01 Introduction to Galatians

Krisan Marotta: Welcome back to Wednesday in the Word. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. We're starting a new series on Paul's Letter to the Galatians, and today I'll introduce you to the book. Lecture notes for today's talk are on the link below this podcast, or you can find them by going directly to Wednesdayintheword.com slash Galatians 1. Glad to have you along. We're beginning a new study on Paul's letter to the Galatians, and before we start the book, we need to know something about Paul, the author, and his relationship to the Galatians, and we need to know something about the Galatian churches. It's popular today to question the authorship of a lot of New Testament letters, but Galatians is the least disputed of Paul's writings. Both internal and external evidence point to Paul's authorship, and I find no reason to question that. So we're going to start with the author, who was Paul. I have a chart on my website which lists the major events in Paul's life, and I'll put a link to it in the lecture notes. You might want to follow along. The dates on the chart are approximate. There are different dating schemes, but for our purposes, the order of events is what's important. So what do we know about Paul? Paul was a Jew born around probably 5 AD in the city of Tarsus. His Roman name was Paul, and his Jewish name was Saul. When we first meet him in scripture, he is referred to as Saul. And then Acts 13 9 describes the apostle Saul, who was also called Paul, and from then on he's referred to as Paul. It's the same man. He was a Roman citizen by birth. He studied at the school of Gemelel in Jerusalem. Not sure if I'm pronouncing that right, but that was a big deal. It was one of the best rabbis to study with. Before his conversion, he was a Pharisee and he persecuted the Christian church. He traveled around the region rounding up Christians and killing them as heretics. Acts 7 tells us he was present at the stoning of Stephen, who was the first martyr. But then later Paul was converted to Christianity on the Damascus Road. And let's read that account. This is in Acts 9, verses 1 through 9. But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And the way is just a term for people who follow Christ or believers. Going on, now as he went on his way he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. The men who were travelling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus, and for three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank. Now the story goes on, after his conversion, Paul spent a short time in Damascus before going to Arabia. We'll learn from our letter, Galatians, that he stayed in Arabia three years. Scholars speculate that Paul's three years in Arabia was his time spent praying and learning the gospel from Jesus in the same way the other apostles had three years with Jesus during his earthly ministry. Now we don't know if Jesus appeared to him as he studied, or if Paul just studied the scriptures on his own and the Holy Spirit gave him understanding. Paul tells us he received the gospel by revelation from Jesus, and that language could describe either kind of approach, either one of those processes, or perhaps it was a mix of both, we just don't know exactly. After three years, Paul returned to Damascus and began to preach and teach. But it seems the only thing he managed to do was stir up trouble. He caused so much agitation that his fellow believers had to lower him over the wall in the middle of the night in a basket like dirty laundry, so he could escape the city. After that he visited Jerusalem where he met Barnabas. Barnabas took Paul to meet Peter and James, the Lord's brother, but they stayed only around fifteen days because the persecution of Christians was intensifying. Paul had to flee from a plot to kill him, and from there he went to Tarsus, where he settled in, and Barnabas went to Antioch in Syria. As large numbers of Gentiles were converted, the church in Antioch in Syria grew rapidly and quickly surpassed the Jerusalem church in size and influence. And we read in Acts 11 that Barnabas decided he needed help. The church there was growing so fast that he went to Tarsus and he recruited Paul to come and help him in Antioch. Paul and Barnabas then stay in Antioch for a year, teaching considerable numbers, as the scripture tells us. Then one day, while the leaders of the Antioch Church were praying, God told them to set apart Barnabas and Paul because God had work for them to do. And so Paul and Barnabas, along with John Mark, who's the author of the gospel, go on what we call Paul's first missionary journey. First, they sailed to Cyprus. From there they crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Perga, which lands them in the territory of Galatia. At Perga, John Mark leaves them and Paul and Barnabas travel on alone. Now, in Paul's day, the word Galatia had two distinct meanings. In a strict ethnic sense, Galatia was the region of Central Asia Minor inhabited by the Galatians. So it's basically what's now modern Turkey. The area was settled by a Celtic people who had migrated to that region from Gaul in about the 3rd century BC. The Romans conquered Galatia in 189 BC, but they allowed the region a measure of independence until about 25 BC, when it became a Roman province, incorporating some of the surrounding regions. So, in a political sense, the term Galatia described the entire Roman province, not merely the region inhabited by the ethnic Galatians. On this first journey, Paul founded churches in the southern Galatian cities of Antioch and Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derby, and that's all recorded in Acts 13 and 14. And these cities, although they were within the Roman province of Galatia, were probably not in the ethnic Galatia region. There's no record of Paul founding churches in that northern, much less populated region. But some scholars will argue that this letter was intended for that northern region. You can find those debates in the commentaries. I think this letter went to the southern region, to the churches that Paul founded on this first journey. Now Acts 13 records that Paul preached a sermon in Antioch and Pisidia, and when he finishes the sermon, we read this. This is Acts 13, starting in verse 42. As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you, since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region, but the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. At Iconium we see this pattern repeat. Paul speaks first to the synagogues, a number of Jews and Greeks respond, but then a number of Jews drive them out, they turn to the Gentiles, and they preach to the Gentiles until they get driven out of town, where they go to the next city. So here's what we read about Iconium, this is Acts 14, one. Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided, some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. When an attempt was made by both Jews and Gentiles with their rulers to mistreat them and to stone them, they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derby, cities of Lyaconia, not sure how to say that, and to the surrounding country, and there they continued to preach the gospel. At Lystra Paul healed a man who had been crippled since birth. The crowds got so excited by this miracle that they thought Barnabas was Zeus and Paul was Hermes, and they tried to offer sacrifices to them. Paul puts a stop to that nonsense, but then the Jews from Antioch and Iconium come to town and they cause trouble for Paul. They turned the crowds against him and stone him and drag him out of the city, thinking he's dead. So we pick the story up in Acts fourteen, nineteen. But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derby. When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. When they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. On his return journey, Paul backtracks the way he came. He revisited the Christian communities he has just founded, and then he and Barnabas head for home in Antioch. From Acts 13 and 14, then, we learn that the churches in Galatia are a mixed group of Jewish and Gentile believers, but the majority are probably Gentiles. Paul spent as much time in each city as he could before being driven out. Then he returns on his journey home to teach them again, probably before being driven out again. Paul returns to Antioch and reports on his journey and he stays there for a long time. And during this day, three crisis events occur. The first is that Jews from Jerusalem arrive, teaching that Gentile believers must keep the law, and we call this group the Judaizers. The second is Paul rebukes Peter for his actions, and we'll look at that when we get to that spot in Galatians. And the third event is that Paul receives news that all these recently formed churches in Galatia are also being troubled by the Judaizers and are being told that they must keep the law in order to be saved. And so he writes this letter in response. In Jerusalem, the Christians were beginning to be persecuted, and that was driving out many believing Jews. Some of these Jewish believers went to Antioch and started a dispute in the community here over whether Gentile believers need to live like Jews or not. I think this is when the event with Peter occurs. And at the same time, other Jewish believers from Jerusalem traveled to the region of Galatia and began teaching the Gentile believers there that they have to live like Jews. So word gets back to Paul that many Gentiles among the churches he just founded are being confused, and so he writes this letter in response. I think he wrote this letter before the Council of Jerusalem occurred, which is recorded in Acts 15, but probably he wrote it in the same year as the council. Now we don't know exactly what these Jews were teaching, but we have clues in the New Testament, in Paul's letters, in Acts, and in history. We call this group the Judaizers. The name comes from a Greek verb which means to Judaize or to live as Jews. In the New Testament, this verb is used only once in Galatians 2.14. And what's going on, I think, is Paul has created a situation the Jews have never faced before. Gentiles are embracing the Jewish Messiah, and the Jews are faced with the question: what are we going to do about that? Prior to Paul, there was really no need to evangelize among the Gentiles because obviously they weren't part of God's chosen people. God didn't choose them, they aren't part of the covenant. No need for them to keep the law. We can just leave them alone and stay clear. But now God is choosing the Gentiles and He is including them in this new faith in the Messiah. So the question arises: if Gentiles are going to be part of God's chosen people, do they have to keep the law or not? And to a large number of Jews, they thought, of course, they have to keep the law. No one can please God unless they live like a Jew. That's been obvious since Moses gave the law. That's what God's people do. If you want to follow God, if you want to please God, you keep the law. So of course these new Gentile converts have to keep the law. At the same time, other Jews were likely to persecute any Jews who associated with Gentiles. So if new Jewish believers in Jesus associated with these uncircumcised Gentile believers in Jesus, they face the wrath of their own people. Well, what's the obvious solution? The Gentiles need to be circumcised. Forcing Gentile Christians to take on circumcision, keep kosher, keep the law, that allows Jewish believers to prove their loyalty to Judaism and escape this persecution. And of course, it would please God because to Jewish believers it's just unthinkable not to live like a Jew. That's just how the people of God live. So the Judaizers think they need to correct Paul because he's left something out. He's not teaching the Gentiles to live like Jews. So the Judaizers are not teaching a completely different religion. They're teaching something that sounds like the gospel, but isn't. I suspect they were probably teaching something like this. They would arrive in town and say, hey, we're Jewish, maybe even Pharisees, but we believe Jesus is the Messiah too. We're really glad Paul straightened you out on that point. It's good that you believe in Jesus, but you know, Paul made a mistake. We don't know why he made this mistake, but you know, it's kind of hard to start a synagogue, especially if you have to convince people to live like Jews. Most Gentiles don't want to buy into all that. So maybe Paul left that bit out so that you would be more interested in the gospel and he could build more followers. So maybe Paul downplayed the law a little bit because he didn't want to scare you off. But we're here to tell you God defined what is pleasing to him in the law, and he expects everyone who follows him to live that way. Hence, you new Gentile believers must keep the law. It's fine to believe in Christ and all, but that's not enough. You're gonna have to join us in being obedient to the law that God gave to Moses. We think that's what Jesus would want you to do. You need to be circumcised, follow the dietary regulations, and live like God's chosen people. So we're here to teach you to live like Jews, something Paul forgot to mention. I think that's the kind of thing that's going on. Paul ran into two kinds of opposition from other Jews. One reaction is the one we saw in Acts. Some Jews were hostile to the very message of the gospel itself, and they tried to kill Paul or drive him out of town. These Jews would say Jesus is not the Messiah we're waiting for. He was a heretic and a criminal who was justly executed on a cross. And these are the people that followed Paul from town to town trying to convince people that Paul is wrong. That's not the group Paul is writing against in this letter. He's writing in response to a different group of Jews. This group embraces Jesus as the Messiah, but they don't believe that anyone, especially a Gentile, could be saved just by believing in Jesus. That's not possible to them. To be pleasing to God and to be saved, you have to live like Jews. Now, some of those in the Galatian churches have heard this message from the Judaizers and they've bought into it, and they're starting to insist that everyone in the church keep the law. But not everyone bought into it. There seems to be a battle going on in the churches over who's right, what's the place of the law, and Paul is writing this letter to set the record straight. He wants to correct the view that it is necessary to keep the law to be saved and to encourage the people in these churches to continue to follow the gospel that he taught them. Galatians is one of the earliest New Testament letters written. I think it was written around 49 A.D. It's only been about 15 years or so since the resurrection of Jesus. In terms of tone, this is the most argumentative letter in the New Testament. The apostle pulls no punches. He curses his opponents. He reports without apology that he publicly rebuked the Apostle Peter to his face. He questions the sanity of his readers. He uses two visceral images that involve knives. And he makes his point very forcefully, leaving no room for tolerating any other points of view. In the middle two chapters of Galatians, Paul makes a series of claims where he places two opposing notions in contradiction to each other. All of these statements describe the same dichotomy, but he uses different language to illustrate his point. For example, he says we must choose between the works of the law and hearing with faith, between the spirit and the flesh, between the blessing and the curse, between the law and the promise, between sonship and slavery. And all these dichotomies basically point to the same choice. The difference between a man-made religion and religion as God revealed it. And Paul's going to argue that we have to choose between those two voices. We can either live to please men or to please God. We can derive our sense of worth from what men say or from what God says. We have to choose whether we want all the benefits that this life can produce, or we will choose the grace that God offers. Essentially, he's going to say you have to choose between a false gospel without a cross and the only true gospel that centers on the cross of Jesus. So as we study this book, we're going to see Paul's argument unfold in two parts. Overall, he's going to insist the Judaizers are wrong about the need to keep the law, and he'll say, Let me tell you again. What the gospel is and what it means for how we live. We human beings have two big problems that the gospel solves. First, we are guilty before God, and one day we will face Him in judgment. The results will not be pretty. We really are under the wrath of God as sinful human beings, and that fact is going to cost us everything. That's the first problem. The second problem is the reason we're guilty. We are guilty because by nature we are sinners. Not only are we guilty, we have a built-in tendency toward evil. Sin destroys life. Human relationships break apart because of selfishness. Now the gospel is incredibly good news because it solves both of those problems. Jesus solves the problem of our guilt by dying in our place on the cross. And Jesus solves the problem of our corruption by reconciling us with God so that God can pour out his spirit on us and free us from our sin. The first part of Paul's argument is the gospel is a proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ because that death solves our two big problems. He's even going to mention the cross in his opening greeting. The way we overcome our guilt is through the cross, not through law-keeping. The cross offers us true forgiveness in spite of the fact that we don't have our act together, and the cross alone puts us in God's favor. The second part of the solution he outlines is that we cannot solve the problem of our own corruption. The forgiveness Christ brings on the cross is the doorway to our restoration. Ultimately, we not only need God to forgive us, we need Him to change us from the inside out so that we are people who are no longer selfish, corrupt, evil, and sinful. How do we overcome the problem of ourselves? We can't change ourselves by ourselves, and no amount of law keeping is going to change us. We need help, and the only one who can help us is justifiably mad at us. But Jesus' death on the cross solves the problem of God's wrath, and that makes it possible for God to free us from our own sin. And that concept is hugely important. The gospel itself contains the solution to our two main problems. God has reconciled us to Himself through the cross in order that He might bless us with life, goodness, and holiness. So where did the Judaizers go wrong? The idea that we must keep the law of God in order to find forgiveness and life is such a perversion of the gospel that it is another gospel. Paul's going to argue they have distorted both parts of the gospel message. They argue it's not enough to believe in the cross to gain forgiveness. That's our first problem. So it's not enough to believe in the cross. We must also keep the law to be acceptable. And Paul's going to argue in this letter that that is such a serious perversion of the gospel that they should be accursed for preaching it. This is not a minor dispute between theological experts. This is an entirely different gospel. And the major part of Galatians addresses this issue. Why is it such a serious error to think that we will be acceptable by keeping the law? Paul's going to spend a lot of time on that. But the Judaizers have also gone wrong on the second problem of how we gain freedom from our sin. How do we find life and blessing? How are we freed from the corruption inside? And again, Paul's going to argue those blessings do not come through law-keeping. Paul's going to argue that's the role of the Holy Spirit. We will become different people because the Spirit of God is at work to change us, not because we strive to keep the law properly. So the Judaizers think that God has graciously given us this set of rules to follow. And as we follow those rules, we find life and blessing. But Paul's going to argue the solution to our corruption is not law-keeping, it's this incredible gift of the Holy Spirit. This is an issue or a charge that Paul faces a lot. His critics often say, Paul, look, your gospel can't be true because your gospel leads to sin. Your gospel leads to evil. If you tell people all they have to do is believe, they don't have to keep the law, then they're just going to run headlong into all kinds of evil. If your gospel says you don't even have to keep the law, then Paul, your gospel is a license to sin. It promotes sin. We know God would never promote sin. So therefore, Paul, you must be wrong. And Paul spends a lot of time in Romans refuting that charge. He's also going to refute it in Galatians. In fact, we find the section on the fruit of the Spirit as part of his argument against this view. He's going to argue that true moral transformation only happens by justification through faith in Christ. That's the only way we will ever be truly good. And he's going to argue the law didn't make people holy and good anyway. The gospel does not say, here's a free pass, go sin as much as you want. The gospel says, God has forgiven you in order that he might restore you. The cross is the doorway to forgiveness, which allows God to give you his spirit, which will lead to moral transformation, not to the pursuit of sin. And we'll be spending more time on that as we look at Paul's argument. This book is spiritual dynamite for Christians who seek to combine aspects of Christianity with other religions or modern notions of theology and morality. This book challenges the idea that we can live like pagans during the week and be saved by going to church on Sunday. In this letter, Paul's going to insist that we have to follow the gospel alone. We cannot hedge our bets and follow other gods. We can't diversify our spiritual portfolio, so to speak. Instead, we have to embrace the gospel with our whole hearts, minds, thinkings, and our beliefs. We don't have the option of serving people, pleasing our friends, being rewarded by our culture, and serving God. If we hear the message of this book clearly, we will listen only to the voice of the gospel. You've been listening to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. My mission is to explain not only what a passage means but how we figure it out. If you haven't visited my website, I encourage you to stop by. Rather than being plastered with advertisements, my website contains a wealth of Bible study materials, charts, maps, lists, and resources to help you improve your skills and understanding. It's all free. I don't take advertising, I don't accept donations, it's just there for you to learn. If you want to thank me, I encourage you to join the mailing list and subscribe to the podcast. But most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coates. You can find his music and his CDs on heartfeltmusic.org. If you want to find out more or hear previous episodes, please go to Wednesdayintheword.com. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krissan Morata, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.