August 15, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in selections from Exodus and Galatians? Here’s today’s reading:
Galatians 1 (NIV)
1 Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers and sisters with me,
To the churches in Galatia:
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ……Continue Reading
Galatians 1
The Apostle Paul is believed to be the author of this book. Early believers believed that and it is in his style of writing. It is believed to have been written in Antioch of Syria by Paul in A.D. 48 to the churches in Galatia. This area consisted of Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and { Pisidian} Antioch where he visited on his first missionary journey. These are located in southern Galatia. [ This area was called Asia Minor and was settled by the Gauls which came from western Europe through Italy and Greece. But in B,C. this kingdom was converted over to a Roman province, and territory was added to the south including the cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.] [ The Bible Knowledge Commentary]. I thought you might like some back ground about this area and where Paul wrote it and when. God bless you all.
Galatians 1
I love how after a quick peaceful greeting, Paul cuts right to the chase. “So I hear you’ve traded the gospel we gave you for an accursed one…”
There were a few reasons why Paul was writing this letter to the churches in Galatia. One was to remind them that his message of salvation by faith alone in Christ and not by works was directly revealed to him by Jesus Christ. This spoke to his Apostleship to the Gentiles. One of the requirements for being an Apostle was being an eyewitness to Jesus and his teachings. False teachers were undermining his teaching. The second was that these false teachers were teaching faith plus works for salvation which isn`t faith in Christ at all. The book of Galatians along with the book of Romans are both key books that address that one is only saved by faith alone in Christ. There is nothing that anyone can do to earn their salvation. The third reason that he wrote this book was that the false teachers were claiming that Paul only wanted to be popular and please men. Paul disputed that in saying that if that is what he desired, he would have stayed a Pharisee for he was rising quickly through the ranks even before his own peers. If he stayed as a Pharisee, he would not have been persecuted or gone through any of the trials or almost dying a few times. So that was a foolish slander by these false teachers along with the other attacks. It is often true that the enemy makes up accusations that aren`t even true about someone when in reality it is actually the accuser that is the guilty person. That is how Satan works so why wouldn’t his people {the world without Christ} be guilty themselves and blame the true followers of Christ. As Jesus has said that the world hates Him so the world will hate us. So we shouldn`t be surprised when people lie and make up things to discredit us. Just stay true to our Lord and keep walking with Him. God bless you all.
If there were anyone who understood the draw of the law and making that part of the requirement of the gospel, it would be Paul. And that is why he emphasizes that the gospel of grace and faith came to Him from Jesus and by revelation and it did not come from man. Paul’s conversion was about meeting Jesus and believing in the work He did on the cross and that is the gospel that Paul was set aside for and that is the gospel He preached. And that is why he is astonished that the Galatians have been deceived to believe a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all because it is based in the work of man, rather than the work of Christ. It just goes to show how important it is for us to maintain the purity of the gospel and make it about the forgiveness that comes through the death of Christ and our faith in Him and not through works we perform. Now He did come to rescue us from this evil age, but that was first by setting us in a right relationship with God and then by His power becoming the people we were meant to be. But any righteousness that is produced is because we are saved and not in order to be saved.
”As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.“
Galatians 1:9 NKJV
The more I read my Bible, the more I recognize false gospels. It makes me sad because some that I consider brothers are really committed to what is a man-made gospel. Paul repeats twice a curse on those who preach a false gospel.
The gospel: ”Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,“
I Corinthians 15:1-4 NKJV
Paul’s personal testimony is one that certainly can get the attention of someone who is following wrong teachings. His statement that he came to the word through revelation is so true, there is a point for all of us when we realize the Word of God is alive within us. That is unlike any book or story we will ever read. It is a word that affects us, changes us, and moves us in a way nothing else can, however, it also convicts us and challenges us when we are not in alignment with what we know to be the truth of the gospel. This is when people’s desire to twist or change the word to suit their own lifestyles, goals, or desires. We must be so careful of this but we are blessed that the word of God shows us through revelation, like Paul, when this is happening if we are really open to God and His word.
I feel like Paul could write this letter to many churches today, except he would reference Romans 6:1-2 to explain the “different gospel” that has been constructed…the gospel of “Cheap Grace and Invisible Faith”.
The pendulum has swung all the way to the other side…no one is in danger of missing the gospel because of the good works they are performing…but rather, because they believe the evidence of good works, repentance, mortification of sin in the life of the believer through the power of the Holy Spirit…they believe that to suggest faith in Christ would have evidence to confirm its veracity, well, that is legalism and heresy against the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And yet, it is clear through all of Paul’s letters where he exhorts believers to live lives that not only profess faith but demonstrate that faith through the putting to death of sin in their lives, that how we live matters to God. Not because our actions or “good works” somehow justify us before God. But rather, because these good works and radically changed lives bear witness to the redemptive power of Christ in us…our lives, radically changed from who we once were into who Christ has made us…our lives are our witness, and they are God’s witness to the dying world around us.
Jesus Himself made it clear…following Him would not be cheap. In fact, it will cost a person everything…his whole self…his whole former life.
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
Luke 9:23-25
We must not lose sight of the reality that, as Bonhoeffer put it, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” We earn NOTHING in that death…but if we are to die with Christ in His crucifixion (Galatians 2:20) in order that we might be raised with Him in His resurrection (“it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me…”)…if we are to DIE with Christ, shouldn’t we experience some sort of cost to our former life? Again, not because that cost buys us anything…but rather, if we are new creations in Christ, and the old has passed away, so that the new has come…well, it would seem that our lives should look very, very different than they did before we believed.
It is my lived experience that far too many professing Christians (once including myself) have settled for a life that is far less than what Christ has called us to. We have constructed gods for ourselves that make allowance for sin in our lives, allowing us to hold onto vestiges of our former life, to not let Christ put it all to death. We have justified deliberate practices of sin in our lives, telling ourselves that “God understands…I’m not perfect, I’m a man after all…of course I still sin…it is unreasonable to expect that I could walk in obedience to Christ in all areas of my life…some of those areas are just too hard. But God understands…good thing Jesus died to cover all my sins, because THAT area of my life…well, that’s going to need a lot of persistent applications of Jesus’ blood…because I’ve tried…God knows I’ve tried…but I just can’t obey.”
Is this what being a new creation in Christ looks like? Is this the Gospel? May it never be! The Gospel is about God’s glory in the redemption of His creation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are beneficiaries in that redemption…but God does not stop at simply placing us in a right standing with Him through the blood of Jesus. Through Christ, we have been delivered from this present evil age…let us let go of it all…
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2
Let us be who God says we are in Christ. Neither trusting or taking pride in our works to somehow earn us salvation, as Paul is exhorting the Galatians to reject, NOR believing that the grace that cost God the life of His Son, that this costly grace to God is somehow cheap for us. We cannot earn or pay for God’s grace in any way…but Jesus Himself tells us that it will cost us everything we are…”for I have been crucified with Christ…”
Well said, Sean and AMEN! Good to have you back with us as well…..
Thankful to be here!
Good words, Sean.
Galatians 1
Paul’s story is a great example of someone who was so lost, that one may think he would never believe in Jesus, but he was saved! So let’s not lose hope in the ones we love who don’t know the Lord.
Galatians 1 “no other Gospel”, how quickly the Galatians had forgotten what Jesus had done for them and now listening to men who are twisting the truth of the Gospel. Paul says whose approval are you seeking are you trying to please men or God. Paul was commissioned by God to preach the Good News to the Gentiles. Only God could have changed his heart to see the truth and teach the Gentiles who Jesus truly is.