Galatians 1:1-10
Salvation by
grace! Justification by faith! Sanctification by faith!
The
Readers: The churches in
Author: The Apostle Paul
Date: Sometime in 49 AD, either before the Council
of Jerusalem (Acts 15) or shortly thereafter.
It is one of Paul’s earliest epistles.
The
Occasion: The teaching of the Judaizers
1. They
opposed Paul and were teaching another gospel diametrically opposed to the
gospel Paul preached.
2. They rejected Paul’s apostolic authority.
3. They taught law-works instead of
grace-provision for Christian maturity.
The
Judaizers – Unsaved Jews who sought to maintain a corrupt form of Judaism and
to impose some perverted legal forms of that religion upon the early churches.
They
Taught:
1. Salvation by belief in Christ plus good works
2. Maintenance of salvation by good works
3. Acceptance with God by identification with
4. Token assent to the messiahship of Jesus
Key
Subjects: The Gospel, Paul’s Apostleship,
Salvation by faith alone, The Law, Legalism, Christian Liberty,
Key Theme – Habakkuk 2:4,
Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith.
Romans – The righteous (
Galatians 1:1-10
Verses 1-2: Divine origin of Paul’s apostleship
-An apostle – Paul claimed equality with
The Twelve
-Not by men – No group of men
-Not by man – Humanity was not
the source
-Through Jesus Christ and God
the Father
-To the churches of
Verses
3-5: Divine involvement in the gospel
-Grace – Grace is always unearned and
unmerited. God’s Riches At
Christ’s Expense
-Peace – The effect of the knowledge of what
God has done and is doing.
Verses
3-5: Divine involvement in the gospel
-The Person of Christ: the subject of the gospel
-The Lord = the name of His
lordship, equivalent of the Old Testament Jehovah
-Jesus = the name of His
humanity which means “Jehovah Saves”
-Christ = the name of His
messianic deity which means “The Anointed One”.
-The Work of Christ: the crux of the gospel
-Christ gave Himself – By His
volition, love, grace, mercy, justice, righteousness and all His divine
attributes He willingly gave Himself for us.
-For our sins – Christ is our
substitute, his death satisfied (propitiated) God’s wrath.
-The Purpose of Christ: deliverance
-That He might deliver us – literally “to rescue”
-From this present evil age –
now from the effects of and involvement in this evil age; in the future, He
will literally deliver us from this world.
-The Motivation of Christ: the will of the Father
-All aspects of the gospel and
our deliverance through the gospel are in accord with the will of God who has
become our Father through the new birth.
Verses
6-7: Astonishment
-Quickly
deserting
-Him who called you by the grace
of Christ
-For a different gospel - They
were being led astray by a similar-sounding gospel, which was in truth a perversion. Paul’s anger is valid: the truth of the
gospel was at stake!
Verses
8-9: Seriousness of a different gospel
POINT:
The gospel that Paul preached was complete, final, absolute, and hence
not to be tampered with!
Verse
10: Paul’s responsibility
-Whose
favor am I seeking, men or God?
-Who am I trying to please, men
or God?
To
seek the favor of men by distorting the gospel is to lose one’s status as a
bond-servant of Jesus Christ.
Either justification is -
by grace alone
through
faith alone
in
Christ alone
- or it is by works, our
efforts. There is no middle ground!
Once the smallest amount of
work is introduced grace is no longer grace!