Galatians: The Charter of Freedom

Galatians 1:1-5

     If I were to entitle the Book of Galatians with a very simple title, I would call it The Charter of Freedom, The Charter of Freedom.  Now, Galatians has been called, by other people in history, such things as the Magna Carta of spiritual liberty.  It has been called the Christian's Declaration of Independence.  It has been branded as the battle cry of the Reformation. 

     Martin Luther really began the Reformation with the writing of a commentary on Galatians.  And it was out of the writing of that commentary that he was moved to the concept of grace and faith as opposed to works, and that really resulted in him blasting out of the Roman Catholic church and establishing the protest that became Protestantism. 

     And Luther said this, and it's an interesting insight into his attitude toward Galatians.  He said, and I quote, "The epistle to the Galatians is my epistle.  To it I am, as it were, in wedlock."  Then he said, "Galatians is my Catherine."  To him, Galatians was as a wife, so beloved was it.  Dr. Tenny says, "Christianity might have been just one more Jewish sect, and the thought of the Western world might have been entirely pagan had Galatians never been written."  And, as I said, Luther's commentary really became the manifesto of the Reformation.  And the preaching of Luther around the Reformation was preaching from Galatians. 

     Now, the message of Galatians is the message of liberty.  It is the message of freedom.  It is the message of release from the bondage of legalism.  And the whole book comes across like spiritual dynamite.  It is doctrinal, intensely doctrinal.  It is historic.  It is practical.  It is powerful.

     And I think Galatians is particularly relevant for today.  Now, we have, all across our country, all kinds of talk about liberation movements.  We have something lib in just about every dimension.  The term has become almost a coined phrase, the term "lib."  And men are talking about liberation, and women are talking about liberation.  Freedom is an issue.  And Galatians is all about freedom.

     And it's interesting, I think, and relevant, because I think that Western man, though he talks a lot about freedom, hasn't got the faintest idea what freedom is.  He talks about a new morality that's no longer under the old bondage.  He talks about a new ethic.  It's not a new morality.  It's not new at all.  It's not really a new ethic.  He prides himself on free speech and free right to dissent and free love and freedom from authority and freedom from responsibility, and he claims that all of this is freedom, and none of it is freedom. 

     We talk and search for true freedom, and Galatians comes through with the answer as to what freedom is all about.  There is true freedom.  There is.  No question about it.  The true freedom I just indicated to you when quoting the statement, "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free, indeed."  Or, putting it in the words of Jesus Christ, "You shall know the truth, and," what?  "The truth shall make you free." 

     Now, Galatians just simply takes those two statements and expands them and really pushes it into every possible consideration.  It is truth alone that frees.  Anything else is bondage.  A simple way to illustrate that is, take, for example, the man who has a mathematical problem.  And he must come to some decision before he can be free from the problem.  In other words, he wants to discover some very important solution to a problem.  It's not just a classroom problem, it's a problem that affects humanity. 

     So he goes into his laboratory, and he goes into all of his knowledge of mathematics, and he begins to study the problem, and he works, and he works, and he works.  And he is never free until he gets the answer.  You see?  But once he gets the truth and the answer to the problem comes, then he is free.  You see, it is only truth that liberates.  Until a man comes to truth, he is never free from the search, you see.  Galatians expands on the fact that the truth is Jesus Christ.  And it offers to men true freedom.

     Now, in his own strength and by his own wisdom, man is totally unable to discover freedom.  And, you know, it's interesting to me that freedom comes in all different...really all different packages on a human basis.  Some people think that freedom is ritualism, Pharaseeism, religious asceticism, masochism, self-righteous morality, self-reliance.  In other words, their freedom is a kind of slavery to a morality that binds them. 

     And a classic illustration of this is, well, take, for example, the Hare Krishna people, who go around with their heads shaved and that one thing, that pigtail hanging down, and they have that strange stuff on their face.  You wouldn't believe the bondage of that system.  We think about young people tripping out because of sex and free love.  They're not allowed anything like that.  They are allowed sexual activity only within the framework of marriage for the purpose of procreation and at no other time.  They restrict themselves from that.  They cannot touch drugs or anything else.  It is an unbelievable kind of slavery. 

     But, for them, that's a freedom from another kind of bondage.  Do you see?  I mean, at one point in life they just did their own thing, and they found that that was a terrible slavery, so they traded that in for another kind of bondage which they thought might be freedom.  And then, of course, on the other hand, you've got some people who haven't gone that route yet.  They're just living in lawlessness, existentialism, amorality, and, you know, doing their own thing.  But on both ends it's a search for freedom. 

     And very often they wind up crisscrossing, because there's no satisfaction at either end.  And the same people that are in the drug culture may be the people in the Hare Krishna culture, and the same people coming out of Hare Krishna may be winding up in the drug culture, because they're searching for a freedom both in what you would call legalism and alegalism.  And they never really find it.

     And for all who really want to know freedom, freedom comes simply through the truth.  And so we submit that the truth is in Jesus Christ.  That is genuine freedom.  Now, the theme of Galatians is just that.  The theme of Galatians is that true freedom comes in Jesus Christ.  That's a very simple theme, and that's exactly what the theme is.  And I think, as I said it, it's extremely relevant.

     Now, let me just take it a step further.  Paul deals with this theme on two fronts in Galatians, first of all on the salvation front.  In other words, Paul says that a man with no freedom can have freedom.  That's salvation, right?  You come to Christ, and He sets you free.  And we'll talk as we go through Galatians about that freedom means, but just to give you the basic thought now. 

     Salvation is a freedom.  Man is a slave to sin, for example, right, according to the Book of Romans.  He comes to Christ, and he is freed from sin.  Paul says repeatedly in Romans that the law and that sin shall have no more what?  Dominion over you.  So you are free from the law of sin and the law of death.  There is freedom in salvation.  And so one of the things that Paul talks about in Galatians is how a man who has no freedom can have freedom in salvation. 

     But not only does he talk about the freedom in salvation, but in sanctification.  What do I mean by that?  I mean that even though a Christian is a free man, sometimes he needlessly places himself under bondage to a system. 

     And so Paul is going to say two things.  He's going to say to you who aren't free, let me show you how to be free, and to you who are free, let me show you how to enjoy your freedom.  That's a twofold view of freedom.  And, believe me, this is not any kind of cool academic treatise.  It's a hot one.  Paul is really upset.  It's the only one of his epistles where he doesn't give any commendation.  He just starts right in attacking. 

     Usually he's sort of a gentle character, and he sneaks up and says, "I thank God upon all remembrances of you, and I remember you in prayer, and you're wonderful, and this and that and the other thing."  Even to the Corinthians he said all that.  But here, nothing.  He just dives right in.  He is...he's upset, to put it mildly.  And so the letter really comes as a letter from a flaming heart.  Somebody said it's like a flashing sword, and it is. 

     Now, what was it that prompted him to write this letter about freedom?  Well, let me give you just a brief insight.  The apostle Paul, as we've learned in our studies in the Book of Acts, had founded some churches in south Galatia.  Now, on the first missionary journey, Paul had progressed west to the area called Galatia, which is a large area, about 100 to 175 miles wide, and about 250 miles from north to south.  And in that area, Paul had gone with Barnabas, and he had evangelized four primary cities, Derby, Lystra, Iconium and Antioch of Pisidia.  And in those four cities, he had established churches.  He went all through those cities establishing churches, came to the end of it, turned back around and went back to those churches and strengthened the saints. 

     Then he went back to the church in Antioch of Syria, a different Antioch, and on the second missionary journey he took Silas.  And he went back to the same churches again with Silas, right back to Derby, Iconium, Lystra and Antioch of Pisidia, and he strengthened those believers again.  And so in his heart he had a tremendous personal love for them. 

     And if you read Acts 13 and 14, you'll see that he made an unbelievable sacrifice on their behalf, that it almost cost him his life, that he was thrown out on the city dump heap, having been stoned, they thought, to death.  It was a tremendous price that he paid, and his blood was shed in behalf of that little area and those churches there.  And so he loved them, and they belonged to him, and they were his children in the faith. 

     And, like any really effective father, spiritual father, he had warned them about false teachers.  Because, you see, he knew the strategy of Satan was always the same.  As soon as the Lord does a work, Satan comes in and tries to undo it, and usually by false teachers, false doctrine.  And so he was concerned in his heart about false doctrine.  He knew that it would happen, because it always happened. 

     And look at verse 9 of chapter 1 as proof.  He said, "As we said before, so say I now again."  In other words, he's saying, "I told you this when I was with you.  If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed."  He had already warned them.  He said, "As I told you before, they're going to come, and they're going to tell you a different gospel.  And if they do, you let them be accursed." 

     Now, with all that wonderful start, and with all that great warning, Paul got the message that false teachers had gone through those little churches and just really ripped them up.  And in verse 6 of chapter 1, he says, "I marvel."  "I can't believe it," he says, "that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel."  "I warned you about it," he says in verse 9.  "I can't believe you're so soon removed.  I've hardly been gone from there."

     Now, these heretical false teachers had a severe effect and a tremendous impact on those little churches.  They really created trouble.  They came in there with their false doctrine and fouled up everything.  In verse 7, it says that they perverted the gospel of Christ.  They perverted it. 

     Over in chapter 5, verses 10 and 12, he says, "And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?  Then the offense of the cross ceased."  "For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another."  Now here you get the idea what the problem was.  Somebody had gone in there and preached circumcision to them, that you had actually necessity of having a physical operation to be saved. 

     Circumcision was simply a physical operation that a Jew went through.  And in verse 10, he says, "I have confidence in you through the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded, but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be."  "Somebody has come in there and preached to you salvation by circumcision.  That's another gospel.  We've been called to liberty.  We're not under law anymore.  Now, whoever he is, I hope he gets his," he said. 

     So whoever these teachers were, we get a little insight into what they were teaching.  They wanted to make salvation by law.  In other words, you're saved if you have a physical operation and become a Jew physically.  That's the door to salvation.  You've got to do that.  This is what is called Judaizing.  This is the classic Judaizer, who dogs the steps of Paul all through his life. 

     And he'd go to found a church, and the Judaizer would come in behind him and get all the Christians upset by telling them they had to be circumcised, and they couldn't be saved until they were Jews first, because all the covenants were only for Israel, and so you'd have to become a Jewish proselyte to ever get any benefit from the salvation offered in Christ.  And so they wanted to make salvation by ceremony.  By ceremony. 

     Secondly, they wanted to put all the Christians under bondage to the whole Mosaic law.  They wanted all those Christians there to keep all the Sabbath days and to keep all the ceremonies and all the feast days and go through the whole Mosaic ceremonial situation.  Chapter 4, verse 10 indicates what they were teaching.  "You observe days and months and times and years."  Paul says, "What are you doing still hung up on all that legalism?  I'm afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.  I'm scared that I wasted my time."  And, you know, Paul didn't like to waste time.  He said, "Redeeming the time, for the days are evil."  "Wise people," Ephesians 5, "use their time." 

     And so Paul was very concerned, because false teachers had come in and told them that salvation wasn't by grace.  It wasn't by just believing in Jesus Christ.  You had to become a Jew and get circumcised.  And then once you were a Christian, then you had to keep all the Mosaic law.  And what they were doing was attacking the gospel of grace.

     Now, Paul's teaching was always the same.  You're saved by grace.  And so in this letter he wants to remind them of that.  And look at chapter 3, verse 1.  He says, "Oh, foolish Galatians.  You ding-a-lings.  You dumbbells.  Who messed up your minds?  Who bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been openly set forth, crucified among you.  You know the truth.  I openly declared Christ to you.  Who messed you up?"  Now, that's what he's concerned about.

     And so the letter is written not in a detached sense at all, but it is written from the heart of a man who is grieved over his own children in the faith.  In chapter 5, verse 2, he says, "Behold, I, Paul," as if he needs to give credence to his statement by establishing the dignity of who he is.  He says, "Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised, then Christ shall profit you," what?  "Nothing."  Why?  "Because you're trying to get saved by works." 

     And Paul said to the Romans, "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified."  Absolutely no one gets saved by the law.  Verse 1 of the same chapter, he says, "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ has made us free, and be not untangled again with the yoke of bondage."  "Don't go back to what you were freed out of, a works system."

     Well, these teachers, undoubtedly, who came, these false teachers, probably claimed to be Christians, and they may have even said, "We're from the Jerusalem church," which is very likely.  And they may have even claimed to be supported by the Jerusalem church.  And that may have been what really confused the issue. 

     You say, "Well, what makes you think that?"  Well, we studied some months ago Acts 15, and in verses 1 to 5 we met a group that were doing just that.  Certain men who came down from Judea taught the brethren and said, "Except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you can't be saved."  See, salvation is a matter of an operation, physical operation.  How ridiculous.

     Well, when Paul and Barnabas heard about this, they really got upset, so they decided to go to Jerusalem.  And they came there to deal with this issue.  Now, apparently these people had come from Jerusalem.  "Certain men had come," verse 1, "to Antioch from Judea," Jerusalem Judea, "with this message."  So it may have been that these same guys were traveling all over everywhere announcing to everybody that you had to be circumcised to be saved.  You had to become a Jew before you could become a Christian.

     And then on top of that they wanted to lay on every Christian the whole Mosaic ceremonial system.  Can you imagine all of us Christians having sacrifices all the time?  Can you imagine us going through all of the ceremonies of the Old Testament? 

     But there was another thing that they attacked.  They attacked Paul personally.  These false teachers apparently shot down Paul by discrediting his credentials.  Now, we don't know what they said, but we know what Paul says in response.  In chapters 1 and 2, the both of those chapters, Paul lays down his right to be an apostle, which indicates to me that they had really used the angle that Paul doesn't speak for the Jerusalem church. 

     Now, they probably said, "Well, he's just some guy that came out of Antioch.  After all, he was the arch persecutor of the church.  What are you going to believe him?  Who is he?  He claims to be an apostle.  He's no apostle.  He never saw the resurrection Christ.  He never lived with Jesus.  He never was chosen by Jesus directly.  He came way after that."  And they tried to discredit Paul.

     So Paul had to do three things in Galatians.  Now, get this, and you've got the book in general.  Three things.  One, he had to defend his apostleship.  I mean, let's face it.  If he's going to say something, he's got to have the right to say it and be listened to.  Right?  So the first thing he does is defend his apostleship.  Secondly, he's got to restate the gospel of grace, that salvation is by grace, not works.  Thirdly, he has to encourage Christians to live free from the law. 

     Now watch this.  He defends his apostleship in chapters 1 and 2.  He establishes grace as the only way of salvation in chapters 3 and 4.  And he shows the Christians that their walk is in grace, free from the law, in chapters 5 and 6.  So it's equally divided into three sections. 

     Now you know what we're going to study about.  We're going to study about Paul and his credentials for two chapters.  Then we're going to study about salvation by grace and powerfully presented in chapters 3 and 4.  And then we're going to talk about how the Christian, in chapter 5 and 6, walks in grace and not law.  That's going to be our study.  That's Paul's task, as he writes the Book of Galatians.

     Well, this, then, is the charter of freedom for the Christian.  And tonight we're just going to look at the beginning of it, the first five verses.  And all of that in the past just to kind of give you a feeling for the book.  And we'll cover all that in depth and detail as we go.

     Now, at the very start, with no hesitation, he begins his salutation.  And I want to read verses 1 to 5 and then go back and look at them.  "Paul, an apostle."  Notice how he slams that one in there fast.  "(Not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead); and all the brethren who 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 age, according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever.  Amen."

     Now, there is his introduction.  It's very brief, because he's in a big hurry to get to the issue.  Now, in the first five verses that I just read you, there are three things that Paul establishes, and these he establishes at the very beginning:  his authority, his message and his motive in writing.  His authority, the right to speak.  His message, the thing he speaks.  And the motive, the reason he speaks.

     Now, it's a typical first century letter.  First century letters were different than the letters we write.  We write a whole letter, and then at the end we write our name, which is kind of ridiculous.  You've got to fumble all through to find out who it's from.  Those people did it right.  They just said, "It's me, Paul, talking, and here I go," which should be a new way to address your letter.  And that was the way it was done.  The author gave his name and then to whom he write, and then he wrote.

     First of all, Paul establishes, one, his authority.  His authority, verses 1 and 2.  And this is something, incidentally, that Paul will cover in great detail throughout chapters 1 and chapter 2, and he only just hints at it in chapter 1, verse 1 and verse 2.  This is just a brief hint at what he's going to just expand on throughout chapter 1 and 2.  So he hints at his authority here, and he really goes into it in 1 and 2. 

     Incidentally, he reminds them of it again in chapter 4, which is kind of interesting.  Chapter 4, verses 13 and 14.  He reminds them of it again in chapter 5, verse 2, and he reminds them of it again in chapter 6, verse 17.  He continually reminds them that he stands authoritatively to speak for Christ.  Why?  Because that was open to question in their minds.  Somebody had shot down his right to speak as an apostle. 

     Now let's look at verse 1.  "Paul, an apostle," and then a parenthesis, "(not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead)."  Now, Paul is a very common name.  You say, "My, he writes a letter and just says Paul.  Paul who?  Paul what?  Paul from where?  How do you know who it is?  They knew.  There wasn't any question.  He repeats this, that he is the author, in chapter 5, verse 2, where he says, as I read, "Behold, I, Paul."  We who wrote the letter.  No question about that.  But it's identity enough for them, because, believe me, they knew who Paul was.  He had left some kind of impression on them.

     Now, Paul, we could spend a lot of time just studying the man.  I only want to give you a little bit of background that I think is essential to your understanding of the book, and that is basically this.  Remember that Paul was raised and reared as a traditional legalist.  You got that?  He was a legalist from the first part of his training, throughout all of his instruction, even sitting at the feet of Gamaliel, who was the master teacher.  He learned to be a Pharisee, a legalist. 

     He says, in giving his testimony in Philippians 3, verse 5, "I was circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church;," listen to this one, "touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless."  That guy was a super-legalist.  He obeyed every minute idea in the law. 

     Look at Galatians 1:14.  Talking about himself, he says, "I profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in my own nation."  In other words, of my own peers, I was more traditionally Jewish.  I was exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my father.  In other words, he says, "I was a supreme legalist, more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my father than my contemporaries."  You say, "Oh, yeah, but he was like the rest.  He was a hypocrite."  I don't believe that.  As touching the law, he was blameless.  I don't think Paul was a hypocrite.  I think he really believed that.  I think he was really an honest legalist.  And there are such.  There are such.

     And, you know, the Pharisees, some of them were pretty honest legalists.  Jesus said one time, you remember, it's Matthew 5:20, He said, "Except your righteousness exceed," what?  "The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not have a part in the kingdom."  But isn't it interesting that He said this, that the Pharisees have a righteousness?  They weren't just pure façade and fake.  There was a certain commitment to an honest legalism.  It was insufficient.  It was hopeless.  It couldn't save.  But nevertheless, in many cases, it was really honest.

     Now, the Pharisees were the backbone of Judaism.  Paul was one of them.  They were the fathers of modern Orthodox Judaism.  Paul was one of them.  They loved the law.  They adhered to the law.  They memorized the law.  They obeyed the law.  And Paul was one of them.  He was a legalist.  Now, I want you to get that, because, you see, here is a dyed in the wool, trained, bred legalist who has nothing to offer but grace.  Now, that's transformation, beloved.  That's transformation.

     I think of another passage that I think is worth a look just to show you how much of a legalist Paul was and how honest his legalism was.  In chapter 23 of Acts, verse 1, he makes a startling statement.  And he's a Christian, of course, by this time.  He says, "Men and brethren," listen, "I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day."  Do you think he was hypocritical when he was killing Christians?  I think he was sincere.  I think he was honest.  I think he believed he was doing the right thing. 

     He says, "I have lived this way sincerely, in good conscience, until this day."  I think that Paul was honest.  In I Timothy 1:13 it says he was "a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief."  And so he was an honest legalist. 

     And, beloved, his transformation had to be divine.  You take a legalist that's that much of a legalist, the Pharisee of the Pharisees, and you've got to have a miracle to change him.  And you know what happened?  Look at Galatians 1:15.  "When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me."  Huh.  Now, you're going to have a miracle to change a legalist like that.  And that's exactly what God had to do.  He was separated unto God, and from law, to grace.

     And so he writes the charter of freedom as one who knows both sides of the fence, you see.  After his conversion, he became such a great defender of grace, and he knew it so well and understood it so beautifully because he could see it in contrast to what he had known. 

     But isn't it interesting that just saying "Paul" here in this verse isn't enough?  He then says, "Paul, an apostle."  We'll stop there.  You say, "Well, why does he have to say that? Why does he have to state he's an apostle?"  Because, you see, the apostles were the ones who spoke authoritatively for Christ, weren't they?  In the early church, what did the early church study in Acts 2:42 when they met together, they all came together for breaking of bread and for communication and for prayers and for the apostles' what?  Doctrine.  Why?  Because Jesus Christ actually taught and worked and operated His power through those men. 

     When Peter and John met the man at the gate called Beautiful, they simply said, Peter being the spokesman, "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk."  You see, they were operating in the behalf of Christ.  And so Paul wants to establish at the very beginning that he is no fly-by-night, Johnny come lately, self-appointed character.  He is an apostle. 

     Now, you know, any kind of a guy like Paul who goes around doing what he did is going to get attacked.  It's just par for the course.  And the first attack, apparently, in the Galatian area was they attacked his right to speak for God.  They questioned his apostleship.  And so he wants to really nail that thing down.  And believe me, let's be honest, if he didn't have any right to speak, nobody was going to listen to his message.  Right? 

     To be an apostle, a man had to have been really in company with the resurrected Christ, he had to have seen the resurrected Christ, and,