The Divine Rescue | Galatians 1:1-5
Brian Hedges | August 20, 2017
Well, good morning! This morning we begin our study for this fall on the letter to the Galatians, if you want to turn there in your Bibles. Galatians has been called the Magna Carta of Christianity. It’s also been called the charter of Christian liberty and the battle cry of the Reformation. It is a powerful letter that has been instrumental in some of the greatest revivals and reformations in the history of the church.
Martin Luther lectured on Galatians from October 27, 1516 to March 13, 1517, right on the eve of the Protestant Reformation. His lectures led to a commentary in 1519 that then was revised several years later. Even that wasn’t the end for Luther; he lectured on the letter again in 1531, leading to a second commentary in 1535. That commentary was translated into English and became a force for renewal and revival in the English-speaking world.
It’s no wonder that Luther loved Galatians so much, and that’s evident in this statement from Luther about the letter. He called it, “my own epistle, to which I have plighted my troth. It is my own Katie von Bora,” and of course, Katherine von Bora was the name of the former nun whom Luther fell in love with and married.
John Bunyan was greatly impacted by Luther’s commentary on Galatians. Bunyan, of course, was the author of the famous allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress, perhaps the most read Christian book in the English-speaking world, maybe the entire world, second to the Bible. Bunyan, in his spiritual autobiography, said that he found his condition, his experience, [in the commentary] as if it was written in his own heart. This is what he discovered in Luther’s commentary. He said apart from the Bible it was the book most fit for a wounded conscience.
And then one more story of a person who was impacted by Luther’s commentary on Galatians. In 1738 a man named William Holland recorded in his diary how he was providentially directed to this commentary. He took it to a sick brother in Christ named Charles Wesley, and Holland, along with Wesley and one other person in the room, read just Luther’s preface to the commentary, and this is what Holland then said later in his diary.
“At the words, ‘What have we then nothing to do? No, nothing, but only accept of Him who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,’ there came such a power over me as I cannot well describe. My great burden fell off in an instant. My heart was so filled with peace and love that I burst into tears. My companions, perceiving me so affected, fell on their knees and prayed. When I afterwards went into the street I could scarcely feel the ground I trod upon.”
Now that was William Holland. Charles Wesley records a similar experience in his diary, and then three days later John Wesley was converted when he heard Luther’s commentary to Romans being read at the Aldersgate Street chapel, and of course the great evangelical revival, the Great Awakening, followed in the coming years.
Now I just share these stories with you to give you both a little lesson in church history, but also to whet your appetite for this letter. This letter is a powerful letter that God has used in the history of the church for the recovery and the preservation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we will see something of that even this morning as we study just the greeting of this letter in verses one through five.
So let’s read this passage together, Galatians 1:1-5, and then I just want to share some introductory material about Galatians with you, and then dive into especially verses three through five as we look at Paul’s description of the gospel in terms of a rescue. So let’s read the passage, Galatians one, verse one.
“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 brothers who are with me,
To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
This is God’s word.
Now let me just start with some introductory comments about this letter. Ancient letters commonly began with naming the author and the recipients, and then with something like a blessing or a salutation, and often in Paul’s letters a thanksgiving prayer, and that form is followed to some degree, but not completely, here in the letter to the Galatians.
You see Paul naming himself as the author, verses 1 and 2, “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.”
So you see that Paul immediately begins by defending his apostleship. He’s anticipating here a key part of the argument of his letter, because he wants to confirm and assure his readers of the authority of the message that he preached. His apostleship was evidently under attack, and so right from the beginning he claims that it was not derived from human origin or even through a human instrumentality, but it came from God. It came by Jesus Christ and God the Father, and then he adds, “who raised him from the dead.” Perhaps he includes that because, as you remember, Paul himself was converted and called by a personal encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus.
Paul also includes in his greeting, “all the brothers,” and implied in the Greek word there all the brothers and the sisters who are with him, thus showing that his letter comes with the support of many other people.
And then he names the recipients in verse 2: “To the churches in Galatia.”
Now, there are a couple of things to note about this. First of all, we see that Paul was not writing to one church; he was writing to a group of churches: the churches in Galatia.
Now, the scholars are somewhat divided on exactly which group of churches he’s writing to. He could have been writing to the ethnic Galatians, that is, the Gauls; they were the Celtic people group that lived in north central Asia Minor.
But without going into detailed reasons why, I think the best evidence points to the churches in the southern part of the Roman province of Galatia. These were the churches that Paul planted on his first missionary journey, in the cities of Pisidian Antioch, Lystra, Iconium, and Derby, as recorded in Acts chapters 13 and 14. You can see in the circle on the map roughly the region and the group of churches to which I think Paul was writing.
Now another thing that’s interesting about this description of the recipients is what’s missing. There is no thanksgiving prayer in his words to the Galatians, and there’s no commendation in his description of the churches. He just says, “To the churches in Galatia.” Very brief, almost terse.
You especially can see this when you think of the contrasting descriptions to other churches to which he wrote. So for example, in Ephesians he writes, “To the saints who are in Ephesus, and all the faithful in Christ Jesus.” Or to the church in Rome he writes, “To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.” Even to the church in Corinth, which is now infamous for all of the internal strife and the problems with immorality and sin within that church Paul writes, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to the sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those in every place who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.”
Nothing like that to the Galatians. No commendation, no thanksgiving; he just names himself as the author, he names them as the recipients, then he will give a very brief salutation in which he defines the essence of the gospel, and then in verse six, as we’ll see next week, he launches straight into rebuke.
Now why does he do this? Well, Paul evidently had planted these churches on his first missionary journey, and only a few short years later these churches were infiltrated by false teachers, by those who were distorting the gospel. They were insisting that the Gentiles had to be circumcised and keep the Mosaic law in order to be justified, and Paul saw this, rightly, as an assault on the gospel itself. And he writes this letter with burning intensity and urgency, full of emotion, fearful that these churches were abandoning Christ and the gospel.
You can hear his concern in various places throughout the letter. Here are just a few excerpts:
1:6: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.”
3:1: “Oh foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” Chapter four, verse eleven: “I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.” You hear the emotion? “I am astonished!” he says, “I am afraid.”
4:20: “I am perplexed about you.” Paul’s angry as he writes this letter. He’s anxious for the churches. He’s fearful that his work may be in vain.
5:2: “Mark my words,” he says, “I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised Christ will be of no value to you at all.” Verse 4, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”
It’s an urgent letter. It’s a severe letter, as Paul expressed this deep concern for his Galatian friends. The church father Chrysostom said, “This epistle breathes an indignant spirit.” Someone else said, “The letter is a flashing sword wielded by a burning heart.”
That’s the situation behind this letter. This letter was, you might say, a rescue mission for a group of churches who were on the brink of losing the gospel. And in fact, Paul defines the gospel in terms of a divine rescue, as God’s plan to rescue his people from the old age of sin and death and lead them into the life and the freedom of the Spirit.
That’s really the theme that Paul raises in his salutation in verses 3-5. Verse 3: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He begins with this blessing that he commends to them grace and peace. Again, the church father Chrysostom said, “Since they were in the danger of falling from the grace he prays that they may recover it again, and since they had come to be at war with God he beseeches God to restore them to the same peace.”
And then notice especially verses 4 and 5, “Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
Now that verb, “rescue,” commentator J.B. Lightfoot said, "strikes the keynote of this letter." The gospel is an emancipation from the state of bondage. It’s a rescue! That’s what I want us to focus on this morning, the divine rescue.
I want you to see three things about it. I want you to see:
I. Our Need for Rescue
II. How Christ Rescues Us
III. The Reason for the Rescue
I. Our Need for Rescue
First of all, our need for rescue. You can see it very clearly in verse 4: “Christ gave himself for our sins, to rescue us from the present evil age.” So, we need rescue from two things; we need rescue from our sins, “Christ gave himself for our sins,” and we need rescue from this present evil age.
Now Paul’s words here assume the two-age schema that was common in the thought of Judaism at that time and is often alluded to in Scripture, in the New Testament. There is this present age, and there is the age to come. There are two ages: the present age and the age to come.
Paul here is asserting that Christ’s self-giving, substitutionary work on the cross has brought about a dramatic shift in salvation history. He has rescued us from the present evil age, so as to bring us into this inauguration of new creation, the age to come.
Douglas Moo explains, “Paul claims that though this present evil age continues in force, believers are rescued from this present age of evil, sin, and death and find their true identity in the new age that has broken into history through Christ’s epochal death and resurrection. The fundamental New Testament perspective on the times in which we live bookends Galatians. This evil age in 1:4 corresponds to the world of 6:14, both of which stand in contrast to the new creation, 6:15. And Paul’s point is that believers with their sins forgiven through Christ’s self-giving and identified with Christ in His triumphal resurrection, verse 1, belong to a whole new state of affairs.”
I think you can see the significance of the shift when you just trace out a series of antitheses that happen again and again and again in Galatians. There’s a series of contrasts, these paired opposites, that happen again and again and again in Galatians. You can see a summary of this in a chart; let me just talk through this chart with you.
We are rescued from something, and we rescued to something. We are rescued from this present evil age, as we see here in chapter 1, verse 4; and we are rescued to new creation. As Moo points out, new creation, in chapter 6, verse 15, bookends this book. This present evil age and new creation are the bookends of this book, or of this letter.
Then there is an antithesis between works of the law and faith in Jesus Christ. Look at chapter 2, verses 15 and 16: “We who are Jews by birth, and not simple Gentiles, know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Jesus Christ, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” So there’s an antithesis between works of the law, faith in Christ.
There is a deeper antithesis here between doing and believing. You see this in chapter 3, verses 11 and 12. “Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because the ‘righteous will live by faith.’ The law is not based on faith, but on the contrary, it says, ‘The person who does these things will live by them.’” The law is all about doing; faith is all about believing. That’s this deep contrast. That’s what concerns Paul so much. They’re in danger of losing the gospel of grace and retreating to works rather than faith.
Then there’s a contrast, in chapter 3, between curse and blessing. Paul says, “All who rely on works of the law are under a curse, but Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’ He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”
And then there’s a contrast between the flesh and the Spirit. You see this in chapter 3, verse 3: “Are you so foolish?” he says. “After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” He further develops this contrast in chapter 5 as he contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. These are two fundamentally different ways to live: by the flesh or by the Spirit. I think when you connect the dots, I think Paul’s implication here is that if you live according to the law you do, in fact, live according to the flesh. You still live in the old age. You still live in this present evil world. But if through the cross and through the Spirit you live according to faith and you walk according to the Spirit, you’re a part of the new age.
There’s a contrast between two covenants in chapter 4. I won’t read the passage, but chapter 4, verses 22 through 26, a contrast between a legal covenant, Mount Sinai, the present Jerusalem, Paul says, and this covenant of promise, which Paul says is an allegory for this Jerusalem from above.
And then there’s a contrast between bondage and freedom, between slavery and sonship. Chapter 5, verse 1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
So let me summarize here. The false teaching that had infiltrated the churches in Galatia, the false teachers who were behind this, were essentially trying to turn back the salvation history clock; they were trying to take these Christians back to Judaism. They were trying to take them back into the old covenant. It was a retreat to works of the law, observance of Mosaic ceremonies, and dependence on works for justification. It was, in fact, a retreat from Calvary to Sinai, from the effectiveness of the cross and the freedom of the Spirit back to bondage under the law and living according to the flesh. It was in reality giving up their sonship for a life of slavery.
That’s why Paul’s so upset. The heart of his gospel is that Christ came to rescue us from all this. He came to rescue us from this! Don’t go back! “Don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery!” he says. “Don’t go back. Don’t lose the gospel.”
Paul’s whole argument is that Christ has set us free; he’s redeemed us, he’s rescued us, and to go back to the law is to fall from grace, to give up the blessing and come back under the curse. That’s why he says it so strongly in chapter five, verse four, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”
Now, before I move to point two, here’s the key application for us this morning. This overview I think shows us that we actually need rescue from two things. We of course need to be rescued from our sins; we need rescue from unrighteousness. That’s obvious. We need to be rescued from our anger and our pride and our lust and our envy and our greed; that’s obvious. We know that. We need to be saved from our sins; we need rescue from that.
But Paul’s letter shows us that we also need to be rescued from our self-righteousness. We need to be rescued from religion. We need to be rescued from a performance mentality, from trying to earn our salvation. We need to be rescued not only from our law-breaking but from our law-keeping. Calvin said that the problem with the false teachers is that they wanted to imprison men’s consciences in religion. We have to be rescued from that.
You see, the gospel is not about religion. The gospel is not about what we do in order to earn or to merit salvation or grace. The gospel is about what God has done for us through Christ, to bring us into the freedom, the liberty of the children of God. The only way to be rescued is by grace, and we need to be rescued from our sins, we need to be rescued from our morality, our law-keeping, our attempts at earning our salvation.
II. How Christ Rescues Us
That leads us to our next point: how is that Christ, then, rescues us? How does he do it? Look at verse four again: “He gave himself our sins, to rescue us from the present evil age.” He gave himself for our sins. What is this?
(1) Well, first of all, it’s an act of self-giving love. The Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for us. Paul says it very personally in chapter 2, verse 20. “I have been crucified with Christ,” he says, “and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
That’s what the cross was! It was an act of self-giving love! It was an act of love on the part of the Father as well. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.” But it was an act of voluntary self-giving, self-sacrifice out of love by Jesus Christ.
That’s why Paul says in Ephesians chapter five, “Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.” This was an act of self-giving love on the part of Jesus.
(2) And secondly, it was an act of substitution. Wes already mentioned it this morning: the glorious exchange, the great exchange, Christ for us. Christ taking our place. That’s what he did; he gave himself for our sins.
Now this closely parallels language in other parts of the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 15:3, “Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.” Mark 10:45, Jesus himself says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 1 Timothy 2:5-6: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind; the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.”
He gave himself for us, for our sins. He took our place. I mean, we just sang it this morning: “In my place condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah, what a Savior!” To give the words to that other old hymn:
“What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered
Was all for sinners’ gain.
Mine, mine was the transgression,
But Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior;’
Tis I deserve Thy place.
Look on me with Thy favor;
Vouchsafe to me Thy grace.”
This is the heart of the gospel: Christ our substitute. He died for our sins. He didn’t die for his own sins! He was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.” Even Pilate washed his hands and said, “I find no guilt in this man.” He didn’t die for his own sins; he died unjustly at the hands of men. But he did so by the design and the purpose of God, so that justice of God against our sins would be borne in the body of Jesus. He died for our sins; he gave himself for our sins.
So right here we see Paul’s very clear articulation of the central principle of the gospel: Christ’s loving, self-giving, substitutionary, atoning sacrifice for us, and of course implied his resurrection, as Paul’s already mentioned in verse 1.
Now Paul’s going to develop that and expand on that in great detail in this letter, but it’s clear right here from the start, and this is one of the reasons why the letter has so deeply affected believers throughout the centuries.
This is what captured Luther, transformed him and his heirs. I want you to just hear Luther’s application of this one verse; this is from the 1535 commentary on Galatians. Wes read just a portion of this, but I want to give you the longer quote. This is really good.
Luther says, “The genius of Christianity takes the words of Paul, ‘who gave himself for our sins,’ as true and efficacious. We are not to look upon our sins as insignificant trifles. On the other hand, we are not to regard them as so terrible that we must despair. Learn to believe that Christ was given, not for petty and imaginary transgressions, but for mountainous sins; not for one or two, but for all. Not for sins that can be discarded, but for sins that are stubbornly ingrained.
“Practice this knowledge and fortify yourself against despair, particularly in the last hour, when the memory of past sins assails the conscience. Say with confidence, ‘Christ the Son of God was given, not for the righteous, but for sinners. If I had no sin I should not need Christ. No, Satan, you cannot delude me into thinking I am holy! The truth is, I am all sin. My sins are not imaginary transgressions, but sins against the first table: unbelief, despair, doubt, contempt, hatred, ignorance of God, ingratitude towards him, misuse of his name, neglect of his word, et cetera. And sins against the second table: dishonor of parents, disobedience of government, coveting of another’s possessions, et cetera.
“Granted that I have committed murder, adultery, theft, and similar sins indeed; nevertheless, I have committed them in the heart, and therefore I am a transgressor of all the commandments of God.
“Let us equip ourselves against the accusations of Satan with this and similar passages of holy Scripture. If he says, ‘Thou shalt be damned,’ you tell him, ‘No, for I fly to Christ, who gave himself for my sins. In accusing me of being a damnable sinner you are cutting your own throat, Satan. You are reminding me of God’s fatherly goodness towards me, that he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. In calling me a sinner, Satan, you really comfort me above measure.’ With such heavenly cunning we are to meet the devil’s craft and put from us the memory of sin.”
Do you deal with your sins that way?
Let me tell you something. The only balm for a wounded conscience is the gospel that tells us that Christ died for our sins; all of them. All of them. The debt is paid, folks. It’s paid. That’s the gospel. That’s the good news. Christ paid for your sins, and when Satan comes accusing, this is what you do. You say, “You’re right. You’re right, I’m a sinner through and through. Even at my very best I’m still a sinner. But Christ died for me. He died for me.”
So this is the rescue. He rescues us from our sins, he rescues us from this present evil age, this old age of the law and sin and death and slavery and condemnation, and he does it through the self-sacrifice of Christ, the substitutionary work of Christ on the cross.
III. The Reason for the Rescue
Now why does he do it? Here’s the reason, third point, and I’ll be brief here: the reason he rescues us (you see it in verses 4 and 5), just quickly notice three things here.
(1) First of all, here’s the origin: the will of God. He rescued us “according to the will of our God and Father.” Now this is important: the rescue was God’s idea. It was God’s idea.
Don’t ever even entertain the thought that Jesus somehow twists the arm of God the Father in order to get him to forgive you! No, it was God’s idea. It was the Father’s idea. I mean, really it was the idea of the three-in-one God, the triune God, who in eternal covenant and counsel together agreed, “This is the plan.”
I love the words of an old hymn-writer, Lowell Mason, who said,
“Long ere the sun began his days
Or moon shot forth its silver rays
Salvation’s scheme was fixed, was done,
In covenant by the Three in One.
The Father spake, the Son replied,
The Spirit with them both complied.
Grace moved the cause for saving man,
And wisdom drew the noble plan.”
The Father, the Son, and the Spirit together, in agreement, in eternal agreement, in eternal covenant. Before you were ever born, before you ever sinned, before you could ever wiggle a finger in movement towards God, God made the plan. It was all according to his will.
(2) And then secondly you see the goal of the rescue: the glory of God, verse 5: “To whom be glory forever and ever.” Why did God do it? I mean, why would he do it? Why would God send his Son? Why would Jesus come? Why the self-giving; why the sacrifice? Why not just demolish creation and start all over again? He could have done that.
Well, there are lots of answers to that question. He did it because he loved us, he did it because he wanted to, but here’s I think the ultimate reason. This is the reason above all other reasons: he did it because, in some mysterious way, it all ends up being to the glory of his name. I think this is what it will mean for us, forever and ever in our eternal state, once the whole story is wrapped up; we will live in absolute joy, increasing, everlasting joy as we live in adoration of the grace, the mercy, the love of God; singing his praise, giving him glory.
His glorification, our jubilation, our satisfaction. That was the goal.
(3) But wait, there’s one more thing; we’re not quite done. At the end of verse 5 there’s a word. What’s the word? Amen! (Can I get an amen for that?!) Amen.
You know what the word “amen” means? It means “let it be so.” Now this is an interesting word, because this is actually a Hebrew word that was transliterated into Greek and has really been translated into virtually every language in the world where the Christian faith has gone. So even if you go to Africa and you’re hearing people sing and pray in Swahili or something, when they say “amen” it still sounds basically like this. They say “amen.” Everybody recognizes this word, “let it be so.”
One lexicon defines it as “a strong affirmation of what is stated.” And it’s not a throwaway word. It’s a key word, and it’s a word which invites our agreement with God, our agreement with the gospel, our consent to the gospel.
I love the way one obscure little commentary put it. This is Geoffrey Wilson. He said, “By inviting the Galatians to join in this adoration, the final amen virtually becomes a summons to return to the faith from which they had so quickly declined.” And it’s a summons for you and I as well this morning.
By saying amen to the gospel, we are giving our consent, our agreement that “yes, all this is true. I’m a sinner. God is the Savior. Christ has come to rescue me, and this rescue is solely by his grace alone.”
Someone once said that anyone for whom the gospel does not mean everything, it doesn’t really mean anything. If the gospel doesn’t everything to you, it doesn’t really mean anything to you. It’s a whole-hearted consent of saying, “Yes!” Yes! That’s what amen means; it means, “Yes! This is true. I consent. I agree. I agree I am condemned in and of myself, but in Christ, because of what he’s done, I am justified and I am free.”
So that’s the summons for us us this morning. God calls us to faith, he calls us to Christ, he calls us to absolute, whole-hearted, no-holds-barred dependence upon grace and grace alone, given to us through Christ and Christ alone.
Let’s pray.
“What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered was all for sinners’ gain. Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.” And Lord, we agree. Right now we agree. We confess that we are sinners, sinners by nature and sinners by practice. “The best obedience of our hands dares not appear by throne, but faith can answer Thy demands by pleading what our Lord has done.” This is our hope.
The righteousness that justifies us is the righteousness of your Son, and even our best deeds of righteousness, everything that we do pales in comparison to that. The best life that we can live in the fruit of the Spirit is enabled by your very grace, so even our good deeds and our good works as Christians are the fruit of your work within us. And so we just say yes, Lord, amen; we believe it, we agree with it. This is our confession.
Father, I pray for anyone this morning who has not come to this place, has not come to this point of consenting to the verdict of the gospel. Lord, I pray that if their conscience is wounded by sin that they would find healing in the wounds of Christ. I pray that you would give the gift of saving faith.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Brian G. Hedges
