Galatians 1:1-10 "What Is the Gospel?" What is the gospel? Gospel, after all, means "good news". What is the good news? A second question: What is the book of Galatians about? Some think that it is about justification by faith. Others say that it is about Jew/Gentile relations. They are both right, in one sense, but neither one hits the nail on the head, because Paul's epistle to the Galatians is about the gospel. Which brings us back to the question: what is the gospel? In 1 Corinthians Paul is dealing with a wide array of problems. In Romans Paul covers many themes. Galatians may be the most focused of all his epistles. Because in the Galatian churches there was one and only one problem. At least, only one problem worth talking about. And this problem was so huge that Paul sets aside his normal pattern of epistle-writing, and spends the whole time on this one issue. And that issue is the gospel. Look at 1 Cor 1 Paul, an apostle (v1) to the church in corinth (v2) grace to you and peace (v3) I give thanks (v4) Or Romans 1 Paul, a servant/apostle (v1-6) to those in Rome... Grace and peace (v7) First, I thank my God (v8) Or Philippians 1 Paul and Timothy, servants (v1) to the saints in Philippi (v1) grace and peace (v2) I thank my God (v3) Or Colossians 1 Paul, an apostle (v1) to the saints in Colosse (v2) grace and peace (v2) We always thank God... (v3) We could keep going. In every other epistle written to a church, Paul starts with either, "I thank God" or "blessed be God" But here in Galatians, we have Paul, an apostle (v1) to the churches of Galatia (v2) grace to you and peace (v3) "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you" (v6) Even in the second half of Paul's epistle, where he is dealing with "conduct," he is still focused on this one problem because if you get the gospel wrong, it will affect not only your belief, but also your practice. The gospel is not only about doctrine, but about ethics how you think and how you live. It is often useful to look at the beginning and the end of a book in order to get the basic point. We have already read the introduction now turn to Gal. 6:11-18 for the conclusion: (Read) Notice the main themes: the centrality of the cross of Christ vs. the irrelevance of circumcision the Israel of God vs. those who "want to make a good showing in the flesh" And there is a "walk" a way of life that corresponds to the new creation. 1. Paul, an apostle not from men (1:1-2) Even in his salutation, Paul anticipates the argument of his epistle. Paul, an apostle not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead Paul's opponents seem to have denigrated Paul's apostleship. They said that the Jerusalem apostles were better! Paul was just a Johnny-come-lately. Paul only told you half the truth. He told you about Jesus and that was good but he neglected to tell you that you need to be circumcised! Paul told you that Jesus is the one who fulfilled all that Israel was looking for and that is true but that means that if you would be part of the Israel of God, then you need to be circumcised just like Moses said. After all, circumcision is the sign of the covenant and if you would be true children of Abraham, then you need to receive circumcision just like Abraham did. Paul is a good guy, but truth be told, Paul is too concerned about pleasing his hearers; he was working so hard to make the gospel sound attractive, that he left a few things out. Paul watered down the gospel. We will teach you what the real apostles learned from Jesus. And we can forgive Paul, after all, he didn't know Jesus personally. He isn't really an apostle his teaching should be taken with a grain of salt. And to this Paul responds: Paul, an apostle not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead An apostle is one who represents another, and in the NT it means "one with personal, delegated authority from God to proclaim accurately the Christian gospel." Paul is not the emissary of the Jerusalem apostles. He is an emissary called and commissioned by Jesus Christ himself. And he writes "to the churches in Galatia"-- these are probably the churches that Paul and Barnabas had preached to in their first missionary journey in Acts 13-14, these were the first churches filled with both Jews and Gentiles. There had been a few Gentile converts in Caesarea and Antioch, but the churches of Galatia appear to have had many Gentile converts (Acts 13:48) 2. Greetings (1:3-5) The next part of the standard letter is the greeting. In the Greek speaking world, the standard greeting was "grace to you." In the Jewish world it was "shalom" peace to you. Paul blends them together, grace to you and peace. But then he does something different from the standard greetings of his day. He says "grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." There are two things here that are significant: First, Paul takes the ordinary greetings of the Jews and the Gentiles, and grounds them both in "God our Father." "Father" was not the most common name for God in Judaism. It was one of many God Most High, LORD of Hosts, God Almighty. But for Paul, as for all the apostles, "our Father" takes center stage. God had revealed himself as father to Israel "Israel is my son, my firstborn" (Ex 4) He had declared himself the father of David's son (2 Sam 7). But it is most emphatically in Jesus Christ that God fully reveals what it means that he is Father. And this will be important for Paul later on in Galatians 3-4. And this is related to the second significant thing in verse 3, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ... This is downright astonishing. Think back through the Old Testament. Think of all the Psalms we've been singing. They frequently refer to God's mercy. They speak of how God has redeemed and delivered. They emphasize how God is our rock, our fortress, our hope. In other words they speak of how grace and peace come to us from God. And who else? No one. It would be unthinkable for a Jew to say that grace and peace comes to Israel from God Most High and from King David. Have you ever found a passage where the OT says "Salvation belongs to the LORD of Hosts and Moses"? And yet this devout Jew, this Pharisee of Pharisees says, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We often think of "Lord Jesus Christ" as a proper name but only "Jesus" is his name. "Lord" and "Christ" are titles. Lord (kurios) is a general title that can be used of anyone in authority, but in the Christian confession, "Jesus is Lord," it takes on a twofold sense: 1) when you say "Jesus is Lord" you are saying that he is the King he is the highest authority King of kings and Lord of lords. 2) but "Lord" is also used as the translation of the word "Yahweh" in the LXX so when you say "Jesus is Lord" you are also saying that Jesus is Yahweh. Likewise "Christ" is not a name, but a title: "Messiah" or "anointed one." As Peter said in Acts 2:36, "God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." So when Paul says grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah he is saying that this man, who had lived and died just a few years before, is worthy of being named in the same breath with God the Father. The Jews expected the Messiah to be great and glorious. But in all of Jewish literature, the Messiah is never named in the same breath with God. Something dramatic had happened to Paul, that made him willing to say that the blessing of God Almighty were equally the blessings of the Messiah. We'll look more at that next week. But then in verse 4 Paul tells us what this Jesus has done: who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Normally in his greetings, Paul simply says, "grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," but here in Galatians Paul needs to say more. Paul is front-end loading. He is setting the stage for the rebuke that is coming! Jesus gave himself for our sins. The Judaizers would have agreed with this. But why did Jesus give himself for our sins? To deliver us from the present evil age. The Jews frequently spoke in terms of two ages: this age and the age to come. And as they studied the OT, some said that when the Messiah came, he would bring "this age" to its end, and he would inaugurate the age to come the age in which Israel would be exalted and glorified. But the story was about Israel not the Messiah. The Messiah was simply the catalyst. Paul says, no, the Messiah is not simply the catalyst. Messiah is the story. By giving himself for our sins by becoming Israel and taking upon himself our sins he has delivered us from the present evil age. And all of this happened according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen! 3. I Am Astonished! (1:6-9) And then, skipping his traditional "thanksgiving" section, Paul immediately launches into his rebuke. In ancient Greek literature there are several types of letters. One common type is the "rebuke/response" letter, in which the writer rebukes his reader, and demands a response. Galatians fits this model to a tee. One of the most common words used in the opening of these rebuke letters, is the word "astonished"! And sure enough, we see that word in verse 6! Galatians 1:6-4:11 sets forth the rebuke, along with Paul's argument. There is a lot of legal or forensic rhetoric in this section. Paul is making an argument that sets forth his case for why the Galatians need to repent. Then, in 4:12 we see the transition to the call for a response. "Brothers, I entreat you" The tone changes the legal argument gives way to exhortation. 4:12-6:18 calls for a response But as we will see, while the tone changes, Paul is still driving at the same point: the gospel of Jesus Christ is at stake both in what you believe and in how you live. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ (6-7) What is the gospel? Paul has already told us. I told you that Paul was front-end loading. He has already told us what the gospel is in verse 4. The gospel is that Jesus gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. In its most basic form, that is the gospel. Gospel, after all, means "good news." And the good news is that the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins. The good news is that we have been delivered from this present evil age. The good news is that God has finally fulfilled his promises to Abraham. The gospel, therefore, is what Jesus has done. And Paul is astonished that the Galatians are turning away from the gospel. The Galatians are turning away from what Jesus has done. You are deserting him who called you. You are deserting God himself! Perhaps he shouldn't have been astonished. After God brought Israel through the Red Sea, what was the first thing they did? They started grumbling about food and water! Remember Israel at Mt Sinai? No sooner does God give them his covenant, but they turn aside and worship the golden calves! So perhaps it isn't that surprising that no sooner than the gospel comes to the Gentiles, but already people are forsaking the gospel for something else! Now, the Judaizers would have responded but Paul, we're not forsaking the gospel! We agree that Jesus gave himself for our sins! We agree that he has delivered us from the present evil age! We're just following God's word! God said to Abraham that all the nations would be blessed through him, and we agree that Jesus has brought the blessings of Abraham to the Gentiles, so therefore the Gentiles, like Abraham, need to be circumcised, and need to follow the law of Moses! Paul says that this is "a different gospel"-- or, rather, no gospel at all. This is not good news. For more than a thousand years Israel was under the law. Where did it get them? Exile. For nearly two thousand years circumcision was the sign of the covenant. What was the result? Israel itself was cut off. All that God promised to Abraham, all that God revealed to Moses, all that God had spoken through the prophets, has come to pass in Jesus. The Judaizers said, the good news is that God has fulfilled his promises in Jesus! The promises to Abraham have come to pass! Now Israel will become all that God has promised through the prophets! And Paul says, NO! That is not a gospel. That is not good news! Listen again, the Judaizers said, "now Israel will become all that God had promised through the prophets." Paul says, you don't understand. Jesus is not just the one who helps Israel become what God promised. The gospel is not Jesus helps you become all you can be! That would be a gospel about you. And the gospel is not about you! The gospel is about Jesus. It is "the gospel of Christ" the good news of the Messiah. The gospel is that Jesus has become all that God promised through the prophets. All that the prophets said about Israel has happened to Jesus. The prophets had said that Israel would come through suffering to glory. The exile would end when Israel was exalted over the nations! And so, when Saul of Tarsus came face to face with Jesus of Nazareth on the Damascus Road, his eyes were opened, and he saw instantly that all God had promised to Israel had happened to Jesus. Jesus had been brought through suffering to glory. Jesus had been exalted over the nations. In other words, Jesus IS Israel. Jesus IS the Seed of Abraham. THAT is the gospel THAT is the good news. And so when the Judaizers told the Gentile believers in Galatia, "Paul neglected to tell you that you need to be circumcised!" Paul does not see this as one of those things where we can "agree to disagree." No he says But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. This word "accursed" or "anathema" is the word used in the LXX to translate the word "devote to destruction" (the Hebrew word "herem") This is the word used to refer to the complete and total destruction of the Canaanites. It means delivering up to the wrath of God. The "good news" cannot be compromised! Any message that challenges the finished work of Jesus Christ any message that says that Jesus is only part of the story is another gospel: that's bad news! Because Jesus is the whole story! 4. Pleasing Man? or God? (1:10) And so Paul asks, am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Word seems to have reached Paul that the Judaizers were saying that Paul had only told half the story, because he was trying to please them. He was trying to make the gospel more attractive, so he left out the part about Moses.... Paul's response is to say, okay, if I'm trying to please men then why would I declare these men anathema? If I'm just about trying to get the most people into the church, why would I risk a split by saying that these preachers are preaching a false gospel? So how do you know when a person is preaching a false gospel? You know it when they start adding things to Christ. If Jesus is just "part one" of their gospel, then it is not the gospel of Christ. Paul's gospel is Jesus. Its not about circumcision or uncircumcision it is that in Jesus the new age, the new creation has come.