Galations 1 and 2

Salvation is a Gift, Not a Reward

In the Bible, there is no more passionate discussion about the truth of the Gospel than in the book of Galatians. The truth is, “Salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ, alone.”

But in general, people, in our weakness, want to earn our salvation by works or deeds. Our hearts are wired in such a way that we constantly drift away from a moment-by-moment belief that we are justified: not guilty, fully acquitted, and free.

This resistance in our hearts to complete exoneration before God based on what Christ has done, becomes an ongoing part of our mindset. Some denominations and religious systems have even built their theology and doctrine upon this heart resistance.

In this letter, Paul reveals the arrogance of such thinking. This letter is Paul’s declaration of religious independence from men, and dependence on God alone.

You may or may not remember the Magna Carta from high school. The Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England in the 1200’s. Among other things, it provided that liberty and freedom should be protected by the law. In other words, nothing should interfere with people’s liberty and freedom. Paul’s letter to the Galatians has been called the “Magna Carta of Christian liberty” because it proclaims that nothing shall interfere with direct access to God. It was a revolutionary document.

The underlying question, or theme, before us in this book is, “How can men, who are by nature sinful, win the favor of God, who is holy?” Well, the answer is, “They cannot.” Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “…without faith it is impossible to please God.” The only way to please God is to trust in His grace and stop trying to acquire saving merit by obedience to works or deeds.

For the purpose of this study, we’ll refer to these works or deeds as the “law”. The law that we’re generally referring to in Galatians is the Law of Moses: these are the requirements that God gave Moses that the people of Israel had to follow in order to approach God. These are in the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Why did Paul write this book, the book of Galatians?

Remember when we studied the book of Acts that Paul had gone to an area called Galatia and planted some churches there. You will also remember that Paul always preached the Gospel, the Good News: that our sins are atoned for by Jesus’ death on the cross.

But after Paul left these churches, some Christian Pharisees visited these cities and began teaching that the Gentile Christians had to place themselves under the Law of Moses. So in addition to believing that Jesus was the Messiah, one must join the Jewish nation, observe the laws and customs of Moses, refuse to eat with Gentiles, be circumcised. In other words, one must have Christ and Moses. Faith and circumcision. Grace and law. They were preaching a “different gospel”. They were perverting the Gospel of man’s free justification by faith in Jesus Christ. The problem was that many of the new Gentile Christians in Galatia were believing this.

Paul became aware of this corruption of the gospel. He recognized that if their views prevailed, the Good News would be distorted and twisted. The true Gospel – grace and the cross of Jesus would be emptied of all value. Paul insisted that you can’t mix and match. It’s Christ alone.

This theme of Christ alone was the cornerstone of the Protestant Reformation. The five solas (sola meaning “alone”) of the Reformation state that Christians are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed by Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone.

2000 years after it was written, the truths from Paul’s letter to the Galatians are needed for us today. Many Christians feel a concern about the true nature of the Christian Gospel and many questions arise:

Isn’t it a little too easy to just “accept Christ”?
Can we really say that salvation is through faith and by grace, plus nothing?
Shouldn’t a Christian at least be expected to live a certain holy life after he or she has come to know Jesus?

So with these kinds of questions we lose our confidence and get sucked into thinking that there must be more. We must do more.

So Paul wrote this letter to be sent to all the churches addressing this dangerous thinking. Because to add works, rituals, or the law to the Gospel message of what it takes to become a Christian is to overturn the Good News. Salvation is a gift, not a reward for works.

Paul’s letter tells us that in Christ we have freedom, or liberty, from the Law. We have been justified, or made righteous, by our faith alone. But being right with God requires a new nature, and no man can remake himself. Only God, through the Holy Spirit, can do that. Glad acceptance of God’s gift of a new life is the only way to freedom and liberty. Christian liberty.

But Christian liberty is not license. So even though as Christians we don’t have a code of law like the old Mosaic Law, we are the Children of God. And we therefore have a moral character. This new moral character is given to us with the power to achieve it beyond the power that’s in the law. This power is the Holy Spirit, in us. It produces fruit in us, the fruit of the Spirit.

Unlike some of the other books that we’ve studied which tell stories, this one is largely doctrine, theology, the keys to the Christian life. Paul shows us in this book something interesting.

For some people, to remove the boundaries and confines of the Law and rules is scary (because we can easily tick them off, keep a record of them, keep score). But God’s better way produces a righteousness which the law could never produce. The law tells us the law, but it can’t enforce it. So we can’t help but fail—and be tied forever to failure.

But Christ has set us free! He has set us free for liberty. For freedom. This is not a freedom that gives us license from righteousness, but the freedom to be truly good. We can never do it on our own, but with the power of Christ in us, we can. We realize from this letter that not only are Christians saved by faith, but the Christian life is lived by faith as well!

Now let’s begin reading the book. Read Chapter 1.

When we write letters, we address the letter to the recipient first, in the salutation. Then we end it with the name and/or signature of the letter writer. However, in Biblical times, the letters started with the writer, and often ended with the intended recipients.

Paul calls himself an apostle to establish authority over what he is about to write. He is especially authoritative because he was called by God, and not by men. In fact, he was chosen before birth to deliver the gospel message to the Gentiles.

Do you know you too were chosen before your birth to do God’s will? Not only that, but you were chosen before the foundation of the earth!!

Plus, the gospel he preached did not come from any man; it was a revelation directly from Jesus Himself. So the gospel is genuine as to its origin.

Because he felt he was so succinct in his message to the churches when they were established, he is absolutely incredulous that they now are turning away from the Gospel he preached. And that was probably not so long ago.

We learned when we studied the Book of Acts that Paul’s first missionary journey was in 46-47 AD. Scholars believe this letter to the Galatian churches was written around 48 or 49 AD. So the churches headed off the rails relatively quickly after Paul established them. No wonder he was so shocked.

And the language he uses! Wow! He says if anyone is preaching a false gospel, even an angel, he can go to hell! (That was my paraphrase) But this is a serious issue. Basically, it’s fatal.

Let’s read Chapter 2.

This chapter hits on the relationship Paul had with the other apostles as a way of highlighting his authority as an Apostle. The first chapter focused on his independence from them, but now in the second chapter he is demonstrating unity.

It’s interesting how many of the things we studied in the Book of Acts are repeated here. The refusal to circumcise Titus, for example. Several years later, Paul did circumcise Timothy, but Timothy was half-Jewish. Titus, however, was a Gentile.

Paul is saying that these issues are coming up because the people who are spreading the false doctrines are interested in keeping believers in bondage, keeping them slaves. Oppressive rules will do that to you.

Then Paul reveals that he had a major disagreement with Peter in Antioch, because Peter was pulling back from the freedom that he’d had with the Gentiles to eat meals with them. He separated himself from the Gentile believers. He did this after some Jews arrived in Antioch and brought pressure on him to conform to the legalistic standards of Judaism. Peter was now expecting the Gentiles to follow the customs of the Jews. Peter was a pillar of the new church and he was alienating a large part of the population. And he was wrong, This break in relationship was public. Everyone could see that Peter had backed away.

So Paul called him out on it. Publicly. Paul’s concern was for the truth of the gospel, and he acted out of concern for that truth.

One of Paul’s famous verses appears here. ”I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (v 20)

Paul talks about how he has died to the law. He could never return to it, or he would die. Because that’s what the law does. It brings death. The law cannot bring life, because no one has ever fulfilled the law, and all who stand behind it, or live in it, are condemned. Because ”if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (v 21)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta

This PC/Galatians Intro, 1 and 2