Introduction to series on Galatians
INTRODUCTION
Please turn with me to the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians. The most enriching thing in my ministry through the years, to me personally, has been preaching through books of the Bible. I have learned more in deeply studying the Word of God in the context of a book than in any other way. May pastors and Christians have also testified that it has built them up in the faith and in their understanding of what God has revealed to us in his Word.
As I am considering and praying about what book to study and preach, I think of books that I have not yet preached. It would be too easy to pick up old sermon notes, but there would be little personal growth and little excitement about growing in grace and the knowledge of the Word of God.
More recently I have tried to give an overview before launching in a series. I did that for the first time with the epistles of John. As I was considering Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, I was wondering about the best way to hit some of the high points in Galatians. I looked through my files to see what I had preached from Galatians. I have taught it a number of times, but I could not find a sermon.
As I was thinking about it, I remembered reading some years ago a summary of Paul’s emphasis on the cross in this epistle. In the closing chapter of his book, The Cross of Christ, Pastor John Stott gives seven points that Paul makes in this epistle that I will share with you.
CONTEXT
Let us remember that the churches of Galatians were founded during the first missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas. These were the churches in Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. He and Barnabas returned to Antioch of Syria and in a short while heard the news that the new Christians of Galatia were turning away from the gospel of the cross to another gospel that was not the gospel at all. It was a gospel, based not on what Christ had done on the cross, but on what we can do to make ourselves right with God. Paul writes correct the Galatians to bring them back to the gospel of the cross of Christ.
1. The Cross and Salvation (1:3-5)
ESV Galatians 1:3–5 — Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
1. First, the death of Jesus was both voluntary and determined.
- who gave himself…
- according to the will of our God and Father
2. Secondly, the death of Jesus was “for our sins.”
3. Third, the purpose of Jesus’ death was to rescue us: “to deliver us from the present evil age.”
4. Fourth, the present result of Jesus’ death is grace and peace:
“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”
5. Fifth, the eternal result of Jesus’ death is that God will be glorified forever.
“to whom be the glory forever and ever.”
2. The Cross and Experience (2:19-21)
ESV Galatians 2:19–21 — through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Was Paul crucified with Christ? Not physically. It is an established historical fact that Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Paul was not there. I was not there. You were not there. But spiritually, Paul was there. I was there. Were you there?
ESV Galatians 2:16 — yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
In Galatians 2:15-21, “law” is referred to seven times.
Three times in verse 16, the Apostle Paul insists that nobody can be justified by the law.
Why? Paul answers that question in Romans 3:20 “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
“The law condemns sin and prescribes death as its penalty. Thus the function of the law is to condemn, not to justify.
“The function of the law is to condemn, not to justify.” — John Stott
“How can I possibly be justified? Only by meeting the law’s requirement and dying the death it demands.” That would be the end of me! “So God has provided another way. Christ has borne the penalty of my law-breaking, and the blessing of what he has done has become mine because I am united with him.
Galatians 2:19 “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.”
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
3. The Cross and Preaching
ESV Galatians 3:1–3 — O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
O foolish Galatians! Twice Paul calls them foolish. “Who has bewitched you?” Has someone used black magic on you to deceive you? Remember the gospel that Barnabas and I preached when we were with you. If you think that you are saved by the works of the law, you are completely deceived!
- First, gospel-preaching is proclaiming the cross: “Jesus Christ was publically portrayed as crucified.” Of course, he was born of a woman and under the law (Galatians 4:4), and raised from the dead (1:1; 2:19-20).
“One of the greatest arts or gifts in gospel-preaching is to turn people’s ears into eyes.” — John Stott - Second, gospel-preaching is proclaiming the cross visually: “before your eyes” (3:1). “One of the greatest arts or gifts in gospel-preaching is to turn people’s ears into eyes, and to make them see what we are talking about.”
- Third, gospel-preaching proclaims the cross visually as a present reality. It has been 15 to 18 years since Christ had been crucified. Paul had not been there. The Galatians had not been there. We were not there nearly 2,000 years ago when Christ was nailed to the cross, but the preaching of the cross makes it a present reality because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes (Romans 1:16).
- Fourth, gospel-preaching proclaims the cross as the object of personal faith.
We do not preach Christ crucified so that people can be astonished or feel sorry for Christ. We preach Christ so that people will put their trust in him. Galatians 3:2-3 “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” Paul is astonished that the Galatians “should imagine that they could continue in the Christian life by their own achievements. It was a contradiction of what Paul had presented before their eyes.”
4. The Cross and Substitution
ESV Galatians 3:10–14 — For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
This is most shocking.
1. First, all who rely on the law are under a curse. Gal 3:10 “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
This means that everyone is under God’s curse because no one has ever continued to do everything the law requires. No one except Jesus. The rest of us have failed.
2. Second, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law be becoming a curse for us: Galatians 3:13 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Deuteronomy 21:23)
3. Third, Christ became a curse for us so that in him the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles by faith: Galatians 3:14 “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”
Paul moves “from the language of cursing to that of blessing. Christ died not only to redeem us from the curse, but to secure for us the blessing of God.”
And what is that blessing?
Justification: Galatians 3:7-8 “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.””
The Holy Spirit: Galatians 3:14 “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”
5. The Cross and Persecution
ESV Galatians 5:11 — But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.
ESV Galatians 6:12 — It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.
Notice in these two verses that persecution and the cross are mentioned. Paul is being persecuted for the offense of the cross. The Judaizers are avoiding persecution by avoiding the cross. They are putting the emphasis on circumcision.
There are no Judaizers today, but there are plenty of preachers who put the emphasis on the flesh, on what you can do, on being a better you, on fulfilling your potential. You can do it. You can succeed. Just try harder! They “emphasize human potential and human ability.”
And Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4).
ESV Philippians 3:3 — For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—
6. The Cross and Holiness
ESV Galatians 5:24 — And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
There are two kinds of crucifixion in the Christian life. There is the crucifixion that is the result of our union with Christ: Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ…” This is passive.
There is a second crucifixion is the action which we take to crucify our old nature.
ESV Romans 8:13 — For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Christ’s crucifixion speaks of our freedom from the condemnation of the law. The second crucifixion, that of our sinful nature, speaks of our freedom from the power of the flesh.
Luther writes that Christ’s people nail their flesh to the cross, ‘so that although the flesh be yet alive, yet can it not perform that which it would do, forasmuch as it is bound both hand and foot, and fast nailed to the cross’.6
7. The Cross and Boasting
ESV Galatians 6:14 — But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
There is no one word that translates the Greek word for “boast” in this verse. It means to glory in, to trust in, to rejoice in, to revel in, and to live for.
The KJV has it, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…”
Some people are obsessed with themselves and their money or fame or success or power or winning. The false teachers in Galatia were obsessed with the number of their converts.
Most people regarded the cross as an object of shame and disgrace. For Paul and for the Christian, the cross must be the subject of our glory.
First, to glory or boast in the cross is to see it as the only way of acceptance with God.
How are we lost and guilty sinners to stand before a just and holy God? Only by grace of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Second, to glory in the cross is to see it as the pattern of our self-denial.
Paul only writes of one cross, but he writes of three crucifixions:
1. Christ himself was crucified.
2. The world has been crucified to me.
3. I have been crucified to the world.
What does it mean that the world has been crucified to us? It does not mean the people of the world for we are called to love and serve them. It means the values of the world, its godless materialism, its hypocrisy, its ungodliness.
ESV 1 John 2:15–17 — Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
We need to keep Christ’s crucifixion and ours in close relation to each other. As we look at the cross of Christ, we will be encouraged to take up our cross.
CONCLUSION
First, the cross is the ground of our justification.
- Christ has rescued us from this present evil age (1:4)
- and redeemed us from the curse of the law (3:13).
Second, the cross is the means of our sanctification.
Because of the cross, there are three crucifixions.
1. We have been crucified with Christ (2:20).
2. We have crucified our fallen nature (5:24).
3. And the world has been crucified to us, as we have been to the world (6:14).
Third, the cross is the subject of our witness.
- We are to portray Christ crucified publicly so that they may see and believe (3:1).
- The cross is the only way of salvation (5:11; 6:12).
- Fourth, the cross is the object of our boasting.
- The cross must fill our vision and be the center of our lives. We must glory in the cross.
If the cross is not central in our justification, our sanctification, our witness and our boasting, then we are enemies of the cross (Philippians 3:18).
- Self-righteous or justified?
- Self-indulgent or sanctified?
- Self-promoting or Christ proclaiming?
- Self-glorifying or cross glorifying?
If we are self-righteous instead of looking to the cross for justification,
if we are self-advertising, instead of preaching Christ and him crucified,
if we are self-glorifying, instead of glorying in the cross,
We are enemies of the cross of Christ.
ESV Galatians 6:17 — From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
Paul suffered for the cross. Writing to the Galatians, he is probably referring to the fact that at Lystra he was stoned and dragged out of the city and left for dead. He bore the wounds and scars for proclaiming Christ crucified, the marks, the “stigmata” which branded him as Christ’s authentic slave.
Campbell Morgan expressed it well:
It is the crucified man that can preach the cross. Said Thomas ‘except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails…I will not believe’. Dr. Parker of London said that what Thomas said of Christ, the world is saying about the church. And the world is also saying to every preacher: Unless I see in your hands the print of the nails, I will not believe. It is true. It is the man…who has died with Christ,…that can preach the cross of Christ.[1]
 [1] John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ, 1986, p. 350-351. Material above adapted from John Stott, The Cross of Christ.
See also “Galatians Series“:
Ezra Commentary 