The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
LIVE DISCUSSION: Exposition - Galatians 1:1-5 (PART 1 of 4)
Paul's opening words to the Galatians pack a theological punch that resonates far beyond their ancient context. By declaring himself "an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ," he establishes the divine authority behind his message while simultaneously defining what true apostleship means.
Contrary to popular misconceptions, apostles weren't merely influential religious leaders. They were directly commissioned by the risen Christ, spoke with divine authority, and performed miraculous signs to authenticate their message. This has profound implications for today's church: since the apostolic office required a post-resurrection calling from Jesus himself, the age of apostles ended with John's death. Anyone claiming apostolic authority now is, by definition, a false apostle.
The foundation of our faith rests on what these apostles taught, alongside the prophets of old. Together, they represent God's complete revelation—the Old Testament anticipating Christ, the New Testament revealing Him. This unified foundation creates a unified people. As Paul explains in Ephesians, believers from every tribe and nation form one household of faith, with no distinction between Jew and Gentile in God's family.
This unity extends to our fundamental understanding of salvation. Abraham, the father of faith, believed essentially the same gospel we embrace today—he simply looked forward to what we now look back upon. The sacrificial system God established through Moses served as spiritual training wheels, preparing His people to recognize Christ as the ultimate sacrifice. Every lamb slain pointed to the Lamb who would take away the sin of the world.
When Christ declared "God so loved the world," He wasn't indicating universal salvation but rather demolishing national boundaries. His love extends without distinction to people from every nation who believe. His sacrifice was specifically for His church—those who would believe in Him from every tribe and tongue.
Ready to deepen your understanding of these foundational truths? Join us as we continue our verse-by-verse exploration of Galatians, unpacking the transformative power of the one true gospel.
Christians, I hope you're having a good evening tonight. Today I have just started to embark, I should say, on an exposition, a cursory exposition of the book of Galatians, verse by verse, and I'm going to begin, obviously, with Galatians, chapter 1. So I'm in Galatians, chapter 1, the book of Galatians, chapter 1. It begins by Paul giving his greeting to the church In Paul and his greeting to the church of Galatia. He begins by saying the following Not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God, the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia. Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world.
Speaker 2:According of God and his power to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. So, christians, my goal will be, at the outset, to deal with these first few verses of the book of Galatians.
Speaker 1:If blessed make, these things make sense to you. So I'll begin in Galatians, chapter 1, verse 1. We begin in Galatians, chapter 1, verse 1.
Speaker 2:Paul first starts off by saying or addressing himself as an apostle, paul, an apostle.
Speaker 1:Now, it's important to understand first of all what an apostle is and what an apostle does, because it is apparent to me, as I hope to make clear to most of you, that there are a great many folks out there who don't understand what an apostle is and what an apostle does. They are not just pastors. There are more than just simple godly men from the standpoint of their office. But an apostle is someone who was called to the office by the Lord, jesus Christ post-resurrection. Let me say this again Paul the Apostle, like all apostles, you have to understand what the office is and what one who is called to the office does. This is very important to understand. So once again, I want to say this that office, first and foremost, is one who has been called to the office personally by Jesus Christ post-resurrection. This is important to understand. The primary qualification of an apostle is to be directly called by him, in person and after he has resurrected. That's number one. An apostle is one who speaks for and represents God to man. He speaks for and represents God to man, so he is not picked out to represent man to God, but he is picked out and called to represent God to man. Number three when an apostle speaks and writes, it is understood that he is an agent of God's infallible word. He's an agent of God's infallible word. He's an agent of God's infallible word. If the apostle writes something or says something in his official capacity as an apostle, it is to be construed and understood as God's infallible word. They are speaking as inspired persons by God Almighty and, lastly, their word, what they speak, is authenticated by what they do, meaning they have the ability to perform miraculous feats given to them specifically to do on the behalf of God in order to speak to the unbelieving and, primarily speaking, unbelieving Jews. This is something. These things cannot be misunderstood and I have to say, they have been malaligned when you deal with people today who believe they are apostles. Because if we take if what I am saying about the qualifications of an apostle are true, if what I am saying is true and it is, it is I would be really foolish to come on here or to go anywhere or to step into any pulpit or get involved in any conversation to say something that I do not believe is true. So, if what I'm saying about an apostle is true, you must have been called by the Lord Jesus Christ, post resurrection. Number two you speak on the behalf of God to man and not on behalf of man to God. Number three you have been given the gift of miraculous abilities by God to jumpstart and inaugurate the church of God. And four you have been and those gifts, by the way, authenticate that God has sent you, because it is important to understand that when we deal with the miraculous, miraculous works of God through the agency of men is always tied, always tied to revelation, always tied to revelation.
Speaker 1:And an apostle, they have been given the ability to speak and to write things that are communicated to them by God, using their own natural abilities, their own natural academic prowess to communicate God's infallible truths, which means taking all these things and having all these things be considered, you must conclude that there is no such thing as an apostle today. There are no apostles today. When John the apostle died, not only did that end and put an end to all apostles, not only attributes and the functions and the abilities including that which is miraculous that the apostles had been given, it died when John died, the apostles ceasing with John. That means that all of the signs of an apostle ceased to be when John died, the last apostle. This is important because you have a lot of men and women running around calling themselves apostles, and I'm going to tell you how to know for sure if they are lying apostles. They are lying apostles. If they call themselves apostles, if they consider themselves apostles, if they tell you that there are apostles or prophets, you will know they are lying, because there are no more prophets and there are no more apostles. Thank you, brother Jeffrey.
Speaker 1:Now this is an important thing. All people are not apostles. There were only those apostles which we read about in the gospels and they are the only ones, and there are none. I don't care what preacher you believe is so great at preaching the word of God and doing great things. If he is an apostle, he is a false apostle. If he is a prophet, he is a false prophet. Now, when it comes to prophets, we need to understand that there are two separate distinctions of prophets. One is one that has been given the ability and the facility to prophesy and predict future things as conveyed to them by God, and these would be essentially apostles prior to the resurrection I mean prophets or apostles prior to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and they would have been called prophets. So in the Old Testament, all of those prophets who spoke and did the miraculous, these men are basically no different than apostles, with the exception of the fact that an apostle was directly called to his office by the Lord Jesus Christ, directly posthumous to his resurrection. I hope this is understood because this is important. So, that being said, there are no more prophets and there are no more apostles.
Speaker 1:Now one last thing before I move on to the remainder of Galatians, chapter one, verse one, that I need to make clear is another thing I need to make clear, and that is this that we are told in Ephesians, chapter four, that the church, the church of Christ, is built on, built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. The church of Christ is built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. The prophets, as I spoke before, are those Old Testament prophets whom God called and gave the office to, and in the New Testament, in the new covenant, we have the apostles who also speak on behalf of God, but who were called to their office by Christ personally after he resurrected. So you have what is represented by the prophets under the Old Testament and you have what is represented as the apostles under the new covenant. And these the messages of these two groups of men, the prophets and the apostles. They established what is firmly referred to as the foundation of the church.
Speaker 1:As the foundation of the church, and the foundation of the church is not particularly, even though it says that it's built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles, but what is being addressed is that the church is built on what they taught, what they revealed. The church of Christ was built upon the foundation of the teachings of the apostles and the prophets. Remember the miraculous, all of the miraculous deeds that were done by prophets, prophet or apostle, where it was not tied to God manifesting the reality of his truths to his apostles, to his apostles or to his prophets, for them to convey those truths to the people the church of God. So now, what does this mean? I need to make sure you understand what this really means, because it is easy for this to be missed or to go on on misunderstood.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing If the church of God, according to Ephesians and let me see if I can bring up the verse here without losing, without going silent too long, I want to bring this up here give so in Ephesians it says that in chapter 2, verse 19 of Ephesians, ephesians 2, verse 19. It says now, therefore, paul says you are no more strangers, meaning the Gentiles. You are no longer strangers and foreigners, but now you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. He tells the Gentiles and remember, paul was the apostle to the Gentiles specifically so he tells them in verse 19, in Ephesians 2, you are now no longer to be considered strangers, you are no longer considered foreigners, but now you are considered fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, meaning the Jewish believers, all are together and in the household of God there are no strangers, there are no foreigners. Household of God, there are no strangers, there are no foreigners. All there is are those who are fellow citizens with the saints and this is what needs to be understood and those who are fellow citizens with the saints they are also are what Paul refers to as the household of God, what Paul refers to as the household of God.
Speaker 1:And notice that he says the household of God, the household of God. And then he goes on in verse 20 and he says this household of God is built upon verse 20, built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. This is important. This is important because the church is built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles and the apostles and all those who are represented under the Old Covenant, and the I mean the prophets who are represented under the Old Covenant, excuse me and the apostles who represent the New Covenant. Christians combined, in other words, the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints are one family and they are called the church. They are called the household of God, they are called fellow citizens as saints. And for it to be called the house of God, it makes sense. Therefore, when you look at verse 20 in Ephesians two, when it says that this household of God is built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, notice the house of God, the house of God, the house, the construction, the building. The house of God, paul says is built upon the foundation of the prophets and the apostles, which means that the Old Testament saints, in union with the New Testament saints, they are called fellow citizens, they are called the house of God, they are called the church of whom the Lord Jesus Christ died.
Speaker 1:So anybody who is making a separation in their teaching between Jew and Gentile to this day. Anyone who's making a distinction and separating those two families or those two groups of people, if they're teaching this, they are lying to you. They are lying to you. Part of the great mystery that has been revealed to us by Christ coming to earth and preaching his gospel to all people is that there was no longer going to be a barrier between Jew and Gentile. That distinction has been removed. When the Lord Jesus Christ said God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever shall believe in him, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1:When Jesus says God so loved the world, this is what he was talking about. There is no more distinction. When he says God so loved the world, he was not saying that God loves the world without exception. He is saying that God loves the world now, without distinction, and he always has. He always has it's been without distinction. He always has it's been without distinction, Meaning without regard, without regard for nationality, without regard for tongue, in other words, your language without regard for your culture, without regard for where you were born, without regard for the color of your skin, without regard for your wealth status, without regard for anything.
Speaker 1:All people who submit to God by grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, are all belonging to the same body of believers. And that body of believers, that church body of believers, these fellow citizens, are built upon the foundation of the church, are built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, and they are the church of God. And when you go over from Ephesians two down to Ephesians, chapter five and verse 25, it says this Paul says this husbands love your wives. Then he tells you why. Or he tells you even as Christ loved the church. He tells you how Husbands love your wives, how, like Christ loved the church. And then it says and he gave himself for it. Jesus Christ gave himself for his church.
Speaker 1:Now let me explain something he tells us. He tells us here, in verse 25 of ephesians 5, in no uncertain terms he did not mince words. He didn't mince words. He tells you who it is that the Lord Jesus Christ died for. He tells you who it is Jesus Christ laid down his life for.
Speaker 1:I know that many of you are not going to like hearing this. Jesus Christ did not die, did not vicariously submit himself to the cross to vicariously remove the sins of all men. Otherwise, all men would have their sin removed, and if that happened then all men would have to be saved, and if that happened then no man would ever be in hell for any period of time, temporary or otherwise. But it makes it clear. The word of God makes it clear In Ephesians, chapter 5, when Paul says husbands, in verse 25, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Now here's the fundamental problem. If you continue to make a distinction between Jew or between national Israel and Gentile Christians, then one of those groups of people are not part of the church, and the Bible says that Jesus Christ laid down his life and gave himself vicariously for his church.
Speaker 2:Now Before I go on.
Speaker 1:I want to greet each one of the people on the panel so far and get initial brief comments on the apostleship of Paul and what an apostle is and what we understand about the condition or the status or the or the or the or the, what the church is all about. I'll start with that.
Speaker 2:Soaco, yes, sir welcome, but your opening thoughts well, based on scripture.
Speaker 1:Okay, um no, let me know, let me, let me now. Let me say something before you start. I'm gonna let you, I'm gonna let you speak. Sure, when you say something, that is whatever you're gonna say. If you say it's based on scripture, then provide that scripture, that's all I ask, I'll do my best.
Speaker 3:I don't have my bible on me all right, fair enough based on scripture. Right, it sounds like you tell me. If I'm wrong, I'll ask you a question and then I can carry on with. What else I have to say?
Speaker 1:Do you believe that the little flock in the body of Christ had one gospel and one doctrine. I believe it's all the same. I believe there's only one gospel yes, okay.
Speaker 3:So, based off scripture, it's safe to say that Paul had a separate gospel and the 13 epistles were different from that of the 12.
Speaker 1:No, there's nothing that warrants that whatsoever. The Bible only knows one gospel, which is the first thing you asked me about. There's only one gospel, which is the first thing you asked me about. There's only one gospel.
Speaker 3:So the death, burial and resurrection was being preached in times past, before Christ died for our sins.
Speaker 1:No, not, not as clearly as it is.
Speaker 3:Well, ok, but you said that it's one gospel, so where was it preached anywhere in Scripture before? Christ died for our sins and he revealed that Paul calls it my gospel. Right, it was revealed to Paul. Where was that preached?
Speaker 2:all right, I'll see where we're going. We're gonna go. We're gonna go here, okay let's do that.
Speaker 1:Let's do it. So you want to go there? Let's do that for a second now. So you're saying that there's multiple gospels, am I right?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, it means good news.
Speaker 1:No, that's not what I'm asking. You said the gospel means good news, but you said there are multiple gospels. You said that Paul's gospel is different than the Old Testament Saints right, Correct.
Speaker 3:All right, so there's more than one gospel. Gospel means good news, and the good news can change, so the good news can change.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:All right, that's your first mistake. Now here's the other thing.
Speaker 3:Here's the other thing Do you think that the Old Testament saints are saved, were saved by believing the same thing that we must believe today.
Speaker 1:No, because the death, burial and resurrection was not preached for salvation. The issue was not about the death, burial and resurrection as much as it was about believing in Christ and what he would do. The thing is this, brother. Here's the thing the gospel was preached. Because we know that. The gospel is preached, because we're told in the New Testament that Abraham believed the same gospel that we need to believe in order to be believers. Abraham's name was what? What was his original name?
Speaker 3:I forget.
Speaker 1:Abraham, and what was his name changed to and why?
Speaker 3:Abraham because he believed God.
Speaker 1:No, that's not why his name was changed to Abraham. Why was his name changed to Abraham?
Speaker 3:Because he was the father of many nations.
Speaker 1:Yes, the father of many nations. And the father of many nations would include Israel and who else? Gentiles, the Gentiles. Now we're also told clearly in the New Testament that those who believe like Abraham belong to the household of faith, and Abraham is the father of all nations. So that means that if you were a believer today, you are a son of Abraham. Am I right or wrong? Right, I'm of his seed Right Now that means you're of his seed, and who is the seed that Abraham believed in?
Speaker 4:It just gives me a second to step outside and actually see that Abraham believed in can you repeat that?
Speaker 1:who is the seed that Abraham believed in, according to Genesis, chapter 3.
Speaker 3:I don't know. That verse off the top of my head. If you could read it off for me.
Speaker 1:Who is the seed that Abraham believed in? Drago? You there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 1:Who is the seed that Abraham believed in? Who is the seed of the woman in Genesis 3.14 that Abraham believed in? That made him the father of faith to many nations, jesus.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So did Abraham believe the gospel or not?
Speaker 3:The good news for that time. Yes, Did he believe there's only one gospel?
Speaker 1:But you said there's more than one. That's not true, so let me ask you this question. So when Abraham went up to the mountain with Isaac, his son, and was going to sacrifice Isaac, he didn't. Why did he not sacrifice Isaac?
Speaker 3:Because God gave a sacrifice. What sacrifice did god give?
Speaker 1:I think it was a ram, no, if you think that's all it was, then you don't understand the gospel, because the sacrifice of the lambs and and the rams that were given, what were they typifying? What were they?
Speaker 3:prefiguring draco. I know where this is going. It was jesus just answer the question, because here's the thing, brother, listen, he would die for the sins of the world. I understand draco, it said, god will provide for himself a lamb yes, but that's not preaching how that christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again.
Speaker 1:Here's what you don't understand, brother. Here's what you don't understand.
Speaker 3:It's implying that that's going to happen.
Speaker 1:And that's what they believed in. That was the gospel, that that is what would happen.
Speaker 3:Okay. So the difference between that is that one is implying what will happen and one is that he did die for our sin and rose from the dead on the third day. That's right, brother. We look back to what happened.
Speaker 1:They look forward to what was going to happen, but it's the same story that saves us all. Does that make sense to you or no?
Speaker 3:Yes, that makes sense.
Speaker 1:All right, this is where I want to get to, but I want you to stick with us. Okay, hang in there. Okay, hang in there, brother Jeffrey. Opening comments. Brother Jeffrey, you there? Sister Lisa, are you there?
Speaker 4:I'm here. God bless everybody.
Speaker 1:Opening comments. Sister, how are you doing?
Speaker 4:I'm good, thank you, I'm good. I'm in 100% agreement so far and I agree with everything you're saying and I look forward to you being able to convince those who are not quite on the same page.
Speaker 1:Right. Well, you know, one thing that I understand is this and I know exactly where Brother Draco is coming from, I really do. But we have to understand that there's one gospel, there's one faith, one baptism, one savior, one Lord, all these things, there's all one. We are one body, amen. The idea, here's the thing. The idea that there are separate gospels would imply that there are separate modes or separate means, separate means for salvation, and that can't be true. You know, there are not multiple stories that we embrace.
Speaker 1:If we look at the book of Hebrews, in chapter 12, I think it is, or 11, where it talks about all of these Old Testament saints who were known for their faith, the faith that they had is the same faith that we have today. Amen, the same exact faith. Why? Because the object of our faith is the same who, the what. The object is not a what, but the object is a who, and that object is the lord jesus christ.
Speaker 1:The jews under the old covenant, from genesis on, from genesis 3, all the way to the end, or or the. Or the old covenant. The old covenant from genesis on, from genesis 3, all the way to the end, or or the old covenant, the old testament, the I, the expectation that the believers had was that the messiah would come and that he would redeem his people. What they didn't know, what they didn't know clearly, was the nature of what he would do, what he. What they didn't know was how he would accomplish this redemption. What they didn't know was what the nature of his kingdom authority would be.
Speaker 1:This is not what they knew. They lived on the expectation that this Messiah would come, so they looked forward to that and they had faith in the expectation that what he would do would justify them from their sins, or justify them or redeem them from their sins and justify them before God. And that's why we had the sacrificial Levitical system, because all the sacrifices, like Brother Draco mentioned, when Abraham offered up Isaac and was given that ram that was caught in the thicket to put him in the place of his son, what God was showing Moses is that I have provided a sacrifice for you and I'm going to typify that, I'm going to prefigure that in this ram that I'm giving you, because this ram is going to go into the place, in the place of your son and in the place of you.
Speaker 4:Amen. I wish you could see the smile on my face.
Speaker 1:I can feel it, sister.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1:This is the thing. So, and then the whole sacrificial system that will come along through Moses and Aaron. God gave them these sacrifices, and these sacrifices were basically the whole sacrificial system and I hope you're listening, draco this is what it was for. It was to put his people on training wheels in order to begin to educate his church in the things that God wants to show his people, which the Old Testament saints certainly know now, even better than we do now, because they're with him now. But all those sacrifices, all those lambs, all those turtle doves, all those sacrifices that they made, they were designed to show forth what Christ would do.
Speaker 1:Christians today, posthumous to the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, we believe that Christ is that Messiah that they were looking forward to. Now we look back. That they were looking forward to. Now we look back, and the funny thing about it is you have people today that still don't believe, even though we're looking back. Just like then, there were those who didn't believe, apart from those who did believe, who were looking forward with great expectation for this Messiah who would do this great thing, and the problem that the nation of Israel had back then was that they expected Christ to be another king, like one of the kings of the succession that were appointed by people like such as Nathan, the prophet, and Samuel. So this is where we are today, looking back, sister, meg your opening, comment, ideas, thoughts meg I'm just talking away, wasn't me and was muted.
Speaker 5:We're talking about apostles, correct?
Speaker 2:yes, okay, I can come back to you. I can come back, I'm ready to roll.
Speaker 5:All right, well, let's roll okay, so apostles are those that were set by christ, um, uh, scripturally, um a person that is personally chosen and commissioned by christ. So the title of apostle wasn't like simply a generic messenger. It carried a unique authority that was tied to Christ himself. So we have the eyewitness of the risen God, jesus. They were given authority and power to perform signs and wonders.
Speaker 4:And they were.