STUDY THEME: GALATIANS: THE CHARTER OF GRACE. 7-06-03.

"GOOD NEWS! SAVED BY GRACE." GAL. 1: 6-12; 2: 15-21.

GALATIANS 1: 6-7, 8-9, 10-12; 2: 15-19, 20-21.

PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO GALATIANS 1.

Today we begin a four-week study of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Paul made a point to remind the Galatians that he was an Apostle just like the ones who Jesus had selected. It was necessary that he defend his apostleship for it was vital that the Galatians know that those Judaizers who were telling them that it was also necessary for these new Gentile Christians to obey the Mosaic Law were wrong.

Two areas in what is now modern Turkey had the name of Galatia. Originally the northernmost part of the territory had that name. The Romans later added the southern area to form a larger territory that they called Galatia.

In Acts 13:14-14:20 Paul and Barnabas visited the cities of Antioch, Iconium, Derbe and Lystra in Southern Galatia on their first missionary journey. While Paul encountered opposition from unbelieving Jews, many Gentiles and Jews in Galatia became Christians. Churches were established and church leaders selected.

In Acts 16 Paul again visited the region of Galatia on his second missionary journey on his way to Troas. He visited the churches and encouraged the Galatian Christians.

The time frame for Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians is between AD 53 and AD 59. Galatians has been called "The Magna Carta of Christian Liberty." It is Paul’s "Manifesto of justification by faith," and the resulting liberty. Paul is proclaiming this truth of Christian’s freedom to people who are willing to give up the priceless liberty they possess in Christ. The oppressive theology of Jewish legalizers had caused believers in Galatia to trade their freedom in Christ for bondage to the law.

Paul writes this forceful Epistle to refute the false gospel of works and to demonstrate the superiority of justification by faith. In the six brief chapters Paul approaches the problem from three directions:

(1) Ch. 1-2 may be called "The Gospel of Grace Defended."

(2) Ch. 3-4 may be called "The Gospel of Grace Explained."

(3) Ch. 5-6 may be called "The Gospel of Grace applies."

Some one has pointed out that the first two chapters are personal. The next two are doctrinal and the final two are practical.

They attacked Paul and his gospel of grace. They said that Paul lacked the authority of a true apostle and that he preached an incomplete gospel.

Paul wrote the Letter to the Galatians to defend his credentials as an apostle and to insist that the gospel he preached is the only true gospel. The Jewish Christian leaders supported Paul in this understanding of the gospel. In Acts 15:1-29 this position was made official at the Jerusalem Conference.

The word justified is a key word in Paul’s writings, especially in Galatians and Romans. The Greek word means "to declare to be righteous." To be justified is to be declared righteous by God. The debate in the Galatian churches was whether God declares people righteous because they are righteous or whether God declares people righteous only by grace through faith.

You may be surprised when you examine the first word in the 27 books of the N.T. to find that the 13 letters written by Paul all begin with the word PAUL. Paul wrote these 13 letters to the churches or church leaders. These letters addressed specific issues in the churches. Through his ministry and his writings Paul had a major role in determining the shape of the Christian faith. When churches have drifted from God’s purpose, the Lord has often used the letters of Paul to renew them and redirect them.

Many Bible students think that the Letter to the Galatians was Paul’s earliest letter. It is called "the charter of Christian freedom." It was surely his most emotional letter. Paul preached the gospel of grace, which had conquered Paul, to the people of Galatia. In it Paul defended the gospel of grace against the legalists who wanted to add "keeping the Mosaic Law" to the requirements for salvation. Thus Paul emphasized faith as the only way of salvation. He also defended the gospel of grace against the charge that salvation by grace encourages people to sin. He stressed love and the Holy Spirit as the basis for the moral demands of grace.

The theme of today’s lesson is that the gospel is a gospel of grace from start to finish. The Bible Truth is the good news that people are made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Believers who are justified by faith are to continue to live by faith, not by works or by seeking to keep the requirements of the law.

Paul expressed deep concern because the Galatians were turning from the gospel of grace to a false gospel. He blamed those who were preaching a false gospel. He countered their accusations against him by asserting that God gave him his gospel. Paul emphasized that Jews and Gentiles are sinners who can be justified only by faith in Jesus Christ. The three points in the Focal Passage Outline focus on the nature of the true gospel.

In his letters Paul normally followed the opening greeting with words of commendation. He did this even in his letters to Corinth, where he had so much trouble with the church. Only in Galatians did he omit the usual greeting to immediately address the problem. Instead, he unleashed a strongly worded condemnation of the Galatians and of those who had been preaching to them.

After Paul preached to the churches of Galatia, some people had come to Galatia and attacked Paul and the gospel he preached. They accused Paul of not being a true apostle and said that the gospel he preached was not complete. These critics are often called Judaizers.

Paul got angry! Mad may be a better word. He was so upset that he forgot letter-writing protocol. Correspondence of that day called for extensive opening statements of appreciation and thanksgiving. Paul’s letters normally took this outline. Not so here. After a brief salutation, he jumped into the middle of the Galatian problem. Galatians came red-hot out of the heart of Paul. It blazes with emotion. One can see Paul grabbling with the problem he found in the churches of Galatia.

Paul said he was astonished or amazed. He was shocked and upset with a mixture of surprise and disappointment. He laid out the case against those Galatians who were backing down on their Christian commitment. He had witnessed their conversion. In fact in Gal. 4: 13-19 he led them to faith. The genuiness of their Christian experience seemed beyond question.

Galatians is like a great sword in the hands of Paul. Under attack by the Judaizers, facing a formidable foe, Paul wielded his sword. The basic question was, "How is a sinful man to get right with God?" The age-old idea was that man must make sacrifices or live a good life in order to win the favor of the gods. By contrast, Paul championed the idea of salvation by grace through faith. The issue was larger than the fate of the Galatian Churches. The issue at stake was the fate of the Christian religion. If the Judaizers had had their way, Christianity would have become just another Jewish sect, preaching salvation by law and grace.

Some people assume that such an ancient document can have little relevance for our day. However many people are still confused by the crucial question of how a person is saved. There are many popular modes of salvation in our world. Since many people still believe in a do-good-and-be-rewarded salvation, God still speaks to us through this letter today.

The ancient issue is the modern issue. How is a man made right with God? The letter also deals with the closely related question: How do saved sinners relate to one another as brothers in Christ? How can sinners saved by grace live a life that is pleasing to God?

Two factors surprised and disappointed Paul. One was their turning from the gospel of grace. The other factor was the speed with which they acted. Paul was angry with the Judaizers, and he was deeply disappointed in the response of the Galatians to their message. Many of them bought into what the Judaizers taught. Their response to this false gospel was nothing less than deserting God who had called them into the grace of Christ. Grace is a key word in the good news of salvation. Paul used this word to refer to God’s unmerited favor, which provides the basis for sinners’ acceptance by God. The Judaizers added to the grace of God the good works of humans.

We can distinguish Paul’s attitude toward methods, motives, and messages. He was flexible about ways of presenting the true gospel. He was willing to accommodate his methods of presentation to Jews and to Gentiles. He was even tolerant of people who preached the true gospel from poor motives.

However, when the issue was the message itself, Paul was not flexible. The only true gospel is the gospel of grace. Any message that adds something to the way of salvation is not of the Lord. The true gospel is centered in Christ and based on God’s grace. A so-called-"gospel" based on human goodness or achievements is a perversion of the true gospel.

These are very strong words. The word "accursed" is a translation of the Greek word "anathema"; it means something so abominable in God’s sight that God is glorified by its destruction, (Joshua 6: 17-19) eternally condemned."

Twice the apostle pronounces a curse upon those who preach any other gospel than that which he himself had proclaimed to these Galatians when they were poor sinners, and which had been used of God to lead them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Some might ask, "Is this the attitude of the Christian minister, to go about cursing people who do not agree with him?" No, and it certainly was not Paul’s attitude. Why, then, does he use such strong language? It is not that he himself is invoking a curse upon anyone, but he is declaring, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, that divine judgment must fall upon any one who seeks to pervert the gospel of Christ or to turn people away from that gospel. In other words, the apostle Paul realizes the fact that the gospel is God’s only message to lost man, and that to pervert that gospel, to offer people something else in place of it, for a man to attempt to foist upon them an imitation gospel is to put in jeopardy the souls of those who listen to him. Our Lord Jesus Christ emphasized this when He pointed our that those men who taught people to trust in their own efforts for salvation were blind leaders of the blind, and that eventually both leader and led would fall into the ditch. It is a very serious thing to mislead men along spiritual lines; it is a terrible thing to give wrong direction when souls are seeking the way to heaven. There is only one gospel.

People may say, "But Paul, you are all worked up, you are losing your temper." You know, if you become very fervent for the truth, folks say you are losing your temper. Yet, if any thing calls for fervent and intense feelings it is the defense of the gospel against false teaching.

These verses are a part of an autobiographical section of the letter written by Paul for two reasons: (1) To defend the gospel by showing its origin; (2) to defend his right to speak with authority. His express purpose was to do the will of the One who had saved him and commissioned him to preach the gospel of His grace. So he says, "I am not attempting to seek the approval of men, but of God. I do not seek to please men." If he pleased men he would simply be making himself the servant of men.

Paul’s message was not received from men. He did not spend time learning from others, including the apostles. He only spent 15 days with Peter and James. He spent three years in the Arabian desert, while being taught by Jesus. (Acts 9: 23-25; 2 Cor. 11: 32; Gal. 1: 15-18) Paul’s message came directly from Jesus Christ. God’s forgiving love as the free gift of His grace, apart from laws or rituals, is the unique quality of the Christian gospel.

PLEASE TURN TO GALATIANS 2.

We will find that Galatians 2 is one of the richest chapters in the New Testament.

In Vs. 15-16 Paul pointed out the meaning of abandoning the law. Right relationship with God is not built on the Law. Many people hope they will have enough good deeds to counterbalance their sins, but it doesn’t work like that. Sin is too serious and too deeply rooted to be atoned for by sinful people. The only way to be justified is by faith in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins.

The statement, "Who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners," means Jews like Paul had a special advantage for seeing the truth of the gospel. Being born Jews, walking like Jews, having a great heritage in the law, and being called to a special missionary task should have taught them better than to believe law-keeping could save. In Christ, the Jew found the freedom of the gospel. This Vs. is a transition from the rebuke of Peter to the great statement of Paul’s faith in Vs. 16.

According to the Judaizers, the object of obedience to the law was to make oneself acceptable to God. Through personal experience Paul had found that this was impossible. Paul closed the verse by quoting Ps. 143:2 to show that even the Jews were sinners depending on God’s loving kindness.

"To be justified" means to be treated as righteous according to God’s standard. As a bankrupt sinner he had thrown himself on God’s mercy. When he did, God accepted him as a fellow heir with Christ.

In Vs. 17-19 Paul spoke outrightly to the Galatians. Vs. 17 is a difficult one,. The meaning seems to be this: "Since no man, Jew or Gentile, can be set right with God through law-keeping, does this mean Christ has turned Jews into sinners? Not at all! To make such an inference is a dreadful distortion of the truth. All men in truth are sinners in need of God’s redeeming grace."

In VS. 18 the apostle said he would have been wrong to go back to the law. And in Vs. 19 he said Christ had given him the true freedom to live for God. The demands of the law had killed Paul and opened the way to life in God.

Martin Luther had an experience like Paul’s. Like Paul, Luther was deeply concerned about his moral and spiritual condition. He did everything he could to find peace with God. He followed every way taught by the established church, but nothing he did brought him peace. Then he began to study and teach books of the Bible. He taught Psalms, Romans, and Galatians. God spoke to him through the Word of God. Paul’s writings were used to convict Luther of his sins, show him that he could not save himself, and lead him to be justified by faith in Christ.

Vs. 20 is a powerful statement of personal testimony. Paul pointed here to the continuing result of his faith in Christ. In taking up Christ’s cross, he bore the burdens of Christ (Col. 1: 24-25.). His old life was nailed to the cross with Christ. In its place was Christ. Identification with Christ in his death on the cross was a vital reality for Paul.

Paul’s faith continued beyond the time of his conversion. He went on believing in Christ year after year. The whole verse then, argued for the sufficiency of the saving work of Christ.

Vs. 21 summarizes the whole principle that was at stake in the Galatians crisis. It is like the final nail in the coffin of justification by good works. Legalism makes the atoning death of Jesus Christ useless. The cross assumes that men are sinners who need to be saved, not obedient servants who need only to be recognized and rewarded. Finding it impossible to be saved by keeping the law, he turned to Christ who died for his sins.

In these two verses Paul described the superiority of the gospel of grace to the legalistic of the Judaizers. If people could be justified by keeping God’s law, the cross would unnecessary. His Son to die for our sins because all people are sinners who cannot save themselves. However, people who base their hopes on their own goodness assume that they don’t need a savior to die for their sins. The issue is whether we are sinners who need a Savior or good people who deserve God’s approval.

The former view requires the atoning death of the Savior. The later view makes the cross unnecessary. If the self-righteous people are right, God was wrong to send His Son to die on the cross. God in Christ paid a heavy price that would not have been needed if people are able to merit their own acceptance with God. The fact that God sent His Son to the cross is clear evidence of human sin. It shows that we all are sinners who need a Savior, not good people to be rewarded.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 2.

1. Good works cannot make a man right with God.

2. God’s grace provides the way to right standing with God.

3. The just shall live by faith.

4. The basis of fellowship is also in justification by faith.

NEXT SUNDAY FROM GALATIANS 3 WE REJOICE WITH PAUL THAT WE ARE NO LONGER UNDER THE LAW. A.V. DAUGHERTY 7-06-03