Welcome to Life Group. We invite you to join
us in this verse -by -verse study through the
Word of God. Today we are beginning a study through
the book of Galatians. In this session we will
focus on chapter 1. But before we get started,
let's discuss some of the facts surrounding this
New Testament letter. Galatians was written by
Paul around 50 A .D. and this is approximately
15 years after his conversion on the road to
Damascus. Galatians is known as the Declaration
of Christian Liberty. In it, we find that we
are free from the law, we're free to serve Christ,
and we're free to be transformed by the Holy
Spirit. Galatians is a passionate letter. It's
the outpouring of a soul of a preacher on fire
for his Lord, who is deeply committed to bringing
people to an understanding of what saving faith
actually is. So let's begin with verse 1. This
letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed
by any group of people or any human authority,
but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father.
who raised jesus from the dead here we see that
paul is starting out with an emphasis on his
apostolic credentials and this is important because
paul has strong words for the galatians and they
needed to understand that he wrote with authority
indeed apostolic authority Paul expected that
Christians would respect his authority as an
apostle of Jesus Christ. Now, Paul's calling
as an apostle didn't originate with man. It didn't
come through man. It originated with God and
came directly from God. His standing as an apostle
was not based on opinion polls, and it didn't
come from any human counsel. It was based on
a divine call from God. Verse 2. All the brothers
and sisters here join me in sending this letter
to the churches of Galatia. Now we need to understand
that Galatia was a region, not a single city.
It was not addressed to a single church gathering.
The letters addressed... specifically to all
the called -out ones across the entire region
of Galatia. Now, that word church, just a reminder,
most of you who are involved at a Galatian church
already know this, but the word church comes
from a combination of two Greek terms, and those
terms are out of and to call. So when the Bible
uses the word church, it's not talking about
an organization. It's not talking about a building.
It's talking about a gathering of called out
ones. People who've been called out of spiritual
death into everlasting life. They've been called
out of the shame and guilt of sin into the joy
and freedom of Christ's righteousness. They've
been called out of a life of darkness. into the
light of the gospel they've been called out of
selfishness and self -centeredness into a life
of surrender and purpose it's a people who's
been called out of this world and called into
the kingdom of God they've been called out of
being in sin into being in Christ Let's pick
up with verse 3. May God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. Now, here
we see Paul using this term that he often uses,
grace and peace together as a greeting for the
book of Galatians. Now, the traditional greeting
for the Greek culture, when they would meet each
other, they would say grace. They would use that
word. And that meant favor to you, kindness to
you, blessing to you. The traditional greeting
in the Jewish culture was peace. And that meant
being at one, having peace, a quietness, a rest.
And it implied prosperity. Now, in the context
of Christianity, grace carries more meaning.
You might be familiar with grace being unmerited
favor, but we could take it to a next level saying
that grace is God's acts of kindness and favor
towards us that are undeserved and unmerited.
It's the grace of God. Everything that he has
done for us, every promise that he has made to
us is grace based. It's not based on our ability
to perform or something that we deserve, right?
It's God's grace. Let's pick up with verse 4.
Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God
our Father planned in order to rescue us from
this evil world in which we live. That's what
I call grace in action, right? And right at the
start of this book, Paul is setting the foundation
for the letter, the entire letter. Forgiveness
and righteousness. Both of those things come
from Jesus' finished work on the cross. Being
rescued from this evil world is not referring
to the future heaven. It's talking about being
rescued from any power this evil world once had
over us now. That's what it's talking about.
And then in verse 5, he goes on to say, All glory
to God forever and ever. We looked at grace and
peace and deliverance. And all three of those
are grace gifts. from god for our benefit and
they're also a reason for for us to glorify god
as paul says all glory to god forever and ever
amen now let's go to verse 6. it begins with
paul saying i am shocked i am shocked now the
actual greek words here don't actually translate
i am shocked it it translates like this that
i admire i admire i marvel i wow but in a bad
way not in a good way so basically paul is starting
out by saying wow in a in a bad way i am shocked
because of what's going on and in every other
letter Paul expresses his thankfulness immediately
after his introductory greetings. But not this
time, not in Galatians. Let's pick up in verse
6. I am shocked that you are turning away so
soon from God who called you to himself through
the loving mercy. And that phrase, loving mercy,
actually is the same word that was translated
grace earlier. Who called you to himself through
the grace of Christ, the loving mercy of Christ.
You are following a different way that pretends
to be the good news. Wow. Paul is saying he's
shocked. The Galatians, the people of Galatia
in the churches across Galatia, it seems like
they're turning away from a person. They're turning
away from God and from the gospel that he had
presented to them. They're turning away to false
ideas. They're turning to a false gospel. They
were turning away from grace. Verse 7. But it's
not the good news at all, he says. Because turning
away from grace to legalism or to law is not
good news. It's never been good news, and it's
not good news at all to look at your ability
to perform instead of God's acts of kindness
and favor towards you that you receive by faith.
Continue in verse 7. But it is not the good news
at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately
twist the truth concerning Christ. Here he uses
that phrase that they twist the truth. And we
need to realize something. Twisted truth is a
scheme of Satan. And it's always been the scheme
of Satan. Even backing up to... His first words
in Genesis chapter three, verse one, it says
the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild
animals the Lord God had made. And one day he
asked the woman, did God really say you must
not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the
garden? And right out of the gate, he's trying
to cause people to question what God. said by
twisting the truth and that's that's a scheme
of satan and for us we need to recognize that
we need to know that second corinthians 2 11
tells us that satan will not outsmart us for
we are familiar with his evil schemes when we
know that his scheme is to twist the truth then
we cannot be outsmarted Let's go to verse 8.
Let God's curse fall on anyone, including us
or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a
different kind of good news than the one we preached
to you. I say again what we have said before.
If anyone preaches any other good news than the
one you welcomed, Let that person be cursed.
Here, Paul is talking about how important the
gospel is, the good news is, and how it should
be protected. And he's even saying to the point
that, you know what, the curse of God, the curse
of the law come upon anyone who twists the gospel.
As an expression of God's love that can be received
by faith. And that reminded me of Deuteronomy
27 and 28. Where the blessings of the law, the
people of God split between two mountains. Mount
Gerizim. And on Mount Gerizim, the blessings
of God were read. And on Mount Ebel. the curse
of the law was read. So on one mountain, they're
proclaiming the blessing. On the other, they're
proclaiming the curse. And the curse of the law
in Deuteronomy 30, 19, this is what it comes
to ultimately, where it said, Today I have given
you the choice between life and death, between
blessings and curses, Now I call on heaven and
earth to witness the choice you make. And then
it goes on to say, oh, that you would choose
life. That you would choose life. And Paul is
comparing this, this Old Testament blessing and
cursing to the choice that has to be made under
the new covenant. according to the gospel. And
the choice that the Galatians are facing is the
choice between grace and law. And he's letting
them know that grace will bring freedom and will
bring life. But the law, if they choose law over
grace, the law will bring the curse of the law,
which is ultimately death. Picking up in verse
10. Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval
of people, but of God. If pleasing people were
my goal, I would not be Christ's servant. It's
clear here that Paul is not shaping his message
to please an audience. He's not trying to people
please, we could say. We know in 2 Timothy 4,
3, for a time is coming when people will no longer
listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They
will follow their own desire and will look for
teachers who will tell them whatever their itching
ears want to hear. But Paul is not doing this.
Verse 11, Dear brothers and sisters, I want you
to understand that the gospel message I preach
is not based on mere human reasoning. Here we
see that the true gospel often contradicts and
offends our human reasoning. It can offend our
pride because we cannot save ourselves. It can
offend our wisdom in the sense that it's foolishness
that God would become a man and die for our sins.
And it can also offend our knowledge in the sense
that our knowledge of how the natural world works
and that someone could die and then rise again
in three days. But there is a vast amount of
things we can learn, but God's revelation contains...
all that we need pertaining to life and godliness,
as it says in 2 Peter 1 .3. And believers need
to place less emphasis on the good advice and
the wisdom of man, and we need to place our value.
What needs to be most valuable to us needs to
be revelation from God, from the Holy Spirit
in us. Let's continue reading in verse 12. I
received my message from no human source and
no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct
revelation from Jesus Christ. So here we see
Paul is further trying to communicate the origin
of this message. He's, you know, Paul's own relationship
to the gospel he's saying is unique because most
everyone who hears the gospel hear it from someone
else. But here he's saying that he received the
gospel in a dramatic, direct revelation. And
we know that this happened when he encountered
Jesus on the road to Damascus. And that's what
he's referring to here, is that conversion experience.
Verse 13. You know what I was like when I followed
the Jewish religion, how I violently persecuted
God's church, and I did my best to destroy it.
This shows that Paul was not looking for some
other truth when he was first confronted with
the gospel of Jesus. Verse 14, We know that Paul
was a Pharisee of Pharisees, you could say. He
was the best student of the most respected teacher,
and he was very passionate in everything that
he did. And he genuinely had a heart for God,
but he was operating under bad doctrine, under
a bad belief. Verse 15, But even before I was
born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous
grace. Now, I want us to read this passage again
out of the New King James Version. It follows
more directly with, the direct Greek translation
or, you know, the original language that Paul
was writing this letter was Greek. And it kind
of lays out better verse English translation.
It says this, but it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by his
grace. That word separated there could be divided.
He's saying he was divided from, and it pleased
God to divide him from what he was born into,
meaning the traditions of his ancestors, as it
says in verse 14. What does that mean? It means
that he was divided from a law -based Jewish
heritage, and that's what he was called out of.
Like we've talked about, the church is a called
out. people. And here we see Paul is saying that,
hey, I have been called out of this. I've been
called out of my law -based belief system now
into God's grace. He's been called out to live
a life with the passion and love of Christ. So
let's continue reading in 15. Then it pleased
him to reveal his son to me so that I would proclaim
the good news about Jesus to the Gentiles. Now
this is interesting because Paul most likely
grew up hating the Gentiles, like most of his
other Pharisees in his day. Verse 16, When this
happened, I did not rush out to consult with
any human being, nor did I go to Jerusalem to
consult with those who were apostles before I
was. Instead, I went into Arabia, and later I
returned to the city of Damascus. We know that
this is not talking about Saudi Arabia, but most
likely a quiet region outside of Damascus. And
Paul showed that there was enough contact between
him and the other apostles to show that they
were in agreement, we could say. But he wanted
to say that Paul got his message from God. He
didn't get his message from them. He wasn't just
repeating what they said. He wanted to... to
clarify that Paul got his message from God, not
just man. And he continues to labor to do this
throughout Galatians. Verse 18, Then three years
later I went to Jerusalem to get to know Peter,
and I stayed with him for fifteen days. The only
other apostle I met at that time was James, the
Lord's brother. I declare before God that what
I am writing to you is not a lie. Paul's message,
the gospel, was true, and his experience was
valid because it really came from God. And that's
what he's trying to communicate here. Verse 21,
After that visit, I went north into the provinces
of Syria and Cilicia. And still the Christians
in the churches in Judea didn't know me personally.
All they knew was that people were saying, The
one who used to persecute us is now preaching
the very faith he tried to destroy. It's important
to realize that Paul's testimony had preceded
him. And how important is that for us? When God
has changed us, when God has done something for
us, that should be a testimony of God's goodness
and his greatness in our lives. And that should
precede us in our world because changed lives
are recognized by others. So what is our testimony?
What is preceding us? Is it a testimony of God's
greatness or something else, right? We need to
realize and recognize that. Verse 24, and they
praise God because of me. So transformation should
always lead to praising God, not praising the
one who has been transformed. Thank you for joining
us for Life Group. Allow God's Word to build
your faith and transform your life.