Galatians 3:1-14

1. Faith in Jesus was sufficient to save you (Galatians 3:1-5). … Paul reminds the people of Galatia that they were saved by faith in Jesus. Paul was there; he was the one who planted the church there and led many of them to become followers of Christ. Last week we saw one extreme in licentiousness, that grace is a ticket to do anything we want. That’s not what grace is for. This week we see the ditch on the opposite side: legalism. Those who are legalistic believe that works are more important than faith in salvation, that keeping the law is required for salvation.

2. Faith in Jesus was sufficient to save people in the Old Testament (Galatians 3:6-9). … Paul, writing to people who have started to think the law is what saves them, points out that even Old Testament characters, the fathers of the Jewish faith, were saved by faith. Abraham was saved because he had faith in God (Genesis 15), which occurred before circumcision (Genesis 17).

3. Works are not sufficient to save because you would have to continually do everything written in the law (Galatians 3:10-14). … If you’re going to make up for everything you’ve done wrong, then you need to do everything in the law all the time. If you slip up just once, you have failed. We are all cursed because none of us are capable of keeping the entire law for our whole lives.
   Christ redeemed us from the law by becoming a sacrifice for us! He took our curse and gave us His righteousness and the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is accept this trade, this offer, this gift by faith.

Galatians 2:16-21

We are all guilty of sin. We are all under the condemnation of a just God. How does a person move from condemnation to justification? How does a person become right with God?

“A person is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16). … This is the verse that best sums up the book of Galatians. Paul tells us three times that we are saved by faith in Jesus and not by works or by the law.

What goes in the blank?

• Works? All other major religions tell us we have to do something to achieve righteousness/Nirvana/Paradise/Heaven, but Christianity is the only one that has God doing the work. In all other religions its humankind reaching up to God, but Christianity is God reaching down to humankind.

• Faith? Only Christianity tells us that all we need is faith to be right with God.

• Works + Faith? Cults tend to add works as a requirement alongside faith, but that taints the Gospel and the news that was good is no longer good when works are also required. Rather, as Christianity teaches, works are the result of faith.

If salvation is a free gift received by faith alone, does this encourage sin? (Galatians 2:17-18) … Paul either anticipated this question or had already been asked it and addressed it. Keep reading.

No, because when we believe Jesus, we are reborn. We die to our old life and now Jesus lives in us (Galatians 2:19-20). … When we receive the gift of salvation through faith, we are joined with Jesus and spiritually take part in the crucifixion. This experience of being reborn has the power to completely change a life.

In Galatians 2:21 Paul states that if there were other ways to obtain righteousness and salvation than Jesus died for nothing. There is no other way. Rituals don’t please God. Works don’t please God. Self-suffering doesn’t please God.

Throughout the history of the church, we have had to keep coming back to the truths in Galatians, that salvation is by faith alone. In fact, this is how the Reformation started. A young monk named Martin Luther tried to do whatever he could think of to be right with God, but he sensed none of it working. Eventually he was assigned to be a Bible teacher and as he studied and taught more he began to realize some truths that the church had strayed from, including salvation is by faith in Christ alone. He posted his findings hoping to start productive conversations and it led to the reformation, producing the protestant churches many of us worship at today. If you don’t know much about the reformation, I encourage to look it up because it is a major part of church history.

Galatians 1:11-2:14

This letter is about defending the Gospel, but before Paul can defend the Gospel, he must first defend himself and his apostleship. What does this have to do with us and why is Paul’s credibility important even today? Paul wrote much of the New Testament and his teaching have been important to Christians ever since he wrote them down. If Paul’s credibility is no good, then neither are his teachings. He understood this and defended himself as an apostle.

1. Paul’s apostleship came by revelation from Jesus (Galatians 1:11-24). … Paul, who was originally Saul, persecuted Christians before his conversion. Then Jesus appeared to him on the road and called Paul to serve Him. Paul’s apostleship wasn’t simply granTed by some man or woman. He had a miraculous meeting with Jesus.

2. Paul’s apostleship was affirmed by the leaders of the twelve apostles (Galatians 2:1-10). … The apostles recognized that Paul was an apostle like them and was called by Christ like they were.

3. Paul’s apostleship was asserted in a confrontation with Peter (Galatians 2:11-14). … Peter, also called Cephus, feared some of the Jewish believers who thought every believer should be circumcised and started to draw away from the uncircumcised gentiles. Peter already knew God didn’t show favoritism between circumcised and uncircumcised, but still withdrew fellowship from the gentiles and comprised his faith because of peer pressure. Others noticed Peter doing this and followed suit. Paul also noticed and rebuked the leader, Peter.

Questions to consider:

• Do you accept the whole Bible as God’s revelation to you through the apostles?

• Will you listen to God’s call in your life? Is He calling you to salvation? To a ministry Assignment?

• Is there an area of compromise in your life due to the pressure of other people?

Galatians 1:1-10

This week we start a series of sermon going through the book of Galatians. It’s going to take a while to get through it, but the goal is to know what Galatians is about by the end of this series. That way we know where to look when we struggle with something that relates to it. Galatians is primarily “a defense of the Gospel of salvation by faith in Jesus” as the title suggests. The background for Galatians comes from Acts 13-15 and is in modern day Turkey. Certain teachers were instricting believers among the gentiles that they must also be circumcised to be saved. Paul didn’t like this because it added a required work to the free gift of salvation, which is obtained by faith alone.

Paul opens the letter defending his own apostleship, which gives him more authority on the subject in the letter. Then he states who the letter is for and greets them with a summarisation of the Gospel. The next part is typically where the thanksgiving goes, but Paul foregoes that here because he is apparently ticked off. He jumps straight into the issue.

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel--which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the Gospel” (Galatians 1:6-7).

Paul expresses his astonishment at how quickly the people have turned from what he had taught them. Scholars believe that this letter was written just a year after Paul was at the church he’s writing to. It took only a short time for them to be led astray by false teachers, and Paul has to write to them in an attempt to turn them back.

Paul really finds the perversion of the Gospel to be a truly horrible thing. He says that they shouldn’t listen to anyone who preaches a different gospel, even if it is him or an angel, going so as far as saying to let them be damned to Hell. Sometimes people change the gospel to please people; however, we aren’t here to please people; we’re here to please God. Changing the Gospel does not please God.

Questions to consider:

• Have you embraced the Gospel of salvation by faith in Jesus?

• In what direction is your life trending?

• Are you allowing anyone to lead you astray?

• Do you have friends or relatives who are trending away from the Gospel for whom you need to pray? (James 5:19-20)