Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Gospel Priority*

*Galatians 1:6-9*

*Key Words:* Gospel, Justification, Faith, Law

 

*Introduction*

Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia uses some of the harshest language in the entire Bible.

This is Paul’s most passionate defense of the gospel in the New Testament.

Timothy George writes: “From beginning to end its six chapters of 149 verses bristle with passion, sarcasm, and anger.

True, there is a touch of tenderness as well; once in the midst of the letter Paul referred to the Galatians as his ‘dear Children’ (4:19).

As the context reveals, though, this was the tearing tenderness of a distraught mother who must endure all over again the pains of childbirth because her children, who should have known better, were in danger of committing spiritual suicide.”[1]

Paul was astonished and ‘perplexed’ by their departure from the truth of the gospel.

He calls the Galatians “foolish” in chapter 3 (3:1), referring to them more literally as, “my dear idiots.”

But what has him so upset?

The churches in Galatia (modern day Turkey) to which Paul is writing are those which he himself helped plant not long before.

Now they were tolerating, if not altogether embracing, a form of teaching that directly contradicted that which Paul had previously taught them about the saving work of Jesus Christ.

Paul is fighting for the very soul of these churches and he doesn’t mince his words with those whom he regards as enemies of the gospel.

And yet, while Paul writes Galatians with strong words and appropriately harsh rebukes, the book maintains a constant theme of grace throughout.

Galatians was the major foundation for the Protestant Reformation.

Martin Luther was especially fond of it, calling it his “Cathering von Bora”, for he said, “I am wedded to it.”

*Historical Background*

I want to start by taking a look at the historical background of this letter because it is very important as we attempt to determine what led to its composition and Paul’s disposition when he wrote it.

Based on the events recorded in the book of Acts, we can conclude that Paul had visited Galatia at least twice during his missionary journeys (Acts 14:21).

Galatians was written to several churches in the region of Galatia, probably sometime around 48 AD, which was just prior to the Jerusalem Council described in Acts 15 (15:1-21).

Galatians records the struggle of the gospel spread to the gentiles, and is a reflection of the way in which the issues of the gospel were being debated and handled in Jerusalem, Antioch, and Syria.

I mention that this letter was written /before/ the Jerusalem Council because it is important to know what led up to the council and where the Galatians fell in the issues that were raised – this will help to explain Paul’s mindset while writing the letter.

The Jerusalem Council was meeting to answer several questions that began to enter into the church when the gospel began to spread to Gentile regions.

They were attempting to determine things like “Is it right for Gentile and Jewish Christians to eat together?”

or “Can they eat the same food?

Was an Orthodox Jew contaminated by such fellowship, as Jewish tradition declared, or was he not?”

So, the most important question of the Jerusalem Council, in other words, was whether or not the Gentile’s we required to conform to the laws of Moses.

It was a hotly debated issue until it was settled by the leaders of the church.

“As the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul had deliberately not brought up questions of conformity to Jewish law when presenting the gospel to non-Jewish communities… As Paul preached it, salvation is never to be achieved by any amount of conformity to rules and regulations – even God-given regulations.

Law condemns.

Consequently, if there is to be salvation for sinful men, it must come in another way entirely.

God has offered this other way through Jesus Christ.

Jesus died for sin.

Now God offers righteousness freely to all who put their trust in him.”[2]

So, Paul was preaching the simple gospel message – the doctrine of justification by grace, through faith, apart from works of the law.

He proclaimed this message from the very beginning of his ministry as an Apostle, and Acts tells us that as a result of the Jewish opposition to Paul’s proclamation of Christ crucified in the synagogues, Paul and Barnabas turned to preaching to the Gentiles in Galatia.

Many were converted.

But soon after they left the region, Jewish converts to Christianity began teaching in the Galatian churches that the new Gentile converts must submit to the Law of Moses and undergo circumcision like /they/ had as Jews in order to be justified before God.

These false teachers were called Judaizers, and were throwing the Galatians into confusion soon after Paul had departed saying that the gospel which he had proclaimed to them was dangerous because it did not require obedience to the law as a condition of deliverance from the wrath of God.

The Judaizers did not believe that Jesus’ death and righteousness was sufficient in-and-of itself for the salvation of sinners.

It appears as though the Judaizers were not flat out denying that a Christian must trust in the death of Christ in order to be delivered from the wrath of God which is to come.

These false teachers were much more subtle than that.

To their way of thinking, the death of Christ was necessary for salvation because it removed the guilt of past sin.

But the Judaizers also believed that faith in Jesus Christ alone was not good enough to render a person “righteous” before God.

To the Judaizers, if one was to maintain a right standing before God, they must add to faith in Christ as Messiah the ethnic symbols of Israel: submission to circumcision, the keeping of certain dietary laws, the celebration of Jewish feasts, and fulfilling obedience to the Law of Moses.

So, Gentile converts were being required, in the Judaizers’ teaching, to believe in Jesus /and/ to also live as Jews.

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*Paul’s Response*

Paul responds to these false teachers in Galatia with deep concern, anguish, and righteous anger.

The letter begins very abruptly, without the typical friendly greetings that characterize Paul’s other letters.

Paul had helped to plant these churches by preaching Christ crucified (3:1).

The Galatians, many of whom were Gentiles (4:8), had warmly welcomed Paul during his first visit (4:14-15), but now many of these same people had been deceived by those whom Paul describes as trouble-makers and agitators (1:7; 5:12), who had come into the region from elsewhere, looking to add new followers to their movement while boasting about the “flesh” of their converts (6:13).

Their basic motive was spiritual self-aggrandizement: they wanted ‘to make a good impression outwardly’; they wanted these Gentile Christians to be circumcised that they may boast in the flesh.[3]

So, Paul’s main goal in writing is to rescue his Galatian congregations from falling from grace (5:4), which is a possibility that he says causes him deep personal anguish (3:1; 4:19; 5:12).

The anxiety and anger that Paul expresses is the same that any loving parent or friend would experience if a child or companion was going seriously astray.[4]

…………

Now, we have the background, so here’s the context of these verses so that we don’t miss the forest through the trees.

The forest in this book is easy to forget since it seems so obvious, but we must remind ourselves of the very fact this letter is to the churches at Galatia.

The book of Galatians is a book about the gospel of grace, in Jesus Christ.

Paul speaks of the gospel 4 times in verses 6-9.

This letter is about the truth of the gospel.

But it is not written to non-believers.

It is written to who profess belief in Christ as Lord and Savior.

Now this might seem fairly obvious, but it’s important to think about because we often think of the gospel as that truth that non-believers need to hear in order to become believers.

We might even think that it is for new Christians, to remind them about what they just began to believe.

What ends up happening is that we begin to think, very subtly, that the gospel is what saves us as brings us into relationship with God and into the Kingdom, but in order to /grow/ we need to learn more important doctrine.

The problem with this type of thinking is that it guts any power or motivation to change beyond what we can muster in our own strength or intellect.

Yet, it is not just that we are saved and then grow through /our/ effort, but rather that we are saved and are /being/ saved; that we are saved by the gospel and only grow as we learn how to apply the gospel to every area of our lives.

It is good news that we are saved, and it is also the good news of how we are going to grow in our life in Christ – by the strength and power of Christ, for the glory of Christ.

The book of Galatians is about understanding the gospel, applying the gospel, and getting the gospel into the hearts of believers.

So now we read – the gospel is at stake and Paul gets right to the point.

*Galatians 1:6-9*

*vv.

6-7*: Paul, it seems, is genuinely shocked at the news he has received from Galatia.

He had poured his life into these people and now, we read in verse 6, they have “quickly” turned from that which Paul proclaimed to them, rejoicing instead in the message of a false gospel.

Paul says simply that they are turning to a different gospel, and then he immediately qualifies this statement by saying in verse 7 that there /is/ no other gospel.

In the Greek he literally says they were “turning to a different gospel, which is not another.”

It’s that simple—there is “not another.”

From this, I draw two observations:

 

*1.

New believers are fragile, and easily tempted by the Evil One.*

Nothing delights the Devil more than to be given enough leash to disrupt and destroy a true work of God.

Whenever there is a genuine moving of God’s spirit, or a great missionary advancement of the gospel, we can be certain that Satan and his minions will have an interest in casting doubt, causing confusing, stirring up arguments, and wreaking havoc.

This was shown in Galatia and has been repeated /thousands upon thousands/ of times in the Church throughout history.

And so if for no other reason than the fragile state of a new believer, we do poor and sinful service to Christ and his church when we indiscriminately lead men and women to profess faith in Christ but then leave them vulnerable to attack – when we leave them to the ravenous wolves that seek their destruction.

Being committed disciples is not optional – it is the difference between life and death for those whom we see awakened to the realities of Christ.

God has created us to live in community with one another – to love one another, to serve one another, and to mutually encourage one another as we are being sanctified together.

The hard work of discipleship has, by and large, been abandoned by most Christians at the altar of individuality.

The privatization of our lives has caused us to be a people that values private property and personal growth and self help, over and above the communal work of discipleship.

Being a committed disciple means that we are intentionally sharing our lives with other believers.

A committed disciple is encouraging others, teaching them, holding them accountable, and praying with~/for them.

As is evidenced in Paul’s relationship to Timothy, the work of a committed Disciple is the day-to-day, life-on-life relationship that goes beyond a simple hand shake and small talk on Sunday morning.

It is a labor of love existing within the desire to see true growth and change in the lives of God’s people.

It is intimate and consistent.

Ultimately, it is one seeing and hearing from another how the gospel is to be lived out in day-to-day life, how Christian disciplines are to be maintained and cherished, and how to live with a focus on the prize of Christ in the life to come, and not the things of this world.

And yet, while new Christians are in great danger of temptation by the evil one, it is unfortunate that many believers who have been Christians for years upon years in their life have never truly matured beyond the milk to the meat of faith.

And I am not speaking primarily of /intellectual/ knowledge and growth, but rather maturing in the ways that the gospel is /lived/ /out/ each day.

It is easy to /know/ what the Bible teaches.

It is far more difficult and requires greater maturity and discipline to /live/ what the Bible teaches.

I think the lack of spiritual maturity and visible fruit in the lives of Christians owes in large part to the lack of a commitment to discipleship in the local church – A lack of a sense of community – A lack of responsibility on the part of the mature for the immature.

This is you going to great lengths to ensure that others are being encouraged and challenged to move further in their faith, and to go deeper in the commitment to Christ where they can grow roots that will cause them to be immovable in the face of temptation and controversy.