Galatians 1:1-5
“Grace And Peace To You”
INTRO: Today starting study of Paul’s letter to
Galatians—number of months.
In my 9
years at Christ Covenant, have only preached through one of Paul’s letters.
Ephesians—January 1999.
But for some time I’ve been
thinking about Galatians, reading about it.
Thing that pushed me is that over and over,
through the history of church,
Holy Spirit has used the study of Galatians
to bring revival to God’s people.
That is reflected in the comments
that believers have made about Galatians
through the
years.
It’s been called the
centerpiece of New Testament theology,
Magna Carta of
Christian liberty,
compared to the
stone David used to kill Goliath—
in the way it has
been used over and over to kill giant of legalism in church.
But certainly one of the most
colorful descriptions of Galatians comes from Luther.
Remember Luther came to know Gospel through
study of Romans, Galatians.
“Galatians is my Kate.” Kate was Katherine von Bora—former nun, his
wife.
Who he loved dearly, mentions so often with
so many compliments in writings.
Luther passed on his love for
Galatians in his commentary—still in print today.
Over the years, blessed
numerous people.
John Bunyan—who wrote
Pilgrim’s Progress—greatest Christian book of all time
in terms of number
of copies and number of translations—
John Bunyan said that his favorite book
besides the Bible—Luther’s Galatians.
It was also instrumental in
the conversion of both John and Charles Wesley.
Wesley brothers had a friend named William
Holland.
Like John and Charles, he was
searching for God’s grace.
These men knew sinners but didn’t have
peace.
Knew needed Christ but could not seem to
find him.
One day friend William
Holland found a copy of Luther’s Galatians commentary.
They got together and started reading it out
loud.
Charles Wesley was reading
the preface.
Luther is explaining Paul’s message that
Jesus Christ has done everything
for our
salvation. That it is all his
righteousness and none of ours.
Then asks
the question:
“What, have we then
nothing to do? No! Nothing but only accept of Him, who of God is
made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
William Holland said that
when he heard those words:
There came such a power over me as I cannot
well describe, my great burden fell of in an instant, my heart was so filled
with peace and love that I burst into tears.
I almost thought that I saw our Savior.”
The power was not in Luther’s
words—but in the Gospel.
That’s what Paul’s letter is about. About the Gospel
The Gospel is not just a message for
unbelievers—for believers.
Galatians
written to believers.
Gospel is not just milk—it’s also meat.
Knowing the Gospel and
applying the Gospel, living it what Christian
life is all
about. We will see that as we study this
letter together coming weeks.
Galatians is perhaps the best
presentation of the Gospel in the Bible.
The other contender is book
of Romans.
Romans and Galatians are a lot alike. Both by Paul. Both about Gospel.
But there are two things that
set Galatians apart from Romans.
It’s shorter—so the teaching is more
condensed and to the point.
And Paul wrote it mad—so it’s full of fire.
Remember Paul wrote Romans to
people he had never met—
Roman church healthy, good reputation,
wanted to visit some day.
He wrote Galatians to people
he knew personally.
These were churches that Paul had
planted—full of new Christians.
Paul had found out that they
were starting to accept teachings
that seemed like
the Gospel—teaching that talked about sin, salvation, Jesus.
But it was really the exact
opposite of the Gospel Paul had taught.
And Paul knew that if they followed this
teaching it would lead them
away from Christ
and away from freedom and into spiritual bondage.
So Paul was fired up when he
wrote this letter.
He was dealing with matters of life and
death and the honor of Jesus Christ.
It’s that passion that makes this letter so
powerful.
Today going to look at first
five verses—salutation of letter.
But even here Paul is warming up—
hints at things
that he is going to address in the rest of the letter.
Going to
get a preview—appetizer today.
Just two other matters before
we begin:
First, Paul’s argument in the
letter is logical and progressive.
One idea builds on another.
You need to be here every Sunday until I’m
finished.
If have to be gone for some reason—get copy
of sermon.
Second, want to give credit
where credit is due.
There is so much that has been written
several very helpful.
One person want
to mention specifically
because I have
found his outlines and thoughts so helpful—
Dr. Tim Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church
in
Great preacher,
brings the truth home to my heart.
Let’s look at these first
five verses.
Salutation
typical of letters in those days.
Name of sender.
Name of recipient.
A greeting.
Paul an
apostle, to the churches of
In these opening words, Paul hints at three
things of tremendous importance
that he is going to
address in this letter.
All of these have
implications for our lives as believers.
I’ll give them to you as we go.
MP#1
The importance of doctrine
We live in time in which most
American Christians don’t think doctrine important.
There are two reasons.
First is that doctrine seems
irrelevant.
When you study, teach, preach doctrine it
requires precise statements—
careful use of
words, logical thought,
consideration of
historical implications for church.
You are dealing with ideas.
That just doesn’t meet people where they
are.
Most popular preaching and
teaching today is not doctrinal—
things like 7
principles for financial freedom, 5 steps for a happy marriage—
that sort of
thing. There is content but not
doctrinal precision and argument—
because that seems
irrelevant and unhelpful to daily life.
Second reason is that
doctrine always brings controversy.
You can’t present doctrinal truth without
contrasting it with other beliefs—
And that means making judgments against
those who hold other views.
That’s divisive and negative
and out of touch with the spirit of the times—
Everybody has a right to his or her own
opinion.
Feeling is that in the church
we should do things to build up and never criticize.
Galatians is totally out of
step with this spirit.
First three words of the
letter are Paul, apostle, not.
In Greek you can put words in almost any
order you want to in sentence.
Paul makes it clear by his third word—going
to be making contrasts.
He is hardly past his
greeting before he is pronouncing damnation on professing
Christians who don’t agree
with his doctrine.
Calls the Galatians fools for
embracing this other teaching—
even though this
other doctrine is in agreement with Paul in many points—
and only disagrees
at a few key points.
But Paul maintains that good
and happiness in this life and in the life to come
rests on believing
the right doctrine—you have to believe the right thing.
Tim Keller makes an excellent
point—tone of Galatians might make uncomfortable,
telling people
believe wrong things, other Xians, life warped by
false beliefs.
But if you
had a friend who was considering suicide—saying:
My life is not worth living. I don’t have any reason to go on. This is best thing.
You would challenge his false
beliefs.
Would say: That’s not true. You are wrong.
You do have reasons to live.
You would recognize that his
false doctrine about self warping his life.
You will never change anyone’s life if
afraid to challenge false doctrine.
What is the doctrine that
Paul says is so important in this letter?
It’s the doctrine of justification.
Justification means that you
are declared righteous by God now—
not because of
anything you have done or anything in you—
but because of
everything Jesus Christ has done for you.
Justification is the central
doctrine of the Christian faith.
Everything hinges on it.
If get justification right,
get Gospel right.
If you believe sound doctrine you will be
free—way Paul put it.
But if you get justification
wrong then you get the Gospel wrong.
Those false beliefs will lead you to
slavery.
Freedom or
slavery—depending on what you believe.
So it is knowing,
understanding, believing, applying the doctrine of justification
by faith that Paul deals
with in this letter—
as well as being
able to see and criticize any teaching that contradicts it.
MP#2
The importance of authority
Paul identifies himself as an
apostle sent not from men nor by man,
but by Jesus Christ
and God the Father who raised him from the dead.
Will see, as get into letter,
Paul is responding to people who came to Galatians
after he had left
and said—Paul has his own ideas about what Jesus taught—
but he doesn’t have
any authority to teach those things.
Paul says right at the
beginning: I got my message right from Jesus
himself—
not a dream, not a
vision—right from the risen Lord Jesus.
He sent me with this
message—no men sent me.
There is nothing human about my message and
authority—it’s divine.
So Paul claims right away a special status
and authority.
Apostle is not a term that
applies to all Christians like word saint, believer.
It’s
not like the office of pastor or elder or deacon—that are common for all ages.
Apostles were the 12 and one
or two others who saw risen Jesus Christ—
and were sent by
him with a special authority to found New Testament church.
Paul wants Galatians to know
that he was speaking with Christ’s authority.
So his Gospel message is not his
opinion—from Lord.
Why is this important?
There are always two competing authorities
that Christians are continually
tempted to
follow—each of these have different gospels—
“are really not
gospels at all.”
Depending on your upbringing,
personality—
going to be pulled
toward one authority or the other.
First authority is tradition.
What does the church teach? What do your parents believe?
Tradition makes authoritative claims.
Some branches of the
church—Roman Catholic church best example—
teach that
authority does rest in the church itself—it’s formulation of doctrines.
Christians are to recognize the authority of
church in all matters of faith.
Most Protestant churches
don’t make those claims—but that doesn’t keep members
from viewing the
church’s doctrine as their final authority.
I grew up Presbyterian, or
Baptist, or Methodist—
whatever
Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist church believes—that’s what I believe.
Second authority is feelings.
What do you feel is true about God, Jesus,
salvation, faith—authority for many.
It just seems to me that God is this way or
that way, this is how get to heaven.
Guess that feelings have a bigger
authoritative claim than tradition—
but in a town like
Cullman, probably have mixture of both.
But Paul makes clear in this
letter—
the only right
authority for Christians is apostolic authority.
Apostolic authority is
another way of saying biblical authority.
That’s what the apostles did—wrote the
Bible—part call New Testament.
At Christ’s personal command
took all he taught and did,
all written about
him in Hebrew Scriptures—explained implications
of it all for
believers—put in writing for church to turn to until end of age.
I wish I had written down all
the funny church names that Allison and I
have seen over the
years in different places lived and traveled.
One of our favorites of all
time about two blocks from our apt in
The New
Had a bus ministry—name went all the way
down the side.
Apostolic Faith means
submission to authority of Bible.
If our church is a true
church, must be an apostolic church—
in tune with the
writings of the apostles—use that to judge our tradition.
If you are going to be a true
Christian—authority must be Bible above all else—
use that to judge
your heart.
MP#3
The importance of God’s initiative
After stressing his apostolic
authority, Paul greets the Galatians:
Grace and peace to you
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the gospel in a
nutshell.
The essence of salvation is
peace. It is reconciliation with God.
When sins are forgiven you have peace with
God,
that leads to peace
with yourself—inner peace, peace with other people.
Source of that peace is God’s
grace.
Grace is his free favor to you without any
merit or work on your part.
Immediately Paul summarizes
how God’s grace is given and his peace secured—
Jesus does everything.
He rescues us. He is our Savior.
Jesus did not come to teach
us how to live—came to live and die in our place.
Every other
religion—traditional religions like Islam, Buddhism, Judaism—
even the secular
religions like psychotherapy say that the answer is teaching.
You have a problem—here is
the way to be saved—
here is the
solution—they give you a program, way to live—and you follow it.
The Gospel is totally
different—God doesn’t send you a teacher, counselor—
he sends you a hero.
As Tim Keller says so
well: If a man is drowning—
don’t throw him a manual on how to swim—he needs
a Savior.
That’s exactly what Jesus
did—he rescued you and died in the process.
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ—
who gave himself for our sins to rescue us.
“For our sins” means on
behalf of—he stood in your place, a substitute.
Why? Because you were seeking him?
According to the will of God. Period.
To whom be glory forever and ever Amen. Period.
It’s all grace. It’s all God’s initiative.
The only reason God would
come after us when drowning in sin is his grace—
not because we were seeking him—not because
we deserve his favor.
This is the Gospel.
Remember what overwhelmed Wesley’s friend
William Holland,
when reading Luther’s journal?
That question: “What,
have we then nothing to do?
The answer: No! Nothing
That is the Gospel. Only one thing you need if going to be
saved—Nothing.
That’s why so many people are not saved—even
in a town like Cullman—
because they feel like they have to get
something and bring it to God.
Think they have to bring a
good life to God for him to accept them.
Think they have to love God first before he
can accept them.
That’s not the Gospel. You come with nothing and he gives you
everything.
He even gives you faith.
There were people who cried out to
Jesus—Help my unbelief—he heard them.
All you need is your
need.
If you think you need anything else, you are
missing the Gospel.
But Paul doesn’t stop
there: He rescues us from the present
evil age.
Present evil age is this age. Look around, things are decaying.
There is conflict. There is sorrow. There are tears. All results of evil, curse.
There is a coming age when
everything will be put right—
New heavens and new earth—no more death,
sorrow, pain, tears—
old order wiped away, everything will be
made new.
In the age to come you are
going to be the person God made you to be.
Lewis:
Look at the most humble person in your church—if you could suddenly
see them as they are going to be, would want
to fall down and worship.
Jesus rescue means that you
can start to enjoy the blessings of the coming age
right now, even as you are living in this
evil age—surrounded by decay.
That brings us to the great
doctrine of justification by faith.
Right by Christ.
God loves us just as much now as he will
10,000 years from now—shining as sun.
The verdict on your life has already been
passed in Christ.
Verdict is—Well done good and
faithful servant. This is my beloved
Son.
There is now no condemnation for those in
Christ.
If you believe that—sinks
into your heart—catches fire—burns out into all life—
then you will know what means to be rescued. Nothing here can overwhelm you.
CONC: As we study this letter that has changed the lives of
so many people—
I hope that as a body, as individuals in the
body—
we start to see—in a fresh way—the
importance of
Knowing sound
doctrine—especially justification—as truth build lives on.
Importance of following
biblical authority—not traditions and feelings
Importance of trusting in
God’s initiative for our salvation—
he has done everything for us by his
grace—we bring nothing.
Hope that we experience
often, like William Holland—
the power of the Gospel that we cannot well
describe—
as our burdens are removed—and hearts filled
with peace and love.
I’m going to pray that for
you in coming weeks—
You pray that for me as I study.