Salutation Part 2
Galatians 1:1-5 · Miles Driedger · Mar 30, 2025
Galatians (2025-26), No. 04
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261938512707

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, so we are continuing on in Galatians. This is lesson number two of the salutation, chapter one, verses one through five. And I know you guys were wondering, it's beginning last week, how are we going to make five verses stretch for two full lessons? But now you know, we only covered part of verse one last time. So we've got our work cut out for us today. So, last week we began to look at chapter 1, 1 through 5, and this is the salutation or greeting of the epistle.

And Paul introduces himself as Paulos Apostolos. And we can say these are Paul's titles or his credentials, perhaps. We can maybe think of them that way, in a sense. And we talked about the fact that Paul was qualified both as Paul and as an apostle. We can kind of divide up his credentials that way, perhaps.

And we can say that Paul was qualified to write the letter because, in part, because of the Lord's providential working in Paul's life that prepared him for the message that he was to bear. And we split that up further into the pre-Damascus road and post-Damascus road portions of Paul's life, right?

Before he was born again, he was under law. He was born a Jew, trained under law, and experienced failure under law. And then after he came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Well, that was his new birth, and then he was trained by Jesus Christ. But we also talked about the fact that he experienced failure as a Christian to live the Christian life, and that's described in Romans 7.

And all of these things are very important preparatory things in Paul's life. And, you know, we talked about that going through the school of failure. And I just want to highlight how important that is to become a useful vessel to the Lord. really qualifies us for service because it shows us our inability and our need. It's what shows us and teaches us self and what self is. As the Hungry Heart, I think it was one of the Hungry Hearts, said, or maybe it was in, no, it was in Chapter 17 of the Green Letters, I think I was reading this week, that we learn what self can do and what it cannot do and And, of course, it cannot produce a righteous life. And so that's important to learn. Paul had to learn that before he could teach that to others. And that's very important to what Paul is going to teach the Galatians in this epistle.

And so Paul was personally qualified. Another thing that I thought of in this past week that we didn't talk about last week is that, you know, to go up to a fellow Christian, and correct them on some point of doctrine. There has to be, I believe, in order for it to be effective, there has to be some personal level of trust. And so Paul introduces himself personally. You know, he says, I'm Paul. The one, as you'll refer to later, the one for whom you would have plucked out your very eyes, you know, if necessary. Or if you could. And so this is the Paul whom they loved and who loved them.

And that gave him certain grounds to be able to come in and offer this word of correction. And I think that's really important in the body of Christ. We need to have relationships of trust. to be able to, there's the wounds, faithful are the wounds of a friend, right? We can take rebuke from a friend because we know they love us.

And so Paul gave a personal introduction. But that alone wasn't adequate. As a qualification, Paul also was qualified as an apostle, right? And that points to the Lord's direct appointment of Jesus Christ. Paul was personally commissioned as an apostle.

We can look at Acts 26, 15 through 16, Paul describing the Damascus Road encounter. He said, And I said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and stand on your feet. For this purpose I have appeared to you to appoint you a minister and a witness, not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you. And so Paul's appointment by Jesus Christ began right there on the Damascus Road, and the Lord would continue to teach Paul and train him over the coming years with the content of the message that he was to bring.

And so one of our key takeaways last time was to understand that the Lord is also carrying out preparation in each one of his children for the work that he intends to carry out through you. And three points on that. One, it's providential. The circumstances of your life are orchestrated by the Lord.

Two, it takes time. We saw that with Paul, it took three plus 14 years as a believer before he ever went out on a missionary journey. And so we can't rush preparation and we shouldn't try. And the third point is that it requires failure. You know, like Paul, we can learn to boast in our weaknesses, for when I am weak, then he is strong.

So, that's some personal application that I think we can draw from that, but we also want to be clear that while the Lord is preparing us as vessels for his use today, he's not appointing hostiles in the church today, like unto Paul and the other twelve.

In 1 Corinthians 9-1, Paul says, Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen our Lord? Are you not my work and the Lord? We could look at a few other references as well that point out the fact that to be an apostle appointed by Christ, you had to see the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. We can also look at this passage in 1 Corinthians 15, which is describing the resurrection of Christ and his resurrection appearances.

And Paul writes, then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. So notice that last of all. Paul was the last apostle to be to be called. So with Paul, the office of apostle was closed. The apostles were given to the church to lay the foundation, to write the New Testament scriptures.

And there is no one in the church today who has apostolic authority. So we really ought to run from someone who claims to have apostolic authority in the church today. So today, our authority is the Word of God, the things written by the apostles and prophets. And so that's why we study the Word of God. That's the essential authority to the church. So, no apostles today. We have the written word of God.

So, continuing on then in the salutation, we'll pick up where we left off last time. We talked about most of verse 1, which is outlined on the screen here. We talked about how Paul was an apostle, not for men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father. But we didn't touch that last phrase in verse 1. where it says, who raised him from the dead.

So why does Paul draw our attention to Jesus' resurrection? Is he just throwing that phrase on because he wants to? What is it about the resurrection that is important to what Paul is writing in this letter? Well, Paul wants to be clear First of all, that his authority does not rest in a dead Savior, but a risen Savior. A risen, glorified Savior.

Ephesians 1.20 tells us that Jesus Christ has been seated at the Father's right hand, far above all rule and authority. So that's the authority that's behind Paul's message. I think it's part of the reason that's attached to this verse about his apostleship. But I also think Paul wants to draw our attention to the resurrection because that is the key to everything that he's going to say in the letter.

Like he says in 1 Corinthians 15, 17, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, you are still in your sins. So, if Christ has not been raised, then we still have our two-fold problem. We're still condemned by sins. and we're still enslaved to sin.

And so a righteous standing before God and a righteous life in Christ depend on the resurrection of Christ. How is that or why is that? In what way does our righteous standing before God depend on the resurrection of Jesus Christ? How might we say that?

Bibles of resurrection is everything. Without the resurrection, we have no faith, right? I mean, as you just stated scripturally. But moreover, I think that it reflects, and you've commented on this too, I'm not sure we can add anything to what you've said, because you've said it perfectly, but our life is in the risen Lord, is it not? We individually have been buried with him in baptism unto death and risen with him in newness of life. So, I mean, the resurrection is everything about Christianity, as you point out. I can't say more than you've said. You've said it perfectly. I don't know about that, but the resurrection, you're right, Father, the resurrection is everything and it applies to our righteous standing.

If there was no resurrection, then we would have no idea whether the death of Christ on the cross was acceptable to the Father. So His resurrection is the proof, the evidence that His sacrifice for sins was acceptable to God the Father. So absolutely critical. If there was no resurrection, we would have no idea whether our sins had been sufficiently paid for.

But then we look at the other side. How is the Christian life dependent as well on the resurrection of Christ? So the resurrection is necessary for our birth. It's also necessary for the Christian life. And Bob, you alluded to that as well. You said that Christ is our Christian life, essentially. If Christ is not alive, then there is no Christian life.

And this is what Paul draws out in Galatians 2.20, right? Christ lives in me. I have been crucified. There's no longer I to live, but Christ lives in me. So if Christ is not raised, then you don't have a Christian life. So that's why the resurrection is essential for both our birth, our standing, our righteous standing before God, as well as our walk, our life. Hey, Miles? Yes? In keeping with the context of verse 1, if Christ had not been resurrected, there's no way Paul could have been an apostle. That's true. That's absolutely right. That's absolutely right. Yeah, I'm sorry.

I mean, again, I like the verse, but 2 Corinthians 5.21, he made him who knew no sin, he made sin for us, right? So it's not only our sins being forgiven, we've got to remember our position entirely relates to his resurrection. Yes, absolutely. That's great. Yeah, thank you guys for those comments.

So yeah, this isn't just a flowery phrase that Paul adds on there, right? The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the key to both our birth and our walk as believers. Now, notice that Paul brings up his companions. Does he just, you know, again, is he just including this? For no reason? Well, I think there is a reason. He says there, and all the brethren who are with me.

And so, even though Paul recognizes that he's the one who has the authority to write the letter, he also recognizes he's simply a part of the body of Christ. He's simply one member of the entirety of the body of Christ. and he calls these brethren. And you know about nine times or so, I don't know if I got exact count, in this letter to the Galatians, he calls them brethren. And I think by bringing up the brethren who are with him, Paul wants to remind the Galatians that they're part of the family, they're part of the body of Christ. And I think perhaps that has to do with the fact that he's about to write this disciplinary letter.

It's similar to when you have to discipline your own children. If your children aren't, first of all, assured of their place in the family, then that discipline is not healthy. So Paul, I think, wants to remind the Galatians that they're a part of the family before he applies the rod to their So, Hebrews 12, verse 6 and 7, For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? So you're part of the family, and that involves It includes discipline. So, and you know, this is a wonderful, these verses are a wonderful reminder to each one of us. We're disciplined as believers out of God's love for us. Miles, just one thing, and Bob Wolfer mentioned this, I think, but, you know, and all the brethren who are with me begs the question, when was this book written? Right. Yeah. No, that's good. And Bob, I think Bob covered that well in the introduction. I take this as after the first missionary journey. And yeah, I don't know that I have more to comment on that at this point.

But Paul is rarely alone in his you know, in his ministry. So we don't know exactly who all those brethren are, but he definitely had people who were with him. Perhaps who had, you know, we know that Barnabas was with him on the first missionary journey. Perhaps some, you know, that wanted to send greetings to these Galatian churches.

But there's a deep bond of unity within the true body of Christ. That's one of the things we found as we traveled around the U.S. last summer. You know, I can't remember now how many states we were in, but in a number of them, we were able to meet with fellow believers. And there's a deep unity that's just immediately evident.

And so, you know, no question that when there's a letter like this written that you'd want to send your greetings along. So we talked about the sender portion of Paul's salutation, and now we'll move into the recipient portion, which is the Galatians. And we can be pretty brief here, okay? Paul just says, to the churches of Galatia, and Bob Wolford gave us a pretty lots of background on Galatia, so we won't repeat that this morning, except to be reminded that Galatia was a region, and so when Paul writes to the churches, plural of Galatia, we should remember that there are numerous local churches in different cities within the Galatian province. But something very important that we should recognize is that this is a letter written to believers.

Okay, just like we said here a moment ago, Paul refers to them about nine times as brethren. And the problem in Galatia wasn't that the Galatians were deceived about whether or not they were born again. The confusion was over how a believer is to walk.

Is it by works of the law? And this is very evident in Galatians 3, 2-3. For the only thing I want to find out from you, sorry, this is the only thing, I want to find out from you, did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, that's a fact, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Right?

So, Paul implies that the Galatians knew that they had received the Spirit by faith, not by works. They knew that they were born again. And Paul is applying the principle that we talked about last week. We call the principle of provided righteousness, as opposed to produced righteousness. And on that principle, works can't provide a righteous standing, and logically, neither can they produce a righteous walk. So we want to keep that in view as we go on with the letter.

It's written to born-again Christians, who are seeking to live the Christian life by works. And I think that's a very, very practical topic for the church today. That is probably where the vast majority of Christians find themselves, in some variation, way, shape, or form. They know they're saved, but they're not sure about how the Christian life is lived, and it often comes down to some form of law.

So that's the recipients, the Galatians, and now we have Paul's greeting. And this will take us down to the end of verse 5. And we'll just read it here to refresh our memories here on those verses. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. who gave himself for our sins, 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.

So, first of all, what is it that is extended to the Galatians? What is the thing? It's grace and peace, right? And, of course, this is extended to the Galatians, but who is it from? Paul is the one writing this greeting, but this grace and peace isn't from Paul. What does the verse say? From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So what is grace? We've got grace extended to the Galatians from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What is grace?

We have our standard, you know, we've got our our Chaputkali definition, right? The unlimited, unmerited favor of God based on the totally adequate work of Christ. I think the best definition I've come across is very, very helpful. But what if we could boil grace down to one word? Just one word that could be a handle in your mind. What would that word be?

Anyone throw it out. I mean, give me some. Unmerited. Unmerited. Good. Very good. That is very closely tied into the word that I mean, of course, we have to kind of expand it a little bit. Any other thoughts? Say it again. Christ. Christ. Jesus Christ. Okay. Yeah. For sure. Unconditional slash love. Unconditional. Unacceptable.

Yeah, well I've got, I think I used two words as well. I've got the indefinite article as well, but a gift. It's a gift. You know, something, which all the words that you guys put out are all part of that gift, right? It's an unmerited gift. Christ is, in his work on the cross, is the gift, right? It's a gift of love.

But I think if we can keep the concept of a gift in mind when we think of grace, it's very helpful to us in our thinking. And it helps us understand how grace applies to both our birth and our Christian life. Because we can ask ourselves, well, what is the gift? What is it that God has given or provided? You know, and I do this because a lot of times, maybe not so much with you guys, but with a lot of believers, grace is looked at as, oh, that just, you know, that just means brushing sin aside, sweeping sin under the carpet, something like that. That's sort of the general idea of grace. But when we think of grace as a gift, that's very different.

God has provided something. out of his love. So I've got this on a chart. We've got two columns. We want to see how God has provided grace in a specific way, in two different specific ways. So there is a grace provision for the unbeliever, and that is the substitutionary death of Christ, that Christ died for my sins as a substitute, as my substitute. And then we also have God's grace provision for the believer, for the Christian, which is the representative death, Christ's death for me as my representative, which also means that therefore I have been crucified with Christ. So, we know these truths, right?

We're just trying to lay this out clearly here. What does God's gracious provision for the unbeliever result in? Someone read Romans 5 verse 1. I don't have that on the screen. If someone read Romans 5 verse 1, tell me what this grace provision results in for the unbeliever.

Just read it out when you get it. Yeah. Therefore being, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Very good. Thank you. So, peace with God. Okay. And it's a face-to-face peace. No condemnation. And how is it received? By faith. Right? So, grace, we see there. Grace and peace. Grace that results in peace. What about for the Christian? What is God's gracious provision for the Christian, or God's gift, right? The gift of grace. What is it? It's the representative death. And what does that result in? Somebody... You know what, I'll just read it.

I think, I don't know if I put it on the screen or not here, but anyway, 2 Corinthians 5.14, in part, reads, one died for all, therefore all died. And that's kind of in that, yeah, we got that there. 2 Corinthians 5, 14, one died for all, therefore all died.

So we want to ask the question, what does the death that we died in Christ result in? What does death mean? What is our one-word definition for death? Separation. separation, right? So death, the death that we died with Christ, when he died as our representative, separates us.

But we can't be separated from something without being joined to something else. You can't go into a vacuum, right? And so We are not only separated, but we are joined. We have a new position. We're separated from the old man and everything associated with him, and we have participation in everything of the one new man, Jesus Christ. And what does that result in, in our day-to-day experience? Someone read Philippians 4, 6-7. Philippians 4, 6-7.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Thank you. So, the peace of God, right? And that is based on this new position that we have in Christ. in any circumstance. Don't be anxious about anything. All right, so why? Because we are complete in Christ, lacking nothing. We don't have to fret about circumstances.

We can look down on our circumstances from the security of our position in Christ. And so we have peace because of our position. And so again, grace that Christ died for me as a representative results in peace. And again, what's our part in this? Faith, right? But in this case, this takes a continual resting of faith. We're not always enjoying the peace of God, are we? Because we're not always walking by faith in the grace that has been provided, right?

2 Corinthians 5.7 says we walk by faith.

Later on in Galatians 5.16, Paul says, walk by the Spirit.

Same truth, same parallel truth, right? The Holy Spirit is the one who reveals this truth to us. So if we walk by the Spirit, We are walking by faith in what the Spirit has revealed, faith in His Word. So I want you to really notice in this chart the parallel, right?

Both are provided through the cross, different aspects of the cross, but the cross nonetheless, and both must be received by faith. So it's a principle. So when Paul greets them with these words, grace and peace from God, I think he has in view both aspects of God's grace toward them.

The Galatian believers had received God's grace, Christ's substitutionary death, and thus they were born again and had peace with God. But they also had grace provided for their walk, and they could have peace here, too. They simply had to receive it by faith. And this is where the Galatians had been knocked off course by the Judaizers, because the moment that they began to attempt to live the Christian life by works, they were no longer resting in the fact of their co-crucifixion and resurrection with Christ. They weren't counting on the fact of their heavenly position and the new life. And so this is what Paul is seeking to correct in this letter.

Okay, so we've covered grace and peace. It's beneficiaries, the Galatians, it's sourced from God, and then we have the basis for God's grace, and that is the cross of Jesus Christ, and that's that last phrase, who gave himself for our sins, and that's what we've talked about. God's grace is always based on the cross, right? That's based on the totally adequate work of Christ, right? So, now the remainder of these verses are actually going to describe the cross as the basis. for this grace and peace.

So the rest of these verses give us a kind of a breakdown of the cross. So we have its purpose, its motive, and its result. And so notice the words, so that, in verse 4. This is a purpose clause. He who gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from the present evil age. And this is a key statement to Paul's message for the Galatians.

The word rescue there is exireo, which means to pluck out or draw out So the purpose is that he might pluck us out of this present evil age. You know, I think we have some, you know, we're fairly familiar with this present evil age, or Aion, in which we find ourselves.

We're enmeshed in it. We're part of it. It's part of us. It's the environment that we live in. It's the air that we breathe, so to speak. And as believers, we have this desire, I think, to be freed from it. And, you know, the most natural thing to try to do is to try to free ourselves from this present evil age that is outside of us and inside of us, right? And how do we generally think that we're going to do that? We generally think that we're going to do that through our work, through our good works, through our effort, you know, and so we seek to separate ourselves, we seek to set ourselves apart in thought and in deed, but that is the principle of law, right? It's the most natural thing to us. But it's a principle of law.

And what Paul is introducing in seed form here is that deliverance, this plucking out, comes through the cross, not law. Law can never free us from bondage to sin in the world, because separations, plucking out, requires death. Only death can free us from what we are by nature and where we are by nature, right? And so it's our death with Christ on the cross that has plucked us out of this evil age.

Which means that we don't have to try to separate ourselves from the world system. We can trust that we are separated, which is a past completed action. What's our job? Not to pluck ourselves out, but to rest in what has been accomplished. We rest in that rescue that has been accomplished.

So that's the purpose. Then we have the motive. In verse 4, Paul continues, according to the will of our God and Father. And that gives us the motive for the cross. And this is central to understanding God's grace. The motive for the cross was not something from outside of God.

God wasn't forced into this against His will. Sometimes we get into a situation, we call it a pickle, maybe, or we're between a rock and a hard place, or whatever expression you want to use. But because of circumstances, we have to choose between two things, neither of which we really want to do, but we're kind of forced into it by circumstances. The cross isn't like that.

This verse says that the cross was according to God's will. And the idea there is that it's perfectly in line with. There's no conflict between the cross and the will of God. God wasn't in a pickle, right? The cross is perfectly consistent with his will. So the cross is something that God did out of his own good pleasure.

He desired to do it. That's kind of what the word will there in the Greek refers to. So why? Why did it please God to put his son to death on the cross? Well, it comes out of God's nature. It's internal to him. What is it about God's nature that motivated the cross?

Can anyone give me, even just kind of the two, I don't know if we can separate out God's attributes so much there, but But what are two key aspects of God's character, two key characteristics of His nature that motivated the cross? What is righteousness?

Love. Righteous and love. Okay. Yeah. So on the one hand we know that God is loving and compassionate, you know, merciful. But at the same time, he's perfectly just. And the cross is what perfectly satisfied both God's love and his justice. The cross did that perfectly because his justice was satisfied by the blood shed for sin. Right? And at the same time, through the cross, his unlimited, unmerited love was poured out towards mankind. So that is the motive behind the cross, God's will, which is rooted in his character. Yes.

Most people know John 3.16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. But a better way to translate that is, God so loved the world in this way, that he can rise only to God the Son, right? That's great, Bob. Yeah, you're right. And God's love is nowhere expressed more clearly than at the cross. You know, that's really good.

And so then we have the result of the cross, or what I've called the result. To whom, talking about God, to whom be the glory into the ages of the ages. Now your translation probably doesn't say that, but that's a more direct translation. We might have forevermore. And again, Paul isn't just tacking on a fluffy phrase, right?

He's still talking about the cross. For all eternity, God will be praised, will be glorified for the cross. The cross will never become some dusty piece of history. For all eternity, the cross will stand as the ultimate demonstration of God's character and it will bring him glory forever.

Paul, interestingly, I wanted to translate it that way on the screen because Paul uses the same word here for ages as he did in verse 4. In verse 4 we are plucked out of this present evil age and here God will be glorified into the ages of the ages, this new age. Boy, that phrase, I didn't have that in my notes. Not new age the way we typically hear it. But the entirely new state of things that God will bring about. The aeon, the eternal ages that will continue. God will be glorified.

And what we want to understand is that as a body of Christ, we have already been plucked out of this evil age, and we've already been made partakers of the eternal age to come. As new creations in Christ Jesus, we're already part of the age to come. And that is the key to the Christian life. Really, we are new creation people. Our lives here are to be lived from there. Which becomes a demonstration to this present evil age of the resurrected life of the Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrected Lord Jesus Christ put on display in this world through the body of Christ.

And that's why We have to be brought off of trying to live the Christian life by our works, and we have to be brought to see that it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And our part, of course, is faith. That can only be lived out by faith, as we depend on the Lord to do that. We rest in His ability to do the living. Apologize for filling all of the airspace again today. But any thoughts or questions? I haven't run as much over time as I usually do, so we have time for thoughts or questions.

I was sharing with my sister a verse in John, let's see, John 4.10 with the wonderful Al, and he asked her, Do you know the gift of God?

He asked exactly the question that you asked. It just kind of really struck me. He asked this woman, do you know the gift of God? He asked her that. He asked her, and of course she, well, I think it's water. She doesn't know the answer, but, or you're a smart guy or this or that. But it's interesting. He asked her, do you know the gift of God?

And it really struck me that we're to know the gift of God and to share that gift of God. So it's interesting. That's really great. That's really good, Roger. Yeah. Thank you. It is a gift. It's a gift that's offered to all mankind. That's what grace is, right? A gift, unlimited, unmerited, on the basis of the cross. That's what grace is. It's a gift offered. Thank you.

I kind of mentioned briefly last week that as we go through the salutation, we see an outline of the letter. I did make this additional screen. I'm not going to go through it. But what I just did is I broke down the verses of the salutation and kind of lined them up with the three major themes that Bob gave us in his introduction lessons.

We have Paul's apostleship defended. We have, in the middle portion, we have a defense of the principle, what I call here the grace principle of provided righteousness or right justification on the basis of grace through faith, but that principle also applies to our walk And then we have the fruitful walk of liberty. So you can, this will be up on the website later if you want to spend more time on that, or if you have any thoughts or questions about it. But I just wanted to show that Paul does, in seed form, outline his whole epistle here in the salutation.

That's good, great. Alright, let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to be in Your Word this morning. Lord, I pray that You would be the one who continues to teach us by Your Spirit. We thank You that that is exactly what You desire to do, to show us more of Your Word and to show us Yourself by it. We pray that we would come to know You more. And so we just pray that the things that You've us and taught us this morning would just stick with us and be recalled in the days to come. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.