The Gospel According to Galatians
Rev.
Gospel 101
As we begin today’s
study, let us summarize the Apostle Paul’s gospel and the “other
gospel” of the Judaizers:
Simple Gospel of the
Apostle Paul: (1) “Believe
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, (2) at that moment you are saved-delivered-rescued
from sin and God’s wrath; (3) now you live obediently according to
God’s Law because the Spirit has written it in your hearts” (Eph.
2:8-10: Because of God’s mercy, we are saved by grace, created in Christ
Jesus to do good works which God prepared beforehand for us to walk in).
Paul writes in Ephesians 2:4-10:
ESV Ephesians 2:4-10: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he
loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ- by grace you have been saved- 6 and raised us
up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7
so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his
grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace
you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the
gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Christ plus nothing equals salvation-deliverance and
the fruitful obedience of faith because of our life-giving union with Jesus..
The Judaizers’
“Other Gospel”: (1)
“Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and (2) keep the Law of God the best
you can; and then (3) you are saved.” (Contrast from Machen, ‘Notes
on Galatians’, pg. 49).
Christ plus cooperation with God equals
salvation-deliverance…
In today’s study we
want to consider further the Apostle Paul’s gospel that was being
exchanged for “another gospel which is no gospel at all?” Our
‘Word of Encouragement’ will focus on unpacking the sweet and
amazing gospel of Jesus Christ, and how Paul summarizes it in Galatians 1:1-5,
and how he responds when the Churches of Galatia begin to turn from the true
gospel to a false one!
ESV Galatians 1:1-10: Paul, an apostle- not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ
and God the Father, who raised him from the dead- 2 and all the
brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: 3 Grace to you
and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave
himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the
will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever.
Amen. 6 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- 7
not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and
want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 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. 9 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. 10 For 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.
In Galatians 1:6, Paul says
that the Galatian churches have “amazed,” “astounded,”
or “caused him to marvel” at just how quickly they had turned away
from the true gospel of grace that he had preached to them and how quickly they
have exchanged it for a false gospel!
We are all guilty of
“quickly” turning away from the true gospel. Sin has tainted
us in our hearts, minds, and wills in such a way that we want to work our way
up to God, rather than having him send us (from God to man) a Savior to deliver
us from our sins, and to rescue us from our awful plight. Here is a
summary of Paul’s gospel from Galatians 1:3-4:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present
evil age, according to the will of our God and Father…
The Apostle Paul summarizes
his gospel at the beginning of his letter by saying that Jesus “gave
himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.” Paul
is saying that according to the eternal will of God, God sent his son to
deliver us, or rescue us from a world of sin and misery by giving Jesus
“for our sins”. Jesus was offered “for our sins”
as a substitute for those whom he loved so that we could live as sons and heirs
of God in Christ Jesus (Gal. 4:1-6). The hope of every Christian should
be that Jesus gave himself willingly, because of his great love for us, “for
our sins.” As the Apostle Paul says it differently in Romans 5:8:
“…God shows his love for us in that while
we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
The Sin Problem, or
Rather “Our Sin Problem”
In order to consider
properly the Gospel of Christ preached and proclaimed by Paul, we must first
understand the sin problem of mankind. If we do not have a healthy and
biblical understanding of sin, then we will never understand the true Biblical
gospel of grace in Christ Jesus. In fact, if we have a low view of sin,
we will necessarily have a low view of grace (“cheap grace” as Dietrich
Bonhoeffer called it!). To put it another way,
if we have yet to consider our great problem we are in due to sin, we will not
be amazed at the mercy and grace of God revealed in the solution which is our
rescue and deliverance in Jesus!
If we do not understand the depths of our sin as well
as the comprehensiveness of sins effect on mankind, we will not understand
truly why we need God’s grace at all!
So what is our sin
problem? The Bible says that sin is exhaustive and comprehensive in all
human beings. Sin has tainted all of our faculties as image-bearing
creatures in our hearts, minds, and will. In other words, sin has tainted
what we love as well as how we love, the way we think, the way we
decide to do what we do, and even the way we understand sin as sin!
When the great film director Woody Allen was caught in a heinous sin with a
member of his own family, the press asked him why he did it. He answered:
“The heart wants what the heart wants.” That’s pretty
good theology for a director, and that is getting at our problem better than
some Christians do today! The heart has been affected by sin and it
desires whatever it selfishly desires regardless of what God thinks about it,
or how much damage it might bring to others in this world.
We must understand that sin
deceives us into thinking that we are better than we truly are in God’s
sight. Sin tells us that we are more important than others (including
God), and grows into a deep and self-centered, godless, selfishness that manifests
itself in more gross and heinous sins as it complicates and reproduces itself
within us. As Paul says in Romans 1:29-32:
“[Those who exchange
the truth of God for a lie] were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil,
covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit,
maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God,
insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31
foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's
decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do
them but give approval to those who practice them.
Sin is not only exhaustive
and comprehensive, but it is against God’s will revealed in the
Law. Sin is illegal, or truly ‘against the law’ in
God’s world and worthy only of God’s holy and righteous punishment
and wrath. As Paul says in Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is
death.” The Law is good, and holy and righteous (Romans 7:7ff), but
all sinful human beings are condemned by it because we cannot truly live
perfectly by the Law.
We all deserve the eternal death for our sins, and
the recognition of this causes the whole world to be silenced before
God’s throne (Rom. 3:20).
Because of the real problem
of sin that is exhaustive and comprehensive in us, and the fact that it is
illegal in God’s world, there are only two ways to be saved from our
awful predicament and plight: (1) We can keep the Law perfectly (and we cannot
do this, even though many on the broad road that leads to destruction are
giving it their best!), or (2) Trust in Christ who was our Law-Keeper on our
behalf and who took the curse of the Law upon himself (the narrow way that
leads to life)! This is why the gospel is truly “good news”
for undeserving sinners! Although the Law of God (revealed summarily in
the Ten Commandments) is good, holy and righteous, nonetheless it is “bad
news” for sinners who cannot keep it! For a sinner then, Law is bad
news (especially since we are to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect,
Matt. 5:48), and the gospel of Jesus is “good news”.
When we attempt to trust in
Christ and then add something to his work for us, we are becoming in
essence like the Judaizers. The Apostle Paul knows the Law is holy, righteous
and good (Romans 7:7-12), yet he says he died to it as a way of earning
salvation. In fact, he died to the law just so he could live to God, that
is be alive to God’s righteousness, and not his own dead works.
ESV Galatians 2:19 For through the law I died to the law,
so that I might live to God
“I Am A Good
Person!”
Now some may be thinking
more highly of themselves than they ought. Perhaps you are thinking:
“Well, I am not that bad, and I try really hard to keep the 10
commandments, to love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, and my
neighbor as myself. I am not like others who are murderers and
rapists. I am a pretty good person and I have tried my darnedest to live
a good life.” Perhaps sin has deceived you in such a way that you
don’t even think of yourself as a sinner. But may I remind you that
God demands perfection to his holy law?!
Now before you run off and
try to be perfect, I must remind you that even if you were to live it
externally and outwardly perfect from this day forth, what are you going to do
about the actual guilt and sin problem within you (even if you can fool us all
outwardly with your behavior, you cannot fool God because all hearts, thoughts,
and motivations are clearly seen by Him to whom we must one day give an
account. Listen to this:
ESV Hebrews 4:12-13: For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow,
and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And
no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes
of him to whom we must give account.
“Naked and
exposed” before God’s eyes, not only our outward behavior, but the
“thoughts and intentions” of our hearts! We must understand
that when the Law says to us “Do not commit adultery” for example,
even if we do not commit adultery formally in our bodies, if we think lustfully
about a person in our hearts, then we are guilty of adultery (cf. Matthew 5:21ff).
If we do not in our behavior really steal from another, but desire to have what
belongs to our neighbor we have sin against “You shall not
steal.” If we hate our neighbor (those who are around us as human
beings), or if we are unwilling to show mercy, love and grace to them
perfectly, we have already broken the commandment not to murder!
It is interesting to note
that apparently the Apostle Paul before he was a Christian was able to make the
first nine commandments “doable” and his sin convinced him that he
was a righteous, no “blameless” person before the Law (Phil.
3:5-7). Saul the Pharisee could “fence the law” well enough
to do his best and hope for the best from God on the last day, but there was
that tenth commandment that caused him to die (as one who was trying to live
before God through the Law). In other words, Paul could keep externally
and outwardly (or so he thought) the first nine commandments, but the tenth was
a doozie! He recalls in Romans 7:
“What then shall we
say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the
law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if
the law had not said, "You shall not covet." 8 But sin,
seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.
Apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the
law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10
The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11
For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and
through it killed me.”- Romans 7:7-11
Saul the Pharisee thought
more highly of himself that he should have in his law-keeping efforts, but it
was the commandment “You shall not covet” that made him realize
that he was truly sinful and guilty before God! Coveting is what we all
do in desiring something or someone that someone else has! If you are
guilty of breaking one commandment, you’re guilty of breaking the whole
law (James 2:10). It is interesting to ponder what Paul was
coveting. Perhaps he saw another Pharisee more “righteous”
than himself, and so he “coveted” the other Pharisee’s
righteousness? Hmmmm.
Think of how highly we think
of ourselves oftentimes. If we accomplish merely outward obedience, we are
quick to say with the Pharisee in Luke 16: “I thank you God I am not like
other sinners…” “I’ve lived a good life, trying
my best to do God’s will, and I have never murdered anyone!”
All kinds of ways we try to gain a right standing before God based on our own
so-called law-keeping (even though our best law keeping is law breaking before
God’s holy judgment throne!).
The good news paradoxically perhaps is that the more
we realize our sins before God, not merely our behavior, but our sinful
thoughts, words, as well as deeds, we begin to be humbled before God in such a
way that we realize that our only hope is his mercy and grace. In other
words, the more we know how much we are condemned before God, the more we
realize the grace of God in Christ- - and appreciate the great deliverance and
rescue of our Savior.
No one necessarily likes to
hear about sin. No one necessarily likes to be reminded of how sinful
they are, but we all need to be reminded in order to flee from any effort on
our part to please God with our works to Christ alone, his mercy and grace
alone, which is our only hope. Listen to the wise words of Martin Luther
on the importance of the law to reveal our sins- -as well as to hold out Christ
to us for our right standing before God!
“It
is an absolute and unique teaching in all the world, to teach people, through
Christ, to live as if there were no law or wrath or punishment. In a sense,
they do not exist any longer for the Christian, but only total grace and mercy
for Christ's sake. Once you are in Christ, the law is the greatest guide
for your life, but until you have Christian righteousness, all the law can do
is to show you how sinful and condemned you are. In fact, to those outside of
Christian righteousness, the law needs to be expounded in all its force. Why?
So that people who think they have power to be righteous before God will be
humbled by the law and understand they are sinners.”- Martin
Luther, Commentary on Galatians.
You see, sin has made all
false religions (and some religions that claim to be ‘Christian’)
to seek right standing before God in our own works and righteousness- -but this
is a failure truly to understand the depths of our sin.
All religions apart from the
true gospel revealed in the Christian faith are “works-righteousness”
religions, or man’s attempt to please God apart from Christ. Think
about all of the other religions, including Islam or Judaism, the goal is to
appease God, or please God with our own self-righteousness, and not receive any
righteousness that he has revealed to us. In fact, all of the
world’s religions, including the most heathen, pagan religions is an
attempt to exchange the righteousness of God with that revealed in the Gospel
as Romans 1:18-25 teaches us:
ESV Romans 1:16-25: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for
salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as
it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." 18 For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown
it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal
power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation
of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks
to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were
darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and
exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and
birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the
lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among
themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God
for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is
blessed forever! Amen.
“They exchanged
the truth about God for a lie…” This is a summary of sin’s deceptiveness on
the entire human race. Sin causes us to try to reach up and get to God
through our own feeble and puny efforts – only to wind up damned and
condemned before God! In contrast, the true gospel is a rescue operation
for undeserving, non-seeking sinners who cannot love God from the heart as God
commands, who cannot think God’s thoughts after him as God’s
commands and do the right thing, and those who cannot will or decide to follow
God, or love God, or be obedient to God apart from the regenerating life and
power of the Holy Spirit!
We really don’t care
about grace, because we want so badly to earn it and to work for our salvation,
which is in reality truly falling short of the glory of God and sinning against
his Christ, failing to understand truly our sin problem and ultimately
nullifying the grace of God in Christ, so that Christ did not have to truly die
if we can muster up enough strength and goodness to satisfy God…but the
truth is- -we cannot! As Galatians 2:20-21 teaches us:
“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. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God,
for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no
purpose.”
The Apostle Paul writes to
the Galatian churches and us today saying it is only in Christ’s rescue
operation for sinners that we can ever hope to be saved! Salvation is
found in Christ alone: his righteousness, his law-keeping, his Person and his
Work in its entirety, and that is why it is “good news”!
Sin is deep and a real
problem that we can only be “rescued” or “delivered
from” which is exactly Paul’s gospel in a nutshell. Paul says
in Galatians 1:3-5 that Christ has been delivered up for our sins. This
means that Christ has taken the curse of the Law upon himself (Col. 2:11-16) in
order that we might truly be righteous. Christ has become sin for us (2
Cor. 5:21) so that we might receive his righteousness alone and be reckoned or
made righteous in God’s sight. Listen to the good news as Paul says
it in 2 Corinthians 5:21:
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no
sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
When we try to add our good
works, or our obedience, or our churchly works, or our faith, or anything else
to the simple, amazing, gracious, and glorious gospel of Christ, we have added
something else, and we end up nullifying the grace of God. Yet when we
truly understand how deep sin goes in our hearts, minds and wills, we are
reminded that our only hope for being delivered is through the Lord Jesus
Christ!
God sent Jesus to save us, deliver us, rescue us his
people, even though we resist and often do not want God’s help!
“Smile!”
I had a wise, godly, and
wonderful professor at seminary, Dr. D. Clair Davis, who would remind the
students of two important truths that accentuate the grace of God in
Christ. He would say (this is the gist what he said, I cannot recall the
exact words and I believe he had learned this from his teacher, but I cannot
recall…):
“Smile, you’re a bigger sinner than you
think…
…but Christ is a greater Savior than you can
imagine!”
What did Dr. Davis mean by
this statement? This profound and wise statement that he made was in response
to those who would often come to him for counseling merely counting the outward
sins and transgressions against God. For instance, a student who wanted
to grow in godliness might say to Dr. Davis: “I used foul language last
evening and became angry and abrupt with my wife and children, and I just feel
like such a sinner because of it; I truly want to be like Jesus.”
Now the student’s
intent was to be obedient to Jesus, but he was seeing only the outward behavior
(that was wrong), and not considering the root of the sinful behavior in his
own heart. Christians are in danger when they only consider outward
behavior and not the root of that behavior from the heart.
When this student failed
outwardly in this way, he wanted to be righteous again essentially, and he was
feeling guilty and condemned. Dr. Davis wanted him to realize that his
foul language and anger were merely the tip of the sinful iceberg- -and yet
Christ was a greater Savior than we can imagine. Dr. Davis was not
undermining the importance of God’s Law and commandments, but placing our
focus in our failure on Christ’s law-keeping “alone” –
and not our own. If we do not understand this, then we may oppositely say
something like this:
“I’m a pretty
good and righteous person! I have gone a long time without any foul language or
anger.” You see the student was focusing on himself and his own righteousness
(and not Christ!) when he failed and sinned outwardly, as well as when he
succeeded outwardly by not cursing and being angry. At that moment, the
student’s righteousness was found in himself plus Christ!
This can be tricky and
subtle, and we have to be looking constantly for instances in our lives of
“Lord, I thank you that I am not a sinner like…” and rather
be looking to Christ and the Law in order to say confidently “in
Christ”: “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.” (cf. Luke
18:9-12). Martin Luther wrote concerning our confidence as sinners being
in Christ alone- -not looking even to our best works, but to Jesus and his
perfect works and law-keeping for us:
“For
human beings by nature, when they get near either danger or death itself, will
of necessity examine their own worthiness. We defend ourselves before all
threats by recounting our good deeds and moral efforts. But then the
remembrance of sins and flaws inevitably comes to mind, and this tears us
apart, and we think, "How many errors and sins and wrongs I have done!
Please God, let me live so I can fix and amend them." We become obsessed
with our active righteousness and are terrified by its imperfections.
But
the real evil is that we trust our own power to be righteous and will not lift
up our eyes to see what Christ has done for us....So the troubled
conscience has no cure for its desperation and feeling of unworthiness unless
it takes hold of the forgiveness of sins by grace, offered free of
charge in Jesus Christ, which is this passive or Christian righteousness....If
I tried to fulfill the law myself, I could not trust in what I had
accomplished, neither could it stand up to the judgment of God. So...I rest
only upon the righteousness of Christ...which I do not produce but receive,
God the Father freely giving it to us through Jesus Christ.”
We must ever repent of how
we try to replace the righteousness of Christ with so-called righteousness of
our own making—which is no righteousness at all! This is just one
example of how we do it, and so we need to learn to say: “Smile!
You’re a bigger sinner than you think…but Christ is a greater
Savior than you can imagine!”
“Amazing Grace!
How Sweet the Sound that Saved a Wretch Like Me!”
If this truth of the gospel
would penetrate deep within our hardened and proud hearts and minds, we just
might be a gracious, merciful and forgiving people in the Church as Christ has
called us to be! A biblical understanding of sin and grace causes true
humility to be cultivated in us all, and this causes us to be meek, and for God
to dwell with us because we have contrite hearts. Be reminded of these
great passages of Scripture:
ESV Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
ESV Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the One who is high and
lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high
and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to
revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite…
ESV Matthew 5:5 "Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth.
What makes us contrite,
meek, and humble but the realization of our need and condition before God as
sinners, and to recognize God’s undeserved rich mercy and grace bestowed
upon us in Jesus Christ?! Yet there was another gospel that was being
preached to the Churches of Galatia, and many were turning to it. In
fact, the Apostle Paul says in their turning from the true gospel the people
were in reality “deserting him who called him in the grace of
Christ!” Paul wrote with great urgency and power of the Holy Spirit:
ESV Galatians 1:6-10: 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- 7 not
that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to
distort the gospel of Christ. 8 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. 9 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. 10 For 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.
Because God’s grace in
Christ is so good, wonderful, sweet –and “amazing” as the
hymn by John Newton teaches (“Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that
saved a wretch like me.”), the Apostle Paul was amazed, astounded,
perplexed by the fact that the Galatian Christians had so quickly deserted the
God who had called them in the grace of Jesus (Gal. 1:6-7). Paul says
later that the false gospel that they had heard from the Judaizers had
mesmerized or bewitched them (Gal. 3:1ff), and that they were falling away from
grace (Gal. 5:4) because they were believing in Christ’s work for them, plus
their own works of the law added to it!
“Man-Pleasers”
and “God-Pleasers”: Who Are the True Servants of Christ?
The Judaizers were saying
that Paul was trying to be a man-pleaser (Gal. 1:9-10) because he is making the
gospel “too easy” for the Galatians. Paul writes to defend
himself and to say to them that if he were trying to please men, particularly
the Galatian churches, he would not be writing a polemical letter loaded with
‘Anathemas’ or condemnations! The Apostle Paul was not
fearing man, nor trying to please man with his gospel message, rather as a
slave or bondservant of Jesus Christ, he was pleasing God by being faithful to
the gospel, whether the Galatian churches liked it or not! Paul was
faithful as Christ’s messenger and servant. Paul writes in Galatians
1:10:
For 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.
Paul is saying that a true servant
of Christ proclaims the only gospel of God and does not live to please man (or
to be a “man-pleaser”!) We need to remember in every age of
the Church that what is most important and truly matters for the growth and
maturity of Christians is not the messenger of the gospel, as much as the
gospel itself that the messenger is proclaiming. It is the gospel that
must be proclaimed! There have been great and popular teachers in the
church who draw many to hear them (just look at many of the successful radio,
television ministries, and the top 10 books being sold at bookstores).
Just because these teachers have many who listen to them, learn from them, and
support them financially does not a gospel preacher make!
Augustine wrote concerning
Galatians 1:10 something we should all remember: “…A person does
well in wishing to persuade others when it is not himself that he wishes them
to like but the truth that he persuades them of….When one pleases others
on account of truth, it is not the messenger himself but the truth of the
gospel that pleases….Thus the sense [of Galatians 1:10] is, “Do I
then try to please men or God? And since it is men that I am trying to persuade
of the truth, do I seek to please them? If I still sought to please men I should
not be Christ’s servant. For he bids his servants to learn from him to be
meek and lowly of heart, which is utterly impossible for one who seeks to
please men on his own account, for his own private and special glory.”-
Augustine, ‘Epistle to the Galatians’ (IB.I.10).
Are those today who are
claiming to be servants of Christ man-pleasers or God-pleasers? Are they
truly faithful as servants of Christ? Are they faithful to being servants of
Jesus Christ like Paul proclaiming God’s rich grace in Jesus, despite
persecutions, unpopularity, and rejection? What makes a true teacher and
preacher of God is a faithful one! It is not how eloquent or wise the
messenger is, the important matter is how faithful he is to the message of
Jesus Christ. Does he show his servant hood to Jesus (as Paul did as a
servant-bondslave, Gal. 1:10) in his faithfulness to
Jesus’ message? How do we rightly judge the messenger so that we
listen to the truth? Remember 1 Corinthians 2:1-5:
ESV 1 Corinthians 2:1-5: And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come
proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and
my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith might
not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
We must be reminded always
to judge the messenger by the gospel, not the gospel by the messenger. In
other words, if a person is truly a messenger of Jesus, it will be the gospel
that will reveal this to all, regardless of how weak and unpopular he may
be. In every age of the Church there is a temptation to judge the gospel
by the messenger. We like and look for eloquence, superior wisdom, and
popularity, and when we find a messenger like that, we tend to think that this
gospel he is preaching is the right one whether it is or not. We judge
the gospel by the messenger rather than the messenger by the gospel. As
the people of God we are looking for a proclamation of God’s gospel and a
demonstration of the Spirit’s power in changed lives!
If a messenger comes as a
servant of Jesus and is not preaching the gospel, he is merely trying to please
men and tickle their ears. If he is preaching the one and only gospel in
Jesus’ name, he is pleasing God! The same Apostle Paul who wrote
the Letter to the Churches of Galatia, also warned Timothy that in the last
days, many in the Church would be described like this:
ESV 2 Timothy 4:1-5: I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge
the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach
the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort,
with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is
coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they
will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into
myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do
the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Paul soberly charges Timothy
and all gospel messengers who come in Jesus’ name to be reminded to
always preach the word, the pure and true gospel of Christ that saves
God’s people and grows us up into maturity in Jesus. Paul tells
Timothy and all gospel messengers to be reminded that they will be faced with a
time when people will not endure sound doctrine or teaching, but will
accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. Many will
turn aside from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
Have you done this as one
who claims to be a Christian? Have you wandered off into following those who
say they have a “word from the Lord”, or are “messengers of
Jesus”, who gather many together who listen to them, but who are not
proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ? Are you constantly testing
messengers who come to you in Christ’s name by the message?
If the messenger is not
preaching the true and offensive, yet sweet and amazing message of the gospel
of Christ who died to save sinners and rescue us from this present evil age,
who shed his blood for our law-breaking, and offers grace to all who believe
upon his name- -plus nothing - -no works of any kind added to it- -but all
of grace- - if the messenger is not preaching this truth then he is no
messenger or servant of Christ at all, but a messenger seeking merely to please
men—and not God.
Martin Luther expresses
wisely and soberly the importance of the only gospel and the messenger bringing
it faithfully to Christ’s people! He wrote in his Commentary on the
Galatians:
“While
we live here on earth, we will be accused, exercised with temptations,
oppressed with heaviness and sorrow, and bruised by the law with its demands of
active righteousness. Because of this, Paul sets out in this letter of
Galatians to teach us, to comfort us, and to keep us constantly aware of this
Christian righteousness. For if the truth of being justified by Christ alone
(not by our works) is lost, then all Christian truths are lost. For there
is no middle ground between Christian righteousness and works-righteousness. There
is no other alternative to Christian righteousness but works-righteousness;
if you do not build your confidence on the work of Christ, you must build your
confidence on your own work. On this truth and only on this truth the
church is built and has its being.”- Martin Luther, Commentary on
Galatians.
In our time in the Church of
Jesus Christ, if we dare to preach the gospel of pure grace alone in Christ
alone, we may be persecuted and we may be frequently amazed at how quickly the
majority turns away to a different gospel- -which is no gospel at all! If
we dare to be messengers who are approved by God as his servants, we will be
viewed oftentimes as offensive in our modern world, especially when we talk of
such things as sin, sinners, and the blood of Christ, but for those who have
ears to hear by God’s grace, we will be offering hope to the lost, and
the hope of being rescued and delivered from sin and this present evil age,
experiencing the grace and peace of God in Christ, and we will be pleasing God
and truly servants of Jesus Christ as the Apostle Paul!
Let the people of God shout
loudly with the Apostle Paul:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the
power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also
to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from
faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by
faith."- The Apostle Paul, Romans 1:16-17
As you conclude the study
today, ask yourself “What has Jesus already done for me in his rescuing
me from sin and this present evil age?” BEFORE YOU ASK: “What would
Jesus do?” After you’re reminded of what Jesus has already
done, go forth by faith to bear fruit and good works out of gratitude for what
he has done for you (but remember that even your best works are flawed!).
Smile! You’re a bigger
sinner than you think!
But the gospel is about a
Christ who is a greater Savior than you can possibly imagine—and there is
constant life-giving grace found in him alone for needy sinners!
Sermon Audio:
CRB
© 2006-2007 A Place for
Truth.
Bibliography for Further
Bruce, F. F. Paul:
Apostle of the Heart Set Free.
_________. The Epistle to
the Galatians (New International Greek Testament Commentary)
Calvin, John. The
Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and
Colossians, trans. T. H. L. Parker.
Fung, Ronald Y. K. The Epistle to the Galatians
(New International Commentary on the New Testament-New Edition).
Gaffin, Richard B., Jr. By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and
the Order of Salvation.
Hendriksen, William. Galatians and Ephesians (Baker New
Testament Commentary).
Lenski, R. C. H. The Interpretation of St. Paul’s
Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians.
Lightfoot, J. B. The
Epistle of
Luther, Martin. A
Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians.
Machen, J. Gresham. Notes
on Galatians (Edited by John Skilton).
Ridderbos, H. N. The Epistle of Paul to the Churches of
Galatia. (New International Commentary on the New Testament).
________. Paul: An
Outline of His Theology.
Stott, John R. W. The
Message of Galatians (The Bible Speaks Today)
Ancient Christian
Commentary on Scripture, Volume
VIII: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians (edited by Mark J. Edwards).
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
