We are beginning the book of Galatians this morning, many scholars believe this is the first letter written by Paul, likely around 50 AD. Before Paul was a great apostle, he was a zealous Pharisee, and led a group that persecuted, and executed early followers of Jesus – He had a life-changing encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, chronicled in Acts 9, likely 33-34 AD, and given the specific calling to take the message of Jesus to the Gentile world. Galatia is a region in modern-day Turkey – in fact, Ankara, the nation’s capitol, was once a major city in historic Galatia. Paul planted 4 churches in Galatia during his first missionary journey according to Acts 13-14, which included Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystre and Derbe, but apparently began hearing about a group of Jewish converts known as “Judaizers”, who were preaching a different version of the Gospel than the one he had preached in the region of Galatia. In Acts 15:1-2, the problem with their version of the gospel was laid out: Jesus plus the law of Moses and circumcision equaled salvation. Basically, a faction of early Jewish believers were wanting the rest of the world not just to become like Jesus, but also become more Jewish in their thinking and religious practice – their version of the way of Jesus was very nationalistic, which is ironic, because they were also the ones who rejected Jesus and had him put to death.

In short, this faction of Jews wanted to follow Jesus, but on their own terms, they were unwilling to leave their old religious traffic patterns, but rather include Jesus as part of what already existed – can you see the problem? If you were with us during our study of Hebrews, the writer was very clear that the law of Moses and the Jewish sacrificial system was simply a placeholder for Jesus. Blood sacrifice was a reminder that they could never live up to the law because of their sin (Hebrews 10:11-12), and Jesus was the once-and-for-all perfect sacrifice for all sin for all time. So, it is clear that an understanding of the gospel (good news) of Jesus was imperative if the movement were to survive.

So, Galatians was written as an indictment on the Judaizer’s message the Jesus was simply a part of a new Judaism. Can you see how easy it is for something to sound close to the truth but be so far off? In fact, just 1 degree off course can leave you way off the mark – if you are 1 degree off your designated course, after 1 mile you are only 92 feet off, but if you left San Francisco and your goal was Washington DC, 1 degree off course would land you 42.6 miles away. If your target was the moon, 1 degree off course and you would miss the moon by 4200 miles. The further your goal, the more time passes, the further 1 degree takes you off course.

Just like the Galatians, it is imperative that we have an understanding of the gospel of Jesus – otherwise, you run the risk of living a life that Jesus never asked you to live, and end up missing the goal of the way of Jesus by a long shot – so, let’s dive into the letter to the Galatians, written around 50 AD by Paul, to try to get them back on track. – Galatians 1:1-10

Verses 1-2 - Paul’s greeting was not abnormal on the surface, but knowing the purpose of this letter, he sets the tone early. He calls himself an “apostle”, which denotes spiritual authority – what he is claiming here is that he is an ambassador of Jesus, sent directly by Jesus with the message and power of Jesus, and he includes “sent not from men nor by a man” which was a shot at the Judaizers, and even the early church in Jerusalem, which we will see as we go through this letter.

Verses 3-5 - Paul now has laid out the two-fold purpose of the letter in his greeting: First, my message is not man-centered, but Jesus empowered, and second, Jesus gave himself for all sin as a RESCUE from the present evil age, by the will of God the Father – So, his greeting is his thesis statement – “I have been sent by Jesus to tell you this: Jesus died to rescue you from your sin – the law cannot save you, circumcision cannot save you – ONLY JESUS can save you from a dark, evil age.

Let’s check in here: Paul could totally write the same letter to the American church today – the American church, while doing some great things, has also missed the mark in some areas, especially adding to the gospel – While the term legalism might not be apples to apples here, we certainly see it in the church today – in many churches, there is a “clean up your life in order to come to Jesus” mentality – In order to be “rescued” by Jesus, you have to look like Jesus first, which actually sounds like you are rescuing yourself – Make no mistake: when you begin to follow Jesus, you should begin looking different – In James 2:26, James states that faith without works is dead religion – however, he is not saying that faith plus works equals salvation, but rather that your works are the PROOF of your faith – Ephesians 2:8-9, Paul says we are saved by GRACE through FAITH in Jesus, not by WORKS, or adherence to works or customs – So, let’s be clear: the essence of the gospel is that you can’t fix yourself by adherence to the law or doing enough good to outweigh the bad – ONLY JESUS can rescue you from your sin – AFTER SALVATION, Jesus changes the way you think and act by the POWER of the SPIRIT, not by you just ACTING DIFFERENTLY and trying to be a better version of yourself.

Verses 6-7 – “astonished how quickly deserting the gospel…” – Paul is clearly writing to them shortly after having planted churches in Galatia – he is saying, “I was literally JUST THERE, and you are already turning to a lesser version of the gospel, which he says, “is no real gospel at all”- Paul is saying this: “I told you that Jesus is all you need, and now some have come behind me trying to add rules and regulations to the simplicity of the message of Jesus” – So, I can totally understand why this was a real challenge – following Jesus at this point was a little more than a decade old, and was a word-of-mouth movement – this is part of the movement we talked about the last couple of weeks – the book of Acts chronicles the movement of the message of Jesus from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth as they knew it at the time, which would include the people of Galatia – they didn’t have what we have today: 27 letters written by nine authors written to early believers known as the New Testament that were explaining who Jesus was, how he fulfilled Jewish prophecy and was a completion of the OT law, and a new way to live as result – We have so much more information, with so much less interpretation needed in order to follow Jesus
V8-9 – Paul states strongly that those who preach a “different” gospel than the one he preached should be under God’s judgment – strong language from Paul – this is a matter of life and death – so emphatic that he says it twice, with a little tweak – first, he says that the gospel “we preached” is the ONLY GOSPEL, and that any deviation should bring God’s judgment – second, he says the gospel that “you received” is the ONLY GOSPEL, and that changing course should leave you under God’s judgment.

Verse 10 – Paul knew what Jesus had called him to, while he called Peter to found the church in Jerusalem, he called Paul to take the message outside of the Jewish race, which was unpopular to the Jews, even Peter, which we will get into in a couple of weeks. Here he was saying, “I’m not going to win a popularity contest by opposing my own people, but my approval and identity don’t come from them, but from God. What he is saying is that people pleasing and Jesus don’t mix. When you choose to follow Jesus, it will not be popular with those who have a different set of man-made goals.

So, let me summarize our jumping off point in Galatians. Early Jewish believers were very nationalistic. So, the idea of letting others into their new-found freedom in Jesus would come at a cost: Look more like us, follow our standards and customs, like adherence to the law of Moses and circumcision, and THEN you can be enfolded into this new way. So, this was actually motivated by FEAR and CONTROL – how does this relate to you and me today?

First and foremost, it is Jesus that changes a human heart, not the church’s desire for people to clean up before being considered “Christian.” We have to stop expecting non-believers to look like believers – and even further, we have to let the regenerative work of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit change the direction of a person’s life. This doesn’t mean that we don’t disciple into the way of Jesus – just the opposite! You want to point people to the truth of God’s word – it’s why we study books of the Bible. But we want to encourage people to be in the SECRET PLACE with JESUS, because that is where change takes place, not through our enforcement of scripture. (John 8 – “go and sin no more”)

Parenthetically, this has historically been a trend in missions in the American church – go to foreign countries, share the gospel with them and teach them how to be more American in their thinking and acting – in short, abandon everything you know and culturally grew up in and become someone who will have no relevancy in your culture – this trend is changing, and it should – again, it is FEAR and CONTROL that causes us to clamp down and drive people to look more like us, then let Jesus do the changing in their own context.

Finally, and to Paul’s point, pleasing Jesus is the goal, not pleasing people. If you find yourself changing the truth of God’s word, specifically the way of Jesus, to accommodate your lifestyle, or not offend the people around you, Paul says you are in danger of God’s judgment and are not a servant of Christ.

One degree off course will leave you lost, more and more over time. Knowing the Gospel in its simplicity matters. Jesus plus NOTHING equals salvation. He will change your life AFTER you begin following him, not before. Any other way will fail.