Not Under Law, Under Grace — Galatians 1 Explained Verse by Verse

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, an Oklahoma rancher and farmer. Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for over 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say, time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. If you'd like to receive our quarterly newsletter, then for goodness sakes give us your name and address. We do not charge for it, but our newsletter just simply kind of keeps you up to date of what we're doing and our television schedule and so forth. We always appreciate so much hearing from you, and like I said before, you want to give us a little background. So far we're small enough that we can read every letter, most of them more than once. I don't even like to see it get to the place where we couldn't do that. But so far anyway, we are small enough that we can read all our mail personally, and we just love to hear from you and all about you. Always remember that all the past programs going back to Genesis 1-1 have been made available now on videos. We put 6 hours or 12 programs on one video, and then each video is also available on the audio cassettes, and the same 6 hours or 12 programs are now in print. So you can have it either in video, audio, or in a little booklet, whatever suits your desires. Now let's pick right up where we left off in II Corinthians chapter 13. I'm not going to take this last chapter verse by verse, you can read it at your leisure, but I do want to close the Book with the final verse, which is verse 14, and it is probably the clearest statement concerning the Trinity that you can find anywhere in Scripture, especially in Paul's epistles, next to Christ's baptism. I know whenever somebody writes and asks, where do you get the idea of the Trinity, can you give me Scripture? The two that I use the most are the ones at Christ's baptism, and then the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove. So you've got all three persons of the Trinity there at one time. Now here in this verse we have the Apostle Paul making reference also to the three persons of the Godhead in a pure unadulterated statement. I Corinthians chapter 14, and I think the Father is implied here. I Corinthians 14, and I think the Father is implied here. Now it's interesting, I guess I can put it on the board, that normally when we speak of the Trinity, I guess just out of habit, we put them in this order don't we? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But I want you to notice something different in this verse. What does Paul do to that? He changes it. He doesn't put God the Father first, he puts Christ first. Not that there's any change in the modus operandi in the Trinity, but you've all heard me teach that there is no such thing as God the Father having power over God the Son and over the Spirit, or God the Son having power over the Spirit. They are all three co-equal. They are all three members of the Godhead. Let me take you ahead to Colossians where Paul makes that very statement. Colossians chapter 2, and let's drop down to verses 8 and 9. Here's where the Jewish people in their Old Testament background refer to Christianity as a polytheism. They call us a religion of three gods. No we're not three gods, it's three persons in one God. And of course the Old Testament does not clarify that like it is in the New Testament. But here Paul again uses the term, but let's start with verse 8. Colossians 2. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy, and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Now back up a little bit in Colossians to chapter 1. All of this I think gives us the clear picture that the Godhead is that invisible spirit out of which God the Son stepped and became visible. Colossians 1, and dropping down to verse 15, we'll take them all. Colossians 1, beginning at verse 15. Colossians 1. Which of course is referring to God the Son and the redeeming blood in verse 14. So God the Son is the image of the invisible God, the Godhead, the first born of every creature. In other words, Christ was pre-eternal in His existence just like God the Father and God the Spirit. Now verse 16. For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, in earth, visible, invisible, whether they be thrones, dominions, principalities, and so forth. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist, or are held together. Now this is speaking of God the Son, and He is the Head of the Body, the Church, who is the beginning, the first born from the dead, referring now to His resurrection. That in all things He might have the pre-eminence, for it pleased the Father, that in Him, in Christ, should all fullness dwell. And so the members of the Godhead are not one above the other, they are all co-equal. Now if you'll come back with me to II Corinthians, this is why Paul then in complete liberty, and again under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, can sort of reverse the order that we normally use. Instead of saying, from God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, he says in verse 14. I Corinthians 2. Now let the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. All three of them, right there in one verse. And tie that in like I said at the beginning with Christ's baptism, when God the Father spoke and said, this is my beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit came down. You have the manifestations of the three persons of the Godhead. Well that's going to more or less wrap up our study of the Corinthian letters, and now we're just going to turn the page and go right into the next one in the New Testament order which is the Book of Galatians. Now I've put what I call a caricature of a map on the board, and you know what caricatures do. They can draw a cartoon of somebody, and it's nowhere near like them, but do you know who it is? Well that's the way my maps are, and you may wonder, why don't you use a professional map? No one's ever asked me, but I'm sure they must think it. Well the reason I stick to my mundane, simplistic way of doing things, is that my whole thrust of teaching is to get you, and those of you out there on television, to teach people like I do. I don't know how many people have sat with us over the years around our kitchen table, it is a round one, and the first thing I get out is a piece of typewriter paper, and I simply draw. Now I'm not going to go back someplace and find a map and draw out all these fancy charts and everything. I want to be able to just draw it on a piece of paper, and that's what I want you folks to do. Be able to just free hand some of these things, even if it's a caricature, it's not perfect, it's just something that you can recognize, and use it. Use it, practice on your wife, practice on somebody, because as we found out in the last few weeks, out of the blue people have told us, someone would ask us, or ask them, why do you believe? Or why this, or why that. Be ready, have your answers, and if you get a chance to witness to someone in your home at your kitchen table, get a piece of typewriter paper, get a computer paper, or something and just draw these things out. It doesn't have to be fancy, it doesn't have to be accurate. So that's what I've got up here, leading up to the Book of Galatians. You see up here is the Mediterranean sea coast, down here of course would be Jerusalem, and the Jordan Valley, and the Sea of Galilee, and the Dead Sea, and what have you. Now as you turn the corner of the Mediterranean Sea, and go under the underbelly of what is today Turkey, down right through the middle of it was Galatia, the city to whom this letter of the Galatians is written. Then out here on the western end of Turkey of course you have the ancient city of Ephesus, to whom the letter of the Ephesians was written, and the churches in that area. Then across the Aegean Sea up here was Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and all the way down to Athens. Then across the Isthmus to Corinth, and then of course across the Adriatic Sea was Italy and Rome. Now as we study the Book of Galatians, we're going to be dealing with Paul's letter to these people in this very area where he covered this very first missionary journey. Paul was a missionary to Attica, Pisidia, Lystra, and Derbe. I was corrected at break time, he performed a miracle in Lystra, and he was stoned in Derbe. But they were little cities, not that far apart. Then after they had spent some time over here at the eastern end of Galatia, they retraced their steps and went back to Antioch. Then of course in his second missionary journey we'll cover that at a later time. Now then this little letter of Galatians, only 6 chapters long, and as I pointed out in a program or two ago, evidently Paul was under such duress to get this letter written as quickly as possible. He didn't even wait for some kind of a secretary to take dictation, but instead he laboriously printed it in large block letters because of his poor eyesight, because of the intense need to get this letter up to those Galatian assemblies who were being bombarded by the Judaizers to come back under the Law. Oh it just exercised the apostle to the point where he had to sit down and get this letter up to those congregations before it would be too late. And you see this little letter is so appropriate today, because we're under the same kind of a bombardment. I had a letter again from someone the other day from somewhere in the eastern time zone anyway, and he says, "...less I'm finding that most people hate Paul's doctrines of grace." Well I've never put it quite that strongly, but I know they don't like it, because you see most people want to do something. They want to feel that somehow they have merited favor with God, and God will have none of it. He says, "...either you believe that I've finished it, or it'll profit you nothing. But this runs contrary to human thought." So what we're going to see now in these little 6 chapters of Galatians is this constant warning by the apostle that you're not under Law, you're under Grace. Don't let these people pervert my Gospel by adding something to it. So chronologically Galatians was written probably a couple of years before the Corinthian letters. Now I pointed that out when we first started our study in Romans many, many months ago. The books of Paul in our New Testament are not in the order in which they were written chronologically. But evidently according to content, they are in exact order that the Holy Spirit wanted, because of all the New Testaments that are still available in museums and libraries around the world, never are Paul's letters in a different order than what they are in our New Testament today. They've always been the same. Now other books of the New Testament may be in different orders. The four Gospels aren't always in the same order, the little letters at the back aren't always the same. But Paul's letters are always in the same exact order as we have them today, even though they're not in the chronological order that they were written. Thessalonians was written first, and probably then Galatians, and then Romans, and then the Corinthians, and then the Epistles of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and then first and second Timothy and Titus. But here we're going to look at this little book of Galatians now, written about two years before the Corinthian letters, and the whole theme is going to be to convince them and us, that we're not under Law, we're under Grace. Let's get started. I don't know how far we'll get in this program, but we'll go as long as we've got time. Galatians chapter 1, verse 1. Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. Now what does he immediately remind his hearers? The authority of his apostleship. Always he's going to come at that first, that he had the absolute authority to proclaim the truths that he's proclaiming, and it had nothing to do with men appointing him. Now you know it was even interesting back in Corinthians chapter 13, when Paul and Barnabas left Antioch to go on that first journey, remember how careful the Scripture was to point out that it wasn't the Church that sent them, but the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit sent them, not the Antioch church. So the same way here, Paul makes it so plain that he did not come into this role of apostleship because maybe the Twelve ordained him, or some other group ordained him, or taught him, or set him down. No way. He comes on the scene by the miraculous laying of the Lord Jesus on him of this apostleship. Now verse 2. Ephesians 1. "...and all the brethren which are with me," now that of course were his traveling companions as we've seen in the Book of Acts, which would include Dr. Luke, Timothy, Titus, and some of the other fellow believers, and evidently at this particular time they were all in Paul's company. Ephesians 1. "...and all the brethren which are with me, writing to the churches of Galatia." So we know that he was writing to that particular area of central Turkey as we know it today. Verse 3. "...grace be to you, and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ." Now right off the bat in verse 4, what does Paul bring out? The Gospel. I mean the guy can't help it. Even in his writings it's constantly going to come to the top. And here it is. "...that Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever." Now that's the simplistic statement again of the Gospel. How that Christ gave Himself. He wasn't forced, it was of His own volition. In fact turn with me back a few pages to Philippians chapter 2, starting with verse 5. The reason I hit some of these things over and over is because the questions that we keep getting from the TV audience, and we know that there are a lot of people that just don't comprehend these things. Philippians chapter 2, beginning with verse 5. "...let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery, or something to be grasped after, or to be equal with God." He was God. Philippians chapter 2, beginning with verse 7. "...but he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, or a slave, who was a nothing in the eyes of the Roman world. And so he took upon himself the form of a servant, or a slave, and was made in the likeness of men." Now we have to be careful here. In fact the question just came up in the last day or two, when II Corinthians chapter 5 says that He became sin for us. He who knew no sin, that we might have the righteousness of Christ in Him. Well He didn't become a sinner per se, but what did He do? He took the sinner's place. He became our substitute, and after the conversation I had to start thinking of other examples. You take for example, back when Abraham was going to offer Isaac. And just as he's ready to fulfill the command to offer his son Isaac, what does God provide in the thicket? The ram. What did the ram become? The substitute. The ram didn't become Isaac, but the ram became the substitute. Now the same way when Christ went to the cross, He did not become a vile sinner, but He took upon Himself all the sins of the human race, without becoming a sinner, and says, "...yet without sin." Now that's beyond our human comprehension, but it was His substitutionary work that where you and I should have died, He took our place. But He didn't become Lesfeldic, or Kenneth, or anybody else. He merely became our substitute, and this is what Paul is referring here in Philippians chapter 2, as well as in Galatians. Galatians 2, and being found in fashion in the form of a human being, yes totally man, but totally God, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself of His own volition, and He became obedient unto death, not just an ordinary death, but the most horrible death ever devised, and that was the death of the cross. Now that is what becomes the very bedrock of our salvation. We believe that, and it's so simple that people stumble over it. But on the other hand, as I've said so often, it is so complex, I could live to be a thousand years old and never comprehend it. It's impossible for us as humans to comprehend the power of the work of the cross. It is beyond us. But on the other hand, it's so simple that all God asks us to do is believe it, and the world refuses to do so. Galatians 1. Ephesians 2. Verse 4. Galatians 2. He gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us, and He's the One that's going to deliver us from this present evil world. I remember in the last program, I was making reference to the wickedness that was in place in the Roman Empire, just beyond our comprehension. Now I think you�re all aware that historians have bemoaned the fact that America is going down the same road that Rome went. Just as sure as Rome rotted from within, so we Americans are doing the same thing. The more I read of Roman history, the more I know what they�re talking about. Do you know that Rome was almost totally given over to the welfare system? The only people who worked were the captives of their military excursions, and they brought them in and put them to work as their slaves. The Roman citizens did nothing, and in order to satisfy all their leisure hours they had to concoct something to keep them satisfied, and that gave rise to the Colosseum, and the lions, and the feeding of the Christians, and the gladiators, and all the rest. It also gave rise then to their implacable immorality. It was beyond description. But whatever, Christ died for our sins. Now reading on into verse 6. Now Paul says he�s getting to the heart of the matter. Remember now, he�s gotten word that these Galatian believers are being besieged by the Judaizers who want to bring them back under the Law, practice circumcision, practice temple worship, whatever. And so Paul says, I marvel. He couldn�t hardly comprehend how these people, as we saw in Thessalonians they turned from idols to the Living God, and now they�re not satisfied. They�re being hoodwinked to go back under legalism. And he says, I marvel. He says, I can�t comprehend that you are so soon removed from Him who called you into the Law of Christ. No, into the Grace of Christ. And you�re moving from the Grace of Christ, or the Gospel of the Grace of Christ into another Gospel. But what does the next verse say? Oh it�s not really another Gospel. It�s not something totally different, but it�s a perversion. Now what is a perversion? It�s something that has been fooled with. It�s no longer pure. And so this is what the Galatians did. They hadn�t just turned their back on Christianity as we call it. They hadn�t turned their back on Christ, but they had turned their back on Paul�s Gospel of pure Grace, and were now believing these Judaizers that maybe they did have to practice the Law. And so they are now bending in that direction, and this is the purpose of the letter. You�re not under Law, you�re under Grace. And even today this is the heart cry. Why can�t people see that we�re not under anything legalistic? We�re under Grace, and Grace is simply the fact that there�s nothing that you and I can do to merit favor with God. The only thing that we can do is believe that everything God has said is true, and everything He has done has been from His direction, and not