Scripture: Galatians 1:1-5
SERMON SUMMARY
- Christ + anything = nothing
- Christ + nothing = everything
SERMON SCREENSHOTS & KEY POINTS
Today, we’re starting a new, in-depth study of the NT book of Galatians, which was, in fact, “The Letter that Saved the Church.” Does that sound shocking to you? Like, a bit of an overstatement? I assure you it is not. Let me give you some of the story behind Galatians so you’ll understand just how important this short, six-chapter letter really is. (BTW, this is a bit different from what you’ll hear in the sermon.)
A central focus of Jesus’ gospel ministry was to help people—all people—rich/poor, religious/not-so-religious, men/women, slaves/free, educated/uneducated—see that entering into and living out a relationship with God had nothing to do with faithfully observing religious rules and rituals, no matter how significant or even meaningful those rules and rituals may be.
Well, for the Jewish religious leaders, that made their blood boil. Hearing Jesus tell crowds full of “sinners” that what they had been taught about the Law of Moses all their lives fell short of what Yahweh intended in giving the Jewish people the Law; hearing Jesus say to those crowds—“Unless your righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the Pharisees, you’ll never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven”—well, it was more than they could bear.
And that, and other things like, Jesus basically claiming to be YHWH in the flesh, God in the flesh, is why the Jewish elite made sure that Jesus got crucified, which, of course, was God’s plan all along. And, Jesus was crucified, God raised him from the dead, and he ascended back into heaven and sent his Holy Spirit to live inside all who put their faith and hope in Jesus, and only Jesus.
In the early days of the church, that Gospel—Jesus died for your sins so you could be forgiven, and Jesus was raised from the dead to give you eternal life through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit—that Gospel, was preached in Jerusalem and in Judea. In the beginning, the early church was a Jewish church and most of its members went to the synagogue or the Temple on Saturdays, and they gathered in homes on Sunday, the first day of the week.
The amazing thing is that those early Jewish believers gave up making sacrifices in the Temple b/c Jesus was their once-and-for-all sacrifice for sins. They gave up thinking that the priestly system could or would save them b/c they understood Jesus was now their high priest. And, they gave up thinking that the Mosaic Law had any part in making them right or keeping them right with God b/c faith in Christ Jesus alone made them right with God, and living under the guidance of the Spirit kept them right with God.
But as we see in the book of Acts, God always intended that all people—Jews, Greeks, Romans, Asians, and Europeans—would sit at Abraham's table in the kingdom of God. So, we see the Gospel breaking down national, racial, and cultural barriers as it moves from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and all the way to Rome.
And this raised an issue, especially for those early church leaders who were Jews. Yes, they believed Jesus was the promised Messiah, but they still held fast to living by certain rules and rituals and Jewish traditions b/c in their minds, parts of their Jewish religion were equally as important as faith in Messiah Jesus.
So, when Gentiles—that is, anyone who is not a Jew—Greeks, Romans, Galatians—put their faith in Jesus, the Jewish Christian leaders wanted the male Gentile believers to be circumcised, and they wanted all Gentiles—male or female—to keep the Jewish food laws, special festival days, and lots of other laws as well.
In fact, they made it clear to these Gentile Christians—their exact words were—“Unless you are circumcised according to the Law of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1). You see their point? They’re saying, “In order to become a Christian, you must first become a Jew.” Yes, faith in Messiah Jesus is essential, but it is faith in Jesus PLUS obeying the Law of Moses that truly saves you.” And, this became a serious problem.
A heated debate broke out between them and with Paul and Barnabas whom God was using in amazing ways to lead 1000s of Gentiles to put their faith in Jesus. So, to try to work all this out, they called a meeting in Jerusalem, known as the Jerusalem Council. All the big names were there: Paul, Barnabas, James, Jesus’ brother, who became the head of the church in Jerusalem, Peter, who God used first to open the door for Gentiles to be saved by faith in Christ Jesus alone—and of course—the believers who had come to Messiah Jesus with strong Pharisaical leaning were there, beating the drum that, “It is necessary to circumcise [Gentile believers] and to order them to obey the law of Moses” (Acts15:5)—and there was this great debate—
And Peter spoke—(Acts15:7-11 NLT). “Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the Good News and believe. 8 God knows people’s hearts, and he confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts through faith. 10 So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? 11 We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.” And then Paul and Barnabas told their stories about preaching the Gospel of grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone and how the Holy Spirit showed up to heal and to save. And then James, the Lord’s brother and moderator of the council meeting, stood and gave what was supposed to have been a binding ruling for the church. After quoting a prophecy from Amos foretelling God gathering the Gentiles back into His family—he said—19 “…So my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood. 21 For these laws of Moses have been preached in Jewish synagogues in every city on every Sabbath for many generations.”
So with that—they sent an official letter with Paul and Barnabas back to the Gentile churches stating very clearly that Gentile believers did not have to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses…
But they did ask Gentile believers refrain from eating meat sacrificed to idols and from eating meat with the blood still in it—to promote fellowship between Jews and Gentiles—since much “fellowship” took places around dinner tables—and they also called them to abstain from all forms of sexual immorality and to live sexually pure lives.
Matter solved, debate resolved, right? Wrong. You see, those former Pharisees and their friends, (they came to be called “Judaizers”), they just could not let go of the idea that living in relationship with God was more than simple faith alone in Christ alone. No, the Old Covenant, Mosaic Law, could not just be tossed aside. I mean, didn’t Jesus say, “Not one dot of an “i” or cross of a “t” in any part of the Law would pass away”—???—Yes, Jesus said that, but He also said that He had come to fulfill the Law in both letter and spirit. And He said that the indwelling Holy Spirit had been given to us to lead us to live in line with the Gospel, which would result in living in line with the spirit of the Law.
But as I said, for the rule-keeping believers, Paul’s grace-based teaching was a dangerous delusion that would lead people astray. When in fact, it was their “faith + rule-keeping” teaching that was dangerous. So dangerous, in fact, that Paul condemned it in the most radical way possible—calling it “Anathema”— …
Let me quickly boil all this down for you. From the very beginning, the Gospel, the Good News that you can be made right with God and kept right with God by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone has come under attack. And this letter to the Galatians is about never allowing anything to be added to the Gospel of grace—not religious rules or rituals, not church traditions, not the self-righteous thinking that your “goodness” or your good works somehow contribute to making you acceptable to God. Galatians tells us to never let anything like that be added to the Gospel of grace. That’s the “big idea” of Galatians. You could put it into a kind of a formal like this—
Christ + anything = nothing.
Christ + nothing = everything.
That’s Galatians in a nutshell. That’s the “big idea” of Galatians.
Now, in the first five verses, Paul will make two important points that he’ll unpack in more detail as he continues to write this letter.
First, he says, “I have the right to correct your understanding of the Gospel because I’m every bit as much as an “A” Apostle as Peter and John and all the rest. Second, the Gospel I preached to you, the Gospel that you believed is this simple: “Jesus gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age. The sermon will unpack these two points.
*We are a church located in Greenville, South Carolina. Our vision is to see God transform us into a community of grace passionately pursuing life and mission with Jesus.