Mr. Kim and World

http://l.b5z.net/i/u/6055955/i/11-16-08_Galatians_Summary___Review.pdf

Galatians 1:6-10, 2:15-21, 3:19-25, 5:16-26, 6:1-5, 16-18

We began our study of Paul's letter to the Galatians 45 weeks ago today, the first Sunday in January
2008. So today when I say, "Let's wrap this up" I really mean the whole thing—all 6 chapters and 149
verses.
Galatians, one of the earliest or oldest of the 27 New Testament books, was written only about 25
years after the death of the Lord Jesus. And, for me, it is and has been a life-changing book because it has
called me to a fresh look at and reflection on the glorious doctrine of free and limitless grace.
You will recall that it is also Paul's passionate defense of the gospel of grace against false teachers
who were troubling these new Christians, not by denying the work of Christ and faith in Him, but by insisting
on the necessity of additional works for salvation, notably circumcision. And Paul is angry, very
angry with them, and confronts them and their perversion of the gospel with what John Stott calls "hot
indignation."
In his summary of the letter Stott notes that
There were three main points at issue between Paul and the Judaizers,
and they are still vital issues in the church today. The first is the
question of authority: how do we know what and whom to believe or
disbelieve? The second is the question of salvation: how can we get right
with God, receiving the forgiveness of our sins and being restored to His
favour and fellowship? The third is the question of holiness: how can
we control the sinful desires of our fallen nature and live a life of righteousness
and love?1
That's what I want to talk about this morning, but first
LET'S PRAY ABOUT IT!
Gracious and merciful Lord, we thank You once again for the life-changing message we have seen
and heard in our study of Galatians. We ask You to grant us the love of the gospel that Paul had and the
same anger when it is perverted and destroyed by false teachers who undermine the grace of our Lord
Jesus by adding anything to His finished work. As we prayed at the beginning of our study last January,
we again praise You for Your patience with us and confess once again that because of Your holiness You
cannot bear with us forever. Help us to pray with the unnamed Puritan when he prayed:
BLESSED LORD JESUS,
No human mind could conceive or invent the gospel.
Acting in eternal grace you are both its messenger and message,
lived out on earth through infinite compassion,
giving your life to insult, injury, and death
that we might be redeemed, ransomed, and freed.
Blessed are you, O Father, for planning this before time began.
Eternal thanks to you, O Lamb of God, for opening the way
of salvation.
Everlasting praise to you, O Holy Spirit,
for applying the gospel to our hearts.
Glorious Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—impress the
gospel on our souls until its virtue
touches and shapes every part of our being.
Let us hear, acknowledge, profess, and feel its message of grace.
Help us to give up every treasured lust,
to submit our hearts and lives to every command of the gospel,
to have it control all our affections and
mold our understanding.
Lord, take us to the cross to draw grace from its disgrace.
Strip us of every pretense of righteousness by
our own effort or goodness.
O gracious redeemer,
we have neglected you too long,
often crucified you by our attitude and behavior,
crucified you afresh by our impenitence,
and put you to open shame.

We thank you for your patience that has borne with us so long,
and for the grace that now makes us will to be your own.
Lord, unite us to yourself with inseparable bonds or chains,
that nothing can ever draw us back from you,
our Lord, our Savior.2
Guide us now as we conclude our study that we will remember what You would have us learn. I ask
this in Jesus' name, for His sake, and by His merit alone. Amen.
Let me remind you that this is the only letter of Paul's New Testament letters without a greeting and
without any commendation of his readers because the very gospel is at stake. Look at the text 1:6-12, 15-
17 (Page 1141)
6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you
in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but
there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you
than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have
said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to
you than what you have received, let him be accursed. 10 For do I now
persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased
men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. 11 But I make known to
you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according
to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it,
but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb
and called me through His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might
preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh
and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles
before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
The first of the three main points at issue with the Galatians and, as we said earlier, the church today,
is the issue of authority and it is the fundamental or basic issue. You will remember that Paul and Barnabas
had planted the Galatian churches on their first missionary journey. And they seemed to have been
doing well until some time after Paul and Barnabas moved on when a new group of teachers arrived on
the scene—teachers who claimed to represent the Jerusalem church and were undermining the teaching
of Paul. Remember, there was no New Testament at this time since it had been no more than 25 years
since the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. Who and what were the Galatians to believe? Again, I like the
way Stott put it.
Here were two sets of teachers, each claiming to bring God's truth,
but contradicting one another. Which were the Galatians to listen to and
believe? Both seem to have good credentials. Both were holy, godly, upright
and intelligent men, and both were plausible, winsome and dogmatic.
Which were they to choose?3
Paul answers by asserting his authority as an apostle of the Lord Jesus. Look at verses 11-12. Paul
makes three denials of possible sources of his gospel—charges about his gospel being made by the Judaizers.
First, he denied that his gospel came from others—from men or human authority. Second, he
denied that his gospel was the result of a declaration or memo from headquarters—Jerusalem. Third, he
denied that he was taught the gospel or learned it through years of formal study, thought, and reflection.
This may be the way most of us receive the gospel, but not Paul.
Bottom line what Paul is saying and what must not be missed is this. He expected the Galatians to
receive the gospel not simply because it was true but because of him, because of his superior authority.
The Judaizers claimed ecclesiastical or church authority, to speak on behalf of and authority from the
church in Jerusalem.
Paul's message, on the other hand, came not from the church but from God Himself. Look at the text,
verses 15 -17, and what is declared about his apostleship and authority. First, God set him apart before he
was born just as He chose Jacob before he was born instead of his twin brother Esau (Romans 9:10-13),
and like Jeremiah who before he was born was appointed to be a prophet. It was God's work and God's
alone.

Second, God affirmed His prenatal choice of Paul by calling him to His service or as he says in verse
15, called me through His grace. This is glorious! Remember, Paul was fighting against God, Christ, and
men by hounding Christians to prison and death. He saw no need of mercy, didn't deserve mercy, and
certainly didn't ask for mercy but God reached out in undeserved love and grace and called him.
Third, God was pleased or took delight in revealing His Son Jesus Christ to Paul. Remember, Paul
was convinced that Christ was an imposter, deceiver, charlatan or quack who fooled people with tricks
and stories. But God made it clear to him that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God and Savior of the
world. God chose to reveal his Son to Paul so that He could reveal Him through Paul.
By the way, although he was not called by the church, when he consulted the church it enthusiastically
endorsed Paul, his message, and his mission.
Now Paul expects the Galatians to accept his authority as they did when he came to them on his first
missionary journey. And how did they receive him? As an angel of God, as Christ Jesus (4:14)! As further
proof of his authority he declared that the gospel he had preached to them, and that they had received
(1:8-9) was the standard and that if anyone, including angels, preached a gospel contrary to this
they were to be ‘accursed.'
Sadly, we live in a time when even in the church, truth is a moving target and every man's "truth"
though subjective is as true as the next man's truth. These things ought not to be. Paul's answer to the
question of authority is Jesus Christ through His apostles.
Look at the text (2:15-21).
15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus
Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified
by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works
of the law no flesh shall be justified. 17 "But if, while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a
minister of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I build again those things which
I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died
to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ;
it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which 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 set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness
comes through the law, then Christ died in vain."
The second issue that Paul addresses in this letter is the question of salvation or justification. How
can sinners be justified, accepted in the sight of God, and treated as if they had never sinned? How can a
holy and righteous God forgive the offenses of sinful men, reconcile them to Himself, make peace and
restore them to favor and fellowship?
Today, some who consider themselves Christian see no need of reconciliation as seen in this statement
from a teacher in a new church movement who considers himself Christian:
I don't believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the
Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances
to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist,
Hindu or Jewish contexts. . . Rather than resolving the paradox
via pronouncements on the eternal destiny of people more convinced by
or loyal to other religions than ours, we simply move on. . . . To help
Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, and everyone else experience life to the
full in the way of Jesus (while learning it better my self), I would gladly
become one of them whoever they are, to whatever degree I can, to embrace
them, to join them, to enter into their world without judgment but
with saving love as mine has been entered by the Lord.4
Paul is narrower and more straightforward. This is the heart of the gospel. Salvation—forgiveness
and reconciliation—is possible only through the atoning death of Christ on the cross. Do away with the
cross and you do away with Christianity. Listen! Jesus didn't give up the glory He shared with His Father
to take on human flesh and become one of us, and poor at that, to set a good example or to become a
great teacher. The Lord Jesus came into this world under the sentence of death. The cross was ever before
Him and the cross fills this little letter to the Galatians. Paul described his ministry in 3:1 as setting forth
Christ crucified as plainly as if it were on a billboard and his ministry was characterized by ‘glorying' or
4 David Kowalski, "Appropriate Response to the Emerging Church Movement,"
www.apologeticsindex.org/290-emerging-church

‘boasting' in the cross alone. He gloried in, trusted in, reveled in, and lived for the cross alone. Why?
Because of what Christ accomplished on the cross! And what did Christ do on the cross?
Consider these three statements in Galatians: He ‘gave himself for
our sins to deliver us from the present evil age' (1:14); ‘the Son of God . . .
loved me and gave himself for me' (2:20); and ‘Christ redeemed us from
the curse of the law, having become a curse for us' (3:13). . . . the sense
in which He gave Himself for us is that He gave himself for our sins, and
the sense in which He gave Himself for our sins is that He became a curse
for us. This phrase can mean only that God's ‘curse' (His righteous displeasure
and judgment), which rests upon all who break His law (3:10),
was transferred to Christ on the cross.5
What must we do to be saved, is the consuming question for Paul and the Galatians. And the resounding
answer, in one real and true sense, is nothing! And by this we mean, as Paul meant, that the
Lord Jesus has done it all through His sin-bearing and curse-bearing death on the cross. Our part is to
believe that Jesus is who and what He claims to be: the Son of God and savior of sinners; that we are sinners
in God's sight justly deserving His disfavor and without hope save in His sovereign mercy; and to
trust wholeheartedly that Jesus will apply to us personally the benefits of His death in our place. And for
this we should say, "Hallelujah! Praise His holy name!"
The Judaizers, on the other hand, insisted that faith was not enough, that Christ's life, death, resurrection,
and ascension were not enough, and that one had to be circumcised and keep the law. They didn't
deny the work of Christ they simply claimed that it was not enough. If that were true, Paul contended,
then Christ died in vain or for no purpose at all (2:21). Listen! This is the heart of the gospel. Salvation is
by grace alone through faith alone plus nothing else. So, Paul's answer to the question of salvation is Jesus
Christ through His cross.
Look at the text again,
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and
do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. . . . 7 You ran well.
Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion does not
come from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
10 I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind;
but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. . . .
13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty
as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your
neighbor as yourself." 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware
lest you be consumed by one another! 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit,
and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary
to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if
you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The third issue that Paul addresses in Galatians is the issue of holiness or how to control the sinful
desires of one's fallen nature and live a life of righteousness and love. The Judaizers had hinted that if
good works did not contribute to salvation then one could live any way he wished. Paul denies this as
you see in the text. Christian liberty is not license or freedom to break the law. Far from it, we are to fulfill
the law by loving and serving each other. Those who belong to Christ make progress in holy living as
they crucify the flesh with its passions and desires (5:24). It is part of our daily repentance, what John
Stott calls the disciplined habits of thinking and living so that Jesus' ‘fruit' (love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) will appear and ripen in our lives. This is
the Christian way of holiness. And for this we should say, "Hallelujah! Praise His holy name!"
Let's wrap this up. The first issue today is that of authority and we, just as the Galatians, are faced
with many contradictory views and pronouncements by teachers claiming authority to speak to the
church. Who is to be believed? How can we know which to choose and whom to follow? The answer is
straightforward and unchanged from Paul's day. All teachers must be tested by the teaching of the apostles.
Again Stott's comments are right on the money.
. . . Indeed, this is the only kind of apostolic succession we can accept—
not a line of Bishops stretching back to the apostles and claiming
to be their successors (for the apostles were unique in both authorization
and inspiration, and they have no successors), but loyalty to the apostolic
doctrine of the New testament. The teaching of the apostles, now permanently
preserved in the New Testament, is to regulate the beliefs and
practices of the church of every generation. This is why the Bible is over
the church and not vice versa.6
Listen! Truth matters and we are to be as concerned for the purity of the gospel and truth as Paul
was. And the timeless truth is found today, as in Paul's, in the Word of God written, the Holy Scriptures!
The second issue with Paul and the Galatians was the issue of salvation and the great question the
Philippian jailer asked Paul is still the great question: "What must I do to be saved?" And the answer is
the same as it was 2,000 years ago, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ!" Believe, trust, and cling to Jesus
and what He has done.
Every time we look at the cross Christ seems to say to us, ‘I am here
because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering,
your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.' Nothing in history or the
universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated
views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited
a place called Calvary. It is there, at the foot of the cross that we shrink
to our true size.
. . . (Men) resent the humiliation of seeing themselves as God sees
them and as they really are. They prefer their comfortable illusions. So
they steer clear of the cross. . . And if preachers preach Christ crucified,
they are opposed, ridiculed, persecuted. Why? Because of the wounds
which they inflict on men's pride.7
There is a continual temptation for the church to turn the gospel into the cross plus something else,
whether that something is a deed or duty, a sacrament or a special cause, the problem is always the
"plus." We must learn to always say, "I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus, trusting only Thee."
The third issue with Paul, the Galatians, and us is that of holy living. Listen! For the born-again
Christian there are no meritorious works—works that earn God's favor and our salvation. But there is a
world of necessary works—works that necessarily or naturally flow out of redeemed and regenerate
lives—works of love, kindness, mercy, trust, service, obedience, etc., etc., etc. And it is fair to say that the
absence of these works, the absence of these fruit is evidence that one is not born-again regardless of his
claims to the contrary.
Paul said that he bore the marks of the Lord Jesus in his body. Do we? Do you? Can you, do you,
are you saying:
Take my life and let it be
Consecrated Lord to Thee;
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love; my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure-store;
Take myself and I will be
Ever only, all for Thee.
SHALL WE PRAY
Gracious Lord, Father of all mercies, and giver of life, we thank You today for the Lord Jesus who left
the glory He shared with You to seek and save the lost. Thank You for Paul's letter to the Galatians and
the glorious gospel of Christ alone plus nothing else. Draw us near to Yourself and keep us. I ask this in
Jesus' name, for His sake, and by His merit alone. Amen.