"Saved Through the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ" -- Acts 15:6-29 (A Postscript to Our Sermons on Galatians)

A Postscript to Sermons on the Book of Galatians

What happened after Paul sent his letter to the churches in Galatia?  We don’t know what happened in the specific congregations receiving Paul’s Galatian letter, but we do know how the church at large reacted to Paul’s rebuke of the heretical movement we know as the “Judaizers.”  In Acts 15, Luke recounts what has come to be known as the “Jerusalem Council” when Paul, and the apostles Peter, and James, along with the elders of the church addressed the Judaizing heresy.  This is one the most important turning points in the Book of Acts and goes a long way to help us see how the early church governed itself and dealt with heresy.  The Jerusalem Council reached complete agreement about the gospel Paul preached to the Gentiles–all people (Jew or Gentile) are saved the same way, by grace alone through faith alone, on account of Christ alone.

We know from Paul’s Galatian letter, as well as the account we will discuss in this sermon, the Judaizers were dividing the church by misrepresenting the teaching of the Apostle James (in his epistle), and then pitting James against the preaching of Paul.  The Judaizers claimed that James and Paul disagreed about how sinners are “justified” (or given a right standing before God), and that James was right, and Paul was wrong.  What transpires during the Jerusalem Council goes along way toward reconciling James’ prior statement in James 2:14-17: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can that faith save him?  If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?   So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead,” and Paul’s seemingly conflicting comments in Galatians 2:16: “yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

The Jerusalem Council was called by the apostolic church because Paul’s first missionary journey throughout Asia Minor (Eastern Turkey) had been a huge success.  Through the proclamation of the gospel, as well as through the demonstration of his miraculous power, God confirmed the still largely Jewish church’s mission to the Gentiles.  The result was a harvest of Gentile converts to Jesus Christ.  But it was not long after that the Judaizers and “the party of the circumcision” took issue with Paul, insisting that Gentile converts live as Jews–they submit to circumcision, keep the Jewish dietary laws, and observe Jewish feasts.  Gentiles must believe in Jesus but obey Moses, if they are to be justified.

The statements by James, the teaching of Paul, and the attack upon Paul’s gospel by the Judaziers must be addressed if Jew and Gentile were to coexist in Christ’s church.  If there was to be clarity about the gospel, this fundamental question must be settled; “what place does obedience to the law of Moses and ritual circumcision play in relationship to the gospel of free grace and justification?”  Are Gentiles to obey the law of Moses and submit to circumcision in order to be saved?  If not, how are Gentile Christians to relate to Jewish believers within in the New Israel, the new society, the mystical body of Jesus Christ, which is the church, created by God himself, through the proclamation of Christ crucified?

Most historians date the Jerusalem conference in the year A.D. 49, shortly after Paul had written Galatians.  But the tensions which led to the council had been present for some time.  By the time the Council of Jerusalem meets, the first missionary journey was completed with Paul and Barnabas staying on in Antioch (a city in southeastern Turkey).  The sheer number of converts proved God was calling Gentiles to faith in Jesus.  It also become clear that Israel’s own prophets foretold in the last days (still hundreds of years distant when they wrote) the Gentiles would share in the promises which God made to Israel.  In Genesis 22:18, God promised to bless all the nations of the earth through Abraham.  The prophet Isaiah (49:6) saw a coming age in which the Servant of the Lord–who is none other than Jesus of Nazareth–will be a light to the Gentiles and will bring salvation to the ends of the earth.  The prophet Zephaniah (3:9-10) revealed that in the messianic age, the Messiah himself would purify the lips of the assembled nations, and all of those gathered would call upon the name of the Lord.  Zechariah (8:22) spoke of an age when the nations would assemble at Jerusalem seeking the Lord almighty.  “Yes,” Israel’s God will bless the Gentile nations.  But he will bless those nations through Israel.  The question now being answered is how.

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"The Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ" -- Galatians 6:11-18

The Thirteenth in a Series of Sermons on Galatians

We begin to wrap-up our series on the book of Galatians.  In this sermon, we will consider Paul’s closing words to the Galatians–expressing his desire to boast only in the cross of Jesus Christ.  But Paul’s boast stands in complete contrast to everything we have read so far about the Judaizers, men who were ashamed of Christ’s cross, since crucifixion was regarded by virtually all first century people as a symbol of shame and humiliation.  Instead, the Judaizers were boasting that their heretical movement had the blessing of God because of the large number of converts they quickly made.  Such a boast about numbers obscured the fact that to be a Judaizer, one must also boast about one’s own righteousness, supposedly attained through law-keeping and submission to ritual circumcision.  By boasting about their personal righteousness, sadly, the Judaizers become enemies of Jesus Christ.

In the first six chapters of Galatians (1:1-6:10), Paul address both the doctrinal and practical consequences of the Judaizing heresy.  As he completes this remarkable and powerful letter, the Apostle has several final comments to make.  In the first part of chapter 6, Paul discussed the principle of “sowing and reaping.”  Those who sow to the flesh–those who embrace the false gospel of the Judaizers and who seek to earn favor with God through circumcision and obedience to the ceremonial law–will reap a crop, a crop Paul calls the “fruit of the flesh,” which leads to a harvest of destruction.  But those who trust in Jesus Christ’s finished work through faith alone, and who, therefore, “walk in the Spirit,” sow seed to the Spirit.  They will manifest the fruit of the Spirit, a harvest which leads to eternal life.  Paul’s notion of “sowing and reaping” is tied to believing the true gospel and sowing to the finished work of Christ–not sowing to self-righteousness by trying to earn favor with God through obedience to the Law as the Judaizers were deceptively teaching.

Before we get to Paul’s concluding point–that the Judaizers were trying to avoid persecution by stressing circumcision instead of preaching the cross–Paul slips in a statement about his own health that we ought to briefly address.  In verse 11, Paul says “see with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.”  That Paul is writing in “large letters,” likely means that the illness which originally landed Paul on a sickbed in Galatia some months earlier had to do with his vision.  Paul was likely still having trouble with his eyes, so he indicates why it is that he had written out this epistle in such large letters.

The final point Paul raises as he concludes this letter is his discussion of the motivation of the Judaizers in teaching their false gospel.  In verses 12-13, Paul charges, “it is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.  For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.”  Again, Paul deals with these hypocritical false teachers who were trying to make a good impression outwardly (verse 12), but who do not obey the very same law they tell their own converts they must obey (verse 13).  Warns Paul, they are trying to compel you to be circumcised–deceiving you into taking back upon yourselves the yoke of the law–when the Judaizers not only don’t keep the law themselves, their motivation in deceiving you has to do with escaping persecution because of the scandal attached to the cross.  

The cross of Jesus Christ is stumbling block to the Jew and foolishness to Greeks, the very mention of which was offensive to many.  Though the cross be an offense, if there is no cross, there is no gospel.  But for the Judaizers, who saw justification as the fruit of human effort (so the cross makes no sense to them) the gospel as taught by Paul must be modified so as to remove the offence.  But to remove the offence of the cross was to preach a gospel which was no gospel.

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"Whatever One Sows, That Will He Also Reap" -- Galatians 6:1-10

The Twelfth in a Series of Sermons on Galatians

Throughout his Galatian letter, Paul has let the Galatians have it–pointedly reminding the Galatians of the gospel which he preached to them, and then exhorting them to stand firm and not give in to the false teaching of the Judaizers.  Before he wraps up this letter to these struggling churches, the apostle stops to give some practical and pastoral advice to those suffering from the effects of the dissension and back-biting which the Judaizers brought upon the Galatian churches.

In last two chapters of Galatians (chapters 5-6), Paul addresses the consequences of the false doctrine taught by the Judaizers–the inevitable havoc wrought by a theology based upon justification by human effort and compliance to law and ritual.  As Paul argued in Galatians 5, those who have been taken in by the Judaizers risk being severed from Christ and falling from grace.  Any who seek to be justified on the ground of circumcision, obedience to dietary laws, and the keeping of the Jewish religious calendar (the so-called “emblems” or “badges” of Judaism), will be greatly disappointed.

But if the Law is fulfilled in love–which, as Paul has been saying flows out of justifying faith–then there are of number of specific points of application which need to be made in response to the self-righteousness and judgmental attitude introduced into the church as a direct result of false teaching.  In his response, the apostle sets out a sharp contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.  The presence of the fruit of the Spirit is characteristic of every Christian believer, now freed from sin, death, and the Law.  But Paul also makes clear, Christians will inevitably struggle with the flesh and indwelling sin until they die, or Christ comes back, whichever comes first.  

Turning, then, to the first ten verses of Galatians chapter six (our text), Paul offers practical and pastoral advice, in which his prior discussion about the Law being fulfilled in love is now applied to the specific circumstances in Galatia.  Paul is dealing with the consequences of the deceptive actions of the Judaizers and the false gospel that they were teaching–all of which led to a very difficult situation in the churches throughout Galatia.  Many of those influenced by the Judaizers had stooped to such a low level that they were now spying on each other’s liberty, and, in doing so, created an atmosphere of judgment and in-fighting in the church.  

The Judaizers were seeking nothing less than to re-enslave the Galatians to the bondage of the “basic principles of the world.”  The tragic result of all of this was conflict in the church, stemming from fear and doubt about one’s relationship to God created in the vacuum of the absence of Christian liberty–the very blessing which Jesus Christ died to secure for his people.  Since the false gospel of the Judaizers was based upon human compliance to law, and therefore, grounded in human merit (“self-righteousness”) Paul reports that many of those who had been taken in by the deception of the Judaizers, were now acting in a conceited manner, provoking, and envying each other–all of which is the inevitable consequence of thinking that your merit is greater than another’s.  

Paul has expressed his amazement at how quickly the leaven of the Judaizers spread throughout the churches.  People were not only confused about the gospel, but, as a result, they were behaving like wild beasts.  This is why Paul so pointedly urges the Galatians to “walk by the Spirit.”  Christians are to act in an appropriate manner even under the difficult circumstances now facing them.  Heresy, strife, and animosity are the bitter fruit brought forth by those who oppose the gospel of free grace and justification by an imputed righteousness received by faith alone.  Paul will give the Galatians specific instruction as to what it means to “walk by the Spirit.”  As is typical of Paul, these are all very straightforward and make a great deal of sense in the context of the situation then facing the Galatian Christians.

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"Walk By the Spirit" -- Galatians 5:16-26

The Eleventh in a Series of Sermons on Galatians

In face of attacks made upon the gospel by the Judaizers, Paul exhorted the Galatians to stand firm in the freedom won for them by Jesus Christ.  Taking up a discussion of the Christian life in the fifth chapter of Galatians, Paul tells his hearers that although they are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, the faith through which they are justified is also a faith that works in love.  Paul also says, the Law–obedience to which cannot justify–is fulfilled through obedience to the command to love one another.  But the power to fulfill the law is not our own.  It must be given to us through the indwelling Holy Spirit, so that we “walk by the Spirit.”

Paul’s critics in Galatia accused him of preaching one gospel of “faith alone” to the Gentiles and another of “faith plus circumcision” to the Jews.  But if Paul were doing such a thing, why was he being persecuted?  The Judaizers have told the Galatians repeatedly that Paul’s doctrine of justification is positively dangerous, since supposedly it leads to license–which is why the Judaizers were snooping around in the Galatian churches spying on Gentile liberty.  The Judaizers accused Paul of being an antinomian–slandering the apostle by claiming he had no regard for circumcision, the Law, or the traditions of the fathers.  In Galatians 5, Paul must correct a number of the ways in which he and the gospel have been misrepresented.  He takes great care in setting out just how it is, since we are justified by grace, alone through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, that we are to live our lives in light of Jesus Christ’s saving work. The life which springs from faith in Jesus is “walking by the Spirit.”

In verses 16-18 of Galatians 5, Paul draws a contrast between the Holy Spirit producing the fruit of the Spirit (characteristic of the Christian), with the works brought forth from the flesh (our sinful nature, apart from Christ).  Paul describes the Christian’s intense struggle with sin as a war between what we were in Adam and what we are presently in Christ.  Paul tells the Galatians they were called by God to be free, but they were not to use this freedom as an excuse to indulge the sinful nature (flesh).  Instead they were to use their freedom in Christ to serve one another in love (5:13-15) and not devour each other as wild animals.  As is his custom, Paul follows these comments with an imperative [command] in verse 16 (which opens our passage).  “But I say, walk by the Spirit.”  “To walk” is an Old Testament figure of speech descriptive of how one lives one’s life.  The one who walks in the Spirit “will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”  Paul exhorts us to walk by the Spirit as a habit of life because in doing so we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

There is a loud Old Testament echo here.  The notion of life in the Spirit was a central blessing of the coming messianic age and the new covenant yet to dawn, and a major theme in the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:31-34 of the new covenant (as in our Old Testament lesson).  Under the old covenant, the law was an eternal code of conduct (i.e., a list of rules).  But when the Holy Spirit is given to all of God’s people in the new covenant era, the law is said to be written on our hearts as an inward principle through the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit.

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"Through Love Serve One Another" -- Galatians 5:7-15

The Tenth in a Series of Sermons on Galatians

Christ has set us free, which is why Paul exhorts the Galatians to stand firm in the face of those who seek to re-enslave them to the basic principles of the world.  The freedom purchased for us (at the cost of the blood and sweat of Jesus) is a precious gift, and is therefore not to be wasted by indulging the sins of the flesh.  Our freedom is to be manifest in love and service of our neighbors.  For Paul, the choice is clear.  Either we place our trust in the cross of Jesus Christ to find freedom–though it be a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks–or else we fall prey to the Judaizers who would abolish the offence of the cross in order to preach a false gospel of human merit, enslaving us under the guise of restraining human sinfulness and earning favor with God.

In Galatians 5:1, Paul’s emphasis begins to shift to more practical matters–specifically the nature of the Christian life.  Paul opens with an emphatic assertion; the purpose of the death of Jesus was to set believers free from the elementary principles of the world.  Christ’s merits provide us with what we need to be found “right” before God (“justified”).  To add the merit of human works (the basic principles of the world) to the merit earned for us by Christ is an affront to God.  Our liberty in Christ is the basis for the Christian life because, as Christians, we have clean consciences before God because the guilt of our sin has been washed away by the blood of Christ.  Since we are now in Christ, we are not bound by the Law as a means of earning a right standing with God.  Once justified, we are free to obey the Law of God since we are no longer slaves to sin.  This freedom is the basis for the Christian life.  

Christian liberty ensures that we are no longer bound by “things indifferent”– those things which are not expressly prohibited in Holy Scripture, summed up in the prohibitions, “do not taste,” “do not handle,” “do not touch” (cf. Colossians 2:20-23).  All those who have a right standing before God through faith in Christ are free from the elemental things which once enslaved us.  Unless we are clear about this, we will not be clear about how to live the Christian life.  The Judaizers in Galatia were having much success because they caused great confusion about the gospel, deceiving people to return them to slavery.

Given the fact that Christ died to set Christians free from the very things to which the Judaizers were trying to re-enslave them, Paul exhorts the Galatians, both at the beginning and end of this section, to stand firm against these false teachers, and not allow themselves to again bear the “yoke of slavery” (likely a Rabbinic phrase for obedience to the law of Moses).  If anyone does return to law-keeping as a means of earning favor with God, Paul says, they will fall from grace and be severed from Christ (Gal. 5:4).  This is no intermural debate.  Paul tells us that justification produces freedom in Christ.  Yet, the false gospel proclaimed by the Judaizers brings about slavery and bondage to the very things for which Christ died to free us.  If we don’t resist them we’ll end up re-enslaved back to basic principles.

But Paul is no libertine as the Judaizers were falsely contending.  You can just hear them telling the Galatians in Paul’s absence, “if Paul teaches that we are justified by faith alone and not by works, what place does that leave for good works?”  “If people really believe Paul, they will live lives characterized by sin and self indulgence, not good works.”  You can just imagine the Judaizers pointing out to everyone who will listen those immature individuals who use the gospel as an excuse to sin, as supposed proof that Paul’s gospel is dangerous.  Paul does not take the bait.  Instead, he preaches the gospel of free grace, justification by faith alone, and Christian liberty louder and longer.  This epistle is proof.  

The problem is not that the gospel leads to license, but that those who live in such fashion do not understand, or (in certain cases) truly do not believe the gospel.  Paul’s doctrine is that the faith which justifies, is also a faith which works in love, not so that we can be justified, but because we are already justified.  One who trusts in the merits of Christ is set free to strive to obey the Law of God.  But the religion of the Judaizers, on the other hand, is a religion of fear, doubt, and slavery.

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"For Freedom" -- Galatians 5:1-6

The Ninth in a Series of Sermons on Galatians

If anything is worth fighting for it is freedom–especially Christian freedom.  In defense of Christian liberty, Paul issues a stern warning to the Galatians.  Anyone who seeks to be justified by obedience to the law of Moses, through receiving circumcision, through keeping of Jewish dietary laws, or observing the Jewish religious calendar will come under God’s curse and fall from grace.  Those who seek to be justified by observing what Paul calls the “basic principles of the world,” place themselves in grave danger.  In Galatians 5:1-6, Paul builds his case against the Judaizers, contrasting their campaign of enslavement to the law with Christian liberty in Christ.

In the first four chapters of Galatians, Paul raised a number of doctrinal matters.  Beginning in chapter 5, we move into what many identify as the “practical section” of this letter, taking up first the important matter of Christian liberty.  While Paul changes focus a bit from doctrine to practice (the application of doctrine to specific situations), the apostle continues to set out clear contrasts between opposing positions.  Paul is quite fond of antithesis (contrast) as a rhetorical critique and he uses it repeatedly.  

Following up his analogy between Hagar and Sarah in Galatians 4:21-4:31, when Paul turned the Jewish understanding of redemptive history on its head, in Galatians 5:1-6, he contrasts faith and works yet again, showing how opposed they are when it comes to the justification of sinners.  To seek to be justified by good works and human merit is to desire theological slavery.  This is a very serious error since Jesus Christ came for the purpose of setting us free from bondage to sin and the law.  In verse 1 of chapter 5 Paul begins with the assertion, “for freedom Christ has set us free.”  This is where the Christian life begins.  We will spend our time fleshing out the meaning of this important assertion in some detail.
 
If obeying the law of Moses as a means of justification is “bondage,” because doing so places one under the law’s demand for perfect obedience thereby making one subject to the law’s curse upon violation of any of its commands, then, it is justification by grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ alone that Paul has in mind when he speaks of freedom.  To be justified (given a “right” standing before God) is to be free from the curse of the law because Christ became a “curse” for us (Gal 3:13).  We are also freed from the yoke of slavery to which law-keeping subjects us.  Jesus came to set us free, not enslave us to the law.  All of the Protestant Reformers agreed upon this point and its importance.  To speak about justification was not enough.  If Christian liberty was not the defining characteristic of the Christian life, then the doctrine of justification was not clearly understood.  

It is highly likely that the Judaizers were asking their converts to take upon themselves the “yoke of the law of Moses” as a means of demonstrating their full commitment to the religion of Israel.  It is also likely that Paul is throwing their own words back at them, calling obedience to law as a means of justification, a yoke of slavery when, in the second half of verse 1, he commands the Galatians “stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”  The Rabbinic description of the law as a yoke which the children of Abraham must take upon themselves, may also be behind the meaning of our Lord’s words of comfort in Matthew 11:30–“my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  The freedom of which Paul is speaking is “the freedom belonging to the heir, the natural son, the child of the free woman,” which Paul just set out in the analogy of the preceding verses in which Paul took the proof-texts the Judaizers were using regarding the Abraham story, and showed that these texts actually support Paul’s doctrine of justification.

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"Two Covenants" -- Galatians 4:21-31

The Eighth in a Series of Sermons on Galatians

Although we know him as the Apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus was once the stand out student of the famed Rabbi Gamaliel.  An up and coming Rabbi himself, Saul was well-known throughout the Jewish community in Jerusalem for his zeal for the religion of Israel and his fierce opposition to a new sect called “Christians.”  But after Jesus called Saul to be the Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul understands the Bible much differently than he did when a student of Gamaliel.  In his response to the false teachers plaguing the Galatians, the Judaizers now find themselves dealing with a master of demonstrating how Jesus Christ is the sum and substance of the Old Testament messianic expectations of Israel.  In Galatians 4:21-31, Gamaliel’s prized student will reinterpret the course of redemptive history through the lens of the person and work of Jesus.  Paul will explain the relationship between the covenants YHWH made with Abraham and Moses in a way that Gamaliel could never envision, and which demonstrates the Judaizers to be blind guides, not to be followed.

As we have seen from our time in Galatians, Paul has expressed his anger, his amazement, and his sorrow over what was happening to the Galatian Christians.  When he had been in Galatia not long before, recuperating from what seems to been a serious illness effecting his vision, Paul used the opportunity to preach the gospel–or, as he puts it, he publicly placarded Christ.  In his providence, God used Paul’s preaching as the means to call many living in Galatia to faith in Jesus–both Jew and Gentile.  As a result, a number of new churches were established.  The Galatians responded favorably to the gospel and they warmly embraced Paul as a kind of spiritual father.  He led them to a knowledge of the Savior, and they demonstrated great hospitality to him, nursing him back to health.  But soon after leaving the area to continue on with his missionary activity, reports got back to Paul that something was amiss in Galatia.  Wolves entered these churches and were deceptively leading the Galatians astray in great numbers.

These wolves, known to us as the Judaizers, were Jewish converts to Christianity who came to believe that Jesus was Israel’s Messiah, but did not believe that Jesus’ obedient life and sacrificial death were sufficient to save sinners from God’s wrath.  Judaizers taught that Gentile coverts to Christianity must submit to ritual circumcision, keep the Jewish religious calendar and dietary laws, and obey the law of Moses as a means of obtaining or maintaining justification, a “right standing” before God.

According to Paul, the Judaizers were teaching a different gospel which was no gospel at all, and in doing so, placed themselves under God’s curse.  Paul is angry with these false teachers, whom he contends have deceptively entered the Galatian churches and were spying on Gentiles exercising their liberty in Christ.  But when he addresses the Galatians–the same people he led to faith in Christ, and who demonstrated great hospitality to him–Paul is utterly bewildered.  How could these same people turn from following Christ and then allow these deceivers to lead them back into slavery?  Jesus Christ died to set the Galatians free.  But the Judaizers were doing their best to convince them that slavery to the law and “the basic principles of the world,” was somehow better than freedom in Christ.

Making an impassioned appeal to the Galatians not to fall prey to the schemes of these deceivers, Paul explains the overall course of redemptive history and the Old Testament Scriptures (the box-top to the puzzle, so to speak) to illustrate the way in which the Judaizers distorted the proper understanding of God’s saving purposes.  This is theme of our text, verses 21-31 of chapter four.

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"How Can You Turn Back?" -- Galatians 4:8-20

The Seventh in a Series of Sermons on the Book of Galatians

Whenever legalism rears its ugly head, slavery to the “basic principles of the world” is not far behind.  Once enslaved to the basic principles of the world, the blessedness of knowing that Jesus died for the forgiveness of all our sins, and that our Lord fulfilled the law for us so that we can be justified, will soon disappear.  Ask a slave if there is joy in bondage.  Ask a freeman if he wishes to return to slavery.  But this is the very thing the Judaizers were imploring the Galatians to do–turn back to the things which once enslaved them, and this after Jesus came to set them free.

Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia is his response to an attempt by a group of Jewish converts to Christianity to infiltrate the churches which the apostle had recently helped to found, with the express intention of undermining the gospel that Paul previously proclaimed in these churches.  Preaching what Paul calls a false gospel, these false teachers–known as the Judaizers–contended that Paul’s gospel of free grace inevitably leads to license.  They worked their way into the Galatian churches secretly and began spying on Gentiles exercising their liberty in Christ, then arguing that Paul’s gospel is dangerous because it supposedly encourages people to live in utter disregard to the law of Moses and the traditions of the fathers of Israel.  In this incident, we witness a collision between a false gospel based upon human merit and obedience to the law of Moses, and the gospel of Jesus Christ which is anchored in the free and sovereign grace of God, made manifest in the life and death of our Lord.  

From the apostle Paul’s perspective, this is a battle over the fundamental nature of Christianity, a battle which determines whether or not Christianity is centered in the redemptive work of Christ, or in human merit, as is typical of all other religions.  Paul has made it clear that through faith in Jesus Christ, even Gentiles become heirs to all the promises that God made to Abraham.  It is through faith in Christ that we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and are justified.  None of these blessings come to us because we earn them through good works.  Furthermore, by virtue of our union with Christ, all racial and social distinctions specifically related to our standing before God are removed (cf. 3:28).   In Christ, there is no longer any distinction between Jew and Greek, male and female, slave and free.  We are now one.  

The visible sign and seal of this unity is baptism, through which the believer “puts on Christ.”  Once clothed in the robe of Christ’s glorious and perfect righteousness, the believer, who was formerly estranged, an alien, and a foreigner to the things of God, is now regarded as an adopted son or daughter, entitled to the full inheritance from his heavenly father.  As such, all believers, whether they be Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, have the privilege of intimate fellowship with God, just as the true Son of God, Jesus Christ did.  As God’s adopted children, we too, cry out “Abba, Father.”

We will cover verses 8-20, beginning with Paul’s description in verses 8-10, of the continuing efforts of the Judaizers to infiltrate the Galatian churches with the goal of returning them to the legalistic principles of Judaism.  “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.  But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?  You observe days and months and seasons and years!”  

Paul is taking up the matter of what happens when full-grown and mature sons and daughters of God return (as mentioned in vv 1-7 of chapter 4) to the “basic principles of the world” (the stoicheia) as the means of receiving their inheritance from their Father.  Rejecting God’s way and returning to the former way of seeking to establish their own righteousness, the Judaizers strive to gain their inheritance through human merit and external ceremonies instead of through faith in the saving work of Jesus. This raises a number of questions.  “What happens when so-called Christians seek to turn back the clock of redemptive history?”  “Should we go looking for our inheritance in the endless wilderness of the Sinai?”  “Should we seek good things from the slave-masters who ruled over God’s people during their bondage in Egypt?”  “Should we seek good things from those who held us captive in Babylon?”  Paul’s answer is remind us that should we do so, we have turned our backs on the finished work of Jesus Christ.

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"Baptized into Christ" -- Galatians 3:26-4:7

The Sixth in Series of Sermons on Galatians

Paul’s gospel is the public placarding of Christ crucified (Galatians 3:1)–the proclamation of the death of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, and the affirmation of our Lord’s perfect obedience in fulfilling the demands of the law of Moses.  Justification (our right standing before God) and the gift of the Holy Spirit, the promise which God made to Abraham, both come to God’s people (Jew and Gentile) though faith alone (“hearing with faith”).  They cannot be earned by works of law.  Defending this gospel in the face a serious challenge is the reason why Paul sends this letter to the Galatians.

Paul was instrumental in the founding of a number of churches in the Galatian region, and now, soon after he had left the area, a group of false teachers known as the Judaizers began to infiltrate these churches.  Paul says these false teachers were “spying” on those Gentiles exercising their freedom in Christ, trying to prove that Paul’s gospel leads to licence (the abuse of grace).  The Judaizers were Jews who had come to believe that Jesus was Israel’s Messiah, but they also insisted that Gentile converts to Christianity must submit to ritual circumcision, keep certain aspects of the dietary laws, and obey the law of Moses in order to be justified.  These conditions were added to faith in Jesus.

The epistle to the Galatians is the Apostle Paul’s response to this very difficult situation.  Paul expresses his astonishment and his anger at the seeming ease and speed at which the Judaizers were able to throw the Galatians into confusion by introducing their false gospel which is, as Paul says, no gospel at all.  Paul’s response to the Judaizers begins with a stern warning to the Galatians–if anyone comes and preaches a gospel different from the gospel that he had previously preached to them, the one preaching such a thing was to be considered anathema (accursed).  

Paul defends his apostolic office on the ground that the gospel he has been preaching to all the churches was revealed to him by none other than Jesus Christ.  Since this gospel reveals we are justified by the merits of Christ, and not through any merit or works of our own, Paul points out that justification must come through faith in Christ, and not through our works.  Paul explains that the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12, 15, 18, is fulfilled in Jesus Christ (the promised seed–3:16).  This promise was given and ratified before God made a subsequent covenant with Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.  Paul reminds his hearers that one purpose of the law is to expose our sin, so that we flee to Jesus Christ for forgiveness.  In fact both covenants (Abraham and Moses) point to Jesus Christ and his saving work.  

With this in mind, we pick up where we left off previously (vv. 15-25).  The Apostle moves on from discussing the fact that the promise God made to Abraham is not nullified by the law later given to Moses, to a discussion of baptism in Galatians 3:26-3:29.  Paul is speaking of all true children of Abraham (Jew and Gentile) when he states in verse 26, “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith,” re-stating the point he in verse 25, which we considered, last time–“but now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian [the law].”  

By speaking of both ethnic groups (Jew and Gentile) as “sons” of God, Paul is making an important point in his argument against the Judaizers, namely, that sons, even adopted sons, are legally entitled to receive an inheritance from their father.  In this case, both Jew and Gentile are sons of God through faith in Christ, and therefore both heirs to the promise since both are the legitimate children of Abraham.  It is Jesus Christ who unites Jew and Gentile into one body through faith alone.  But it is the Judaizers who instead seek to divide Jew from Gentile.  This explains, in part, why the so-called “gospel” of the Judaizers, divides along ethnic lines those whom God has joined together in one body (the church).

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"Why Then the Law?" -- Galatians 3:15-25

The Fifth in a Series of Sermons on Galatians

One of best ways to refute error is to proclaim the truth.  This is what Paul does throughout the Book of Galatians.  The error Paul must refute is doctrinal and public.  A group of false teachers, the Judaizers, had come to the Galatians shortly after Paul had left the region.  They challenged Paul’s authority and began undermining the gospel which the Apostle had preached previously.  The Judaizers were zealous for the law and the tradition of their fathers.  When Gentiles responded to the gospel after Paul preached it to them, and then came to faith in Jesus Christ, the Judaizers became insistent that these Gentiles believe that Jesus was the Messiah, but, they added, Gentile converts must also submit to ritual circumcision, keep certain dietary laws, and obey the law of Moses.  If they failed to do so, they would forfeit their right standing before God.  This was the great error of the Judaizers; faith in Christ, plus . . .

Publically placarding Jesus Christ crucified before his hearer’s eyes through his preaching (Gal. 3:1), the truth is also out in the open.  Justification comes through faith in Jesus Christ (“hearing with faith” as Paul calls it), not through obedience to the law of Moses, not through submission to ritual circumcision, or through keeping dietary laws.  The blessings of the promise that God made to Abraham comes to all of Abraham’s children–whether Jew or Gentile–through faith and not by by works.  This is Paul’s gospel.

Paul was angry about the errors of the Judaizers.  He was also angry at their deceptive methods.  Apparently, the Judaizers were infiltrating the Galatian churches and spying on Gentiles exercising their freedom in Christ.  Any possible instance of the abuse of Christian liberty was turned into an argument against Paul’s gospel.  As Paul saw it, since we are justified (given a right standing before God) by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, any departure from this gospel was a different gospel, which is no gospel.  Paul’s gospel had been revealed to him personally by Jesus Christ, and it was through this same gospel the Galatians had trusted in Christ alone through the “hearing with faith,” the means by which the Galatians received the Holy Spirit and witnessed God work miracles in their midst.
   
Making his case that justification and God’s promise to Abraham (the gift of the Holy Spirit) both come to Abraham’s children through faith alone, in verses 15-18 of Galatians 3, Paul points out that even though the promise to Abraham was given chronologically prior to giving of law to Moses, this does not mean that the law nullifies the prior Abrahamic promise.  After discussing the death of Christ in verses 12-13–Jesus Christ become a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the law, bearing that curse for us in his own body hanging upon the cross (tree), so that Jew and Gentile alike can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit–Paul moves on in verses 15-18 to discuss the nature of the promise and its connection to the different covenants made with Abraham and Moses.  Paul will give a lesson in redemptive history.

Using Abraham as his example, Paul is able to prove that his understanding of the gospel which is centered in the public placarding of Christ crucified for sinners, is the very same gospel that God preached in advance to Abraham as recorded in Genesis 15:6.  Paul is no innovator.  The promise God gave to Abraham that he would justify Abraham and all of his spiritual children, Jew and Gentile, through faith alone, is the same gospel taught throughout the Old Testament.  The substance of the promise was that through the means of faith, God would give the children of Abraham the gift of the Holy Spirit and so having received the Holy Spirit, they were now heirs to the promise.

Paul’s main point in this section is really a simple one.  The promise given to Abraham as recounted in Genesis 17, preceded in time God’s giving of the law to Moses at Mt. Sinai.  The law cannot nullify the promise.  In Galatians 3:15, Paul puts it this way.  “To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.”  Paul’s example points to the covenant (diatheke) which God had previously established with Abraham as recounted in Genesis 15-17.  This first covenant cannot be set aside by a later covenant, because the covenant God made with Abraham is unconditional in the sense that it is God himself who swears the oath to Abraham to bring to pass what is promised–“I will be your God and you and your descendants after you will be my people.”

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