Galatians Series

November 27, 2021

We are moving quickly through the New Testament and today we find ourselves in the book of GALATIANS.

This letter, written in approximately 49 AD, is believed to be Paul’s first.

The early church found itself in a fierce battle over the nature of salvation. According to the Judaizers, faith in Jesus alone, as the basis of salvation, was not good enough for Gentiles and they were putting pressure on the Gentile believers to seek salvation through circumcision and law keeping – even though they had already accepted, by faith, the Salvation that is found in Jesus.

At the heart of the Judaizers assertions was the belief that they, as Jews, were inherently better because of their “Chosen People” status, and would, therefore, always be better than the Gentile believers. The Judaizers were hijacking the Truth as it is found in Jesus and the new Gentile believers were buying it!!

There is a line from a movie that comes to my mind, “The bad stuff is easier to believe.” That is the reality the Galatian converts found themselves in. They believed they were 2nd class citizens. They believed they weren’t quite good enough. They believed the lie because it fit within what they already believed about themselves. So, just like any bullied person who is desperate to fit in, they decided jumping through hoops was less painful than being considered “outsiders”.

What the Galatians didn’t fully realize was that no matter how many hoops they jumped through, they would always be considered 2nd class by the Judaizers and that, perhaps more importantly, trading Righteousness by Faith for law keeping was going to return them to a life of spiritual slavery.

Which brings us to My Favorite Thing About GALATIANS – Equality in Christ.

Paul was nearly apoplectic!!!!

• Galatians 1:6-7 - I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel -- 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

Paul has been fighting this particular conflict for a very long time. He gave 2 examples:

• At one point Titus, a Greek believer, accompanied Paul to Jerusalem. Because Titus was Greek, he was not circumcised, which created a problem because, according to Paul, “some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.” “But”, he said, “We did not give in to them even for a moment, so that you might remain in the Gospel truth.”

• When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? 15 "We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' 16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. 17 "If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. 19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

Had Paul caved to the pressure and insisted that Titus be circumcised or had let Peter’s hypocrisy pass, he would have lost all credibility with those he was converting through belief in Jesus and Righteousness by Faith. Paul lived what he preached: Righteousness comes by Faith in Jesus. Period. Full stop. Nationality has nothing to do with it. Religion has nothing to do with. Law has nothing to do with it.