2nd IN SERIES ON PAUL’S LETTER TO
THE GALATIANS. ROBERT.
Readings :
Galatians 1 : 11 – 24 Luke
7 : 11 – 17
This month we are looking at St Paul’s letter
to the Galatians and this is the second in the series. It is a very important
and, indeed, fascinating letter not least because (as you can see from today’s
passage) it gives us unique biographical information about Paul’s Christian
life and experience. It is almost certainly the earliest of Paul’s letters in
the New Testament, which gives it added freshness and significance, and was
written to this new Christian Church only about 15 years after the death and
resurrection of Jesus (many years before any of the Gospels were written). We
are here in touch, therefore, with the very earliest years of the Christian
Church, and its first attempt to spread the Christian Gospel to those beyond
the boundaries of Palestine, and specifically to those who were not Jews.
That’s very exciting!
Indeed, we are looking here at the point at
which Christianity breaks away from its initial roots as a radical renewal
movement within Judaism, and becomes a world-wide religion – which, within 300
years, will become the official religion of the Roman Empire.
(Timeline below).
We first meet Paul – both in the Acts of the Apostles and in his own story here
– as a fervent, indeed fanatical, Pharisee; an expert in the Jewish Law, a
dedicated follower of Jewish orthodoxy, and a ferocious opponent of anyone who
dared to challenge that orthodoxy. If he came across anyone who was a Christian
believer, he was in a position to have them dragged off to prison and was at
the very least a witness to the stoning to death of Stephen (Acts 7:54 – 8: 3).
He tells us here that his aim was nothing short of the destruction of the young
church. Christianity was to him a deeply shocking heresy which must be stamped
out.
Then he tells us that, as he travelled to
Damascus to further this persecution, the risen Jesus appeared to him on the
road and Paul was wonderfully converted. His whole life was turned on its head.
He was to become as ardent a missionary for the Christian faith as he had been
for its destruction.
But although he was baptized as a Christian
by Ananias when he reached Damascus, his understanding of the Christian Gospel
could not happen overnight. And he tells us here that he went away by himself
to some place in Arabia where, it seems, he spent some three years in a kind of
seclusion so that he could think the whole matter through and pray.
Returning to Damascus, he decided to go to
Jerusalem where – for whatever reason – he met only Peter and James. He then
travelled back to his home town of Tarsus and, so far as he know, he settled
back into his life as a tent-maker. And that might well have been the last we
hear of him, had it not been for Barnabas. We learn from Acts that the
Christian church in Antioch was flourishing, and Barnabas remembered Paul and
travelled to Tarsus to seek him out and persuade him to come down and help them
out.
If we follow his story on in this letter and
Acts, we learn that, in due course, he was appointed an apostle to the Gentiles
along with Barnabas, and in Acts 13 we read how they were commissioned, and sent
off on their first missionary journey which took them to Galatia.
A quick reading of Acts might lead you to
think that Paul set out on his missionary journeys almost immediately after his
conversion. But there was an interval of some 15 years at least while he worked
out the theology which appears in the letters and makes the decisive break with
Judaism.
You will see from verse 15 that Paul believed
that God had called him from birth not only to be a Christian, but to preach
the Christian Gospel to non-Jews. This he does with considerable success, and
you may well feel that the fact that Christianity broke away from the Jewish
faith and became a world religion, and so came to you and me, was principally
due – under God – to Paul. We are not asked to keep the Jewish Law in order to
be Christians. we are asked to put our whole trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord
and Saviour, and become his lifelong followers - and that is all.
That is the Gospel message of faith and
freedom which Paul proclaimed to these Galatians, and through which they found
salvation. That was all they needed – personal faith in Jesus Christ as their
Lord and Saviour, and the commitment of their lives to him. That is the
authentic Gospel – the good news – which Paul proclaimed till his dying day and
which the true church has proclaimed ever since.
But, as we heard last week, something went
drastically wrong. No sooner had he left a young, healthy, growing church in
Galatia, than others moved in and insisted that Paul’s version of the Gospel
was incomplete. These people were to dog Paul’s footsteps all his life and he
calls them ‘the Judaisers’. He has a few
other choice words to describe them too. In his letter to the Philippians (3:3)
he calls them ‘dogs’ and ‘men who do evil’.
They insisted that, in addition to putting
their faith in Jesus Christ, these new Christians also had to obey the basics
of the Jewish Law, with all its rules and regulations. This is what he calls
(in chap 1: 6) the ‘different gospel – which is ‘really no gospel at all’. Had
they succeeded, it would have put Christianity firmly back within the framework
of the Jewish faith, and it could never have become a faith for all people,
everywhere. But it looks as if many of the new Galatian Christians were
persuaded by these men, and one of the main purposes of this fiery letter is to
put them back on the right track. All that is required to be a Christian with
an eternal salvation is faith in Jesus Christ.
In order to defend his position and
authority, he tells them that the Gospel he proclaims was revealed to him
directly by the risen Jesus and is therefore authentic, and was not derived
second-hand from Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. That is the essential core of
this first chapter of this passionate letter.
- - - - - - - - - -
Well, this is all very interesting
historically, but does it have an application today? I believe it does, because
we actually have a close parallel in the church today.
The true Gospel is that we become Christians
through faith in Jesus Christ for this life and the life to come – personal
trust and commitment to be his followers.
The ‘different gospel’ is that a Christian is
someone with faith in Jesus Christ certainly, but we will be judged by God by
worldly standards of a ‘good life’. Have we lived a life of honesty,
faithfulness, goodness, love and the rest? There is a test to be passed, and
either we achieve a pass or a fail. Dig beneath most people’s understanding of
what it means to be a Christian, and you will discover that they think a
Christian is a person who lives a good life, obeys the ‘golden rule’ and
generally does their best.
Now the word ‘Gospel’ means ‘good news’. But
that definition is actually a recipe for despair, not rejoicing. If that is the
test, we all fail – and in our heart of hearts, we know it. We do not really
succeed in living up to our own standards, let alone God’s.
The Church is an assembly of ‘sinners’ –
people who know they have not lived up to God’s standards, and are here because
we have heard and believed the good news that Jesus died for our sins, and rose
again that all who believe in him might be forgiven by God and accepted into
his family.
Of course we will try to live good lives, and
God sends us his Holy Spirit to help and strengthen us. But that is the fruit
of our salvation, not the means by which we obtain it. Forgiven sinners are
free to make a new start with all the burdens of failure lifted off our back.
No-one knew that better than Paul, who had viciously tried
to destroy the church and inflicted much cruelty in the belief that he was
pleasing God by living a good life. What he discovered on the Damascus Road was
that Christ embraced him, forgave him, and commissioned him for an entirely new
life. That was the good news he was so determined to pass on to everyone. It
remains the true Gospel for today.
Never settle for the ‘different gospel’ of
good deeds bringing you salvation. Join the glorious ranks of Christians who
rejoice, and dance in the freedom of knowing that their sins are forgiven
through Christ, and that there is no price to pay for salvation. Rejoice in the
totally free, utterly generous, limitless grace of God. You can’t achieve your
own salvation by good deeds no matter how hard you try. You can be saved only
through Jesus who died for your sins, and rose from the dead to bring you to
eternal life.
When you come to Communion, know that you are
taking to yourself the forgiveness, the new life, the new power that is offered
to you freely. All you have to do is to accept it gratefully. That is the true
Gospel, not the different one. It is good news indeed.
PAUL’S CHRISTIAN BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY UP TO HIS FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY
Paul the stalwart Jewish Pharisee Gal.
1: 13,14
persecutes
the infant Church & tries to destroy it Acts 9: 1,2
Phil 3: 4 - 6
Paul
converted on the Damascus Road Gal 1: 15,16
by direct
revelation from the risen Jesus Acts 9: 3 – 19a
Paul
testifies briefly in Damascus & departs Gal 1: 17
for Arabia
Acts
9: 19b – 25
Paul in
Arabia for 3 years Gal 1: 17b & 18
Between Acts 9: 25 and 9: 26?
Paul’s
first visit to Jerusalem Gal
1: 18 – 24
Paul in
Tarsus for perhaps 10/11 years. Gal 2: 1 – 10
Barnabas
seeks him out 14 years (presumably) Acts 9: 26 - 30
after his
conversion & brings him to Jerusalem
(second
visit)
Paul helps
Barnabas lead the growing young Church
Acts 11: 19 - 26
In
Antioch.
Peter
visits Antioch and Paul confronts him Gal 2: 11 – 16
Paul &
Barnabas sent out on 1st Missionary Journey Acts 13: 1 – 3
Paul &
Barnabas in Galatia – presumably some 15 years Acts 13: 13 – 51
after his
conversion
Robert.
June 2013.
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