One of the most wonderful blessings about the life we live is being able to study God's word with young adults. I love getting out the Word and digging into into, searching for the meat- those special treasures God reveals to us when we seek to know Him more through HIs word. I love seeking His heart on specific ways He would have me apply His word to my life.
Here is my IBS from chapter 1. Might you be blessed and encouraged as you read what the Lord has taught me. And might you be encouraged to seek out what special treasure the Lord would have for you in Galatians 1.
Overview: the Galatians started out in their Christianity with a strong faith, but he we find that they have veered away from that same faith. The Galatians have now out their faith in their own works and this has Paul outraged. Here in his letter to them, he attacks their gospel of works and defends the gospel of faith. Paul lays it out straight to the Galatians: blessing from God comes from faith, not the law. The law declares me guilty and imprisons them; faith sets men free to enjoy liberty in Christ. Liberty, though, is not a license. Freedom in Christ means freedom to produce the fruits of righteousness through a Spirit-led lifestyle.
Galatians 1
Overview: the Galatians started out in their Christianity with a strong faith, but he we find that they have veered away from that same faith. The Galatians have now out their faith in their own works and this has Paul outraged. Here in his letter to them, he attacks their gospel of works and defends the gospel of faith. Paul lays it out straight to the Galatians: blessing from God comes from faith, not the law. The law declares me guilty and imprisons them; faith sets men free to enjoy liberty in Christ. Liberty, though, is not a license. Freedom in Christ means freedom to produce the fruits of righteousness through a Spirit-led lifestyle.
Chapter 1
Vs 1-2: "Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead), and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches go Galatia:
Right away Paul gives his God-given credentials- he is an apostle appointed not by men or raised up through men- so by nothing he could have done himself- but through Jesus Christ himself, who was raised from the dead and through God himself, who raised Jesus from the dead. There's power in the calling on Paul's life. He knows it, never denies it, nor takes credit for it.
Vs 3: “Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
Paul greets the church of Galatia with his greeting of grace and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Then in vs 4 he again testifies to God's power reminding the church that Christ died for the sins of the world - their own sins...
why did Christ do this?
That he might deliver us from this present evil age. That is Christ's will for each of us. That we might be delivered from the evil that imprisons us.
The glory for this always goes to God!
Paul lays all of this out to set the stage for what he really wants to address with the church of Galatia.
Vs 6: "I marvel at you who are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel."
Paul goes on exhorting the Galatians not to be persuaded any anyone who preaches a gospel different than the one they were born into. He also teaches them that those who twist the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ will be accursed. He warns them against following such false teachers. Two times Paul warns the Galatians of the consequence of teaching or following this false gospel. (Eternally condemned).
Then in vs 10 Paul gets to the heart of the issue plaguing the Galatians-
"For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still please men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ."
The age old question...Whom shall we serve?
Joshua 24:15 "and if it seems evil to you to serve The Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served...But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
What is our motive when we serve? When we serve, who are we seeking to please in our hearts? Men or the Lord?
Paul states his credentials to the Galatians, reminding them that he was a Jew of all Jews, high up in the ladder of success in the Jewish world. He was well educated in the law of his forefathers. He knew it all, yet through all that he had been taught- he never met Jesus. In all the time Paul spent studying God's very own word, he never found the truth. Why?
Because he was only searching for what he needed to do to maintain the law. As a faithful Jew, Paul believed that his salvation was based on his ability to keep the law. Paul had never understood that salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone. As a Jew, Paul zealously persecuted the Christian church.
Paul spent most of his life up until this point serving the gods of his forefathers. But as vs 15 says, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles..."
Paul comes to the Galatians not as a Jew, but as a believer in Jesus Christ who has been released from the imprisonment of the law. When he first met the Galatians, he shared the truth that had changed his life with them and they too, found freedom in Christ.
Paul needed no other confirmation after he found freedom in Christ...he walked in the truth that God himself had revealed to him. Paul did not seek the approval of other men as he began his relationship with Jesus. Paul did not seek power of position. he simply sought Jesus. his goal was to know Christ more. When Paul finally began his public ministry, he was known as the one who had once so zealously persecuted the church...and was now defending the faith. Because of his former life and because of his radical transformation...God was glorified in his life.
We serve a gracious, loving , and merciful God who takes our past, our sin, our rebellion and turns it into something beautiful when we surrender us hearts to him. When our purpose is to know him more and bring glory to His name, he can and will restore all our brokenness. We need nothing other than to know Him and His word. We must continually examine our hearts, go before the Lord in repentance, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach us and fill us by His Spirit and with His Spirit.
We must guard our hearts against the temptation to serve man, but make our focus in everything we do and say to serve the Lord. As happened with the Galatians, false teachers and teachings will arise, so we must always test what we hear and even our own hearts with the Word of God. We must be on guard and be on our knees so that we might be able to to and approve the will of God as 2 Timothy 3:17 exhorts us.
When I am diligent in going before The Lord and examining my heart, He is always faithful to show me where I am not serving him wholeheartedly. When I am serving the desire of my flesh, I am serving other gods, not God, my Father. When the attitude of my heart is to please one of my leaders, and not so much service out of love for Jesus, I am serving men, not God. When I serve my husband or my children out of necessity or obligation and not because I simply love Jesus or love them...I am choosing evil and not the Lord. All of these things put me right back into the prison the Lord has graciously rescued me from. I cannot experience the awesome freedom I have in Christ to produce fruits of righteousness if I enslave myself again and again by succumbing to the temptation Paul speaks of in Galatians chapter 1 of living by the law.
Today I will choose to serve Jesus, not man, not my flesh...simply Jesus. Each time I am tempted to serve men, I will remember Galatians 1:10: "for do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ."
Today my prayer will be that I might be found to a bond servant of Jesus Christ. That everything I do and say today might bring glory to Him.
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