Intro to Galatians II

Good morning. I'll try not to sound like I'm 110 years old. We're going to continue into the second part of our introduction to the book of Galatians. We began last week a study of the book of Galatians and the first part of the introduction. Today, continuing that introduction, And next week, we'll begin a verse-by-verse look at the book here. Now, what we're going to do here for the beginning is a quick summary of last week's introduction. OK? We want to get everybody up to speed. So that's what it's about. We'll start with this.

One of the things we said that while folks who have looked at it and studied it, some have concluded that Paul is writing to people in the northern part of Galatia. I said that the evidence leans in favor of being those cities that are mentioned in Acts and then repeatedly referenced throughout the epistles, and that would be the southern part of the Roman province of Galatia.

Interesting little surprise here, I didn't bring up last week, I thought I'd bring it up here, is that the origin of the word Galatians is actually Celtic. And that may surprise you because a lot of us will think of that and we'll think of Irish or something.

But it's actually a Celtic word origin. And it's because a group of the Celts went and fought their way into this part of what's now north central Turkey about 280 BC. Major Celtic movements were taking place in different directions in the centuries prior to the Romans coming into power. And so while we often may think of Celtic as Irish, the group that went down here off to the southeast were the ones who were responsible for bringing that name.

Okay, one of the things we pointed out last week is that if you were to visit those cities you would find a lot of the physical topography and the terrain to be similar to what we have here in our own area. Kind of low rolling hills in the place where the cities are and off in the distance some snowy mountain peaks. And so at least so far as that part is concerned you'd feel right at home there.

One of the other things we pointed out that here Paul in the about 46 to about 48 AD made his first missionary journey along with Barnabas into these cities. And so he and Barnabas went through the cities one direction and then looped back through those very same places appointing elders. And so here was Paul's first missionary journey. Then along come a group that, Paul does not call them this, but it's a term that's been used, a group called the Judaizers.

Ones who come in and say, believing in Christ is all fine, but you've still got to do all the Law of Moses. Every little jot and piddle. So Paul responds then with this letter to try to correct the problem. And then the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 settles the issue. And then Paul goes back in his second missionary journey and is able to go to each one of these cities and personally address to them, see, here's what the Jerusalem council said. You need to understand how the people back in Jerusalem do this.

I'm not kidding. And neither are they. Now, one of the other things we asked here is just how old were these people? Okay. And the point we made here is the timeline puts it this way. that the believers that Paul was writing to in this book were, it appears very likely, no more than about two years old, many of them even younger. And hence we've got these pictures of little kids here. Then, one of the other things we pointed out last week, okay, was that Paul wrote to the churches to address this problem, the problem of the Judaizers, the legalists. And he, after he'd just get through writing, Hi, I'm Paul, and greetings, he comes out with this.

Galatians 1.6, I am amazed that you are so quickly, I was just there guys, you are so quickly deserting Him, walking away. Why? You've come and followed after the law of Moses and decide to put yourselves in bondage. Deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel. We said last week that there are three primary doctrinal problems that Paul addresses, principally and initially two of them.

These Jews, these Judaizers who are insisting that the law of Moses was for believers, right now, okay? So no fair heaven lobster for lunch, okay? Alright. The laws required in order to be saved was one of the things that these Judaizers were saying, and also to continue in one's relationship with Christ. Gotta follow the law. Do not dare eat that worm that's in the apple. That's against the law, the law of Moses.

These were the two principal things. The third one we'll take a look at in a moment. Here is from Acts 15, which we presented last week, what they were saying. First statement from them in verse 1 of Acts 15. Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Required for salvation is what they were telling him. The last part of that in verse 5, they said, it is necessary to circumcise them, yes, and to direct them to observe the law of Moses.

613 laws, 365 of them are don't do this and don't do that. To that, the Jews added all kinds of extra rules to make sure you didn't possibly get close to the edge. There's also a third problem that was being dealt with, those who said, no, you don't have to follow the law of Moses. Matter of fact, you don't have to follow anything. And they just said, let her go in terms of morality and ethics.

Now, something that will serve, I think, useful to a number of you, on the cabinet to the right as you exit this room, You'll find a conventional outline of Galatians, and feel free to take advantage of that. You may want to follow along as we start next week in our verse-by-verse study. And so feel free to do that. We're going to be looking, however, and you'll find this on your handout, that number in the lower right is your page number on your handout.

We'll be looking at what we've called a chiasm, in case that's a new term to you. This whole book of Galatians is this chiasm. What's that? It's a mirror image in writing. The first half and the last half of the book, very interestingly, are a written mirror image of one another.

So as we go through that, we'll track through it and we'll step through it here this morning so that we'll get an idea of what he's doing with this idea of a chiasm that we brought out. Let's start here. One of the things we notice is the beginning and the end of the book each have a very intense character to them. The prologue and the epilogue, as we've called them.

Very intense. Paul, after saying, Hi, my name is Paul. Good to see you and write to you again. He comes out, boy, with some very intense language. And we're going to be looking at that in just a couple of weeks. The end of the book is equally as intense, as we'll discover as we get there. So the intense beginning and end reflect Paul's care.

He wouldn't write so intensely if he didn't care so much. He cared a lot about these people. He didn't say, oh well, Galatians will be Galatians. He cared deeply for these people, and that's why the beginning and the end of the book are so intense, start to finish.

The other thing that we'll notice, and this is a generalization that we'll zero in on a little bit more, the first half is mostly about Paul's life. He's going to talk about his own personal history. He's going to underscore with them that, yes, he is indeed a valid apostle. And just because he wasn't one of the original twelve, does not mean that what he says is not valid, does not carry apostolic authority. So he's going to lay that out.

But he's also going to underscore what we presented last week, Galatians 2.20. He's going to make it personal.

It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. We're going to see also in the second half, it's mostly about the Galatians life. He takes the truth, the principles, the application, that he has laid out in the first half and now turns it around and says, okay, this is how it applies to you. This is what it means in your life. This is how it becomes real as you live day to day. And so he is going to spell that out in the last half. We're also going to see more specifically the middle of each half is going to have a character more focused on what was spelled out. The first The middle of the first half there will zero in particularly on Paul, very much about him, and zeroing in on Paul's living even before he was a believer, after he became a believer, and his contact with the apostles. We're going to see in the second half there, your life, you Galatians, which we can take as personally applicable to the degree that it fits, And so that's a part of the shift that he has, and also the mirror image character of the book.

One other thing, we're going to find this next section here in Galatians 1.13 through 2.10, Paul's two ways of living.

In that case, what does it mean? Before and after he believed. He's going to contrast those two as he talks about it. And then in the last part, two ways of living for the Galatians. by the flesh and by the spirit. Those two will be contrasted. And I will say sharply contrasted as we get into that part of the book. Next part, we're going to see he's got a section in the first half that corresponds to a section in the last half.

Justification by faith. The believer is justified, declared righteous by God, by faith alone. And it's going to show its connection with Paul's own life. As we get into the last half, justification by faith, again presented, but now applied to you, you the Galatian believers, which of course then applies to us as well. We're going to see also, as we get into that, what does he mean by justification? It's a word that we don't use in this way commonly in our culture. Usually in our culture when we talk about somebody justifying, it's usually a bunch of excuses, right? That's not what we mean. God is not giving you a good excuse. God is declaring the believer righteous.

Let's take a look on the top of page two of your handout. You've got a slightly larger size version than the typical, and that's so we can see it carefully. Let's step our way through it. One of the words that's going to come out there in Galatians a couple times is redemption. This has this idea, and we need to look at this because redemption in our culture, I mean, it used to be, remember, some of you might recall blue chip stamps, or even S&H green stamps, and you'd go and redeem them, right? That's not what he's talking about. This is no stamp book, okay? This is the ransom price paid by Christ's death on the cross to save us, bottom line. The ransom price paid, applied to those who believe. The picture is this.

In the Roman Empire, the Roman soldiers would go and they would invade an area or maybe even battle somebody who was coming in. And then they would take, as they won in a particular battle or series of battles, they would take large numbers of slaves in. Sometimes having the slave traders right behind the troops ready to take in these these slaves. And the only way you could get them back was to buy them out. And they would sometimes sell masses of slaves this way back into freedom.

What this says is, it is as if every single person on the planet, every single person on the planet was held captive in lieu of payment of the ransom. When the ransom is paid, for everyone that's captive, then the only question left is, do you believe it? Do you believe it? Included within that redemption is the idea that the ransom price is paid for each and every one.

When Christ said, He, from the cross said, it is finished. He meant the ransom price has been paid. I have done the work on the cross that paid the price for every single one. So the price is paid for everyone. Now the only question is, do you believe it? It's as if this were the circumstance. Here are a mass of people held in lieu of payment of the ransom. Christ steps up and says, I'll pay for everyone. Each person handed a check.

Let's give it a big number that we could never touch. Four trillion dollars each, okay? Can you touch that amount? I know I can. So you're handed a check. You can say, that's great, I don't believe it, and throw it on the floor. You can say, that's worthless, and shred it, trash it. Or you can say, that's incredible, amazing grace, turn it over, sign it, and walk out. That's the position we're in.

Those who take advantage of that price paid for every single person on the planet receive the forgiveness of sins. The ransom price paid in effective. You are free. All you have to do is turn the check over and sign it and walk out the door if you believe it. If you believe the price is paid.

Forgiveness of sins and redemption, then, is a part of justification. God looks at those who have been held as captive slaves. He says, I've paid the ransom price. You've been forgiven because you believed. On the basis of that, not because we're really good or we work really hard, but on the basis of belief, the price is paid The person walks free and God declares that person righteous.

We're going to see that more than once in Galatians here. They are declared righteous by God. Only by God's declaration they have the righteousness of Christ. There's also another thing that's going to come up here as we study the book of Galatians. We won't go into it in detail here this morning. But it's the adoption of sons.

Paul, whenever he wrote to a church that seemed to have a lot of Roman contact and influence, he used this picture. He did it with the church in Rome. That's one with Roman influence, right? He did it with the church in Ephesus, which was a capital of a Roman province with 3,000 Roman soldiers there. Lots of Roman influence there. And he did it in Galatia because two of the four major cities were also Roman colonies.

So he tells them, you also have the adoption of sons, you who believe. It's the forgiveness of sins. They've been redeemed. They enjoy unfathomable blessings. We'll talk more about what those are when we get there. We mentioned last week that there was lots of Roman influence in these cities, particularly two being Roman colonies, but also pointed out Augustus Caesar was an emperor who received the adoption of sons. Let's give you a brief intro to what that is.

A number of you may recall the Ben-Hur movie, and maybe not the first one, 1925, but Lew Wallace wrote the novel Ben-Hur, 1880. There was a movie made in 1925 and then a remake done about 1959. In that, Judah Ben-Hur, the Jewish slave, rescued this Roman general, Quintus Arius. So this is an historical novel made into a couple of movies.

Judah Ben-Hur goes on to win this famous chariot race, but the bottom line is this. The Grateful General, the Squintus Arius, later adopted Judah Ben-Hur as his son, using the procedure that Paul refers to here, the adoption of sons. So here's Judah Ben-Hur, who started off in a Roman slave galley, down at the bottom, pulling the oars. locked in chains, just sitting in basic darkness all that time. He was, because of the adoption of sons, brought to a place of unrivaled wealth and power and influence. There he is turned to the highest courts of Rome, a place of incredible influence. How did that take place? Adoption of sons.

So we'll get into the details a little bit more. One of the next things we're going to see a pattern about in this passage is first in the first half, and then shortly after in the second half of the book, there a reference to the book of Genesis, initially with reference to Abraham. And we'll be looking at a passage that talks about that this morning. And secondly, to Sarah and Hagar. And so we see that mirror image pattern, each time a reference to the book of Genesis. It's the first book of the law. And one of the things we'll see, we are blessed by promise. That's the Abraham passage. And we are children of promise. That's the passage referring to Sarah and Hagar that we'll be taking a look at.

The middle part of this chiasm, of this mirror image pattern in writing, the middle part is often an area of emphasis. We've been for about the last year bringing up different passages and sometimes whole books that have this mirror image chiasm pattern. The book of Ruth, for example, the entire book is this chiasm. The book of Jude is a chiasm. Galatians is also that pattern. The middle part of these chiasms is often there for emphasis.

And look what Paul emphasizes, redeemed by Christ. He couldn't emphasize anything more important, could he? Redeemed by Christ. One of the things we brought out here is this redeemed. This is bought out of captivity. The ransom price paid. That's the good news. That's the amazing good news.

Christ redeemed us from the law. And that was one of the things he was trying to get across to the Galatians. Christ redeemed us from having to live by the law in order to be righteous. Christ redeemed us from having to live by the law in order to have and maintain fellowship with the Lord.

The other part we tag on to the very end of that middle is it's a from and to redemption. What do I mean by that? Redeemed from the law, redeemed to adoption of sons. Redeemed from what held us in bondage, redeemed to incredible heavenly privilege. And we'll see more of that as we get into that passage. Now, for something completely different. Not that different. We're going to be looking ahead here at Galatians chapter 3 verses 6-9.

And you'll have this on page 3 of your handout if you're tracking along with us here. One of the things I want to do before I step into that, on the cabinet to the right, here's the second item that I'll let you know about. There is a one-page handout on this very passage that Hal put together, so that's available and feel free to pick up a copy. It kind of heads in a little different direction and even some more detail than we'll be looking at this morning, but it's a really great piece and I'd recommend you take a look at it. Okay, stepping into the passage ourselves.

One of the things we note, each one of the verses here in this passage, Abraham, Abraham, Abraham. Wow. He's really underscoring Abraham. How come? Why is he bringing up Abraham to address the issues with these Galatian believers? So, we got that question. Okay. The Jews had great respect for Abraham. Okay? They believed that physical descent from Abraham would save you. I'm descended from Abraham. I'm doing just great.

We mentioned some time back, there was even a Jewish myth that Abraham, in the last day, stands at the gate of hell to make sure no offspring of his goes into hell. That was the way the Jewish myth went. It didn't matter what you did, as long as you're a descendant of Abraham, you're not going in there. So they had an immense respect for Abraham, even with some mythology behind it.

The other thing is that the account of Abraham is given in the very first book of the law. We oftentimes think of the law as being only the book starting with Exodus where you start getting the law. But the Jews looked at Genesis as the start of the law. First of all, they looked at it as one of Moses' books, the first one. The other thing is they would take portions of the law. Remember the 613 laws? They would take portions of the law out of Genesis. and not wait until Moses gave the law. Example, to be fruitful and multiply was looked upon as one of the laws.

How about that? You must be fruitful and multiply or subject to failure of the Mosaic law. So drawing from Genesis was a perfectly valid thing to do and they would give great respect for that. But wait, there's more. And oh no, we're sounding like an infomercial.

If we look at Genesis 15-6, then he, Abraham that is, believed in the Lord, and he, that is the Lord, reckoned it to him, that is Abraham, as righteousness. This passage is certainly a critical passage. It's quoted here in Galatians. We also see it in Romans and in James. The basic message comes like this.

The Lord Himself is the only one who is fundamentally righteous by character. That is, it's not something He has just out of innocence, but a basic, infinite, righteous character for eternity. That's Him. Only by means of faith are we, get this, declared righteous. God does the declaration. How can He do that?

First of all, the debt that sin incurs is paid by Christ's death. The ransom payment, paid by Christ's death. That's part one of how God can go about doing this. Second thing, Christ's own righteousness is fundamental by character. Christ did not die on the cross as just another sinner who said, hey, I'll take on other people's sins. No. Christ Himself is fundamentally and eternally righteous.

And the third thing, God has the authority to make that kind of declaration. It doesn't matter how many birthdays I have. It doesn't matter how hard I try. I do not have the authority, nor does anybody else here on planet Earth, to make that declaration. God does. God can do so.

In Genesis 17, this also is on page 3 of your handout, verses 9 through 11, God further said to Abraham, now as for you, you shall keep my covenant and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised. And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It shall be the sign of the covenant between me and you.

Faith was accounted as righteousness before God brought this up. Let's look at the time frame here. Here's the timing of righteousness. Paul himself brings this up in Romans. Romans is, by the way, a parallel book to Galatians. Much in common. So is this blessing then on the circumcised or on the uncircumcised also? For we say faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness, How then was it credited?

While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Question for you. Drum roll. What's the answer? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. The passages we just read about circumcision after he had been declared righteous by faith. And verse 11, And he received the sign of circumcision, the seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised.

Guess what? If you believe here this morning, Abraham is, spiritually speaking, your father. How about that? That righteousness might be credited to him. So here in Galatians 3.6-9, it starts off in verse 6, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. These are similar words that are found there in Romans 4, including the passage we just looked at, verse 9.

And James 2.23, Abraham at this point did nothing more or nothing less than believe in God. Righteousness is reckoned to the believer by faith, not because of something to do.

Notice another pattern as you go through here. Here is believed, faith, faith, and believer. And what doesn't come out easily in the English is that these are all part of the same family of words. Believed in the Greek is pistou. Faith, in the three places it shows up, is pistis, part of the same family of words. And finally, believer is pistos, and those are all part of the same family of words.

Paul is underscoring again and again and again. It's believing, it's believing, it's believing. That's the critical thing. Each verse gets salted with this. The other thing that we see is a twice-stated phrase there, those who are of faith. Now, that's something we've got to pay some attention to.

You ever hear the term people talking about people of faith? And frequently they include the Muslims and people who believe that they're a poached egg and everything else, okay? This is not just some sort of vague faith. This is not just some sort of, I kind of believe, something kind of, sort of, more or less. It is believing what the God of Scripture says. That's what he's referring to. And it's true, it's apparent in context.

The other point that we see here is, who are sons of Abraham? We saw before that that's a spiritual descendancy, isn't it? Paul isn't talking about those who are physical descendants of Abraham here. No, I don't think that Abraham, contrary to the Jewish myth, is going to be sitting at the gate of hell, keeping anybody descended from him, physically, from going into hell. And this is what Scripture means by sons of. If the literal meaning is not apparent from the passage, the meaning is this, having a close relationship to and being like in character. Okay? Close relationship to and being like in character. The likeness in character is believing. Abraham the believer. This is not on your handout here, so you can track with me.

In verse 8 here, the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, all the nations will be blessed in you. Notice, here's the Scripture. First part of that, right? And then he says, foreseeing. So does Scripture have eyes? The next part, preached and saying. So now you've got What's he talking about here? Does your Bible look and talk? No, what is he saying?

Scripture foreseeing, that is God foreseeing, expressing that foresight through Scripture, isn't it? Scripture then has the message of truth, which comes from the Lord and is told by people. But Paul uses these, what we call anthropomorphisms, to express what Scripture is seeing and saying in advance. It's the Lord's foresight. It's the Lord speaking the truth, then again spoken through us.

The next part of verse 8, God would justify the Gentiles by faith. Justify is not give lots of excuses for, but to declare righteous. God doesn't just justify the Gentiles by the law of Moses, certainly not, as the Judaizers were claiming repeatedly and emphatically, but only by faith in God's sole provision for salvation. Not some kind of faith, not just being some sort of a people of faith, but only by faith in God's sole provision as spelled out in Scripture.

Then it says, all the nations will be blessed in you. This is a direct quote from the Greek Old Testament version of Genesis 18-18, and very similar to the ending in Genesis 12-3. You have those on page 4 of your handout. All the earth blessed in Genesis 12, And I've included the first part of verse 1 there, but the last part of verse 3, "...and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." Later on, telling him in chapter 18, "...in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed." Now, all the nations of the earth will be blessed in you is what Paul writes.

Let's see what that means. What Paul is doing here is he's revealing, and I put in quotes, a secret. of how all the nations, and by that we mean not political entities, but people, will be blessed in Abraham. All of them. Every one. Galatians 3.16 tells us every single person on this planet is blessed by Christ. Christ, whom Paul calls the seed of Abraham, we'll see in this passage in Galatians, is the one by whom salvation is made available to each and every single person walking the planet, completely and entirely by grace and through faith. Now, one of the things we see here is the lineage is not, are you descended from Abraham, but look at the lineage here through Isaac, through Jacob, through Judah, where Jesus is the Lion of Judah, through Judah, then through David to Jesus Christ.

And this chart, by the way, is also the third item available on that cabinet to your right. You've got to pick these up because the cabinet is getting really overloaded. Help me here. Anyway, that's available to you as well. One of the key principles we want to look at here is faith in Christ was either looking forward to Christ's death on the cross, and his resurrection, or looking backwards. Think about this. Here is Abraham, and in round numbers, 2,000 years before Christ's death on the cross. Abraham looked forward to God's provision.

He said, I don't know all the details. He didn't know there'd be this guy named Judas. He didn't know that some guy named Pontius Pilate would pronounce sentence. He didn't know all those details. But he said, God, I trust your provision. I believe you. I believe that you died for my sins. All the provision in Christ.

2,000 years ahead of his time. Here we are, again in round numbers, looking 2,000 years back. Isn't that amazing? Abraham lived about 4,000 years ago. He looked forward about two millennia. We look back about two millennia. Faith in Christ. Faith in God's provision through Christ, either way. That's what saves. For all times, from Adam and Eve all the way to the end of the time when this planet vanishes and is melted. For all that time, the provision is always God's provision and always by faith. It doesn't matter what the ethnic group. It doesn't matter what the time. It is always by faith in God's provision. Those who lived before Christ's death look forward to that time. Those living after, as we do, look back upon it. Think about it. We've got some who look forward, and they look forward in various ways.

Here is Abraham. who is ready to offer up his son Isaac and tells him God will provide in faith. Here is the Exodus where the Lord tells them mark on the top and the sides of the doorposts, mark it with blood, mark out, looking ahead to the provision that the Lord would make, mark out, and thou will pass over those households. He told them to continue that Passover celebration in remembrance of that time, and also looking forward. They had the sacrifices that they did in the temple and out in the tabernacle, looking forward to Christ as the ultimate sacrifice, the once-for-all sacrifice.

Some look back, as we do. Some look back, and we're called to do that, aren't we? Do this in remembrance of me. We remember. Abraham looked forward. All who believe are saved by faith in God's provision. Just the same. Regardless where you stand in time compared to the cross. Looking forward, looking back, it's always by faith.

What does God say? Do you believe it? That's the question, isn't it? In verse 9, so then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer. Those who have that same faith of Abraham. What is it? It's as simple as this. Do you believe God? Do you believe Him? That's the simple question. That faith is counted by God as righteousness. He doesn't look at us and say, boy, Vern was a really righteous guy. I'm going to call him righteous because he was so good. No. I don't get that. Christ died for my sins. For me. For my sins. It's just a question of whether you believe God. Do you believe that Christ died for your sins and that's effective? God is satisfied by Christ's death. Are you?

Some look forward and some look back, but all who believe are saved by faith in God's provision for salvation. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for, as we look at this book that we'll be stepping into in more detail this next week, we thank you how abundantly clear you have made it. We are saved by faith. We are saved by faith in the character of Your Son, in the work of Your Son upon the cross. We are saved by faith in what You have revealed and what You have accomplished. And Lord, we can only be thankful because we have nothing else to add. I give You thanks in Jesus' name, Amen.