Grace to You!
