This week, we are beginning to look at a letter that is
recorded for us in the New Testament in our Bibles today called the Book of
Galatians. And in this letter, we will discover that there has been an election
has been going on for thousands of years. We either cast a ballot to vote to
live your life as a religious-centered person; or we cast a ballot to live your
life as a gospel-centered person. With your head, in other words how you think
about a relationship with God; with your heart, in other words how you feel
about a relationship with God; and with your hands, in other words how you
practically live out your day to day life, you are either living your life as a
religious-centered person or a gospel-centered person.
We will discover the difference between a
religious-centered person and a gospel-centered person. And as we go through
this letter my hope and my prayer is that God would move in our heads, our
hearts, and our hands, so that we would come to a place as individuals where we
vote no on religion and vote yes to living gospel-centered lives that reveal
and reflect Jesus and His message of rescue through the message of the gospel
to the world. Today we see where the book of Galatians begins, in Galatians
1:1:
Paul, an apostle
(not sent from men nor through
the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him
from the dead) and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of
Galatia:
The book of Galatians begins by introducing us to the
writer and the recipients of this letter. We discover that the writer was none
other than the Apostle Paul. When the Bible uses the word Apostle, this word
literally means messenger or sent one and refers to one who had seen Jesus
after He had been raised from the dead. Paul became the greatest missionary of
the early church after to his encounter with Jesus Christ after He had been
raised from the dead on the Damascus Road, which we read about in Acts 9. After
that encounter with the resurrected Jesus, Paul was given the unique role and
gifting to be the messenger that would deliver God’s new message to the world
regarding Jesus Christ and message of the gospel.
When Paul states that he was not sent from men or through
the agency of man, he is making it unmistakably clear that he was not sent to
the churches in Galatia as an Apostle by men. Paul was not sent by some
religious institution as a messenger to the churches in Galatia to represent
them. Instead, Paul explains that he was sent the churches in Galatia by none
other than Jesus Christ and God the Father. Paul was a messenger that was sent
by Jesus with a message from Jesus as His representative.
Now where Jesus sent Paul was to the churches of Galatia.
These were churches that Paul had previously planted in Pisidian Antioch,
Iconium, Lystre, and Derbe during his first missionary journey, which is
recorded for us in Acts 13-14. These churches were located in the southern
section of Asia Minor, or modern day Turkey. After Paul had planted these
churches and returned from his missionary journey, he decided to write this
letter to these churches around 48 A.D., which was within 20 years of Jesus
life, death, and resurrection. This letter was written on the eve of the
Jerusalem Council, which is recorded for us in Acts 15 and which we looked at
during the co:mission series. After being introduced to the writer and the
recipients of this letter, we see Paul open this letter in Galatians 1:3:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who
gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil
age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.
Paul opens his letter to the churches of Galatia by
wishing them grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. If
this opening were to be communicated in the language we use today, it would
have sounded something like this: “Greetings. May you experience God’s Divine
Favor and well being from God the Father and Jesus Christ”. Paul then reveals the reason why the members
of the church of Galatia would have the opportunity to experience God’s Divine
Favor and well being. The reason why the members of the churches of Galatia had
the opportunity to experience God’s Divine Favor and well being was because
Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this
present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.
To understand what Paul is communicating here, we first
need to define some terms. When Paul uses the phrase gave Himself, this phrase,
in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to
dedicate oneself for some purpose or cause. When the Bible uses the word sin,
it is referring to acts of commission and omission that are committed against
God and others that flow from our selfish rebellion against God and the word of
God. This present evil age refers to the present condition of selfishness and
rebellion that places us at odds with God and leaves us guilty of having a huge
problem with God.
The timeless point that Paul is making here is that the
members of the churches of Galatia, and humanity throughout history, have an
opportunity to experience God’s Divine Favor and a state of well being with God
because Jesus dedicated Himself to rescuing us from our acts of selfishness and
rebellion that separated us from God. And this was not just something that
Jesus dedicated Himself to; this was God’s desire for what He wanted to have
happen. God’s desire was to send His Son Jesus on a mission to seek and save
the lost from the selfishness and rebellion that they had embraced and that had
separated them from God.
And it is in these verses that we see Paul clearly
communicate the message of the gospel. The message that that while all of
humanity was created for a relationship with God and one another, all
of humanity selfishly chose to reject that relationship, instead choosing to
love our selves over God and others. And it is out of our selfishness that we
do things that hurt God and those around us, which the Bible calls sin. The
message that reveals that God responded to our selfish rebellion and sin by
sending His Son Jesus, God in a bod, who entered into humanity and allowed
Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so God
the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.
The
message that reveals that Jesus died
on the cross, was buried in a tomb dead as a door nail, and was brought back to
life as a result of the Holy Spirit’s transforming and supernatural activity in
order to be our Lord and Savior. The message that provides the opportunity for
all humanity to receive the forgiveness of sin and enter into the relationship
with God that they were created for by believing, trusting and following Jesus
as Lord and Leader. The message that results in hearts being captured, lives
being transformed, and God receiving glory. The message of the gospel that results
in the advancement of God’s kingdom mission and the enhancement of God’s
reputation for all eternity.
Now, normally when we read a
letter in our Bibles that Paul wrote to a church, Paul usually begins his
letter by thanking God and then transitions to express his thanksgiving for the
members of that particular church or group of churches. Normally, Paul will
thank the members of a church for their love, their faith, their generosity,
etc. So that is what we would think would happen here.
However, we will discover that
is not where Paul goes next…
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