True Gospel Liberty: Galatians 1-3 Overview
As we begin our eight-week series on Galatians, here is background of the beginning of this powerful New Testament letter.
Background on the Author
Paul was previously a zealous persecutor of the Way of Christ. After the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was like throwing gas on the embers of early christianity. The movement of Jesus began to spread like wildfire throughout Jerusalem and the surrounding regions. Believers were fellowshipping in houses instead of at the temple. Grace was transforming lives at a rapid pace, and the Jewish authorities were losing their stronghold of religious power over the people.
It got to the point where certain Pharisees, like Saul, were doing everything they could to try and put out the wildfire, including violence and imprisonment. Paul was so zealous for the traditions of his Jewish forefathers, that he passionately worked to suppress what he truly believed was a false movement of faith in pursuit of a false messiah by the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
In Acts 9, Paul is on the road to Damascus to arrest and imprison certain leaders of the Jesus movement. What he encountered along the way changed the course of his life and the course of history.
Three Major Themes
The Content of the True Gospel (The Grace of the Cross)
The Source of True Apostolic Authority (Jesus Himself)
The Fruit of True Salvation (Liberty from Sin and Religion)
Paul is DEFENDING the purity of the Gospel by defending the doctrine of God's grace against a reactivation of the law. "Law" does not just refer to a return to the Mosaic Law but to any system of justification that relies upon human effort and deeds instead of relying upon the grace of God through the cross of Christ.
Key Verse // Galatians 2:16
We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Key Words in Galatians 1-3:
Gospel - 12X
Grace - 5X
Faith - 17X
Justification/Righteousness - 10X
The TRUE GOSPEL is the GOOD NEWS proclamation that God JUSTIFIES ungodly people BY FAITH in Jesus Christ, not through their personal effort, but by the GRACE of God poured out at the CROSS of Christ.
FAITH is personal trust in the work of Jesus, and it is the channel through which the GRACE of God flows."For BY GRACE you have been saved through FAITH. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God." (Eph. 2:8)
Faith is the means, not the source. JESUS is the SOURCE. Faith unites us to Jesus.
By FAITH, believers become "united with Christ in the likeness of His death... and therefore united with Christ in the likeness of His resurrection." (Romans 6:1-5) The result of this mysterious, supernatural union with Christ, is JUSTIFICATION. His righteousness becomes our righteousness, and God, who is perfectly good and pure and righteous, looks upon us in Christ and DECLARES us, right now, to be righteous.
"Justify" is a forensic term borrowed from the law courts. It means "to declare righteous or innocent". The opposite of "to justify" is "to condemn" or "to pronounce guilty". Justification expresses the judicial action of God apart from human merit according to which the guilty are pardoned, acquitted, and then reinstated as God's children and as fellow heirs with Jesus Christ.
Key Verse // Galatians 2:20-21
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
The True Gospel begins and ends with faith in what Jesus has already done. Every false Gospel lures us away from trusting HIM into the bondage of trusting ourselves.
Key Verse // Galatians 3:5-9
Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are BLESSED along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Key Verse // Galatians 3:13-14
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the BLESSING of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
What is the blessing of Abraham?
--> The promised HOLY SPIRIT
How do we receive it?
--> Through FAITH
Supporting Scriptures
Romans 9:30-10:4
What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 10:1 Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
1 Corinthians 1:18-24
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1 Corinthians 1:30-31
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Genesis 15:6
Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”