Galatians 1:18-24 All The Truth!

Galatians 1:18-24  Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days.  I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother.  I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie.  Then I went to Syria and Cilicia.  I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.  They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”  And they praised God because of me.

Galatians 2:1-5  Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas.  I took Titus along also.  I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.  I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.  Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.  This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.  We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

In the above verses, Paul affirms that the ministry he revealed to the Galatians came from Jesus directly, not by the teaching of men.  The revelation of Jesus alone for the salvation of mankind came to him from the Holy Spirit’s work within him.  Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to earth to teach men all truth about himself and his Father God.  Paul, an apostle out of season or one who was not called by Jesus or heard Jesus’ teachings during his earthly ministry, had to learn the truth of Jesus from the Spirit of God.  “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into ALL THE TRUTH.  He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.  All that belongs to the Father is mine.  That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”  (John 16:12-15)  The disciples had the advantage over Paul for Jesus said that they would be reminded of what He had taught them while He was with them.  The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and WILL REMIND you of everything I have said to you.  (John 14:26)  Paul in his direct encounter with Jesus was given a commission to teach Jesus to all people.  But to know Jesus and who He really was, the Son of God, Paul had to know that truth through the witness of the Holy Spirit in his mind and heart.  Jesus would open the truth of the Torah, the Jewish Bible, to this intelligent rabbi, Paul.  He would show Paul who and where He was in the Old Testament, a center piece in the Torah and the prophets’ words.  Jesus could not reveal all of this to his disciples, for they were not ready to hear before Jesus’ death all the mysteries of the Old Testament.  Through Paul the complete message of the Messiah in the Old Testament could be revealed.  Paul saw the Messiah in the Old Testament and understood that Jesus came to complete the work of the law in his earthly ministry.  Nonetheless, his ministry was hard for the Jews to receive.  Peter even said that Paul’s message of redemption was hard teaching and that some foolish people would distort it for their own ungodly purposes.  By stopping Paul on the road to Damascus, Jesus was choosing a rabbi of zeal for God who would be willing to carry out the message of redemption through Jesus only, a deep revelation of light coming to the world.  ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.  ‘Now get up and stand on your feet.  I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me.  I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles.  I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’  (Acts 26:15-18)  Jesus appointed him to hear a message that not even the apostles who were with Jesus daily for three years could bear completely.  Jesus through the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, would expose Paul to a divine message of redemption.  Paul would expound this message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ because the Spirit made him a witness of deep heavenly insight: witness of what you have seen and will see of me.

After Paul was converted, he spent three years in Arabia and the Damascus area, away from the authorities in the Christian church.  In those three years, he learned of Christ in the purest form, for he gained his knowledge from the revelation of the Holy Spirit.  Paul learned the Torah revealed Christ and his suffering.  He saw that the sacrifices and the law were fulfilled by Jesus Christ on the cross.  Even Abel, who was called by Jesus a prophet of God inferred that blood had to be shed for the redemption of sinful man.  Because of being well versed in the Torah, Paul befuddled his critics who desired that the law must be taught alongside of Jesus and the cross.  But Paul would not have any of that dilution of the pure message of Jesus Christ alone as the way  to God.   For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  (Ephesians 2:8-10)  Jesus elucidates this truth of faith in him alone when talking to the disciples.  “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.  From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”  (John 14:6-7)  Jesus comforts the hearts of the disciples with these words, for they were troubled by Jesus saying that He was going away.  Where and why was He going?  They did not fully understand that He was going back to the Father, back to the eternal dwelling of God his Father.  Jesus pacifies their hearts by telling them that they too someday will settle with him in the Father’s eternal home.  Paul understood what Jesus was talking about when He told the disciples that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  The Holy Spirit founded this message in Paul’s heart.  As a learned rabbi, he was able to connect the truth of the Messiah in the Old Testament to Jesus Christ and his work on the cross.  Jesus fulfilled God’s plan of redemption for all of mankind.  Jesus drank the full cup of God’s wrath on sin for the salvation of all people, releasing mankind from sin and death.  Because of God’s love for men and women, He surrendered the Bright and Morning Star of heaven to die on the cross, to release people from eternal death.  Jesus would be the complete and final propitiation for man’s rebellion against God’s authority.

Paul is writing to the Galatians because he has heard that the Christians of Galatia were watering down the message of Jesus Christ alone as the door to heaven and eternal life.  This matter of people’s works plus Jesus Christ’s work on the cross had entered into their midst by false teachers who resented the freedom that Christians were experiencing IN CHRIST.  Paul tells the Galatians that after fourteen years away from Jerusalem, he went back to the church fathers to tell them about what he was teaching in the provinces.  He wanted to make sure that his ministry of grace and mercy was in line in what was taught in Jerusalem.  He had suffered much in teaching the Good News of God’s salvation plan.  I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.  He also wanted to check on whether the corrupting message of circumcision had crept into the headquarters of the church.  Were the church fathers holding to Christ alone or were they watering down the true message of Christ by including law into the redemption message?  He found that they were holding onto the truth of Jesus Christ and his works alone for they did not demand that Titus, who was a Greek, be circumcised.  This of course validated Paul’s ministry of faith in Jesus Christ and his work on the cross as being the only way to God the Father.  Paul called that the truth of the gospel.  God’s plan of redemption is the only plan acceptable for the eradication of sin and rebellion.  The failure for mankind to accept God’s plan for life has always been part of man’s innate rebellious nature. This rebellion goes back to Eve.  Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”  (Genesis 3:5)  The serpent desired Eve to accept another plan other than God’s plan to life.  He tells her that she can be like God if she strikes out on her own.  For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.  (Genesis 3:5)  By eating of the fruit, then she can determine what is good or evil.  That spirit of rebellion is still part of man’s nature.  As Paul says, this supposed freedom of knowing right or wrong only leads to death, for evil has become part of my life, rather than knowing only good, I have knowledge of evil, and it has taken me captive.  So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.  What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  (Romans 7:21-24)  Paul asks, “Who will rescue me from this captivity to the Pharaoh in my life?"  Paul concludes this struggle with the answer.  Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!  Paul wants the Galatians to know, only Jesus can deliver them from their captivity to sin.  His work on the cross finished that condemnation that he feels about sin.  Christ’s blood not the works of man washes the sins away.  The blood is the only stain that can cover a sinful life.  God will see the blood imprinted on a man’s soul.  We are free, completely free from sin and death because Christ’s work on the cross covers every sin that we have committed and every sin we will commit.  We are now free, free indeed, approaching God with Jesus’ name written over our name; life written over the sentence of death.  Paul wants the people of Galatia to finish the race of life, knowing it is Christ alone and no other work that has made them right with an eternal, sinless God.  Walk in the sinless light of your Savior today.  Amen!     

   

Galatians 1:11-17 Peace I Give You!

Galatians 1:11-17  I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin.  I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.  For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.  I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.  But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being.  I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia.  Later I returned to Damascus.

Paul’s ministry of the Good News began on the road to Damascus.  He was traveling that road to Damascus to arrest Jewish believers.  He intended to have them either in prison or killed.  His heart was bloodthirsty to carry out what he thought was a praiseworthy mission, getting rid of the Christian apostasy, corrupting Judaism.  He was so intent on eliminating this sect, that he even arrested women who had little or no spiritual authority in the Jewish home or society.  After he was blinded by Jesus’ appearance, a Christian man, Ananias, explained the purpose for Jesus’ intervention into his life.  He also explained to Paul that as a believer he would be hated and persecuted by the Jews everywhere.  Before this interruption in his life, Paul was on the fast track to becoming a respected rabbi in the Jewish community.  His zealousness for Judaism caused the high priest to give Paul the assignment of getting rid of Christianity in the Jewish communities.  As a young man, Paul was in the inner circle of the religious elite in Israel.  He had received the best instruction in Judaism by the most honored rabbi in Israel: Gamaliel.  He brings up Gamaliel’s name when defending himself against the Jews in Jerusalem who want to kill him.  “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city.  I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors.  I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.  I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify.”  (Acts 22:3-5)  Paul’s zeal for God and Judaism was well known by the people in Israel before his conversion to Christianity.  After his conversion, the believers were reluctant to trust his transformation as valid.  But eventually, the Christians in every province trusted his divine mission of teaching the Good News to all people.  To know Christ, Paul isolated himself in Arabia for a while to understand the redemptive plan of God.  What he learned there through the Holy Spirit was the plan of God from the beginning of time to rescue men from the hold of sin.  This plan stretched the minds of the believing Jews, and many of them tried to distort Paul’s teachings.  Paul’s letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.  (2 Peter 3:16)  Now in this letter, Paul is affirming to the Galatians that his teaching should be accepted fully, for he did not receive it from men as he had learned Judaism, but from Jesus Christ directly.  I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.  He is saying, after Jesus intervened in my life, I did not consult with any human beings.  I did not learn the gospel from the lips of the leaders of Christianity.  Instead, I went into Arabia to learn of Christ.  We see when Jesus was about to leave his disciples here on earth because he was going to the cross, He tells them, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.  (John 14:26-27)  After Paul was blinded and after his previous experience in Judaism, Paul needed to know what it meant to serve Jesus.  Surely, at times he was greatly troubled and even afraid, not knowing what his future would be as a follower of Jesus.  But as with the disciples on Christ’s departure, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to teach you all things.  Paul learned all things in Arabia.

Paul is deeply concerned with the Galatians imploding the gospel of Christ by adding works to the salvation message.  The Jewish Christians had corrupted the purity of faith in Jesus Christ alone by adding circumcision into the way to God.  Paul knew if the law creeped into the salvation message, their faith would be in vain.  For the work on the cross was Jesus’ work, not man’s work.  The curtain to God’s domain in the Holy of Holies was Jesus’ work not man’s efforts.  The curtain that separated God’s dwelling place from man’s efforts of pleasing God had been torn in two at the cross.  No other work or effort by man could provide the efficacy necessary to please God.  The cross was a completed work: IT IS FINISHED is the truth of the gospel.  As with Jesus, Paul is telling the Galatians that this message of grace alone is not his message but it is Christ’s message in him, to them.  Jesus said to his disciples, The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority.  Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.  Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.  (John 14:10-11)  Paul’s message is Christ in us, we in Christ.  I have become his servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.  To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  (Colossians 1:25-27)  The mystery that was hidden for ages was that all people everywhere can be one with God through the redemptive power of the cross.  Jews, Gentiles alike, can find peace with God and find a home with God for eternity.  This message of being one with God through faith in Jesus’ work on the cross was being corrupted by the addition of the law into the redemptive work of Christ.  Paul was having none of that kind of denigrating yeast into the purity of the cross.  He was writing this letter to remind them of the efficacy of Christ’s work alone.  He wants them to know this is a divine message that they cannot ignore without causing harm to the gospel message.

As a scholar of the Old Testament, Paul knew the works of the law would never free men and women from condemnation.  He knew rebellion to God was embedded in the hearts of people.  If the Galatians picked up the law as a means to salvation, they would forever be outside of the perfect will of God.  They would never be without one fault before a righteous God.  And no man can enter into the domain of God with even one fault upon their souls.  A righteous God demands complete holiness in his kingdom.  Sin will not exist in eternity, and God is eternal.  What is the solution for men to be right with God?  To know Jesus Christ in all of his righteousness and to accept his works for our works, allowing his substitutionary work be the work that sets us free from sin and death.  In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he advocates Jesus’ work on the cross to be the only work needed to know God.  Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.  And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  (Romans 8:1-4)  The rebellious nature of man to God’s will was condemned in the flesh by Jesus who was born in the flesh going to the cross.  He, perfect in flesh, died for that rebellious spirit of fleshly men and women; He bled out to pay the price for that nature of sin.  God’s mysterious plan was to accept that price of death on the cross as a substitutionary price for the waywardness of men.  By dying in the flesh, Jesus set us free from having to pay for our sins by dying.  He died once and for all time, so we might not die who believe in his works.  We have been set free from our status of not wanting God’s will in our lives, for Jesus paid that price for us.  Now our allegiance is to Jesus.  We love him and follow his command of loving others as ourselves.  We are no longer caught in the cycle of sin and death.  We have been set free from Egypt because of the Lamb of God.  The people who crossed the Red Sea were no better than the people who housed themselves in Egypt, but they were free only because the blood of the lambs around their doorways released them from captivity.  We who are set free are as they: free because of the Lamb’s blood.  We are only good because the Lamb has been sacrificed for us.  We are only right with God because of the Lamb.  Paul wants the Galatians to understand that fact.  Any other teaching will only bind them to Egypt.  There will be no freedom through the Red Sea.  There will be no Promised Land for them to inherit, only sin and death in the land of Egypt will be theirs if they bring law into God’s redemption plan.  Paul is deeply concerned about this corruption of the THE WAY.  Christ is THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE.  Jesus loved the Father and He proved his love for the Father by going to the cross.  I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.  (John 14:31)  If we love Jesus, we will believe and do what He has said to us.  He said, IT IS FINISHED!  Let us live, knowing it is finished.  Our lives will be led by faith in his work and in HIS ALONE.  As with Paul, we received this revelation from Jesus Christ.  

Galatians 1:6-12 It Is Finished!

Galatians 1:6-12  “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered.  “May your word to me be fulfilled.”  Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!  As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!  Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God?  Or am I trying to please people?  If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.  I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin.  I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

We see in the above focus Paul greatly concerned about the direction of the churches in Galatia.  He paid a big price for their freedom from sin and death.  Now he hears of them creeping back into following the law as part of their freedom from the captivity of sin. They were watering down the redemption plan of God through Christ alone and not though man’s efforts.  In Galatia, he almost lost his life through stoning because of broadcasting the salvation message of believing in Christ alone as the way to God. The Jews hated this message, following him from city to city with intent to kill him or at least to drive him out of the province of Galatia.  Many years later after he had written to the churches in Galatia, they caught up with Paul in Jerusalem, rousing the Jerusalem Jews to kill Paul.  When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple.  They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help us!  This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place.  And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.”  (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.)  (Acts 21:27-28)  The Roman soldiers’ intervention into this scene saved Paul from being killed.  The Romans arrested Paul on the spot and put him in chains.  While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar.  (Acts 21:31)  Even then, the crowd was so bold and ferocious that the soldiers had to put Paul on their shoulders and carry him away to their garrison or Paul would have been murdered in their hands by the Jews.  The Jews from what we know now as Turkey hated Paul, hated his message, hated Christ.  They wanted to eliminate the Good News from the face of the earth.  Paul’s letter to the Galatians was written earlier in Macedonia during Paul’s third missionary trip.  He writes because he is concerned about the watering down the message of redemption, contaminating it with the law and its regulations.  The Christian Jews felt circumcision was necessary to be right with God.  This perhaps was to appease the Jewish community who thought rightness with God demanded that one must be circumcised.  For the Jew, circumcision was the only sign that you affirmed the covenant between God and Abraham.  Abraham showed his fealty to God and his words by having himself circumcised at the age of 99 and having his servants and Ismael circumcised.  This physical sign made them followers of Yahweh.  Cutting away of the flesh was an act of faith on Abraham’s part, believing God’s words more than what he saw or experienced in the flesh.  Even though he and Sarah were beyond childbearing age, he believed they would have a son, and even though he did not own one foot of Canaan, God would give Canaan to him and his descendants.  Since Abraham was the father of the Jewish faith in God, even the Christian Jews were troubled by Paul’s teaching of Christ alone as the only way to God.

Paul was not putting aside the law; he was advocating that Christ fulfilled the law.  When Paul talked to the leaders of the Jerusalem church, he explained that the law and its regulations do more than just harm the redemption message; it kills the message, making God’s plan of salvation of no effect.  You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.  For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.  The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.  (Galatians 5:4-6)  Paul says twice in the above focus, let those people who teach such a damnable message be under God’s curse.  Even if an angel teaches such a message let him be cursed.  Of course, the fallen angels and demons preach this message of man’s effort to please God to lead people away from God’s redemptive plan.  Following the law leads only to condemnation, for a person will always fall short of God’s holy perfection.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.   (John 3:17-18)  Paul, a rabbi of rabbis, knew the Good News would be rejected by the religious leaders.  He understood the religious leaders would lose their position of deference if the message of Jesus Christ alone became the salvation message for all Jews.  He knew he was picking a fight with strong people, powerful leaders within the Jewish community.  Rather than to back down on this message, to water down the plan of redemption through Jesus, he would face their anger, their rage, and he would experience horrendous persecution and threats of death all his life.  If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.  But his message came directly from Jesus: he was blind for three days because Jesus intervened into his life on the road to Damascus.  He remembers those day when his life was lost in blindness.  Now he was determined to lead men and women out of spiritual blindness.  Under great harassment and trials, he brought the light of God to a dark world, desperately lost in sin.   

Paul’s preaching was pure, Christ alone: only his work on the cross counts for man’s salvation; no other work is needed to know God.  This is the work man must believe—that salvation comes only through the work of Jesus Christ.  Mary believed God’s words, “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered.  “May your word to me be fulfilled.”  (Luke 1:38)  Mary believed the angel’s words rather than the reality of her circumstances: being unmarried, not knowing a man.  Abraham believed God’s word, even though not understanding how Isaac could come from Sarah and his old flesh, past childbearing age.  Paul was now traveling through Asia, preaching faith in Jesus’ words and work, not man’s efforts to please God.  To the Jews, he was teaching the Outer Court to the temple where sacrificing of animals took place was no longer necessary.  He taught that the Holy Place where the gold candlestick was placed, and where the incense altar was, and where the gold plated table with twelve loaves of bread was, were no longer necessary to please God.  The work in the Holy Place reflected man’s effort of getting close to God.  Jesus on the cross tore down the partition between man and God.  No longer would the Holy Place of man’s efforts be needed, for now man could enter the Holy of Holies because of the work of Jesus, not man’s work.  We see Jesus fulfilling the work of the law by being sacrificed for the sin of mankind.  God pays the price for man’s rebellion to his ways, not man paying the price.  Jesus became the ransom to get mankind out of the kingdom of darkness: Egypt.  The Red Sea will be broached; the devil and his cohorts will be swallowed up by the blood of Jesus Christ. The morning light of heaven: Christ himself, will be revealed to the whole world.  Paul paid a heavy price to reveal Jesus Christ, but his price was nothing compared with Jesus.  As Jesus was ending his fleshly existence on earth, suffering and dying on the cross, He knew God’s mission for him was coming to an end.  As dying flesh, he was thirsty.  Knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”  A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.  When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “IT IS FINISHED!”  With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.  (John 19:28-30)  No other price has to be paid for man’s salvation; no other work has to be done to know God and possess eternal life; IT IS FINISHED!  Now and forever IN CHRIST is total victory over sin and death.  We are now known as Children of God.  Someday when Christ returns, we will be transformed in a twinkling of an eye, meeting him as He comes to us.  Then there will be no more tears, no more heartaches, no more separation; we all will be present with him forever.  Paul in his letter to the Galatians is shocked that this glorious message of eternal life through faith in Jesus would be watered down, causing them to miss this time of reunion with Christ, not getting to experience eternal life with God himself.  We must be ever diligent to prevent anything from getting in the way of the Good News that Christ alone is the way to our salvation. 

Galatians (1:1-5) No Other Name!

Galatians (1:1-5)  Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers and sisters with me, To the churches in Galatia: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever.  Amen.

We see in this letter to the Galatians, Paul reasserts his apostleship and that he was chosen by Jesus Christ and God himself to minister the Good News—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father.  Others in the body of Christ such as the deacons in the church and even the twelfth apostle, Matthias, were not chosen directly by God.  Man had input in choosing those individuals to lead the church, but not Paul, an apostle out of season.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one ABNORMALLY born.  For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  (1 Corinthians 7-9)  Paul’s calling was direct and purposeful, called to present the Good News mainly to the barbaric Gentiles.  As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”  “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.  “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.  “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”  (Acts 9:3-6)  To emphasize God’s hand in this calling, Paul was blinded by the light of Jesus.  For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.  (Acts 9:9)  Three is a complete number, so probably Paul’s blindness was permanent unless divine intervention was involved.  During this period of blindness Paul was praying, having a vision that a man called Ananias would come and place his hands on him for healing.  Ananias does come to Paul and his sight is restored.  All of this divine intervention confirmed to Paul forever that his apostleship came from God, giving him strength to endure many hardships and persecutions in his ministry.  Ananias feared Paul but obeyed God.  “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem.  And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”  But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go!  This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.  I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”  (Acts 9:13-16)  In this message to Ananias, the Lord revealed his plans for Paul’s life who had previously persecuted the church.  Now Paul would suffer for the cause of Christ.

In Paul’s greetings to the Galatians, he affirms his position as an apostle: a person who is part of the body of Christ who births churches.  He was placed in that position within the body of Christ by God with a ministry from God.  Jesus intervened in Paul’s life of wrath and murder on the road to Damascus, and Paul was sent to the people of Galatia.  The Galatians were now under the control of Rome, but in their past they had been under the control of the Greeks and the Gauls.  Many wars to exert authority over Galatia are part of the Galatian’s history.  Because of the many invasions of people outside of Galatia, the population was a mix of ethnic groups, but they basically spoke Greek.  Galatia was a dangerous place to minister the Good News.  Paul was almost killed in Lystra.  The Jews and Greek speaking people united to stone Paul, leaving him outside of the city for dead.  Paul revived, walked back into the city, stayed the night, and then left Lystra to minister in Derbe.  After his successful ministry in Derbe, he goes back to the towns that were hostile to his ministry and encourages the believers in those communities.   He encourages them to keep the faith, to stay the course in their belief in Jesus Christ as Lord.  Paul’s love for the Galatians is revealed by his willingness to visit cities again where people tried to kill him.  In doing so, he was not concerned about his own security or wellbeing.  He was concerned about those believers he would leave in the land of Galatia.  Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches.  Who is weak without my feeling that weakness?  Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger?  (2 Corinthians 11:28-29)  He experienced the weakness of being completely in control of violent people.  He knows the believers in Galatia who heard of what was done to him in Lystra were probably fearful of the same thing that was done to him.  He goes back to them and bolsters their resolve to serve God no matter what.  Now he is writing to the Galatians about his fear that they have gone astray, wanting to please men rather than God.  He knows the Jews among the Gentile Christians are putting pressure on the Gentiles to obey Moses’ law and regulations.  He feels anger against this Jewish contamination that is coming against faith in Jesus Christ alone.  This yeast is leading the churches in Galatia away from God, not toward God.  Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger?  He paid such a high price in his body for their deliverance from Satan and now he sees them creeping back into slavery.  I have traveled on many long journeys.  I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers.  I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles.  I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas.  And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not.  I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights.  I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food.  I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.  (2 Corinthians 11:26-27)  Paul wants the churches where he ministers to realize that his ministry and service to God costs him something.  He pays a price and expects them to be faithful to the body of Christ according to God’s will.  

Paul fears for his Galatian believers, for their salvation.  He knows merely following the law and its regulations will destroy the purity of the message of Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected for the salvation of many; faith in Christ’s work is the only foundation of a new life.  The law will never make new creatures; the law will only condemn people, revealing how far away they are from a righteous God.  But faith in Jesus’ works makes new creatures, totally pleasing to God.  The law separates people from a holy God, for it has no power to change people into holy vessels.  Paul worries that the Galatians have been convinced that there is another way to be without one fault before the living God of all creation other than the cross of Christ.  Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.  By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.  Otherwise, you have believed in vain.  (1 Corinthians 15:1-2)  To suffer so much for the birthing of the churches in Galatia and then find them in such a state that his work might be in vain, bothers Paul greatly.  He is not going to release the Galatians to such nonsense: combining the law with faith.  He knows such a belief will lead to death, not life.  Works kill, but faith brings life.  Paul says,  He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.  (2 Corinthians 3:6)  Paul in his greeting to the Galatians reiterates the truth of the new life in Jesus Christ.  Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever.  Only Jesus can rescue us from this present life of sin and death.  No other belief, no other work, no other path will bring us to the household of God.  As we will see in this letter, Paul is angry with some of them in Galatia because they are directing these new believers to another way to God.  Paul spent his life, sacrificing himself to preach THE WAY, the GOOD NEWS.  He is writing to the Galatians to reaffirm the true message to eternal life.  He wants to reinforce that faith in Christ Jesus and his work on the cross brings new life.  Jesus said, we must be born again!  There is no other way.  Jesus is our only answer to eternal life.  As the Bible says his name is the only name: Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.  (Acts 4:12)   Walk, breathe, and live in the authority of that name today!  Glory to his name forever.