The Triumph of Grace
“Fighting Words”
May 14, 2000
This Morning’s Text – Galatians 1:1-10
“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: 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.
“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men?” If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:1-10
Someone has said that there are 3 kinds of issues in life: things to fuss about; things to fight about; and things to die for. The problem is that many people want to fight about things we ought to be fussing about, and to fuss about things we ought to die for! An important key to success in life—and in eternity--is in correctly determining which issues fall into which category, and then acting consistently with those findings!
What we are looking at today I have labeled “Fighting Words”, but in reality, we could go a step further using the above analogy: these are issues for which to die! Paul is dead serious in his writing to the churches of Galatia. The gospel has sprung up among the Gentiles there and taken root as a result of his impassioned preaching of Jesus Christ. But now a dangerous virus is finding its way into the young church (you can read about it in your notes); it is a virus that threatens the very life of the young church. Difficult times call for difficult measures; dangerous diseases call for strong treatments. It would, for instance, be generally unthinkable for a doctor to go around breaking the bones of patients—but if ribs are broken in the attempt to revive a heart attack patient, we think nothing of breaking the ribs! And this is what we find as Paul begins his letter to the Galatians: unlike his other letters, he has no words of commendation or praise for them, but rather gets right into the subject matter—this is no time to be delicate! Since his personal authority as an apostle is being attacked, he begins with an immediate defense of his apostleship—let’s read it together! (READ SCRIPTURE & PRAY, with quick note on “Grace and Peace”)
Background
Author - Paul
Recipients – Churches of Galatia
Situation
“In the decade or so surrounding the year A.D. 50, the infant church was drifting by degrees and at times almost unnoticeably toward its first great doctrinal crisis. When the gospel was preached primarily to Jews by Jews, the development of the church progressed smoothly. But as the ambassadors of Christ pushed out into largely Gentile communities and the gospel began to take root there, questions arose regarding a Christian’s relationship to the law of Moses and to Judaism as a system. Was the church to open her doors wide to all comers, regardless of their relationship to the particularized traditions of Judaism? Were her boundaries to be as wide as the human race? Or was she to be only an n extension of Judaism to the Gentiles?
“In more particular terms, was it necessary for a Gentile believer to observe the law of Moses in order to become a Christian? Should a Gentile be circumcised? Questions like these must have been raised with increasing force throughout the Roman Empire, wherever the church of Jesus Christ camped on Gentile soil.
“Galatians is a record of the form this struggle took in one area of Asia Minor…As the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul had deliberately not brought up questions of conformity to Jewish law when presenting the gospel in non-Jewish communities. He had followed this practice in Galatia on each of two occasions when he had preached there. As Paul preached it, salvation is never to be achieved by any amount of conformity to rules and regulations, even God-given regulations…Paul had taught this gospel to the Galatians…and it had been well received. In accordance with his usual custom, Paul established churches in Galatia and then moved on.
“Some time later, however, Paul received word that the Galatian believers were on the point of departing from the faith they had previously received so openly. Conservative Jewish teachers who were legalizers had arrived from Jerusalem claiming to be from James, the Lord’s brother, and had begun to teach that Paul was wrong in his doctrine. They contended that Gentiles had to come under the law of Moses to be saved. It was not enough for them to have Christ; they must have Moses too. To grace must be added circumcision.” James Boice in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary
“Judaizers did not change with the times; they failed to see that when Christ came, the era of the law ended. They could not accept this because they thought God worked through the Jewish nation to dispense the promises of Abraham. (Paul’s argument is that) in God’s plan of history the law has now served its purposes, and therefore it is wrong to follow it and to demand that Gentiles accept it.”
Scot McKnight in The NIV Application Commentary
Tone
No commendation/praise for Galatians
Begins with a personal defense of his apostleship, since this was being attacked by the Judaizers
Layout
3 Parts of the Book
Autobiographical – Chapters 1-2
Theological – Chapters 3-4
Practical – Chapters 5-6
I will never forget a game of Capture the Flag that I played as a teenager at good ole’ Camp Merriwood. I had imitated a member of the opposing team, posing as a guardian of the flag, when all the while plotting to make off with it at an opportune time. Since the teams were large and unidentifiable, I for a period of 10 or 15 minutes sought to win the confidence of the others on the opposition by feigning to be one of them. And then, having succeeded in that mission, I waited until no one was looking and then I made my move, seizing the cherished pennant and blazing a beeline toward my team’s end zone. I could pick ‘em up and put ‘em down pretty well in my day, and those few I couldn’t outrun I attempted to out-maneuver as I flew toward paydirt. I don’t know if I had ever run so fast previous to that, and I doubt I have since. I still remember the feeling of thrill as I got to the line with the flag.
When playing Capture the Flag, the object is for a team to play both offense and defense (which in theory is true for the Steelers as well, but if appearances mean anything, I’m not sure that they’ve understood that lately!). Offensively, one tries to seize the other team’s flag; defensively, one tries to guard the flag and to tag an opponent and put him in jail, where he immediately becomes susceptible to being “re-tagged” by a member of the original team and thus freed to again pursue his original objective; he is reclaimed for the cause, if you will.
There’s a parallel that might not be so readily seen between such a game of tag and the gospel of Jesus Christ, but allow me to attempt to elucidate. Scripture is replete with examples of the contrasting positions: Deut. 30:19 talks about the choice: Life/death, with the admonition “choose life!” Luke 11:23 records the words of Jesus, “He that is not with me is against me.” In I Kings we hear Elijah asking the people of Israel, “How long do you waver between 2 opinions? If God be God, follow Him; if not, follow Baal.” In Exodus, Moses asks the people, “Who is on the Lord’s side?’
Here we come to understand the first point, which is
I. The Nature of the Gospel - :4-5
“Who gave Himself from our sins”
Sin may be described accurately as abhorrent to a holy God, but as well as an enslavement from which man needs to be rescued. Verse 4 describes the great adventure upon which God embarked for the accomplishment of that deliverance!
Many misunderstand the gospel because they begin from a flawed vantage point-they misunderstand the reality of sin!
We are sinners in Adam.
People fail to understand that we are on Adam’s team, if you will. Romans is the companion epistle to the letter to the Galatians, and it begins by listing the sins of Adam and his line, concluding with the summary of Romans 3:9-12, 18-20. The issue regarding sin here is not so much personal, you see; rather, it is a problem endemic for the whole human race, of which I am a part. As a race, we stand condemned due to our sin—as if we have been captured in a celestial game of Capture the Flag by the enemy’s forces. Here is the great adventure of the gospel: God came over to Adam’s side—became one of us—in order that, at the right moment, He might redeem us—tag us, to continue the analogy—and reclaim us for the original cause that God intended for us!
Christ is our personal, voluntary, and total sacrifice for sin.
Jesus died on the cross in order that our sins might be paid for and the way might be made that we could be brought back to God.
This is in accordance with the divine, eternal plan of God.
God had it planned this way from eternity past.
This results in our deliverance from the power of this evil age.
“Rescue” in original does not refer to a “deliverance from” but rather a “rescue from the power of”. In other words, through Christ we are not delivered out of this world, but we are made free from the power of sin and evil and death; we do not have to live according to the perverted value system of this world, but we are free to live for the glory of God. We cannot say, “I can’t help it; I was just born this way!” That’s a cop-out. We have been delivered through Christ!
This is where it gets personal: we personally by faith identify ourselves with Christ, accepting the free gift of salvation for which He has paid with His precious blood, aligning ourselves on Christ’s side, no longer on the team of hell-bound sinners. That happens by our faith alone in Christ alone as a result of God’s grace alone. This is the nature of the gospel: this is what Paul is so eager to vigorously defend!
II. The Problem in Galatia - :6
“turning to a different gospel”
Right about the point where we would now expect Paul to say some words of praise/encouragement to the Christians in Galatia, Paul says, “I’m astonished! I just can’t believe it!” Why? In the context of the amazing truth that God has put His very all on the line in Jesus Christ, embarking upon this daring game of search and rescue, this cosmic adventure for the sake of us, we who were rebels against Him all the while, the Galatians were turning their backs on this truth!
“Deserting” - Gk. word speaks both of a military revolt and of a change in attitude, and the voice of this verb in the original indicates that this is a willing retreat, a volitional abandonment of their Leader.
“Quickly” – (Gk. tacheos) can mean “easily and readily”, or “soon”, or both, which is likely in this context.
Here is what was happening: these teachers, which we know as “Judaizers”, had come from Jerusalem, claiming the authority of the Lord’s brother James, and were leading the Galatian believers astray. Now, they were sincere, but sincerely wrong! These Judaizers still thought in nationalistic ways; they believed that conversion to Christ had to entail as well a conversion on the part of Gentiles to their own pharisaic brand of Judaism. It was their understanding that it was only through the door of Judaism that Gentile converts could enter the Kingdom of God. Understand: their intent was not to do away with faith in Christ; it was simply to make up for what they deemed a deficiency in Paul’s—and thus the Galatians—understanding of the gospel of Christ. “Of course you need Jesus,” they would argue, “but you need Moses too!”
But of course for Paul this was too much, and it wasn’t a little thing; Paul calls it a “different gospel”. Let’s examine
III. The Truth regarding a “Different Gospel” - :7
“really not another”
Paul says that what we have here is a completely different animal, a whole ‘nother thing, as we’d say it down in God’s country. Old KJV says you’ve turned to “another gospel, which is not another.” Wait a minute, Paul; make up your mind! Is it another gospel, or not? The key to this puzzle is in understanding the words used here in the original. First word, in verse 6, is heteros, which means another of a different kind.
Counterfeit dollar bill - Looks the same, at least from a distance! But it would not work if I took it into Sheetz and tried to buy a chilidog with it! Paul is saying in v.6 “this is a counterfeit gospel”. The word in v.7 translated
“Another” = “another of the same kind” (Gk. allos)
Sacajawea gold dollar coin – this is another dollar of the same kind as a real dollar. Paul says that this Judaizers’ gospel is a different, counterfeit gospel. It is not another of the same kind! This gospel of Jesus PLUS or of faith PLUS is no gospel at all! Grace isn’t grace the minute you add anything else to it! If we are saved by grace plus works, we are not saved by grace at all! If our own works play any role in getting us saved or in keeping us saved, then we have abandoned the true gospel for a counterfeit one! Now, Paul is not in this place dealing with the nature of real faith; this is what James is dealing with in his book. He says that real faith which saves is a faith that is characterized by good works—and of course this is true! But it is not faith mixed with our own works of righteousness which saves, nor faith mixed with law-keeping, nor faith mixed with anything, but the formula is clear and unchangeable:
Salvation is by God’s grace alone through my faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
Satan’s first point of attack when it comes to doctrine will be at the point of the nature of saving faith! This is why Paul attacks it so vigorously! There are people today who will claim to be Christ-followers because they have this belief in some ethical principles taught by Jesus-but a genuine Christian is not merely one who approves of or even after a fashion attempts to follow in her own power their understanding of the ethical principles laid down by Jesus. These Judaizers had a deep and profound respect for Jesus, but the effect of their teaching was to place other things as being on a level with Jesus, thereby robbing Jesus of His uniqueness and in the process dethroning Him from the only position which He is willing to occupy!
Two consequences of the Judaizers’ heretical teaching:
A. Disturbing the people
Word in the original here means to shake back and forth, or to agitate, and this is just what this kind of false teaching does in the church. Listen to the words of John R. W. Stott:
“To tamper with the gospel is to trouble the church…indeed, the church’s greatest troublemakers (now as then) are not those outside who oppose, ridicule, and persecute it, but those inside who try to change the gospel…Conversely, the only way to be a good churchman is to be a good gospel-man. The best way to serve the Church is to believe and preach the gospel.”
B. Distorting the gospel
This word signifies to “reverse the character” of something. You see, to change the message of the gospel is not to merely pollute it a little; it is to reverse it completely! The teaching of the Judaizers
Usurped the work of Christ
Usurped the power of the Holy Spirit
Forced all converts to become Jews
No wonder Paul had no tolerance for it!
IV. The Seriousness of the Problem - :8-9
“he is to be accursed”
“Accursed” is translated in some versions “anathema”, which refers in the Old Testament to a thing dedicated to God for His destruction!
Paul here is using a term far more powerful than simply a call for church discipline; he is calling down an eternal curse upon the purveyors of any pseudo-gospel which would be less than the truth of Christ! Now, Paul has the grace not to actually call people by name here—and he includes himself in this--“we”. But he is saying, literally, “damn them!” There is no pretty way to put it, and to soften that blow doesn’t do justice to what Paul is saying. Their counterfeit doctrine is from hell, and its purveyors will go to hell with it! Why? Because the eternal souls of men hang in the balance! Paul, as we will soon talk about, had a genuine experience with the risen Christ, and he rightly has anguish of soul because false teaching robs others of the same saving experience.
It’s a popular teaching today, of course, to suggest that there are many different ways to peace with God, that the way to heaven is a great big fill-in-the-blank, and that God is whatever or whoever you imagine him or her or it to be. In the end, it doesn’t matter a hill of beans what you or I or anyone else thinks—what matters is the truth of god as He has revealed it to us. For anyone—even me, Paul says—to independently modify the message of the cross is to call down a curse upon one’s head.
Here’s an important truth that’s free while we’re here: “Evaluate the teacher by the truth, not the truth by the teacher.” Audience participation time here: would someone call out, out loud, the name of a favorite Bible teacher? Okay, now listen to this:
“__________________ is sometimes wrong! Even HARVEY is sometimes…well…not always exactly 100 percent correct in every fine point!”
Listen to this: Christians should have nothing to do with false teachers, insofar as giving any serious ear to their heresy. This might be controversial with some of you, but I’m gonna say it anyway, and let the chips fall where they may: have a friend or loved one in a church which is theologically liberal? Sometimes some very good people attend some very poor churches, where the Word of God is mocked by preachers who fancy themselves educated or sophisticated or trendier-than-thou. There are all kinds of Protestant churches, some of which are in this county, which deny the simple truths of the Word of God. I think that there are really only two options, ultimately: change the church or change churches! It is foolish, naïve, and Scripturally unwarranted to stay in a church, for whatever reason, where a pastor will get up on Sunday morning and deny the truth of God, deny the need for salvation, deny the sufficiency and exclusivity of Jesus Christ, as though that pleased God. I’m sorry; why go to a church where lies are taught as the truth? Now there are plenty of good churches in Mercer County; this isn’t the only church nor is it the best church. This is not a commercial for FCC, not by a long shot. But the truth is that there are a lot of entities out there that call themselves “churches” which would be better off with the doors closed and deadbolted shut! And I don’t care if you’ve been a member for 68 years, and I don’t care if Grandpa is buried in the cemetery behind the church, and I don’t care if you’ve got a truckload of “Precious Memories, how they linger…” I cannot fathom how or why someone who has experienced the life-giving grace of God would have any patience with a glorified mortician who gets up on Sunday morning and moans and groans and messes around with sweet little “don’t kick the dog; try to make the world a better place” homilies that deny the truth of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit!
And just in case you’re wondering: if you can find it in the Word and it contradicts Harvey, you believe the Word and not Harvey! Now I hope you’ll do me the favor of pointing it out to me, but let God be true and every man a liar! And Paul says, if even an angel comes down from heaven, puts on a fancy suit, and stands up behind an ornate pulpit in a cathedral, and then proceeds to preach something that contradicts the truth of the Word of God, let him go to hell! If that’s too strong for you, take it up with Paul, because that is exactly dead-on what he is saying here!
V. The Choice to be Made - :10
“am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God”
“For” which can in the original be translated “there”, and I think that might be what he’s saying here. Some had accused Paul of taking OUT these legalistic Jewish elements from the true gospel because he wanted to water it down, make it more palatable, and please people. And now, after he has pronounced a double curse on these Judaizers, I think he is saying, “There, think I’m trying to please men now that I’ve just told a bunch of folks where they can go if they preach lies?”
Ultimately, we all must make this choice: will we live to please ourselves/others, or will we live to please God?
Here is the choice for all of us! Jesus came on a cosmic rescue mission to pull you out of the slavery you were in to the system of this world. There are only two teams; you stay in the jail having been captured by Satan as a result of your birth into Adam’s race, or you can be liberated by Jesus Christ. It’s one or the other, and today, the choice is yours!
Jesus talked about two different men. He said there is one man who will do what he can in this life to really experience the gusto-grabbing life that he considers to be living life to its fullest. He will seek to do all he can to save his life—he’ll be like the man who puts all of his stock in this life, tearing down his old barns to build bigger barns in which to store his accumulated stuff, saying to his soul “take it easy; eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you’ll die.” He’ll take no thought of God or of eternity, or of the coming judgment the Bible speaks of; he’ll just try to experience all that life down here has to offer. But in trying to save his life, he will lose his life.
Then there is a man who chooses the opposite course in life, choosing to do what he can to lay up treasures not here on earth, but rather in heaven. He will lose his life for the sake of Christ; that will be the choice he makes, to please not others, not himself, but God. And in so doing, he will find life eternal.
And the way this happens is through the simple Gospel of Christ which must be protected and proclaimed at all costs—even at the cost of “fighting words!”
Some Contemporary Issues Raised by a Study of Galatians
The denial of the sufficiency of Christ or His Word
The reduction of Christian living to a formulaic approach, or to a series of “don’ts”
Cultural imperialism/snobbery, racism
Judgmentalism and legalism
“Full gospel” teachings which would suggest the necessity of “extra experiences”
