Today’s sermon audio can be found on Castbox at 161 “To the Churches of Galatia” Galatians 1:1-5.

Our primary text for May 10 was Galatians 1:1-5. Our first reading was Galatians 5:1-6. We read Galatians 5:1-6 because Galatians 5:1 summarizes Paul’s solution to the problem in the Galatian churches.

Today, we began our series on Galatians with an overview of the letter. Next week we plan to start working through the letter sentence by sentence. We considered four topics about Galatians from the field of New Testament Introduction to give us a general sense of the letter.

  • We looked at why Paul wrote Galatians (see also Occasion).
  • We looked at Paul’s solution to that problem (see also Key Themes).
  • We looked at the overall flow of Paul’s argument about the problem and the solution (see also Outline).
  • We looked at the significance of Galatians for the Reformers and for us. (see also History of Interpretation).

Sermon Outline

"To the Churches of Galatia" Galatians 1:1-5

  1. Problem
  2. Solution
  3. Argument
  4. Significance

Scripture References: Galatians 5:1-6; Galatians 1:1-5; Galatians 1:6-9; Galatians 2:14-16, 21; Galatians 5:1;

New Testament Introduction

New Testament Introduction is a major component of New Testament academic studies. New Testament Introduction covers various background topics that can help us understand the New Testament. The information covered by New Testament Introduction is derived from the Bible, from extra-Biblical written sources, from archaeology and various other disciplines. For further comments about New Testament Introduction see An Introduction to Galatians.

1. Problem

The basic problem in the first century Galatian churches is quite clear from Paul’s letter. The sixth verse of the letter brings the problem out into the open.

6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8But 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. 9As 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.

Galatians 1:6-9, ESV

There are earlier hints about this problem even before verse 6 and there are several more indications on through the letter, as, for example, in Galatians 2:14-16.

14But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” 15We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Galatians 2:14-16, ESV

To summarize, the Galatians were deserting God by allowing the Gospel to be corrupted with works-righteousness.

2. Solution

According to the Gospel we are justified by faith not by works. Paul summarized the solution to allowing the gospel to be corrupted with works-righteousness in Galatians 5:1.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1, ESV

The first clause of 5:1 summarizes much of the preceding letter (For freedom Christ has set us free): Christ, by His conception, birth, sinless life, suffering, obedience, conversations, teaching, preaching, healing, signs, death, burial, resurrection, appearances, ascension, intercession, and second return has, is, and will save us from the power and the penalty of sin. In other words, Christ has freed us from the impossible task of saving ourselves. We are, in Christ, freed from the slavery of works-righteousness.

The rest of 5:1 gives us two commands:

  • stand firm in the Christian freedom that Christ has obtained for us
  • but do not revert to the slavery of works-righteousness

We are using this second clause of Galatians 5:1 as a thematic guide verse for this series: Stand Firm: Do Not Submit Again. Notice the word again in Paul’s letter. He wrote to Gentiles. He knew they would not have been observing Jewish ceremonial laws before. The again indicates returning to works-righteousness slavery but a different variant of works-righteousness slavery than that of Second Temple Judaism.

3. Argument

We want to get an overall idea of Paul’s argument in the letter. One way to depict the argument of the letter is by means of an outline. For this series on Galatians I have chosen to follow Timothy George’s outline for Galatians as documented in the second edition of his excellent commentary on Galatians. There are many other good outlines but I think this one will be very helpful for us. Here is the top-level outline George works from in his commentary.

  1. History: No Other Gospel (1:1-2:21)
  2. Theology: Justification by Faith (3:1-4:31)
  3. Ethics: Life in the Spirit (5:1-6:18)

This outline is easy to remember. Each section spans two chapters: (1) History, 1-2; (2) Theology, 3-4; (3) Ethics 5-6. We went through how Paul’s argument flows from biography to doctrine to application.

4. Significance

When I think about the significance of Galatians two periods of history come to mind: the Reformation and right now. Luther, Calvin, and many other reformers found great help from Paul’s letter as they reformed the church. Paul was so helpful to the Reformers because works-righteousness was a key problem for the Reformers. Luther loved Galatians (see Martin Luther on Galatians). Luther needed freedom from works-righteousness as much as anyone alive in his day. But really we all need freedom from works-righteousness.

That is why I would say Galatians is very important to us right now. We want to be spiritually self-sufficient. We want to be spiritually self-reliant. We want to earn our keep spiritually. We want to do what only God can do. Works-righteousness currently plagues the church.

We need to go back to God. We need to go back to the Gospel. We need to rest in Christ our God. The Gospel is supposed to be Good News. Save yourself, keep yourself saved, work for your salvation, etc. is Bad News because we cannot do it. Once God has saved us we can in fact live “life in the Holy Spirit”.

The Gospel summary in 1 Corinthians 15 is very important to me. I repeat it over and over. I hope it is important to you as well.

1Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain. 3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

1 Corinthians 15:1-10, ESV

I hope you savingly believe this Gospel.