Helen brought her car down to the repair shop to have the mechanic fix her car. It seems that her car was slowly losing power and she was afraid that soon she would not be able to accelerate onto the freeway. It turned out to be this little electronic part that needed to be replaced, but the shop had to order the part they would need to keep her car for a few days, so, the automotive repair shop leant Helen the garage’s loan car.
The next morning Helen was driving past the supermarket when she saw an old woman waving at her. The woman was surrounded by shopping bags and was frantically waving Helen to pull over. Helen, slowed down and rolled down the window and the woman quickly asked her to drive her to her house.
It turns out that the woman’s house was quite out of Helen’s way, but she agreed, and they filled up the car with bags of groceries. The woman sat in the car and spoke not a word. When they arrived at the house, the woman asked Helen to help her with the shopping into the house. Once again Helen agreed.
There were a lot of groceries and the woman’s kitchen was up two flights of stairs. Still, the woman said nothing. By her fifth bag, Helen was getting a little frustrated and when the last bag had been put on the counter in the kitchen, the woman turned around and abruptly said ’thank you’ and shut the door in her face.
Helen, was shocked, she was infuriated, she felt so used. As she drove home and went over the recent events in her mind, she only became more angry. Finally, 45 minutes later, Helen arrived at home, got out of the car and slammed the door of the car shut….and written on the side of the vehicle were the words ’free courtesy car’.
The woman had assumed that the car was for her benefit. She was ignorant of the sacrifice Helen had made for her.
Here in our passage today, the Galatians are ignorant of the true sacrifice Christ had made for them. They do not understand that Jesus’ sacrifice was all they needed. In their ignorance, the Galatians take the Gospel lightly and we see that Paul is alarmed that they are in the process of trading in the one true Gospel for a false gospel. They are trading in the truth for a lie. False teachers have arrived in their area and are teaching the churches a lie, and the people are buying it.
Now do you suppose the Galatians knew they were trading in the true Gospel for a false gospel? No of course not. Do you think that the false teachers knew that they were being deceptive and teaching a false gospel? No, they were sincere in their belief, they truly thought they were correct. In our day, those who move away from the Gospel into another gospel, do they know what they are doing – I would say no, I would say those in our day who are teaching a false gospel are, in fact sincere people, and in fact their conscience is clean.
As we dive into our Scripture this morning let us keep two things in mind: First those who participated in genocide in Rwanda were sincere, so were the communist who purged the ranks of the intellectuals in Peking and so were the legislators of Alaska who took money from Veco – my sincerity in my belief is irrelevant; Second, 1Cor. 4:4 says, “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.” Our conscience will lie to us. Our conscience will fool us. Having a clear conscience is not how we as Christians guide our lives – rather we guide our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
The book of Galatians was written about 48 AD, by the Apostle Paul. In the 18th century some scholars claimed that this book was written much later and that it was written by someone else, it is no surprise those men were not believers. Today, such ideas have been proven false and are considered archaic at best – This book you hold in your hand is actually by the hand of the Apostle Paul, translated from very reliable manuscripts, translated by distinguished scholars with accuracy – in short, the claims made in this book are very real, very applicable, this is very much the real thing.
Who was Paul writing to? Galatia is part of what we today call Turkey. Who were the Galatians? Roman writers give a clear picture of the character of the Galatians Paul is writing to, they were know for their quick minds, their prompt action and for their thirst for knowledge. They were also quarrelsome and treacherous in their dealings, but most of all they loved change. Julius Caesar complained that without exception, the Galatians were driven by the desire for change. The Galatians would love our current election with both Obama and McCain claiming to be the one who will bring us change. You know, in some way, we as Americans share this desire for change like the Galatians – what that means is that we could be vulnerable in the same way the Galatians are.
Starting in verse 1, Paul, the one writing this book, claims apostolic authority. He claims to be on par with the disciples of Jesus. An apostle is a person who is sent by and invested with the authority of the commissioning party, in this case, the person of Jesus Christ himself. Paul is telling you, and Paul is telling me that the words contained in this book are reflective of, and are to be treated as if they come from the person of Jesus Christ himself. What we read in this book, holds the same weight as the words of Jesus, from the sermon on the mount.
Paul starts this letter by the introduction in verse 3, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace, that is – God’s free and unmerited favor toward sinful humanity, in other words, there is nothing, nothing we can do to get it, God just freely gives it. Peace. Peace is a state of wholeness in Christ. Grace and peace are directly related to each other as a tree to its fruit, it is cause and effect, the grace of God must be experienced in your life to experience the peace of God, the peace of God is a result of the grace of God. See, because the grace of God enters into your life, peace will literally, I mean literally come upon you. Peace will fall upon you. Grace, freely given, I cannot earn it, it causes a state of wholeness in my life, which is, peace.
You want peace in your life? You must then experience the grace of Christ? You have no peace in your life….Have you experienced the grace of Jesus Christ? This evening, before you go to bed, when you are all alone, look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, “Do I have peace in my life? Do I have peace in my life?” If, as you look in the mirror, if you find that you have no peace in your life, then - you need to experience the grace of Christ. If you find this to be so in your life, call me this week. Just pick up the phone, take that step, and we can briefly talk about grace and peace in your life.
Now why would we have no peace in our life and no grace in our life? Verse 4 tells us the answer. Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age. Let’s take the first part first. What does Paul mean he gave himself for our sin?
It means that Jesus Christ sacrificed himself, literally it means he gave himself. This was the typical expression for Greek soldiers who had died in battle. The Greeks would say that the soldier gave himself for his country. Today, in America, we speak this way of our men and women who die while serving our country, do we not? When we hear that a man or a woman who has been killed in Iraq or in Afghanistan, we say they that they literally have given their life to protect you, me and our children. This is a thing that is more than heroic, this is a thing that is more than generous, this is a thing that is more than a fine gesture, it is literally the highest sacrifice for love of country that one can give, this is a sacrifice that we as citizens cannot repay – THIS is what it means that Jesus gave himself.
But Jesus doesn’t give for country, he gives himself for our sin. Sin holds us in bondage, and by freeing us from our sin we receive grace and peace.
Why does Jesus do this extreme thing, to give himself, like a soldier in battle? There in verse 4 we see the answer – to rescue us from this evil age. Now what does that mean?
Listen carefully here, this is the crux of the matter….Paul, like most Jews of the day, sees time as divided into two distinct ages, this present evil age and the future age. By mentioning the present evil age, the future age is also brought in, by implication. The present age, is under the dominion of evil; In the future age, God reigns unchallenged.
Let me be clear here, the evil mentioned here is not a concept, nor social problems like poverty, hunger and racism, nor is it people behaving badly. It is evil spiritual activity. Basically, Paul is saying that the present age is dominated by evil spirits and Jesus rescues us from the dominion of evil spirits. The present age is evil, and it is subject to the sway of wicked spiritual beings, and is in fact under control of wicked spiritual forces.
Now you can argue with that, and you can disagree with that, but this is what is says here. Jesus rescues us from the dominion of evil spirits…well no wonder we feel peace when the grace of God comes upon us.
Eph. 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Chief of which are the powers of sin and death”
The reason you find working against sin so hard in your life is plain: There is more there than the physical, the psychological and the theoretical….
Christ rescues us from the present evil age – Since Christ takes us from the present evil age, were does he take us? Christ takes us to the future age. Because the future messiah has already come, he has ushered in the future age. We who repent and give our lives over to the messiah, Jesus Christ, we are already citizens of the future age. When we become Christians, we pass from the dominion of the present evil age to the dominion of the future age.
We literally pass from one epoch to another. We literally pass from one dimension to another. We are delivered from evil, just as the Lord’s prayer says. This is spiritual rebirth, this is spiritual regeneration, this is not philosophy or getting our theories correct, this is beyond our comprehension. Those who put their trust in Jesus are rescued out of this evil age, and by implication are ushered into the age to come.
This present evil age has come up against the era of righteousness and regeneration, and there is great spiritual friction. Our sins are expressed in bondage to this present evil age. When we sin, we express life like it is in this present evil age. In the present evil age, sin has power over us, it dominates us, it prevents peace from entering into our lives. But we, we live in the future age, the age of the Messiah. Our sins do not have power over us anymore, we have been rescued from them – we can no longer say – “I can’t help it, I was made this way”. I still may sin, but sin no longer holds sway over me.
Now, why would we want to go back? Why would we want to go back to sin, and to leave this peace we finally have found?
Exactly, that would be nuts wouldn’t it?
Verse 6, this is why Paul is so astonished. He says the Galatians are deserting. This is a military term that describes men willingly fleeing from their leader – in Paul’s day, this was punishable by death. They are walking away from the real thing for a gospel, that is no gospel at all.
Paul is arguing that since Christ has moves us out of this present evil age, it is unnecessary to add anything for salvation. Christ does it all, we accept it. We do nothing more, for salvation. To add to what Christ has done is to pervert the Gospel, and thus remove the effect of the Gospel. The power is removed because it is no longer the Gospel.
The men who have come to Galatia have not denied the Gospel. They have in essence said, “You have accepted the Gospel, great, but that is, not all you need to be rescued from this evil age, you need to do these things for the Gospel to become effective….The men are not evil, the men are sincere, the men are good people but they are wrong.
See, the gospel is not trivia, or literature, or another religious philosophy, it is serious business; It is the means by which we gain salvation. The true Gospel must be passed down generation to generation for its effectiveness to be real and powerful. False views of the Gospel can bring about false views of our world view of life, false views of the after life, it can skew the deepest questions of the soul – those deep things about our relationship with God. A false view of the Gospel will damn us, for it in effect denies Christ. This is why Paul says let them be condemned in verse 9, what he really is saying in the Greek is, may they be damned. This is so serious that these people who are changing the Gospel, may they never see the light of heaven.
Understand, the authority of the gospel resides in the message itself, not the messenger. I am nothing. Aside from the Word of God, I as a preacher am nothing. I am not the authority, no preacher is the authority, no human is the authority – the message is the authority. Corrupt the message, corrupt the authority, corrupt the effectiveness, corrupt the grace and peace.
Now some Jewish mystics of the day proclaimed revelation from angels, this is how they say they got their authority. Today, the Mormons are an example of this as they claim the angel Moroni gave direct revelation to Joseph Smith. They say, “Yes we believe in Jesus, yes we believe in the Bible…and we also believe that to be saved you need to do these things in addition. By adding to the Gospel, they in effect make it no gospel at all.
Paul tells us that there is one Gospel, period. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you there is a different path to God, even if it is a spiritual being.
At one time Gandhi was asked if he was a Hindu, his response was, “Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew.”
Now Gandhi said this in a political context, but today many people take this in a theological context.
How can that be? How can Gandhi be save by Christ alone and yet adhere to those other religions, each which tell us we need something other than believe in Christ to be saved? How can there be only Christ who rescues us and then at the same time these other ways to move into the future age?
We live in a dangerous time. We are hard pressed on all sides. We even come to the point of asking, “Is everything up to my own interpretation, my own point of view, my own perception?” How do we know what is true?
Friends, sincerity and a good conscience will only get us so far, sincerity and good conscience are not accurate guides for spiritual guidance. What is worse is, we can be believing a false gospel and our conscience is clear.
This is serious business, and the book of Galatians will guide us in truth, it will guide us in the faith. Stay with us each Sunday as we gain understanding, assurance and real change, more than any politician can promise, from this powerful book of Galatians.
Let me leave you with this: 500 years ago a young Martin Luther opened the book of Galatians, his eyes fell upon the pages, and for the first time, he saw the truth. The grace of God came upon him and peace entered his soul, the one real Gospel exploded across Europe and without a doubt both you and I sit here this morning confronted with the Gospel because that man experienced the power, the authority of this great book of Galatians.
