The Bible says in Galatians 1:1, Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by
Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;). We know for sure who has written this
epistle. Paul identifies himself by name right off. He also identifies himself
immediately by his position of authority. He is Paul the apostle. There were
only twelve apostles. Anyone else who has taught or preached or written has
done with much less authority than did the apostles, and especially the apostle
Paul. God gave the twelve apostles so that we would know the true doctrine
concerning Jesus Christ and His gospel.
If you want to know the truth of the gospel, then you must know
what the apostle Paul taught concerning the gospel. Then when someone else
comes along and teaches, you can compare what they teach to what Paul taught.
If they do not teach the same thing that Paul taught, then you can reject what
they are teaching. Because Paul was one of the twelve apostles, there is no
question about the origin of His authority. Paul did not get his authority from
man. He got it from Jesus Christ and from God the Father. The implication that
Paul is making is that some teachers come from man. Their authority comes from
their human relationships and their involvement in human religious
organizations. To whom do you want listen as the authority for the
religious teachings that you believe: someone who was sent by God or someone
who was sent by man? Hopefully you will choose the one who was sent by God. The
Apostle Paul was sent by Jesus Christ and by God the Father. Be careful. There
are teachers out there who do not teach the same things that the Apostle Paul
taught. Be forewarned. Make sure that you understand clearly the teachings of
the Apostle Paul, both for your own edification and so that you will be able to
spot a false teacher when he comes along.
One of the things that the Apostle Paul taught was the true doctrine
about the divine nature of Jesus Christ. In this very first verse Jesus is
equated with God. Paul said that he was an apostle by Jesus Christ and by God the Father. In other words, the person that Jesus
sent was also sent by God. The person that God sent was also sent by Jesus.
There is a common will and a common action between Jesus and God the Father
because they are one. What one does the other does.
The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is mentioned in verse 1.
Paul is reminding the believers of the central theme of his gospel: the death,
the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. There are people who use the name
of Jesus, but when you listen to them close enough, you will find out that
there are not talking about the same Jesus that Paul talked about. These false
teachers may say a lot of things, but they will not talk about the death,
burial, and resurrection and what it means; and they will not talk about the
deity of Christ or His unity with the Father. That is one of the things that
makes them false. Another thing that makes them false we will see throughout
this epistle: their misunderstanding about grace and their false teaching about
grace. The salvation that Paul taught was salvation by grace alone. The false
teachers corrupted this God-revealed concept of grace. They add law and human
works and religious ceremony to salvation. Make sure you understand the
doctrine of salvation by grace and grace alone, or you too will fall prey to
the false teachings.
In continuing his introduction to the believers in the region of
Paul said that this epistle that he was writing was to the churches of
One reason that Paul wrote to the churches in
Paul mentions grace for the first time in this epistle in
Galatians 1:3 where he says, Grace
be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is the unmerited favor of God.
Grace refers to the generous and giving nature of God. God is a giver, and the
most important things that He gives, He gives freely. He gives salvation, and
that is free. Faith is a gift. He ascended unto heaven and gave gifts unto men:
talents and abilities and callings. All of those gifts are free. He gives
opportunities. The challenges and opportunities of life are gifts from God. The
fact that these many gifts from God are graced upon us emphasizes the fact that
we do not deserve them and we do not earn them; but they are given to us anyway
freely.
God is a giver. What you need more than anything else is to come
into contact with and receive these free gifts from God. That is why in his
introduction to the Galatians Paul said that he hopes they would have grace from
God and from the Lord Jesus Christ. There is saving grace. If you are saved,
then it was only by the grace of God. You did not earn it or deserve it in any
way. There is also serving grace. If something good has happened in your life
to the glory of God or if some service to God has taken place in your life, it
is not because of you that it happened. It is only by the grace of God. Paul
was right. The Christians in
Grace refers to free gifts from God that we cannot ever earn or
deserve. But nothing is totally free. Every gift is purchased by someone.
Someone paid for the gift. The recipient paid nothing, but the giver paid. Why
is it that God has salvation and forgiveness of sins, and the spiritual gifts and
so many other gifts that are free? How were these gifts paid for? They were
paid for by the precious blood of Christ. These gifts are free to us, but they
came at a terrible price to Jesus.
Grace is an important thing to have in life and so is peace. If
you have tasted Gods grace, then you will be able to know His peace also.
Peace has a lot to do with what you think about and how you interpret what
happens to you. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. If you are going to have true
peace, you must get it from the prince. One of the common problems that afflict
people all over the world is a lack of peace. People worry, people fear, people
are troubled both about the past and the future. That is, they are troubled if
they do not find peace. There are so many things that can take away your peace.
You might be in an ideal human situation and still have no peace. One of the
common reasons that some people do not enjoy life is because they do not have
peace in their heart and mind. Paul certainly had a lot of wisdom from God. He
did not wish riches or prosperity or success on these people in Galatia. He
knew better than that. He wished for them grace and peace from God the Father
and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Concerning Jesus, Paul wrote in Galatians 1:4, Who gave Himself for our sins, that he
might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and
our Father. How good God is
to us! How undeserving we are of His many benefits. He looks down upon us, we
who have broken His laws and His commandments so easily and so often, and He
loves us. More than that, He gave
Himself for our sins. The
most important result of Jesus giving Himself for our sins is the deliverance
and the salvation that it affords us. That
is what God is thinking about: the eternal destiny of the souls of every human
being. God is not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Jesus said, What should it profit a man should he
gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?
Often when people think about their own eternal destiny, they are
motivated to give their hearts to Christ and to ask for forgiveness. Jesus gave
Himself for our sins, and according to Galatians 1:4, He did it according to the will of God and our
Father. Jesus gave up the
glory of heaven and came to die the death of the cross. Just before He went to
the cross He prayed, Not
my will, but thine be done.
In order to come to Christ you also must surrender to the will of the Father.
Paul is probably reminding the Galatians at this point of the fact
that we are delivered from our sins by Jesus because Paul wants the believers
in Galatia to wake up to the fact that they are saved by grace and by grace
alone because of what Jesus did for them. If I have been delivered from my sins
because of what Jesus did for me, then that means He did it all: there is
nothing more for me to do. And it also means that the false teachers are wrong.
If Jesus did it all, there is no law, no ceremony, no good works that I can do
to help deliver me from my sins.
Jesus did it all because Jesus paid it all on the cross. It is no
wonder that Paul said in Galatians 1:5, To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. One of the most important things for
believers to do now that they are saved is to give glory to Christ. We will be
doing that for eternity, and He will deserve every bit of it. You can tell how
much someone really understands grace and our total dependency upon the grace
of God that is in Christ just by listening to whom they give glory. If they
give glory to themselves or to some other human being, then they have forgotten
how much Jesus deserves the glory because of the grace that is bestowed upon us
through Jesus. Paul said that we should give glory to Him for ever and ever.
Now we get into the problem that the Galatians were having. Paul
wrote in Galatians 1:6-7, I
marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of
Christ unto another gospel; Which is not another; but there be some that
trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. A terrible false doctrine had come into
the midst of the believers in
But after they got saved, something happened. False teachers came
into their midst and started perverting the gospel. In other words
the false teachers taught something other than grace. They added to grace, and
they added to salvation. If you were saved, you were saved entirely by the
grace of God. Having begun in the grace of God through Christ, do you think you
can continue by relying upon your own works? There were false teachers in the
time of Paul, and there are false teachers today. If you have been influenced
by a false teacher and somehow you think that your salvation is dependent upon
your own good works, turn to Jesus while you have a chance and rely totally
upon Him and Him alone.
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Copyright; 2003 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved