Galatians 1-2: To Hell with "Jesus + anything"

We move from Acts into Paul’s letters by starting Galatians, the earliest letter we have from him, and we put it back into its real-world context in the Galatia region. We read Galatians 1–2 and track Paul’s fierce warning against a distorted gospel that adds law-keeping to faith in Jesus. 
• reading the New Testament in chronological order from Luke to Acts to Paul’s letters 
• why Galatians is written to multiple churches in a region, not one city 
• the conflict over circumcision and the law of Moses for Gentile believers 
• Paul’s claim that his gospel comes by revelation, not human approval 
• “no other gospel” and why adding requirements twists the message of grace 
• Titus as a test case for freedom in Christ 
• Paul confronting Peter over hypocrisy and pressure from insiders 
• justification by faith in Christ rather than works of the law 
• modern “Jesus plus” warnings, including politics and ideology mixed with Bible language 

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Transcript

Welcome And New Testament Roadmap

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hey, this is Mike. Welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Podcast. We're going to keep going through the New Testament, not in the order that the books appear, but uh kind of chronologically. We started this season of the podcast with the book of Luke, which is the account of Jesus. That's that's one of the gospels. Get to see Jesus' life. And then we went right into what I call Luke Part 2, or the book of Acts, which is a continuation of Luke's story of Jesus as he ascended to heaven, as he left people, his disciples with this mission to go and make disciples of all the nations. Acts is the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus foretold, and the empowering of the apostles to do just that, to go make disciples of all the nations. And we see the Acts of the Apostles take various forms and reach more and more people with the gospel. And we were introduced to Paul, who was an apostle. He even describes himself as one kind of like born in not the normal way and maybe a little bit later than he would have liked, uh, but uh with the same mission of the apostles sent to go out and make disciples of all the nations, specifically to the Gentiles. And so we read in the book of Acts how Paul would go out on multiple missionary journeys and uh three main ones, three main missionary journeys. And on each of these trips, he would go out and share the gospel in a number of cities in a region, and then he would come back to Jerusalem and reconnect with the apostles there and maybe take up a new set of traveling companions, and then he would go out on another journey and come back. And he did this three times, and we find that in each of these cases, he would also be writing letters to churches that he had established in the past, not just developing new churches and training new leaders where he was presently, but also writing letters to various churches. Now, we don't have all the letters that he wrote, but we do have a good number of them, and that forms the majority of the New Testament. And so we're going to take a look at what these letters are and who he was writing to, why he was writing to them, and seeing what he said to build up the church. Because just as hard as Paul was working, even harder was Satan working to undo the work that Jesus was doing in these churches and undo the truth that was being taught, to cause doubt and dissension, like he does, like he did and like he does now. So we can learn a lot from the letters of Paul regarding our own life, our own church, our own unity among believers, and addressing some issues that, yeah, sometimes we can relate to some of the issues that Paul was addressing, sometimes we can't, but we can certainly learn the simil similar principles and can make applications and draw out different applications for our own situations that we see, and again, personally and corporately as the body of Christ. Today we're going to read or start reading the book of Galatians. This is the first letter that we have that Paul wrote, and it was written during his first missionary journey regarding the churches of Galatia.

Why Paul Writes Galatians

SPEAKER_00 3:19

And I say churches because Galatia was a region. Galatia was not a city, but uh Galatia was a region of cities, including Lystra, Derby, and Iconium, that we read about in Acts chapters 13 and 14. So if you want to go back and listen to those episodes of Acts 13 and 14, or if you want to uh just go read it for yourself in your Bible, you could pause. This would be a great time to go do that. And then we can read this letter to the Galatians to see what issues he was addressing and uh and kind of have a context for these churches hearing this letter. So Paul is in Galatians, this letter to the Galatians, uh addressing an issue that has come up, and he it's going to be an issue that he has to fight against multiple times. We see him arguing uh in in this context uh against multiple people and in multiple situations, primarily the Jews, because the Jews for millennia have understood that following the law of Moses is the way to be right with God. And they are not realizing that that was given as a as a placeholder until Jesus provided the ultimate sacrifice, so that no, none of those things were required anymore to be right with God. Now it was just faith in Jesus and his sacrifice. Now the Jews frankly didn't want to believe that because they have been following all of these regulations religiously. And now what? We're just gonna stop? Also, frankly, circumcision is a big issue for the Jews, because that since the time of Abraham has been how God has distinguished his people from the rest of the nations in the world. Now, certainly we still have to be doing that, right? And Paul says, frankly, no, circumcision of the heart is what God has frankly always been more interested in to make sure that your heart is lined up with God. And for a while, yeah, that came with the demonstration of that heart alignment with God was this physical act. But now that's not necessary as long as you are living righteously in faith in Jesus. Yeah, you can see why the Jews aren't happy with what Paul is talking about, and they think that this is heresy. Like what, completely disregarding the law of Moses just because this Jesus guy said some stuff? They find it hard to believe. And so Paul was hearing that the local Jews in these communities were giving the new Gentile converts to Christianity a hard time saying, okay, okay, so I'll grant maybe God allows you to be part of God's people now, but I think you still have to be circumcised. You got to show that you're God's people by being circumcised. And the Gentile new believers are like, I don't think I want to do that. And also, Paul didn't say anything about that. I feel like if it was really that important, Paul would have said something. Well, now Paul's gonna say something. And that's what we see here in the letter to the Galatians. Uh, we're gonna take three episodes to go through Galatians, two chapters each. Let's read Galatians one through two today in the New English Translation. From Paul, an apostle, not from men, nor by human agency, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised him from the dead,

Galatians 1 No Other Gospel

SPEAKER_00 7:00

and all the brothers with me to the churches of Galatia. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who calls you by the grace of Christ and are following a different gospel. Not that there really is another gospel, but but there there are some who are disturbing you and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ. But uh even if we or or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell. As we've said before, and now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be condemned to hell. Am I now trying to gain the approval of people or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ. Now, I I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. For I didn't receive it or learn it from any human source. Instead, I received it by a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you've heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I was savagely persecuting the Church of God and trying to destroy it, I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my nation and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. But when the one who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I didn't go to ask advice from any human being, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before me. But right away I departed into Arabia, and then returned to Damascus. And then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and get information from him, and I stayed with him fifteen days, but I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. I assure you that before God, I'm not lying about what I'm writing to you. And then afterward, I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, but I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They were only hearing, oh, the one who once persecuted us is now proclaiming the good news of the faith he once tried to destroy. So they've glorified God because of me. And then after 14 years, I went up to Jerusalem again with Barnabas, taking Titus along too. And I

Galatians 2 Faith Not Law

SPEAKER_00 10:28

went there because of a revelation and presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did so only in a private meeting with the influential people to make sure that I was not running or had not run in vain. And yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, although he was a Greek. Now this matter arose because of the false brothers with false pretenses who slipped in unnoticed to spy on our freedom that we have in Christ, to make us slaves. But we did not surrender to them even for a moment in order that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. But from those who were influential, whatever they were, it makes no difference to me. God shows no favoritism between people, but that those influential leaders added nothing to my message. On the contrary, when they saw that I was entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter was entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, for he who empowered Peter for his apostleship to the circumcised also empowered me for my apostleship to the Gentiles. And when James, Cephas, and John, who had a reputation as pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we would go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They requested only that we remember the poor. The very thing I was also eager to do. See, until certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this and separated himself because he was afraid of those who were pro-circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also joined with them in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray with them by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not behaving consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of all of them, if you, although you're a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to force the Gentiles to live like Jews? So we are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, and yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law, but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we've come to believe in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Jesus and not by the works of the law. Because by the works of the law no one will be justified. But if while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found to be sinners, is Christ then the one who encourages sin? Absolutely not. No, but but if I build up again those things I once destroyed, I demonstrate that I am the one who breaks God's law. For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. And it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside God's grace. Because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing. The book of Galatians is all about freedom. Freedom from having to do anything that you feel makes you right with God,

Freedom From Jesus Plus Anything

SPEAKER_00 15:05

and if you do enough of it, then hopefully you'll gain his approval. It's a message of freedom against the idea of Jesus plus Jesus plus doing this, Jesus plus some other activity or a habit or a sacrifice that I feel is important and it makes me feel closer to God. No, no, no, that's not the gospel. It's not just a first century Galatians problem. This is a modern day problem. Jesus plus social justice is not the gospel. Jesus plus women's rights is not the gospel. Jesus plus anything is a different gospel, and anyone who is preaching that, as Paul said, is condemned to hell. I know that's not friendly to say, but we need to be very careful when we or someone else is elevating some other issue to be equal on the same terms as Jesus and his death and his resurrection. We are made right because Jesus has allowed the the way to be made right with Father through faith in him. Everything else is a secondary issue. Some, yeah, let's observe and keep as part of our life, and some things we can get rid of because we're not enslaved to that anymore, but none of it is on the same ground as Jesus' death and resurrection, and the faith that we have in him through his grace to be able to be right with God. Watch out for political issues that find themselves intermingled with Bible verses. Watch out for politicians who use the Bible to kind of uh bring along the Christian vote and the Christian mindset to their agendas and ideologies. As we continue reading the book of Galatians, Paul's going to have stronger words for these kind of people who are drawing new believers, younger believers, immature believers along with uh oh, well, I you may not know this yet. You may not know what the Bible says about this, but let me tell you what the Bible says about this. Why don't you just follow me and do what we say? And he condemns them for trying to fulfill their own agendas, trying to make money and gain power and influence over with using the Bible against people who may not know it as well yet. And we see the same issues today. This is a book about true freedom. I'm excited to learn more and study more and explore more of it with you in the upcoming episodes. Thanks for joining me here today. This is the Out Loud Bible Podcast as we read through the book of Galatians. We'll see you next time.