Life Group - Galatians Chapter 1

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.