Gospel-Centered Living: Part 2 - Galatians 2:15-21

 GOSPEL-CENTERED LIVING: Part 2

Galatians 2:15-21

Introduction: Bible reading is a little like the game show Jeopardy! What? We have the answer, what was the question? The New Testament epistles were written to address specific historical situations, while at the same time, under the inspiration of God, the writers were giving principles for Christian living that apply to every age. One problem in reading a letter like Galatians is that we have the answer the apostle is giving to some specific pastoral situations which the original readers were experiencing. They knew to what he was referring, we have to infer the questions from the answers!  I think it is fair to say that Galatians is the most urgent and the most direct of Paul’s letters. There was no time for pleasantries, no commendations or thanksgiving. From the opening lines, he gets to the heart of the matter. Some false-teachers had begun to undermine the message of the Gospel, and in the process were challenging Paul’s apostolic authority.

       We’ve seen in this letter Paul recall his call and commission by Christ Himself. He made it clear that the message he preached to the gentiles was recognized by the Jerusalem apostles as the same message, the Gospel, that they preached. The Gospel is the unshakable foundation, and the empowering motivation of the Christian life. Tim Keller affirmed that idea when he said that…

…since we live in the world, we have embraced many of the world’s assumptions. Christian living is therefore a continual realignment process—one of bringing everything in line with the truth of the gospel…

       Here in Galatians 2:11ff, as we saw last week, Paul described not a conflict in doctrine, but a conflict in practice, between Peter and himself. The issue was the application of the Gospel to life.  The question is not whether Peter believed and preached the same Gospel as Paul.  We’ll see several hints here as we have earlier in the letter that they were solidly on the same page theologically.  Paul here is referring to an example from the past when Peter came to Antioch, and, for a time at least, was not living consistently with the truth of the Gospel that he professed. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ - how then must we live? He preached Grace, he lived under Grace, but then, in order to win the favor of some fellow Jews, for a time, Peter was acting hypocritically, not living consistently with the truth of the Gospel. There was a sort of “cultural peer-pressure” as Peter suddenly withdrew from fellowship with the gentile believers, no longer taking meals with them, apparently to appeal to the cultural sensibilities of some Jewish Christians who had come to Antioch. He preached grace, but his conduct was implying that something more was needed, that tradition and law were necessary supplements to grace, and so, the separation between Jew and Gentile prescribed by tradition and the law needed to be maintained. Peter knew better, and Paul reminded him of that.

The Maine* Idea: As we saw last week, is that the Gospel of Grace should result in a changed life as Christ lives in us and through us.  Again, we’ll approach that big idea from three perspectives, 1) The Possibility of Reconciliation: Justification by faith alone in Christ alone is the only way to be right with God; 2) The Peril of inconsistency: Right doctrine should result in right living; and 3) The Power for Christian living: that is, unity with Christ in his death and resurrection.

I. The Possibility of Reconciliation: Justification by faith alone is the only way to be right with God (15-16). Grace Precludes “works” as a means of justification: Reflect on the implications of Grace. We need to live “gospel-center” lives.

¹⁵ We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;  ¹⁶ yet 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 2:15-16).

       “Law” could not save the Jews, how could it possibly save Gentiles? The issue is highlighted by the repetition of some key words in these verses. Paul uses the verb “justify” three times in v.16. He also contrasts “faith [in Christ]” with “works of the law.” Faith, not works, is the way to God. Paul said much the same thing in Romans 3:19-22…

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.  ²⁰ For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.  ²¹ But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-  ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

I like the way John Stott summarizes this issue…

…there are at least two basic things which we know for certain. The first is that God is righteous; the second is that we are not. And if we put these two truths together, they explain our human predicament, of which  our conscience and experience have already told us, namely, that something is wrong between us and God… (Stott, The Message of Galatians, p.60).

In our context, Paul is telling Peter that the message of the Gospel, which they both believed, by which they were saved, should be reflected in how we live our lives. Admittedly, it is often hard to tell in the Bible where a quotation ends, and the narrator turns to talk to the audience. There were no quotation marks in the original manuscripts! I think Paul is still talking to Peter here in Galatians 2:15-16, essentially restating what they both know to be true. This is how J. Gresham Machen, one of the founders of Westminster Seminary, paraphrases the sense of these verses…

“You and I,” said Paul to Peter, “were Jews by nature; we had all the advantages which the law could give. Yet we relinquished our confidence in all those advantages, so far as the attainment of salvation was concerned, by seeking our salvation in exactly the same way as that in [which] it is to be sought by despised Gentile ‘sinners’ – namely, by the free grace of Christ received by faith alone.” (Machen’s notes on Galatians, p. 148-149).

Peter and Paul agreed on what it meant to be “justified”.  There is only one way we can stand before a holy God. Most people have an idea that faith plus obedience gives us a right standing before God, don’t they? It seems logical, but there is something skewed in that understanding. It is by faith in Christ that we are justified, that is, declared “right” with God. Our sin was imputed to Christ. He bore our sins, taking the punishment that we each deserved. By grace, through faith, His righteousness is imputed to our account. So, when the Father looks at us, we are in Christ, and He sees only the righteousness of Jesus. Therefore, for we who are His, the Temple veil is rent, and we can come to Him directly and boldly.

       The words “just” or “right” in the Bible are from a root word meaning “conformity to a standard.” However, “justify” does not mean we are made righteous or good. Because of God’s presence in our life we are saved “unto good works” but not because of being good or righteous…  Rather, in legal language, we were condemned sinners (Eph 2:1,2) deserving judgment, under God’s wrath, BUT because of God’s intervention in our lives, by means of faith in the substitutionary death of Jesus, we are declared “not guilty,” that is, we are “justified.” Allow me to quote Spurgeon again, “Morality may keep you out of jail, but it takes the blood of Jesus Christ to keep you out of hell!”

       Legally speaking, we who are “justified” are not judged by the merits of our case, in fact we are not judged at all, because Christ was judged in our place (Isa 53:4,5).  It’s a good thing we are not judged on the merits, according to Galatians 2:16, “…by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified…” Paul is saying that even we who are Jews know the Law does not justify! He’ll develop that more in chapters 3-4. The impossibility is made clear in James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the whole Law, and yet stumbles in one point, he is guilty of all.” Even one little infraction and that is it, we are guilty? Does that seem too harsh? We don’t grasp how offensive sin is to God. The fact is, we all know that we sin. Like the story of Arthur Canon Doyle, who supposedly, as a prank, sent identical messages to twelve acquaintances, some of the most prominent men in England. It simply said, “All is discovered! Escape while you can!” All twelve promptly left town! We know we are guilty! The question is, how can we get right with God? Our only hope is the grace of God applying to our lives the righteousness of Christ—justification by faith. Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone.

       There are basically only two ways humans try to approach God: trying to make themselves good enough – no one can do it – or trusting in Jesus and his finished work on our behalf (Eph 2:8.9; Rom 6:23). Most religions of the world are based on works. The Bible teaches grace, God’s unmerited favor. Sadly, many professing Christians start there, then add to the Gospel. They affirm salvation by grace through faith, and then think that adding good works or human traditions is what makes them acceptable to God. The gospel is Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone. He took our sin. We receive his righteousness. If you are His, you are forgiven! Am I saying all you have to do is say you believe? No. All you have to do is believe, rightly, who Jesus is, trusting in what he did for you. The result will be a changed life that longs to obey Him our of love. You are saved “…unto good works, which God before ordained that you should walk in them.” The Gospel of Grace should result in a changed life, as Christ lives in us and through us.

II. The Peril of inconsistency (2:17-19a). Right doctrine should result in right living. Remember a few verses back that Paul rebuked Peter in front of them all because, “his conduct was not in step with the Gospel.” The details in these verses are not easy to follow, but the main idea seems clear enough. I don’t want to get lost in the minutia, let’s focus on what is clear.

¹⁷ But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!  ¹⁸ For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.  ¹⁹ For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.

       Humans tend to easily take a couple of wrong turns when we start talking about grace. One interprets it as a license to sin, another begins to add “rules” that we must keep in order to earn God’s favor, in other words, faith plus works makes us right with God. Paul is saying, “Look Peter, we both recognize that we who were born Jews, people like you and me, are no different than gentiles. Our only hope is in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone. If I admit that for myself, how could I add to it requirements for gentile believers?”

       Liberty in Christ does not mean license to sin (17-18). How can “faith alone” justify us if Christians still sin? Or worse yet, why can’t I believe and then do whatever I want? If God justifies sinners, what is the sense in being good? Does that mean Christ is advocating sin? Paul addresses that directly in Romans 6,

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  ² By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

       Most people don’t recognize the seriousness of sin – that it separates humans from a Holy God. For the Christian, we are positionally “righteous.” Practically, we are learning and growing as our life comes increasingly under the Lordship of Christ. That is why, inevitably, confession is something that lies at the heart of our Christian life (I Jn 1:8-10).  Believers are convicted when they sin, they know that it was for them Christ died. How can we who died to sin still live in it? The implied answer to Paul’s question is that we cannot! And so, we confess, and experience the grace of God’s forgiveness. We are reminded, as Paul wrote to Titus,

…he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,  ⁶ whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,  ⁷ so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life… (Titus 3:5-7).   

How then, shall we live? Or better, how then can we live? If we are declared righteous by grace alone, how does the gospel become the foundation and the fuel for Christian living? Remember the Maine* Idea: The Gospel of Grace should result in a changed life as Christ lives in us and through us. That becomes clearer as we look at the third point…

III. The Power for Christian living: unity with Christ in his death and resurrection (2:19b-21).

I have been crucified with Christ.  ²⁰ It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life 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 nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

      If you only have time to memorize one passage from Galatians, maybe this should be the one.  It really describes the dynamic of the Christian life, in Christ, dead to the power of sin and Satan, alive to God. Vv.19b-20 I have died to the Law—I was united with Christ in his death on the cross—“I have been crucified with Christ…” Imagery of baptism in Romans 6:3-6 develops this idea further…

³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  ⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.        

       If we are united with Christ in his death, we are also united with him in his resurrection (Col 1:13; 2 Cor 5:17).  This is our power and motivation for godly living – our salvation is wholly of Him. The basis of Paul’s statement is our union with Christ. We are “in” Christ, and He is in us, as Paul writes in v.20c, “…but Christ lives in me…” And so, “The life that I now live, presently, I live by faith in the Son of God… who loved me, and gave himself for me…” So, the Gospel is the foundation, and the fuel, of the Christian life.

      Paul makes a final statement in v.21 that lays waste any idea that “works of the Law” were necessary for salvation, or even necessary to complete it. He says, “…if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing…”  If human effort could justify us before God, if there was some other way, something less than the humiliation and horror of the passion and the death of the Son, why did He do it? Why did He spare not the Son, but deliver Him up for us all? God is Just, and Holy, and it was the only way that a just and holy God could pardon sinful humans. There had to be a substitute. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world, that we might live through Him (I John 4:9).

What is God saying to me in this passage? So, we see the possibility of reconciliation with God, being justified by faith in Christ alone, the peril of inconsistency and presumption. The Gospel is about knowing Jesus, and trusting in His finished work as our only hope of salvation. When we do that, we have the power to live differently because of Christ in us. That’s the Maine* Idea: The Gospel of Grace should result in a changed life as Christ lives in us and through us.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage?  We’ll see in this letter that people easily drift in their understanding and application of the Gospel. Some embrace the idea of grace, and then think “I’m free! That means I can live any way I want!” Paul says, yes and no. Are you still living like the world? If you truly believe, there will be fruit as God’s Spirit works in you (Eph 2:10; Phil 2:12).  You have a new heart, and you will more consistently choose things that align with God’s will. Easy-believism is not biblical. Neither is legalism.

      Many start with grace through faith, as did the Judaizers who were influencing the Galatians, and then begin to add things, their church’s thinking about what Christianity should look like. Believe in Jesus and do these things (or usually, don’t do them!) and you’re in!  Paul will get to that present crisis in Chapter 3! (Read 3:1-3!). Grace plus works is not the gospel. When we are justified the perfect righteousness of Jesus is reckoned to our account. We are saved. Then we begin to live differently, as the Spirit exposes different areas of our life and brings them into the light of the Gospel. God’s love constrains us, God’s Spirit convicts us and guides us. That is Good News! And that is truly amazing grace!   AMEN.

Gospel-Centered Living - Galatians 2:11-16

 “GOSPEL-CENTERED LIVING”

Galatians 2:11-16

Introduction: John Stott was one the most respected Bible Expositors in recent history. He said of the episode described in this passage of Galatians:

“This is without doubt one of the most tense and dramatic episodes in the New Testament. Here are two leading apostles of Jesus Christ face to face in complete and open conflict.”

Don’t miss the drama of what is happening here! Think of who these two men were! Consider their importance to the early church! If you read the Book of Acts, one way to divide the narrative is to see chapters 1-12 with Peter as the chief apostle, and from the human perspective, at the center of the activity of the church in Jerusalem. At the end of that chapter Peter departs to “another place,” and only briefly returns to the story in the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. [Was that when he made the visit to Antioch that Paul describes here? Possible, but we can’t be sure.] In chapters 13-28 the Church in Antioch becomes the center of attention, and the Apostle Paul emerges in his role as the missionary to the gentiles. The narrative of Acts shows what Paul is arguing in this first part of Galatians: he and Peter were both Apostles in the fullest sense, authorized representatives of Jesus. Now consider what happened here between them.

       Here in Galatians, Paul describes not a conflict in doctrine, the two men were of one mind in terms of the Gospel, but a conflict in practice, the application of the doctrine to life.  The issue here is not whether Peter believed and preached the same Gospel as Paul.  We’ll see several hints here as we have in the first chapter of the letter that they were solidly on the same page theologically. Paul here is referring to an example from the past when Peter came to Antioch, and, for a time at least, was not living consistently with the truth of the Gospel that he professed.  He preached Grace, he lived under Grace, but then, in order to win the favor of some fellow Jews, for a time, Peter was acting hypocritically, not living consistently with the truth of the Gospel. There was a sort of “cultural peer-pressure” as Peter suddenly withdrew from fellowship with the gentile believers apparently to appeal to the cultural sensibilities of some Jewish Christians who had come to Antioch. He preached grace, but his conduct was implying that something more was needed, that tradition and law were necessary “supplements” to grace, and so, the separation between Jew and Gentile needed to be maintained. Peter knew better, and Paul reminded him of that.

The Maine* Idea: The Gospel of Grace should result in a changed life as Christ lives in us and through us.  We’ll look at three admonitions drawn from that firm foundation: 1) Be Wary of slipping into Hypocrisy (if it happened to Peter it could happen to us!); 2) Be Willing to confront one-another in love (Paul did it, for Peter’s sake, and for the sake of the church, so must we); and 3) Be Wise to base your actions on God’s truth (in other words, live in the light of the Gospel!)

I. Be Wary of slipping into Hypocrisy (2:11-13): We need to walk “in step” with the Gospel! Before you think, “there are a lot of hypocrites around, but there is no way I could act hypocritically,” remember that this is Peter, the Rock, the man who walked with Jesus, part of his inner circle, for three years. If it could happen to HIM, well, we’d be hypocrites to think it could never happen to us!  A right understanding of Grace should result in gracious living.  Right thinking should result in right living, orthodox doctrine (orthodoxy) should lead to authentic Christian living (orthopraxy).  It should. However, if we are not watchful, we can get out of step with the Gospel…

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.  ¹² For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.  ¹³ And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy…  (2:11-13).

We should take heed: this was Peter, one of the twelve, one of the inner circle closest to the Lord, and he was at least temporarily caught up in hypocrisy. The word came out of the classical Greek and was used of an actor, wearing a mask, or playing a part on the stage. By New Testament times it was used metaphorically of someone pretending to be something or someone he wasn’t…

 The story is told of a zoo that was noted for their great collection of different animals. One day the gorilla died, and to keep up the appearance of a full range of animals, the zookeeper hired a man to wear a gorilla suit and fill in for the dead animal. It was his first day on the job, and the man didn’t know how to act like a gorilla very well. As he tried to move convincingly, he got too close to the wall of the enclosure and tripped and fell into the lion exhibit. He began to scream, convinced his life was over… until the lion spoke to him: “Be quiet, or you’re going to get us both fired!

This is too serious to joke about! Peter was playing the part of a hypocrite. Consider who this is. Peter was the one used by God to preach the foundational messages as the church was being established! He was the one, who received a vision of a sheet coming down from heaven, and heard the word of the Lord: what I have called clean do not call common. He received the contingent from the house of Cornelius, and then went to that gentile home and preached Christ. He saw God open their hearts and saw the manifestation of the Spirit that confirmed these gentiles were accepted by God on the basis of faith alone. He knew the Truth, he preached the Truth! If Peter, after all that, could act inconsistently, even hypocritically, do you think it can’t happen to you or me? We need to take heed!

       Notice in 2:11 how Paul confronted him: “To his face.” Not by complaining behind his back, not by complaining to Barnabas, not by mumbling and grumbling, not by gossiping. Motivated by love and concerned for the unity of the church he spoke to him directly. “Communication” is essential to any relationship, and that includes within the church! Not every confrontation can or should be public. In this case, Peter’s conduct had impacted others, so it was necessary, for the sake of the church, to publicly confront his hypocrisy. He knew the truth. He affirmed the same gospel that Paul preached. He had been living in the light of the gospel in relating to gentiles as brothers and sisters, but now, when certain men from James came, he “put on a mask” and separated himself from the others.

       In v.12 we are told Peter feared the “circumcision party.” It seems Paul is using that phrase to describe Jewish believers, and the issue may have been more cultural than theological. In chapter 3 he’ll get to the false-teachers that are currently troubling the Galatians. By referring to this situation with Peter he is laying the ground work for what is coming. Peter was afraid, we are not told why he feared. But he did. And in a moment of weakness he cut off the fellowship with his Gentile brethren. And when he did it as the leader, so, “even Barnabas” was turned, and all the other Jews. They followed his example, his hypocrisy. Put yourself in the place of a Christian Gentile in Antioch and imagine what that would have meant! “Wait a minute Peter, you said we were brothers, that Jesus broke down the wall and made the two into one, that there was no more division. Do you mean we’re second-class Christians? You can’t eat with us?”

       We need to be wary of slipping into hypocrisy, and be intentional about living a Gospel-centered life. The Gospel of Grace should result in a changed life as Christ lives in us and through us. Secondly, we learn here that we need to…

II. Be Willing to Confront one another in love (14).

¹⁴ But 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?"

       The key word in this verse, and perhaps in this whole passage, is “your conduct was not in step” – the phrase translates [orthopodeo] – a word which appears only here in the Bible. It literally has the idea of “walking straight.” Frequently in the Bible the life of faith is described as a “walk,” a step by step process. The Psalmist begins that way in Psalm 1:1, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked…” Instead, the righteous man “…delights in the Law of the Lord…” He believes God, and lives by faith. Peter knew the truth, he had affirmed and preached the same Gospel message as Paul. Paul has established that in the opening of this letter. There is only one Gospel, and he and the Jerusalem apostles were of one mind about that.  But Peter’s action in separating from the gentiles was a contradiction, after group of Jews from Jerusalem arrived in Antioch, was “out of step” with the Gospel (v.14). Theology is not a merely academic exercise of the mind. It also extends to our heart, and to our hands and our feet. Theology is always practical. I think that is what James means when he said “…I will show you my faith by my works…”

       Paul saw the problem clearly, since it was public and impacted the body, as an apostle he confronted Peter. We might think wait a minute, what about Matthew 18:15-17?  In this case, because of the public nature of the hypocrisy, and because of Peter’s unique position as one of the foundational leaders of the church, he confronted him publicly.  Augustine might have had this kind of situation in mind when he said “It does no good to correct in secret an error which occurred publicly.” Out of love for Peter, and for the church, Paul called Peter out – you know better brother – the gentiles are part of the family, by grace through faith, the same as us. There is no room for separation – we are one body in Christ!

       The warning here is to be watchful, first of all, to guard our own heart. We need to choose to live in the light of the Gospel. But also we share responsibility for the attitude and reputation of our church. I am not saying that we should be self-appointed “fruit inspectors.” But if we love one-another, we need to speak up when we see someone walking a path that is inconsistent with the Gospel. The Gospel of Grace should result in a changed life as we allow Christ to live through us and in us, being wary of our own hypocrisy, willing to confront in love, and…

III. Be Wise to base your actions on God’s Truth (15-16). Right doctrine should result in right living. Grace Precludes “works” as a means of justification: Reflect on the implications of Grace. We need to live “gospel-center” lives.

¹⁵ We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;  ¹⁶ yet 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 2:15-16).

       “Law” could not save the Jews, how could it possibly save Gentiles? Some-times it is hard to tell in the Bible where a quotation ends, and the narrator turns to talk to the audience. There were no quotation marks in the original manuscripts! I think Paul is still talking to Peter here, essentially restating what they both know to be true. What does it mean to be “justified”?  How is it that we can stand before a holy God? Most people have an idea that faith plus obedience gives us a right standing before God, don’t they? There is something skewed in that understanding. It is by faith in Christ that we are justified, that is, declared “right” with God. Did you learn that little saying in Sunday School as a child: justification = “just as if I never sinned!”? Because our sin was imputed to Christ, He bore our sins, taking the punishment that we each deserved, His righteousness is imputed to our account, by grace, through faith. So, when the Father looks at us, we are in Christ, and He sees only the righteousness of Jesus. So, now, for us, the Temple veil is rent, and we can come to Him directly and boldly.

       The words “just” or “right” in the Bible are from a root word meaning “conformity to a standard.” However, “justify” does not mean we are made righteous or good. Because of God’s presence in our life we are saved “unto good works” but not because of being good or righteous… Let’s read a couple of verses from another letter Paul. First, Ephesians 2:1-3 describes our former state…

…And you were dead in the trespasses and sins  ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-  ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind...

Then we read in the following verses about how we can come into a right standing before God…

 ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved-  ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith…

Rather, in legal language, we were condemned sinners (Eph 2:1,2) deserving judgment, under God’s wrath, BUT because of God’s intervention in our lives, by means of faith in the substitutionary death of Jesus, we are declared “not guilty.” Spurgeon said, “Morality may keep you out of jail, but it takes the blood of Jesus Christ to keep you out of hell!”

       Legally speaking, we who are “justified” are not judged by the merits of our case, in fact we are not judged at all, because Christ was judged in our place (Isa 53:4,5).  It’s a good thing we are not judged on the merits, for (2:16), “…by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified…” Paul is saying that even we who are Jews know the Law does not justify! So, we have in James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the whole Law, and yet stumbles in one point, he is guilty of all.” Even one little infraction and that is it, we are guilty? That seems to very explicit, does it not? Our only hope is the grace of God applying to our lives the righteousness of Christ—justification by faith. Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone.

       There are only two ways humans try to approach Holy God: trying to make themselves good enough – no one can do it – or trusting in Jesus and his finished work on our behalf (Eph 2:8.9; Rom 6:23). Most religions of the world, and sadly, many professing Christians, add to the Gospel. They start affirming salvation by grace through faith, and then think adding good works or human traditions is what makes them acceptable to God. The gospel is Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone. He took our sin. We received his righteousness. If you are His, you are forgiven! Am I saying all you have to do is say you believe? No. All you have to do is believe, rightly, who Jesus is, trusting in what he did for you. The result will be a changed life that longs to obey Him our of love. You are saved “…unto good works, which God before ordained that you should walk in them.”

What is God saying to me in this passage? So, we should be wary of slipping into hypocrisy; we should be willing to confront one-another in love, and we should be wise, living out the Gospel, remembering that theology is always practical. The Gospel of Grace should result in a changed life as Christ lives in us and through us.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage?  We’ll see in this letter that people easily drift in their understanding and application of the Gospel. Many embrace the idea of grace, and then think “I’m free! That means I can live any way I want!” No. The Bible says that if you truly believe, there will be fruit as God’s Spirit works in you (Eph 2:10; Phil 2:12).  John said, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life…” (I John 5:13). He never says, remember the decision card you signed? Remember when you walked the aisle and prayed the prayer? He says look in the mirror, what do you see? A life being changed by the Spirit? Growing in faith and faithfulness? Loving, without prejudice, the brethren? What does that tell you? If you are living like the world, you should ask, have I really believed? Without a changed life there is no basis for assurance. When we have believed, His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, we have eternal life! Believing in Jesus means recognizing and responding to Him as the Son of God, and trusting in His finished work as our hope of salvation.

      Easy-believism is not biblical. Neither is legalism. Many start with grace through faith, and then begin to add things, their church’s thinking about what Christianity should look like. Believe in Jesus, and do these things (or don’t do them!) and you are right with God. Paul will get to that present crisis in Chapter 3! (Read 3:1-3!). Grace plus works is not the gospel. When we are justified the perfect righteousness of Jesus is reckoned to our account. We are saved. Then we begin to live differently, as the Spirit exposes different areas of our life and brings them into the light of the Gospel. God’s love constrains us, God’s Spirit convicts us and guides us. That is Good News! And that is truly amazing grace!   AMEN.

Men of Conviction, Men of Commitment - Galatians 2:1-10

[OK, this passage from Galatians isn't about fathers, but I think this father's day we can apply the principles to our calling to teach and to model a gospel-centered life to the next generation! SN.]

Men of Conviction, Men of Commitment

Galatians 2:1-10

Introduction: I like the story of the little boy explaining to his friend the meaning of Father’s Day. He said, “It is just like Mother’s Day, only you don’t spend as much on the present!” Well, we had a special Mother’s Day message last month, for Father’s Day I am going to continue in our Galatians series. Galatians 2 is not specifically addressing fathers, but I think we'll see here some principles that apply. Hopefully I can tie it in to our need, in our families and in the church, to be men of conviction, and men of commitment, having the courage to live in the light of the Gospel and under the authority of the Scripture. As God challenged the nation through Moses, parents, and that must start with the fathers as the family-shepherd, are called to share the truth of God’s Word with their children…

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise…  (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).

In a world that questions absolute truth and prizes being “inclusive and affirming” the exclusivity of the Christian message is being watered down, increasingly conformed to popular thinking, rather than being consistently held forth in its life transforming power. More than ever we need men of faith, men who know God and take Him at His Word, living in the light of the Gospel of Grace. The saying is true that our children are not likely to find a Father in God, until they find something of God in their father. This text will confront us with some questions: Are we living a Gospel-centered life? Is the Bible your final authority? Is it obvious to your family that Jesus is your Lord? “Do as I say, not as I do” won’t cut it with our kids. We can’t expect them to surpass the level of our spirituality. By grace they might, but if we train them up in the way of the Lord, we have reason to hope that they will. Like it or not, we are an example to which they aspire.

       In this letter to the Galatians Paul is confronting false teachers who had been challenging his message and his apostolic authority. We’ll see that these false teachers were trying to drive a wedge between the Jerusalem church and the church in Antioch. Paul doesn’t get defensive, rather, he goes on the attack, showing that he and Peter were of one mind—they preached the same Gospel. We are in a better position than the Galatians, we have the entire Bible, all 66 books. Since we all have the same Bible; we should all agree in what it says right? Well yes, we should, but we don’t, because sin clouds our discernment. So, we need a teachable spirit, seeking to grow in our understanding, willing to test our beliefs against what the Bible really says. Part of that means learning from each other, as well as those who came before us. We have 2000 years of church history! Then and now, what is different? Paul was preaching in the beginning of the church age, and God was using him, and the other apostles, to lay the foundation on which the church would be built. They had to get the Gospel right.

        The false teachers Paul is confronting claimed to be representing the Apostles in Jerusalem. How could it be that Paul was presenting a different message?  Disunity, division in the church? We’ll look at how Paul deals with this question that could have possibly divided the church, and then apply the “then” to “now.” We’ll look at: (1) In 2:1–3 the need to be men of faith, men who take God at His Word. God had spoken to Paul as he had to the twelve, and he wanted to assure the Galatians that the Apostles believed and preached the same message. (2) In 2:4–5 we’ll see that we need to be men who are faithful, holding fast to the truth without compromise. (3) In 2:6–10 we’ll see the need for men who are “fruitful,” living in the light of the Gospel. Our ministries may vary, but our doctrine and practice must be based on God’s revealed truth. Paul’s main point is that he, not the Judaizers, was doing that. Paul said, When, after 14 years, I did confer with the apostles, they added nothing to my gospel, but approved of my work and gave me their blessing (and so there are not two gospels, but one). The Galatians should conclude, then, that the Judaizers that challenged Paul’s message did not really represent the Jerusalem apostles. On the contrary, they are false brothers (2:4) who Paul resisted and who were not endorsed by the Jerusalem apostles. He is urging the Galatians to stand firm in the Gospel Paul preached to them, and that they should reject the grace plus works message of the Judaizers. As we seek to apply this passage, we need to ask, what, if anything has changed from Paul’s situation to ours?  He was an APOSTLE, and ambassador and spokesman of Jesus, and so he spoke as an authorized representative of Christ at a time that the canon was not yet complete. We have the final and complete Word of God written, the Bible, 66 books. God has spoken in human language; He has given us His Word!

The Maine* Idea: We need men of conviction who defend without compromise the one true Gospel, and who live under the absolute authority of the Bible.

I. Men of faith, who recognize the apostles’ teaching, as expressed in Scripture, is the final measure of truth (2:1-3).  We affirm the priesthood of believers, but that doesn’t mean we forget 2000 years of church history! Paul’s gospel had to be consistent with the Jerusalem apostles, or the unity of the apostles is broken, and with it the unity of the church. Look at the “then” and think about the “now.”

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.  ² I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.  ³ But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. 

       Let’s be sure we understand this: the same Jesus who called the first disciples to follow Him, who walked with them and taught them for three years before His death and resurrection, is the One who, from before the foundation of the world, had a plan for a young pharisee named Saul of Tarsus. As surely as Jesus revealed Himself and His message to the twelve, He revealed Himself to Paul, first on the road to Damascus, and continuing through the years of his ministry, calling him to preach the apostolic message among the gentiles. Jesus never planned to have a Jewish church and a separate gentile church. Ephesians 2:15b-16 says, “…that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,  ¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross…” I don’t think when Paul says “lest I had been running in vain” (v.2) that he is saying he had doubts about his ministry and message and sought the confirmation of the pillars in Jerusalem. That would be contrary to the message of Galatians. What would be “vain” or fruitless, would have been to allow division to divide and disrupt the church. So, putting personal comfort aside, Paul goes with some others to Jerusalem to deal with the potentially divisive heresy that was being propagated by some. It seems this was the Jerusalem Council visit we read about in Acts 15.

      It is clear the desire for personal comfort and the fear of conflict which hinder our confronting one another in love do not spring from faith in Christ. They are not the fruit of the Spirit. They are products of the flesh. They are the kind of thing we experience when we do not look to Christ. But Paul says in Galatians 5:24, "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." By putting our faith in Him and drawing on the power of his Spirit, we cease to be enslaved by the love of comfort and the fear of conflict, and we are free to confront disagreement biblically. Jesus did not want Paul to ignore the problem. For the sake of the ultimate unity and growth of the body, He wants us to confront disagreement, in love, for God’s glory.

       It is also clear by what is happening here, that there are fundamentals of the faith that cannot be compromised. We can discuss and debate within the context of orthodoxy certain points of doctrine and application, agreeing to keep studying and seeking the truth together. Some things, however, are too foundational to be open for debate. Surely we can’t tolerate anything that undercuts the Gospel message itself. As we saw in Mark we need to understand and believe who Jesus is and why He came, and what it means to follow Him. After that, we can talk.

       And so, with the Gospel message challenged and the unity of the church at stake, Paul, along with his co-pastor from Antioch and co-worker on the first missionary journey, Barnabas, along with Titus, a gentile convert who Paul elsewhere calls his “son in the faith,” go to Jerusalem to deal with this matter, to affirm the apostolic faith. For us, the Bible says it, that settles it. The apostles had a unique, foundational position in the history of the church. And there was only one Apostle Paul! But dads, grandpas, do your children see you as a man of faith, someone who believes God? We still need men of integrity who defend without compromise the one true Gospel, and affirm the absolute authority of the Bible.

II. Men who are faithful, holding fast to the truth without compromise (2:4-5). Things got very tense for a while as the circumcision party (again, Paul calls them false brothers!) tried to force the issue of the necessity of circumcision (see Acts 15:5). But Paul would not budge because the gospel was at stake… Faith in Christ alone, plus nothing!

 ⁴ Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in- who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery-  ⁵ to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. 

       Why did Paul include this incident in his letter if his main point was to show that he and the apostles were unified? I think he wants the Galatian Christians to understand that this false gospel, which is no gospel at all, is not new. Earlier he had traveled to Jerusalem and Peter, James, and John were in agreement with him that circumcision and the outward stipulations of the Law were not to be added to the gospel, they could not be considered a requirement of salvation, and that anyone who would insist that they were, Paul calls them false-brothers. Why so harsh? The Gospel is grace alone, through faith in Christ alone, plus nothing.

       In verse 5 Paul says that he did not submit to these false-brothers for this reason: "That [or, “In order that”] the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you." If Paul had given in to the demand of the false brothers and accepted their “add-ons” to the gospel, the pure gospel message would have been undercut. There would be no gospel, no good news, if Paul gave in to the demand for circumcision. The good news to the world is that right standing before God was totally paid for by the death of Christ at Calvary and can be enjoyed only through faith in him. Any requirement that causes us to rely on our work and not Christ's work is not the gospel that the apostles preached.

       So, here in verses 3–5 Paul shows the Galatians who the Judaizers in their midst really are (the false brothers from Jerusalem), and what is at stake in their demands (the truth of the gospel). The teachers among them may come from Jerusalem, but they do not represent the Jerusalem apostles. They are false brothers, and their demands that you be circumcised and keep the feasts are a different gospel which is no gospel at all (1:7). Back to Father’s Day. Dads, you need to get the Gospel right. And that impacts our living. Gospel-centered lives. The church, and our families, need men of conviction who defend without compromise the one true Gospel, and affirm the absolute authority of the Bible.

III. Men who are fruitful, living in the light of the Gospel (ok, I may be pushing the alliteration too far once again!). What I mean is that, though our gifts and calling vary, our doctrine and practice must be based on God’s revealed Truth (2:6-10). Paul describes the affirmation of unity among the founding apostles of the Christian Church, and the safeguarding of the gospel from one of its earliest threats. For the Apostle Paul, the first missionary to the Gentiles, the most essential thing in the mission was to get the gospel right. Acting Christian won’t save us, or our children. We’re saved only through knowing and trusting Jesus.

⁶ And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)- those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me.  ⁷ On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised  ⁸ (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles),  ⁹ and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised…

       Finally, in verses 6–10 Paul describes his encounter with the apostles in Jerusalem. Verse 6 makes the crucial statement that Paul has been maintaining all along: "They added nothing to me." Recall 1:12, "I did not receive the gospel from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ." Years after his conversion, Paul did finally lay his gospel before the Jerusalem apostles; but they did not feel a need to add anything to it. Grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone. Plus nothing. Together they understood the idea later reflected by the hymn writer: “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe…”

       Even more important is the positive statement of verses 7–10. 2:7 begins, “On the contrary…” Not only did they not add anything, they positively affirmed the message Paul preached.  Verse 9 says that "James and Cephas and John . . . gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised." These guys wrote most of our New Testament! One church, one Gospel. The Judaizers were false teachers. The apostolic witness, the foundation of the church was not split. It was one. There was a strong, united base for two great missions, one to the Jews and one to the Gentiles. That was a great day for missions, a great day for us Gentiles. Paul stood his ground "that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for [us]."

       Then, finally, Paul adds verse 10. There is one other thing they agreed on: “Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.” Paul agreed with the apostles that compassion for the poor was pleasing to God and a crucial part of the apostolic ministry (see Barnabas in Acts 4-5; 11). For the church, we should reflect the heart of Christ. This is an outworking of the gospel, an example of a “good work” that results from being saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-10). And it is something our kids see in us, something that testifies to the reality of our faith. Dads, is your faith visible to your kids? They are watching!

What is God saying to me in this passage? Father’s Day can be a time to be thankful for our Dads, And, to remember that we all answer to God our Father. We need to be men of conviction who defend without compromise the one true Gospel, and affirm the absolute authority of the Bible (God’s inspired Word).

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? Since God in His sovereignty has preserved the message of the Gospel, since He has saved us by His grace, shouldn’t we be compelled to seize the opportunities He gives us to share that message? Jesus is still building his church – and He is using a diversity of gifts to accomplish that.  His Word is Truth. As we stand, without compromise on His revealed truth, as we examine carefully the Scripture, searching, studying, seeking to hear and understand the truth, we can be assured that “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.” We began this Father’s Day looking at Deuteronomy 6, and the responsibility of parents to teach and model spiritual truth to their children. Perfection? No, not one. But consistency, in your gates and on your door, when you lie down and rise up. We are a body composed of various members, each different, uniquely contributing to the work of the whole, but our message is one: Christ crucified, risen, and coming again! And that changes everything! Let’s be faithful in passing on that message to our kids. AMEN.

New Life In Christ! - Galatians 1:11-24

NEW LIFE IN CHRIST!

Galatians 1:11-24

Introduction: We are surprised perhaps by the escalating unrest in the Persian Gulf, with a carrier group now in the region.  Imagine what would happen if the Iranian Ayatollah suddenly said that rather than continuing down the path of radical Islam, bent on the destruction of Israel and the United States, he was converting to Christianity and began urging others to do the same!  That might have been something like the shock that both Christian and Jewish leaders felt in the first century when they heard that Saul of Tarsus, a zealous Jew committed to the destruction of the “Christ-followers,” was now claiming that he had met the resurrected Jesus, and was preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.

       As he continues this letter to the Galatian churches, Saul, also called Paul, turns for a moment to his own story, and he uses an apologetic argument to show the legitimacy of his message and his apostleship.  He had been advancing in Judaism, an up and coming leader who showed his zeal by doing everything possible to stop the followers of Jesus.  He gives his explanation of the radical change in his life: a direct, personal revelation from God, an encounter with the risen Christ, who called him and set him apart for a special purpose.

The Maine* Idea: One of the compelling evidences that God has spoken is the power of His Word to transform lives.

I. The God who is, the Great I AM, has spoken (1:11-12). God has revealed himself in his Word. The source of the Gospel preached by Paul was God himself.

¹¹ For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.  ¹² For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.   

       The phrase, “not man’s gospel” in v. 11 literally reads, “not according to man…” The idea is basically as the NIV translates, “Not something man made up…”  That is something that people tend to do. They create their own idea of God and religion, and they decide this is what they believe. Isaiah spoke to the foolishness of creating our own God when he wrote in Isaiah 44:14-17,  

…He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it.  ¹⁵ Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it.  ¹⁶ Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, "Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!"  ¹⁷ And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!

       Isaiah is using a little sarcasm there to make his point! Inventing your own “god” makes no sense, neither does making up your own ideas and calling it “God’s Word.” Remember the story of Benjamin Franklin who loved to get into arguments with his learned friends. He would occasionally find himself unable to answer their points and he would then ask, “Give me a day to think the matter over, I believe I am correct.” Meanwhile, he would go to his print shop, set up some type in the style of the Bible, and then express his position and argument in biblical language! He would then return to his friends and proclaim, “Whatever you may think you cannot get away from the fact that the Holy Scripture supports my position. As it says in the Sacred Writ…” Supposedly, the ruse worked… every time! We can’t make up the answers! Something isn’t true simply because we say it is… all truth is God’s truth. God’s Word is truth, and God has revealed his rescue plan, the Gospel, to us. The Apostle Paul speaks of “revelation” in our passage in Galatians, a “revealing” or an “unveiling” of something previous hidden or unknown. He expressed a similar idea in I Corinthians 2:12-13…

 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,  ¹³ which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

That is what Paul is claiming in our context in Galatians. The Gospel Paul preached did not have a human origin (11). He didn’t receive it from any other person, no one taught it to him. People are good at devising their own system of religion. They think they have God all figured out, and they have a good idea about what their God expects of people. The problem is that they appeal to their own imagination or reason, rather than submitting to the Word of God. Man is his own final authority, autonomous, and any religion that talks of sin and salvation, heaven and hell, rewards and punishment, is a false religion of hope that stifles human achievement! “Eternal hell? My God could never do such a thing!” Really? The problem is that your god is something you carve in your own image, rather than recognizing and crying out to the God who is!

       Most people seem willing to admit that “God,” or, “a god,” exists; yet most people, according to the Bible, are on the broad road that leads to destruction, they base their theology on what seems right to them: they think they are as good as anyone else, so in the end they will make it into heaven. We don’t get to decide arbitrarily on the path to God. The Bible warns, “There is a way which seems right to a man, the end thereof are the ways of death…” (Prov 14:12).

       Paul says in v.12 tells us what the only legitimate source of the Gospel must be: “I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it…” His message was not a church creed or a doctrinal statement that he received from other mere humans.

       “…BUT…” (strong adversative) “I received it by a revelation of Jesus Christ…” This seems to be an objective genitive, the revelation was Jesus himself (see v.16). In other words, Jesus was revealed to Paul, and He alone became the source of Paul’s message. His Gospel, the heart of the doctrine he preached, was not the party-line of a particular sect of Judaism, it was not the “seminary position” he had learned at the “school of Gamaliel,” it came from no mere human. It came directly through the words of Jesus Christ.  We have his Word, the Word of Life, it is his God-breathed revelation, given to teach, correct, instruct, guide and grow us. On Paul’s second missionary Journey, in Acts 16, he was heading south on the Macedonian peninsula and started preaching in a town called Berea, they received his teaching, then went and searched the Scriptures to so if it was so.

            Of course, we need pastors and teachers, God has appointed elders to lead us and guide us, but we need to be more like the Bereans, “searching the Scriptures daily to see whether the things they were taught were so…” Its because its not clever presentations or good story telling that save, but only the Word of God.  I love the story of a Polish actress, Madame Modjeska, who was a guest at a party.  Some of the guests pressed her for a recitation from one of her plays, finally she agreed, saying she would do a part in her native tongue… Her dramatic soliloquy moved some of the guests to tears with its power and emotion. When she ended, someone asked what part she had recited, the actress said, “I just counted to one hundred in Polish!” Oh well, for some people its not what you say but how you say it! This is at times the case with charismatic speakers, we get caught up in the eloquence, but there is no substance. Contrast Paul’s approach summarized in I Corinthians 2:1-5…

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.  ² For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  ³ And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,  ⁴ and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,  ⁵ that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Yes, the words of people can be moving, but it is the Word of God that changes hearts: Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. The God who is has spoken. We can take Him at His Word. It grips the soul and changes the heart, and ultimately the lives of those who believe. One of the compelling evidences that God has spoken is the power of His Word to transform lives. Glory to God!

II. God’s Word is powerful; it can reach into any heart (1:13-17). Did Paul look like an impossible case? From a human perspective, he was!  The truth is, so were you and I. We see in his conversion the truth that humans are lost apart from Christ, without hope. But praise the Lord, nothing is impossible for God!

…you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.  And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.  But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;  nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

       First of all, notice Paul’s former life (13-14). Paul’s “former life” was well known: He was not an obscure fisherman from Galilee.  He was an up and coming rabbi, a native of Tarsus, he studied in Jerusalem under one of the most prominent teachers of his day, Gamaliel.  His former life was well known, especially among prominent circles of Judaism. Paul was zealous for the traditions of the fathers. He was not in any way discontented with the traditions he had been taught. He was certainly not a rebel looking for a change! Rather, he was a zealous advocate of first century Judaism (c.f. Phil 3:5,6).

       Note also that Paul in his former life was not simply indifferent toward Christianity, he was zealously opposed to it.  The verb tenses indicate characteristic, ongoing action, “…persecuting…” “…continually bringing destruction…” Paul was not neutral concerning Jesus, willing to consider and discuss the possibility that he might be the promised messiah. No, his mind was made up, and this heresy had to be expunged.   But God spoke, and in the midst of Paul’s rejection of the Truth, God essentially pointed to Paul and said, “This one is mine, I have a mission for Him to carry out.” And Paul’s life was changed, completely. Consider what that means. What did it take for this zealous persecutor of the church to become a proclaimer of the Gospel? Divine intervention! What does that mean about the person and the message Paul preached? It is a powerful testimony to the truth of the Gospel. In my own experience, As I served on jury duty and heard the story of a woman who’s life had been changed through faith in Christ, God got my attention, the life changing power of the word was evidence that demanded a verdict. Read carefully the 15-16, who is the initiator in salvation?

       God does it (15a, cf. 16a). “But, when it pleased God…” This verse brings a strong contrast. Paul had been going in one direction, but God intervened and changed the course of Paul’s life. But, when it pleased God… Notice that God is the subject of the phrase, He is the initiator. It wasn’t Paul’s will to change, it was God’s will to deliver Him from the way of death. We cannot save ourselves. Christianity is not about turning over a new leaf, or about choosing to live morally. It is a rescue story, and God is our Rescuer. And so he alone gets the glory!

       God does it by grace (15b).  “And he called me through His grace…” Paul was keenly aware that he deserved nothing from God, nothing except judgement. And yet God intervened, and called him through his grace… The word is frequently used by Paul, the root idea is God’s unmerited favor, or, as the acrostic for the word G-R-A-C-E, God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.  We come helpless, unable to choose good and unwilling to choose God. There is nothing good in us that we should deserve it. Yet God reached down, and broke through our stony heart, and gave us life… “It is mine but to believe…” Someone described it as “The hand of a beggar reaching out to receive the gift of a King.”

       God does it through Christ (16a).  “…to reveal his Son in me…” John 14:6; Heb 1:1… Paul encountered the resurrected Jesus on the Damascus road (Acts 9:3-5)! Jesus bought our salvation in His blood, and we receive it through faith in Him.

       God does it for the sake of others (16b).  God saved Paul for a purpose: “…that I might preach him among the gentiles…”  We are saved to serve. As our brother Herb Mullen used to say, “God saves us on purpose, for a purpose.”  Note that for Paul, the conversion and the commission go together. God saved Paul, he reached down and took hold of his life, for a purpose.

       Can I ask, has God saved you?  Has he taken hold of your life and given you the reality of a “new life in Christ”?  Then he saved you to serve.  He has gifted and called you to have a part in His mission, starting right where you are: your family, neighborhood, workplace. Your changed life is a testimony to your neighbors that God is real, and that He intervenes in human lives. A compelling evidence that God has spoken is the power of His Word to transform lives!

III. Believers are transformed by God for His Glory: The life-change power of the Word of God testifies to its source and so brings glory to God (1:18-24). 

¹⁸ Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.  ¹⁹ But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother.  ²⁰ (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)  ²¹ Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.  ²² And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.  ²³ They only were hearing it said, "He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy."  ²⁴ And they glorified God because of me.

       First Paul takes pains to establish that he did not spend a lot of time with the disciples in Jerusalem. For many years he was virtually unknown, by face, after His conversion, to the church in Judea. He wants the Galatians to know, as he said in 1:1, that His authority as an apostle came directly from Christ, as did his message.

       We see in vv. 22-23 The Confirmation – the testimony of a life transformed circulated in the churches.  The changed life of Paul was a powerful testimony to what he had experienced.  He was a zealous persecutor of the church, how he had become a zealous proclaimer of the Gospel. How do you explain that?

       V. 24 shows the Consequence – The ESV gets the sense here: “And they glorified God because of me.” Only God could make such a change! Glory to God!

What is God saying to me in this passage? One of the compelling evidences that God has spoken is the power of His Word to change lives.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? If you are an inquirer, investigating the claims of Christianity, I would invite you to consider the evidence of the life of the Apostle Paul, and for that matter, the lives of the other apostles as well.  If one of the Islamic leaders in the Mid-East suddenly announced he had converted to Christianity we would be shocked. What about Kim Jung-un? That would shock us! Among the Jews of the 1^st century that is the kind of impact the conversion of Saul must have had.  A zealous rising star of Judaism, was suddenly preaching the faith he had once tried to destroy!  For over 30 years Paul preached Jesus as Messiah – despite persecution and imprisonment and eventual martyrdom at the hands of Nero.  How do you explain such a change, a man willing to die for the faith he once hated and persecuted? That is compelling evidence that calls for a response. Paul’s testimony gives the answer – he encountered the resurrected, living Christ, and put his faith in him. The Bible is not just about moral living or doing good to our neighbor. It is about Jesus, God the Son, who took upon himself a human nature, so that by His sacrifice we could be reconciled to God.   AMEN.