"Galatians: Only One Way To Heaven” Series

In Jesus Holy Name January 29, 2023

Text: Galatians 3:1,7-8,11 Redeemer

“Galatians: Only One Way to Heaven”

Paul has arrived back in Antioch from his first missionary journey after eighteen months on the road. While there, he received a report that the churches he had started in Galatia had fallen into theological error. A group of Judaizers—Pharisees who had claimed to become followers of Jesus still wanted Gentiles to obey laws of Moses as a requirement of Christian faith and salvation.

Paul wrote this letter in Antioch a few months before he attended the Jerusalem Council in AD 49. At this meeting with James and the elders in Jerusalem the apostles would take up this very topic regarding what Jewish rules applied to Gentiles who have placed their eternal destiny on the promises of Jesus. The story is in (Acts 15:1–30).

In chapter 3 Paul continues to defend the “gospel”, that salvation by faith in Jesus is the only way to heaven, even using Abraham as an illustration of faith.

Leonard Sweet, one of my favorite authors, is a professor at Drew University in the School of religion. He has written over 70 books. In a recent interview with Mike Morrel he said: “When I was 17, I de-converted from Christianity and became an atheist. After college I decided to go into academe and study the history of religions from a scientific, critical perspective. ….It suddenly hit me that there were two choices I was facing in my spiritual journey: the worship of the Big Bang Theory or worship the Savior, Redeemer, Sanctifier, Jesus.

Three things can never be separated. Jesus, His words written in the Scriptures and the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings Jesus to life, and the scriptures point us to Jesus. Separate one from the other and you will miss heaven. Jesus is the Creator of the cosmos, the Christ of Eternity, the Alpha and Omega as well as the very Christ who lived on this earth as the quintessential human, the Second Adam, the Last Adam who then died, rose again and was glorified and ascended into heaven, and now lives in His people through the Holy Spirit. (interview with Mike Morrel on the Jesus Manifesto. June 2010)

Jesus and Jesus alone is the key to peace with God. Jesus and Jesus alone is the key to heaven. According to Galatians 2, Paul tells us that Peter forgot that truth. His actions in the Antioch church when he and others refused to eat with the Gentile members, meant that his actions agreed with the Pharisees that Jesus was not enough. The controversy arose because a party of Pharisees had come to Antioch and demanded that Gentiles needed to obey Jewish customs and rules in order to be saved. For them Jesus was not enough.

Paul could not bear the thought that these new Christians in the churches of Galatia were slipping back into slavery, by being chained to Jewish feasts, rules and regulations. O foolish Galatians you must see that submitting to the Jewish rules of circumcision and other religious duties, trying to keep the Law makes the cross of Jesus worth nothing.

Paul was frustrated. He writes: “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?” Why are you again trusting in your good works to complete your salvation?

This controversy over grace verses works for salvation is why Luke tells us in Acts 15 that Paul and Barnabas travel to Jerusalem for the 1st Christian Council.

(Read Acts 15:1-9) At Jerusalem there was a great welcome. They told what God had done to create new Christians in a faraway land. After several days of formal discussion, James the brother of Jesus and the leader of the Church in Jerusalem gave the general conclusion. Acts 15:19-21

In Galatians 3:15-22 Paul reviewed 2,000 years of Old Testament history, from Abraham through Moses to Christ. This argument, using Abraham, was a master piece because the Judaizers would have considered Abraham the father of the Jewish people. Paul’s point in verse 6 is that Abraham was saved by faith when he believed God and his faith was counted as righteousness.

“Consider Abraham: ‘He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ (enough said) (Galatians 3:6-9).

The function of the law was not to bestow salvation, but to convince we human beings that we cannot keep it perfectly. To quote Andrew Jukes, ‘Satan would have us to prove ourselves holy by (keeping ) the law, which God gave to prove that we are sinners.’ God gave to Abraham a promise, and to Moses the commandments, and through Jesus, God fulfilled the promise of forgiveness. For the law condemned the sinner to death, while Jesus offers the sinner justification and eternal life. Hebrews 2:14