Galatians Introduction and Background
Galatians · Bob Eckel · Jan 3, 2010
Galatians (2010), No. 01
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492615186542

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

I'm going to begin this morning by acknowledging Berne Peterman. Berne, in his very scholarly and academic way, has provided me with endless materials on the Book of Galatians. I also want to acknowledge Roger Henderson, who has purchased for the teachers this book by Chester Macaulay on the Book of Galatians. So I'm loaded with materials, and I'm sure I'll be inadequate to adequately summarizing all the information that's been given to me. I'm going to actually be using a little bit of Vern's material this morning in that Vern sent me his whole introductory class on Galatians that he actually presented in The Sanctuary. Remember, Galatians was a book that we covered maybe, what, three years ago, Roger, something like that, approximately, and of course Vern is loaded with material.

I suggested that Vern come teach the class this morning, but Vern has his own class to teach, so we're going to go ahead without him. Our role here the first week is just kind of set the stage for the Book of Galatians in terms of the important text that follows.

So you have your handout and try to kind of not use the handout too much to focus in on. It's smaller print today. I like to do it bigger, but because I took on a Byrne-like style, I have more pages than I usually have. I'm usually somewhere around six or seven. Now I have 16 today, so we'll thank Byrne for that.

All right, let me get this oriented correctly, and we're going to go forward. All right, so what our intent today is to kind of set the stage for the Book of Galatians in terms of the times, in terms of the author, in terms of the date, in terms of the people to whom it's addressed. And I'm going to spend the last 5 to 10 minutes on kind of the content of the book in terms of what we hope to overview briefly today and set the stage for what follows.

Good to have our electrical engineers involved here. Good. All right. Thank you very much. So the book is written by the Apostle Paul, stated very clearly in Galatians chapter 1 verse 1. So let's just document that before us here. It's not a mystery.

In Galatians 1.1 it says, ìPaul, an apostle not of men, neither of man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren who are with me under the churches of Galatians.î It's clear from the first verse and the second to follow that ultimately Paul, through the power of the Spirit, is in fact the author.

This is written from Syrian Antioch, and just to describe the modifier of Antioch, here's Antioch to the east, which in today's land is in Syria. When Margaret and I were recently in Tiberias in the region around the Sea of Galilee, we went up to a place where we could see Lebanon and Syria both. And so this Antioch is in fact historically in the country of Syria. So this is the Syrian Antioch. This is presumably where this book was written.

And then there's Poseidon Antioch, which is actually up in Turkey. So there are two Antiochs. And in scripture, I must admit, sometimes I've been somewhat reckless in looking at the term Antioch and assuming one place. There's actually two locations called Antioch. And much of his missionary journeys really relate to this Antioch, although it may include this one. So you have to be careful in trying to understand exactly which Antioch Paul is referring to.

Now, the timing of this is thought to be, I put AD 49 before as more definitive, but when you look into this a little bit more detail, there's a little bit of room to error, and we're not quite sure it's 49 AD, but it probably doesn't make a lot of difference. It's somewhere around the period of 50 AD. Now, some actually favor a later date. This would be at the time of his third missionary journey, and we're going to look at these missionary journeys a little bit to try to understand why the timing of this written epistle might be relevant in terms of some of its interpretation. It was probably composed by Paul when he was on his way to Jerusalem, and this was the Jerusalem Council, which is really occurring around the period that's described in Acts 15.

Therefore, the Galatians book, actually the Epistle of the Galatians could be one of the earliest letters of Paul and possibly the earliest book in the New Testament. I mean, we're not quite sure of the date, but anyway, this is one of the earlier books anyway that's been written, the Epistle of the Galatians. So it's written to the Gentile Christians in Galatia who were located in the broad area of what's called Asia Minor. And one of the controversies that comes up here is, was this epistle written to the northern Galatian province, or in fact was it written to the southern one?

And so if we look at the map, ultimately the northern area is termed Galatia, interestingly enough. We'll look at the derivation of the term here in a second, but it includes Thessalonians, includes Tavium, includes Ancyra. Now again, we're going to look at this area a little bit and try to decide how relevant that is compared to the southern area, which is really pathways of Paul through his missionary journeys to a large extent. Here we're talking about Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, again this is the second Antioch or the Turkean, if you will, Antioch that ultimately Paul traveled through, perhaps not only on his first missionary journey but perhaps his second also. So this is really a tremendously right barrier for debate in terms of theologians.

Galatia itself refers to the Roman province. It's important to know that the Gauls were kind of a Celtic warlike tribe that originated in France someplace. And then around 300 BC migrated to Asia Minor in this area of northern Galatia. Let's go back to the other map. So over to this area is where the Gauls originally apparently emigrated towards. So with that area, ultimately, we find that around 25 B.C., after the death of Ametus, which was apparently the king of the region, the Romans took over. So the history really relates to largely emigrated Gaul and a series of thrones that occurred subsequent to that until the Romans took over after his death in 25 B.C. So we're seeing kind of a historic development of a tribe of people that originated in France and emigrated down to this region and then Rome kind of took over summarily near the time of the birth of Christ.

Now the Phrygians are described as the original inhabitants of the area and they originally dwelt and were identified with the northern region. So the northern part of Galatia is kind of the indigenous population, the Gaulian emigration It's a group of people that ultimately we find very little evidence of in scripture that that's to whom this epistle was written. These people had a history of nature worship. They were noted for their fickleness and impetuosity and love for new and curious things, but there were also Jews in the area. The Jews were not only in the northern area but also in the south.

The fact that Paul's first missionary journey with Barnabas described in detail in Acts 13 We find that this evidence strongly supports the fact that the epistle was written to the southern Galatians believers, but the commentary by Ryrie very much argues that we're not quite sure here, that he really provides lines of evidence that maybe it was written to the north and lines of evidence that were written to the south, and ultimately I think you can kind of get overwhelmed by this debate. Now I know Verne feels fairly strongly that it was written to the southern part of Galatia, not the northern part, but I listened to the introduction by J. Vernon McGee yesterday.

He's so funny. He's a man that I have a lot of respect for and although I think there are times when we're not perfectly right on the same page. Look, you know, we can develop this whole academic argument for the North versus South, he said, but some things in scripture we just don't need to spend a lot of time on. And so he's basically summarizing this whole debate and saying it doesn't make any difference. The epistles written to the church at Galatia. And we'll just leave it at that.

So, the missionary journey does strongly suggest that Paul was more involved with the southern nation in the area of the journey that I'm going to show you in more detail in a second. Epitaphs for this book, which are other names, a description or ultimately an alternative view of this epistle is the Magna Carta of Christian liberty. So, if you think about the Magna Carta and everything it stood for historically and now we think about Christian liberty. This is truly the book that we put our heads on in terms of ultimately resting in the truth of what it means to be a believer.

The other epitaph is the other gospel cursed. And that really is a strong introduction to the book of Galatians. In fact, after the first five verses, we get right then into this other gospel issue. And this other gospel, I would suggest to you, prevails in Christianity today to a large extent. And this is a cursed gospel because anything that's founded on the principle other than grace is cursed. I mean, that's the words of Paul in the book. to the Ephesians.

So interesting epitaphs as you think about where Galatians finds itself in the history of New Testament theology. So let's look at Paul's first missionary journey sometime between 48 and 49 AD. So here's the path, starts in Syrian Antioch, travels through Cyprus, up through Perga, Antioch, the other Antioch, over to Iconium, to Lystra, and back to Derbe. Clearly, this missionary journey of Paul reflected his intent, desire, and knowledge of the Galatian province in terms of spreading the gospel.

So here's our Galatian timeline. Here's the cross. Thank you, Vern. Here are the years going from 30 to 50 AD. And here's the period of perhaps the first missionary journey. So let's put this into a logistic timetable, Paul's first missionary journey described in Acts 13 and 14 throughout those two chapters, somewhere between 46 and 48 AD, and so that falls in this period here. And then the concept we have here is that Paul's letter to the churches in the Roman province of Galatia sometime occurred subsequent to this first missionary journey.

The lines of evidence for this are somewhat soft, but yet supportive of the fact that this Jerusalem Council, which we're going to be dealing with here in the book of Galatians, ultimately was never mentioned in this Galatian epistle, meaning to indicate that maybe that hadn't occurred yet and the writing of this book preceded this Jerusalem Council. Again, the Jerusalem Council will be in part addressed in this book, but ultimately had not yet really occurred. So we're not quite sure exactly how all this relates to the exact timetable. Now this is interesting and Byrne had identified this in his lessons from the pulpit, but a papyrus copy of Paul's letter dating from 180 to 200 AD is shown here and so this was found about 200 years after the birth of Christ.

But here's Galatians 1, 1 through 5 on paper. So we have, obviously, among many other areas of scripture, documentation that this text, in fact, did exist. So the sequence of evangelisms in Galatia went something like this. Paul preached in Antioch, and that's the Antioch in the north, in Turkey. And was driven out by force.

And that's shown in Galatians 13.50.

I mean Acts 13.50. Let's turn to Acts 13. We're going to be looking at Acts a little bit as we go along the lesson here this morning.

So Acts 13.50. We can start with 49.

And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region, but the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their borders. So this is the gospel to the Antioch region and ultimately the outcome of that preaching. So then Paul preached in Iconium and was driven out there by force. So here he's driven out by force in Antioch and driven out of Iconium by force.

Let's turn to Acts 14, 5 and 6. So let's start with verse 4 maybe. But the multitude of the city was divided, and in part held with the Jews, in part with the apostles. And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully and to stone them, they were aware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lyconia, and upon the region that Lyeth round about. So ultimately we see persecution also in the region of Iconium, ultimately being driven out by force. So then Paul went on to Lystra, as indicated in the verses we just read, and there he was stoned and left for dead. So Acts 14, verses 19 and 20.

And there came there certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stone-pulled, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. Nevertheless, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up and came into the city, and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe."

So, you know, the missionary journey through Galatia was not one of great fun, I'm sure. but yet the persistent path was ultimately to spread the gospel. We go back and look at that emigration again through the first missionary journey. There we see the path as described in Acts, up to Antioch thrown out by force, Iconium by force, and then Lystra and Derbe. Lystra left for dead. So this is all occurring during Paul's missionary period to Galatia and ultimately his first missionary journey which would result in the epistle to the Galatians ultimately being written in part based on this experience.

So Paul and Barnabas were actually joined together in this first missionary journey, and they had appointed elders in each of these churches during the last half of this first missionary journey, and that's recorded in Acts 14.23, where it says, And when they had ordained elders in every church, presumably in Iconium, and in Lystra, and in Derbe, and in Antioch, they had prayed with fasting, and they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. So here is a result of the missionary journey that we have new believers who are ultimately then some of them appointed to the role of elder in their various bodies and Paul and Barnabas departed.

But these elders by necessity must have been spiritually young and that maybe the term elder has more meaning in terms of the definition of elder than we thought earlier and ultimately that's evidence in Galatians 1.6. I marvel that ye so soon be removed and what it goes on to say removed from the true gospel into this other gospel which is more law based. than it is based on grace. So, new church, new believers, and ultimately some confusion, I think, is about the division between grace and law and the body, and that will set the stage for much of what the book is about. Now, Paul's second missionary journey, I actually kind of learned some things as I looked into this.

It occurred a little bit later from 49 to 52 AD. This was with Silas, not with Barnabas. Remember Barnabas and Mark went off together and Silas joined up Paul on the second missionary journey. And ultimately, this journey began here again in this region, actually in Jerusalem, went up through Syrian Antioch. Then up through Tarsus, Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, all part of that journey. Interestingly, the same area that was part of the first journey. then up through Western Turkey or Asia Minor, up into Greece and back down ultimately through bypassing Cyprus and back to Jerusalem.

So that was a much more expensive journey. And what I learned particularly about this missionary journey was the fact that although Timothy later joined the journey, by the way, Timothy joined somewhere in Greece. He did not join the journey in Asia Minor. But Paul was forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the gospel at all in Galatia.

So if you turn to Acts 16.6, and this was somewhat amazing to me, I had not any clue about this. So this area is entitled The Spirit Guides to Troas, The Macedonian Vision, Luke Joins the Party. Verse 6, ìNow when they had gone throughout Phrygia,î which is really the northern part, more northern part of Galatia, ìand the region of Galatia, and were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Nicaea, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit allowed them not. And then they came down to Troas and then they went on into Macedonia.

So according to the scripture, this second missionary journey related to no gospel being presented or shared at all in Asia Minor in the area of Galatia. Now again, our assumption is the book to the Galatians, the epistle to the Galatians had already been written at this time. So maybe this impediment, if you will, of the spirit having them share the gospel in this region related to the fact that they'd been there, done that, and the epistle had been written, but you have to believe that there's much more to be shared than ultimately was historically recorded at the time of this first missionary journey.

So any thoughts about this at all? Paul, yes, talk. I'm sure there are plenty of still not convinced persecutors in that whole area who, having heard that he was still in their thoughts at large, that they'll never gun him for him. But gun him. So how do you think that the Spirit would have worked in Paul to say to him, there's no ability to share the gospel here? Do you think it was actually the fear of persecution, ultimately maybe death by sharing the gospel? I wouldn't call it fear, I would say that Paul was an instrument of war. Okay, I like that. That's a very, very good interpretation. So Paul doesn't show as much fear, does he, in his ministry. I mean, Paul walked by faith.

And you have to believe that the fact that the Holy Spirit precluded him from sharing the gospel on Asia Minor really reflected the fact that that was spirit-led. and God's purpose, because there was a third missionary journey to go yet, and also many epistles yet to be written, right? So we have to trust this wasn't an act of fear, but an act of wisdom by faith in what the Spirit was leading him to do and ultimately would lead him to do in years to follow. Other thoughts here about the second missionary journey. Had the class really realized that on his second journey he was not capable or led to share the Lord in Asia Minor at all?

That was news to me. I think the scripture documents that clearly here. Obviously, the message into this region of the world, into Macedonia and Greece ultimately was very much accomplished during this missionary journey. Remember, Silas joined up with him after he left Asia Minor and then ultimately Timothy got on board too.

So his third missionary journey occurs about five years later in the period of 54 to 58 AD, and here's that journey. Now it's interesting here, this journey, like the first one, began in Antioch. He stopped in Tarsus, or at least Tarsus was on his path, Iconium's on the path, but Antioch, Derbe, and Lystra were not part of that journey. So in a sense, he went through the same region of southern Galatia as before, then went into western Turkey, up into Macedonia again, and then back to Tyre, actually coming back to Israel into the area of Tyre after this journey.

So there's not a lot of time here that he spent, at least in churches that we would have identified as part of his first missionary journey at that point in time. So, important to realize now, as Paul traveled throughout this region, that there in the land of Galatia, or the province of Galatia, there were kind of three cultures that existed there.

The Roman culture by default came in and overtook the region and considered it their kingdom as of the year 25 BC. So the Roman culture was clearly influencing this land. Keep in mind the Gauls who originated in France ultimately were presumably kind of historically tied into the Roman culture to some extent. There's the Greek culture which had preceded the Roman culture that was clearly part of the land there and much of what was written was in Greek. Clearly, I think the Greek language was probably part and parcel to many of the people that lived in the region. Finally, there were Jews that had emigrated to that region or actually had inhabited that region that ultimately were part of the challenge of the book and epistle to the Galatians that Paul would be the author of.

Rome. Augustus Caesar, an emperor, received the adoption of sons is noted in Galatians 4 or 5. And we're going to see that Paul took a number of illustrations from Roman law since he knew their strong Roman background. And also, as you well know, Paul himself is a Roman citizen. So probably Paul was very comfortable in the way he presented the gospel to the Romans and that he was a Roman citizen ultimately probably had privileges there that would not have been true had he not been a Roman citizen.

So let's turn to Acts 22, 25-29 and also to 23-27 and take a look at those verses. We're talking now about Paul's defense interrupted. He asserts rights as a Roman citizen. In verse 25 of chapter 22 in Acts, it says, ìAnd as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, ìIs it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned?î And when the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, ìTake heed what thou doest, for this man is a Roman.î Then the chief captain came and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman?

And Paul said, Yea. And the chief captain answered with a great sum, Obtained I this freedom? And Paul said, But I was free born. Then immediately they departed from him who should have examined him, and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him. So Paul's defense obviously was satisfactory to those who in fact had his life at their hands and ultimately I think this gave him the privilege of writing and appealing to the Roman citizens who were in that land.

So chapter 23 verse 27, here we're talking about Paul being removed by night to Caesarea. In verse 27, it says, ìThis man was taken by the Jews and would have been killed by them. Then came I with an army and rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman.î So again, Paulís Roman citizenship gave him, I think, special privilege appealing to that culture in the land of Galatia. Katagogas is stated in Galatians 3, 24-25 to kind of be tutoring, and there is the papyrus again reflecting the importance of the Greek culture in this epistle.

So, you know, the Greek culture had been there for three centuries, probably around 300 B.C. to some 150 or 50 to 25 B.C. was really a period of Greek culture, Greek citizenry, Greek oversight, you know, governmentally. And this is why I think Paul wrote much of this in the Greek. So he's a Roman citizen, but yet the Greek language was the language which would appeal to probably a substantial part of the populace.

And so here we see represented all the Greek gods and the Greek culture would also explain why these people sought to worship Barnabas and Paul as Zeus and Hermes. which were the Greek names for the deities. So if we turn to Acts 14, we ultimately see in verses 12 and 13 that this identification by the Greeks was in fact in place. And they called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. And then the priest of Jupiter, whose temple was before their city, brought oxen and garlands under the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people.

So here we've got this Greek god perception about rulers in the land, and Paul and ultimately Barnabas were identified with some of these Greek deities. Though a minority, I think, of people in that land were Jewish, there were clearly Jews living in this land for several centuries.

Here's a synagogue in the area of Pisidian Antioch. This is the northern Antioch that provides evidence that the Jews had a presence in this area of Galatia at the time. And there was a strong Jewish influence in these cities, and that's evident in many, many verses in Acts 13 and also in Acts 14, 1 through 5. Let's just look at Acts 14, 1 through 5 as a brief introduction to this theme. Verse 14, 1.

And it came to pass in Iconium that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews. And so spoke that a great multitude, both of the Jews and also the Greeks, believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil, affected against the brethren. A long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, who gave testimony unto the word of grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the multitude of the city was divided. and part held with the Jews and part with the apostles. And when there was an assault made, both of the Gentiles and also of the Jews, were their rulers to use them despitefully and to stone them. So they were aware of it and fled into Lystra and Derbe.

So here is, I think, substantial evidence that ultimately the Jews were on the land and another culture that Paul had to deal with. In fact, much of the Galatian flaw in terms of the gospel interpretation relates to the Jewish presence in the land. These are Jewish believers who are then falling back as Judaizers on the way of legal systems in terms of living the Christian life. So I think this is really important.

So the strong Jewish presence would explain why Paul used illustrations from Genesis to make his point. Probably the most repeated example of that is Abraham. So in Galatians 3 and Galatians 4 we see up to 10 to 12 verses in those two sections dealing with the faith of Abraham. And of course Abraham has obvious relevance to the Jewish tradition. and the legal system although Abraham preceded the law ultimately the Jew claimed Abraham as their spiritual father.

So I think keep in mind now we've got evidence now that Paul had three missionary journeys all which include Asia Minor that the first missionary journey we perhaps have more evidence of his sharing the gospel and establishing churches. The churches were immature and the elders were appointed as new believers to leadership positions. The Jews were there and probably many of the new believers in Galatia were in fact Jews in addition to Greeks and Romans. Here we have these mixed cultures wherein Paul needs to appeal perhaps the same message in different ways. That's what Paul means when he's in Rome, he does as the Romans do.

He doesn't change the gospel message, but the way he presents the gospel message is somewhat different. than he would to the Greek culture in southern or northern Galatia. And if you think about our own lives as we represent lights in the darkness as New Testament believers, the body of Christ, the way we share the gospel will be different every time we share it based on to whom we're sharing. And that's spirit-led. If we're sharing with a Jew, we're sharing with an agnostic or an atheist or someone with a Buddhist background, the way we present the gospel will still be the truth of the word of God that may differ based on to whom we're presenting to in terms of the nature of that testimony.

Now let's turn to more of what this book is all about as we think about proceeding through it verse by verse over the next 50 weeks. The major content of the Book of Galatians has two basic issues which it deals with. The first is the purity of doctrine. So we're going to see repeatedly from chapter 1 through the end of 6 that, particularly in the first four chapters, that doctrine needs to be our backbone. And when we violate doctrine and truthful theology, we really violate the truth of the word of God. In fact, we may lead many astray, not only in terms of their salvation, but the working out of their new life in Christ that's spirit-led. Secondly, the purity of conduct.

So this is more dealt with in Galatians 5 and 6. The first topic of doctrine is more Galatians 1 through 4. But those are the issues and notice purity is part of both. The purity is the righteousness and holiness we have in the Lord Jesus Christ and that relates to both doctrine and the Christ's life in terms of the conduct we live by the power of the spirit.

So it gets down to very basic information. What's the gospel? And the gospel is justification by faith, not works. Very simple principle. Law-keeping as a means of salvation is condemned. Moreover, the ceremonial law, especially circumcision, is not binding on the Gentiles. So there's nothing about the legal system as applied to the Jewish culture or Jewish faith that relates to the born-again believer as part of the gospel account. Therefore, stand fast in the liberty in which Christ has made you free. We're saved by faith, we're justified by faith, not works, and our life is in fact lived by faith, not by works.

As I frequently say, it's not what you do, it's who you are. Once you know who you are, then what you do is an evidence of who you are. Let me repeat that. It's not what you do, it's who you are. And once you know who you are, then what you do is by faith in evidence of who you are.

And that's really the theme of the book of Galatians. Important verses, I think, just off the top is the different gospel, which will be a very important lesson in Galatians 1, 6 through 8. The cursed gospel of law rather than the perfect one of faith. Being co-crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, and not I, but it's the life of Christ that lives in me. By the way, if in fact we live by law, Christ has died in vain, verse 21, so strong, such a great, great verse. To think that Christ was our schoolmaster, or the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ is really a truth that I think underwrites much of the epistles of the Galatians.

And the purpose of the law in 3.24 is really clearly outlined in the book. and the fruit of the spirit, importantly, in terms of conduct, the purity of conduct in our lives, in terms of the spirit lifting up the new man in Christ to bring about fruit and bring about those works that bring glory to the Heavenly Father. So these are just kind of verses just kind of chosen to kind of overview the entire book and its major important message.

So let's go tangential here for a second and just kind of set the stage for the next 50 weeks. What is legalism anyway? Well, I pulled this from Wikipedia, which is probably just one source of definitions, but it's the mental attitude that man can do something to merit the blessing of God either in salvation or in sanctification. Notice it says or. Legalism is not a trip to salvation nor is it a trip to sanctification. Legalism is a mental attitude that we all have that we think has merit.

I think that's a pretty good definition. I mean, there's some system we need to respond to, to bring merit to ourselves, even in terms of I was saved, I'm being saved, or I will be saved. There's nothing we can do to bring merit to ourselves before God.

And we were studying in Daniel chapter 4 last night, after Daniel had returned from being a beast in the field. I mean, Nebuchadnezzar returned from being a beast in the field and had claws, presumably claws like, his hair was like an eagle and claws were like what? A bird, yeah. So anyway, he's got this beast-like configuration. His first statement coming out of there is about God as being the most holy and high God was that man is nothingness. I mean that was his conclusion after being a beast for seven years that man has nothing to bear, nothing to bring to God.

So in a sense, legalism is believing that we inherently have an ability to accrue merit to ourselves either in terms of our choices and our works to please God and so this I think is a good definition. Evidences in Galatia, circumcision, a good evidence that there's some merit about being circumcised in terms of being in a right relationship before God. Insistence on observing certain days. And ultimately the outcome of a legalistic life as a believer is it stifles the life of Christ within us.

Let's turn to Galatians 5.4 here. Take a look at that. Somebody have that, go ahead and read it. Christ has become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are fallen from grace. My goodness. We've now concluded the study of the book of Galatians. And the grace principles law is also stated in the verse that Mark just read. What it does is leads to hypocrisy in a life that has lived to impress men.

Galatians 6.12.

Somebody on that one please. Those who desire to make a good story in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. So let's interpret that. For as many of you is desire to make a fair show in the flesh. By the way, circumcision is just an example of that. I mean this could be any other legal principle applied to the believer in his or her Christian life. So if we desire to make a fair show in the flesh, meaning again the flesh here you know, in circumcision is the true flesh.

But I think you could almost, you know, extend that interpretation to the flesh or the sinful nature. Ultimately, you know, we in fact do not achieve really the ultimate goal for the Christian life in terms of the life in Christ. It's simply an outward sign of a fleshly act that has no merit before God. And Paul addresses all of these issues, I think, in terms of the applied legalism of life by really clearly revealing that salvation is by grace alone in chapters 1 through 4, and that sanctification is also by grace alone in Galatians 5 and 6. So these principles of salvation and sanctification by grace are really strongly established in the book of Galatians. And I don't know, again, if there's any rhyme or reason to the order of the epistles of the New Testament, but remember, what follows acts?

Yes, Dan. Wouldn't you say that in a modern context, 612 is basically being politically correct? Yeah, I think so. Absolutely. Politically correct in terms of earthly circumcision before the Jewish faithful, right? But today, exactly. Right. It's what happens today. Really. That could be a good application of that verse. Okay, good.

So first book after Axis Romans, we're founded in the true doctrine of the Christian life and then what's next, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, which is kind of the let go, let Christ, I'll do what I want kind of deal without really recognizing the power of the Spirit in the life and now Galatians really getting back to the basics about the difference between grace and law. So I think the order of the epistles really sets the stage for what does follow. We just did Ephesians, and you could mix up the order however you want, but I think Galatians is a fairly early epistle for important reasons. So I think as I've kind of concluded today with this kind of relatively impotent attempt to set the history and background of the Book of Galatians, I think it should be a great book and great fun to do together and I think that it's amazing how often we apply legal principles to our life that we don't even really intellectually acknowledge on a day-to-day basis.

So I'm working with a great teaching team here, Roger and Randy, and you're going to get different styles with different sections and hopefully it'll be ultimately to the benefit of all of us going forward. So thoughts, comments, other issues that we need to bring up here today. Yes, Kim.

Going back to the earlier part where Paul didn't preach in the area that he was going through, the Holy Spirit told him not to. I was thinking that there are times maybe when we say, oh I missed that opportunity. to speak to someone about the Lord, when perhaps really it was the Holy Spirit that it wasn't the right time or we wouldn't have said it in the right way. Yeah, but sometimes you do think, too, that when we, in fact, did miss an opportunity, the spirit's reminding us, gee, I had a door open there.

I think you're absolutely correct. Sometimes under the legal garb that we put on, we do feel guilty of not sharing, but then there are other times maybe where our flesh gets in the way of actually sharing when the door was open, so that can go both ways, I think, but it's a good point. I think the Holy Spirit is totally capable of opening that door. I mean, you know, it's not like we have to feel guilty.

Does the Holy Spirit open the doors or are the doors open? The Holy Spirit acknowledges that. I mean God would have all to come to know him, right? I mean all to be saved and ultimately the entire earth is a wanted world in terms of being free of Christ, of salvation, of sanctification.

It's clear that I think this problem with culture that Paul faced in Galatians, a Rome Jew and ultimately Greek, was a tremendous influence on how he shared and what he shared. I think the spirit opens doors from our perception being spirit-indwelled. This may be different for different people. Obviously they have a different background, different culture. I think it's interesting that Paul, who is the apostle to the Gentiles, actually had to go to the Jews to reheat. teach them of the one God because of the Greek, you know, Mount Olympus gods. And then you got the Romans pantheism, which is all gods.

And so here Paul has to go back to the synagogues and actually teach the Jews about Yahweh. And he was actually the apostle to the Gentiles. Of course, Paul is well steeped in Jewish tradition and Jewish law, right? I mean, it's interesting the way he and Peter kind of divided the turf and Peter's really responsibility was to the Jewish nation and Paul's more sort of the Gentile. But Paul never lost his roots. What a shame that the Jews had lost that over the course of time because of culture. Because of culture. Tradition. Yeah, tradition. Yeah, tradition. You know, I think the Messianic Jew today often is one that's not made free from his or her tradition, too, and I think that's often an issue that comes up when we're with brothers and sisters who have a Jewish background.

Anyway, the Book of Galatians, I think, is one where we're going to take a lot of time. If we're doing an average of three verses for a week, we're going to be drilling down and there will be lots of room for discussion going forward. So, Roger, are you teaching next week? Yes, I am. Father, we're thankful for the entire Word of God.

We know that the entire Word is for us but it's not entirely about us, but this book of Galatians really is so relevant because our Christian faith is founded on the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came out of the Jewish tradition where in fact law prevailed, but we know that law was simply a propitiation and not the true atonement for ultimate sin of mankind.

Like from the very beginning, we're all asked to live by faith and that faith for for Joseph and for Jeremiah and for Micah was quite different than that faith that's ours, only in the fact that what you've revealed to us is so much more than what was revealed to them. We're thankful that the principle is grace and our response is by faith, that the book of Galatians will have much for us as New Testament believers. Although we are in fact mostly not Jewish people by tradition, by heritage, Ultimately, the legal system has a way of working its way into our lives. May we be lifted up beyond that, that being crucified with Christ, it's not we that live by the power of the flesh and working out our own merit through our works, but by the life of Christ, empowered by the spirit within.

The book of Galatians, in fact, will offer us. all that we need to, in fact, understand this important truth. We're thankful for the body that's been gathered here. We trust each and everyone is here because you have them here. May we be spirit-led as we go forward over the next year. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.