Galatians 1
I read this week about a baseball game that one
day took place. It seems that the Lord’s team was
playing Satan’s team. The Lord’s team was at bat,
the score was zero to zero, and it was in the
bottom of the 9th inning with two outs. The Coach
and the Lord stood by observing the game. As they
watched, a batter stepped up the plate whose name
was LOVE. Love swung at the first pitch and hit a
single, because “love never fails.” The next batter
was named FAITH, who also got a single because
faith works with love. The next batter was named
GODLY WISDOM. Satan wound up and threw the
first pitch. Godly Wisdom looked it over and let it
pass….ball one. Three more pitches and Godly
Wisdom walked, because Godly wisdom never
swings at what Satan throws. The bases were
loaded. The Lord then turned to Coach and told him
He was now going to bring in His star player. Up to
the plate stepped GRACE. Coach said, “He sure
doesn’t look like much.” Satan’s whole team
relaxed when they saw Grace. Thinking he had won
the game, Satan wound up and fired his first pitch.
To the shock of everyone, Grace hit the ball harder
than anyone had ever seen. But Satan was not
worried, as his center fielder let very few get by.
He went up for the ball, but it went right through
his glove, hit him on the head and sent him
crashing on the ground. Then it continued over the
fence for a home run! The Lord’s team won. The
Lord then asked Coach if he knew why LOVE,
FAITH, and GODLY WISDOM could get on base but
could not win the game. Coach answered that he
didn’t know why. The Lord explained, “If your love,
faith and wisdom had won the game you would
think you had done it by yourself. Love, faith and
wisdom will get you on base, but only My GRACE
can get you home.”
Today we are going to begin a study of Paul’s letter to the
churches of Galatia.
This is one of Paul’s earliest letters.
Probably written around 48AD.
Galatia is a region not an individual city.
Paul founded several churches in this area during his first
missionary journey. Places like Antioch, Iconium, Lystra,
and Derbe. You can read more about this in Acts 13-14.
The people in this area were all Gentiles, so they never
kept the law and were never circumcised.
Let’s take a look at the first 5 verses.
Galatians 1:1-5
Paul Defends his Calling from God
Paul begins by calling himself an apostle.
This is very normal for the start of one of his letters, but
he has a very good reason for mentioning it here.
The reason is that there were some false teachers that
were disputing his calling. They were trying to convince
the believers that Paul was acting on his own authority.
They argued that he wasn’t with the 12, so how could he
possibly be an apostle? We will see Paul’s full response to
this later on in chapter 1 and some of chapter 2.
So, Paul defends his apostolic authority here before he
defends the gospel.
He writes that he was called by Jesus Christ and God the
Father who raised Him from the dead. He was not called
from men nor through man.
Paul continues by addressing the churches at Galatia with
a fairly standard greeting of Grace and Peace.
Grace is important because it is the heart of the gospel.
Grace is unmerited favor.
Grace is the source of our salvation.
We are saved by grace through faith cf Ephesians 2:8
We didn’t do anything to earn or deserve grace.
It is the free gift of God.
And Grace leads to peace.
Because of grace we can have peace with God and peace
with men.
Then Paul goes on to explain grace.
Grace is what Jesus did on the cross at Calvary.
Grace is Him taking our place and dying for our sins.
Grace is delivering us from this evil age.
Grace was accomplished through His obedience to the
Father.
Paul wraps up with a doxology because God is so good.
Galatians 1:6-10
Paul gets right to business.
He writes that he is astonished that the churches were
deserting the grace of Jesus so quickly.
The Galatians were Deserting the Gospel of Grace
The word deserting is in the present tense which means
continuous action. This is good because it means they
haven’t fully turned away from Christ.
But they were leaving God’s grace and turning to
legalism.
This must have been very disheartening for Paul.
He truly cared about every church he planted.
That is why he wrote so many letters checking up on and
correcting the churches as they erred from time to time.
The Judaizers Distorted the Gospel of Grace
The false teachers here are known as Judaizers.
The problem with them is that they were adding to the
gospel.
They accused Paul of making the gospel of grace seem
too easy and tried to convince people that they needed
the law and circumcision in addition to grace.
The word distort can also mean pervert.
It was often used to describe when something changed
from positive to something negative, like light to
darkness, good to evil, or joy to mourning.
We see another example of this teaching of grace and
circumcision in Acts 15. They were teaching that you
aren’t really saved unless you are circumcised.
They were placing these Gentiles under the law which
they were never under.
Also, Deuteronomy and Revelation both warn against
adding or subtracting from God’s word. These Judaizers
are working against God’s grace.
Paul’s message and the truth of the gospel is that we are
saved by grace alone through faith alone.
Paul confirms this as he writes that even if Paul and his
colleagues or even an angel were to preach a gospel
contrary to the gospel of grace, then they would be
accursed.
It’s so important that Paul repeats it again for emphasis.
The gospel of grace is the only true gospel.
In verse 10 Paul asks the question of is he trying to
please man or serve God.
It’s one or the other.
We are either trying to please man or
We are trying to serve God.
People pleasing is dangerous because it can often lead to
compromising your faith. If you care more about what
people think than what God thinks, a pastor might avoid
Scriptures that make people uncomfortable.
It can also lead to turning a blind eye to blatant sin.
People pleasers don’t care for confrontation and will often
let sin continue to avoid an uncomfortable situation.
Church discipline will not be applied when necessary.
APPLICATION
How should we respond to the Scripture this morning?
Hold Fast to the Gospel of Grace
Nothing we can do and nothing we have done saves us.
Our salvation is based on the completed work of Jesus on
the cross. It is finished. He did all the hard work and He
brought us into right standing with God.
Our response is to love Him and serve Him and give Him
all the glory.
Charles Spurgeon wrote “Cling tightly with both your
hands, when they fail, catch hold with your teeth, and if
they give way, hang on with your eyelashes!”
We have to hold on tightly to the gospel of grace.
Also, we must be able to discern a false teacher.
The way we do that is to read and study and memorize
God’s word so that we become so familiar with the
Scriptures that we can easily spot a false teaching.