Rescued by Jesus to the Glory of God

Galatians 1:1-5

January 11, 2004

 

            When Paul wrote Galatians, he was facing at least two problems. The first was that his authority as an apostle of Jesus Christ was being undermined by false apostles and Judaizers. There were those who were demeaning the Apostle Paul and teaching that his message was not from God and that he was inferior as an apostle. This was a problem that Paul faced, it seems, his whole life. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians he spent three chapters defending his apostleship. He even stated in 2 Corinthians 11:5, For I consider myself not in the least inferior to the most eminent apostles. Some had apparently come in to Corinth teaching that Paul was an inferior apostle, or not an apostle at all! Paul’s message constantly brought him persecution and suffering, and many people tried to slander him and rob him of his apostolic authority. The situation was no different in Galatia, where the false teachers evidently were slandering Paul.

            The second problem that Paul faced as he wrote Galatians was a misunderstanding of the Gospel. The Galatians received the Gospel well enough when Paul was there, but since he had left false teachers had crept in, introducing a gospel of works and teaching that a person must follow the Law to be saved. As Paul wrote this letter, then, he had to battle on two fronts. First, he had to vindicate himself and set forth the proof of his apostleship. Second, he had to explain the Gospel to the Galatians, and prove that the Old Testament itself was the basis and foundation of the truths of the Gospel.

            As we come to the opening five verses of this epistle, the Apostle begins to wage his warfare on the false teachers by dealing with both of these problems head-on. In verses 1-2 Paul defends his apostleship, setting the stage for chapters 1 and 2 where he goes into more detail about his calling and standing as an apostle of Jesus Christ. In verses 3 through 5 Paul summarizes his gospel message of salvation through Jesus Christ to the glory of God. Thus, in these opening verses we get a preview of the entire letter of Galatians.

            Paul’s main point in these five verses is that he is a true apostle of Jesus Christ who preaches the Gospel to the glory of God. He is not in any way inferior to any apostle, and is, in fact, superior to the false apostles. Moreover, his message is one which has its root in history, in Jesus’ sacrificial, substitutionary atoning death, and its root in the Old Testament, as it is according to the will of the God of all glory. Let’s examine these verses more closely as we see that Paul is a true apostle who preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ too the glory of God.

 

The Validity of Paul’s Apostleship (vv. 1-2)

 

            Paul begins the letter to the Galatians with a brief, concise defense of his apostleship. Look at verses 1 and 2. Paul writes, Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead), and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia.

            The letter begins in a customary way for letters in Paul’s day. Paul begins by stating that he himself is the author. If you read the other letters of Paul throughout the New Testament you will invariably notice that his letters always begin this way. It was a customary way of writing.

            That Paul is the author is beyond dispute. He claims here that he is the author, and again in 6:11 he writes, See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. We know that this Apostle often dictated his letters and had someone else actually write the words on paper, but here to the Galatians we see that Paul wrote with his own hand in very large letters. Galatians was a letter that was deeply rooted in the Apostle’s soul as we see his passion throughout the letter.

            As was often the case, Paul’s authority and apostleship were called into question, so in this letter we see him defend his apostleship and his right to be a spokesman for Christ most vigorously. He begins the letter with a defense of his apostleship, and the defense is characterized three ways.

            First, Paul’s apostleship was not of human origin. He writes, Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man). Evidently there were those who would undercut Paul’s authority and claim that it was nothing more than a human apostleship. The word apostle simply means one who is sent, and it could be used in a secular way to denote a messenger or a delegate. Within the church it could have two meanings. It could be used in a generic sense of men who were sent by a church to carry out a certain task. We see this in 2 Corinthians 8:23 where Paul writes, as for our brethren, they are messengers of the churches, a glory to Christ. The word translated messengers is the same Greek word Paul uses to describe himself in Galatians 1:1. As the NAS shows, however, these messengers in 2 Corinthians were not apostles in the sense that Paul claimed to be. They were called messengers of the churches, meaning that the church had ordained and sent them as emissaries. These would be apostles sent from men and through man, and they legitimately held an office of messengers, although not messengers directly commissioned by Christ without an intermediary.

            The Apostle Paul, however, was not such an apostle. He was not sent from men nor through the agency of man. This means, first of all, that his apostolic authority was not given from men. No man ordained him as an apostle or gave him such a charge. That is what the words not from men tell us. It was not from men that Paul derived his apostolic authority. No church council, no church elder board, no congregational vote vested Paul with his authority. There were men who were so entrusted by the church, but the Apostle Paul claims that he was not one of them. This also tells us that the Apostle did not receive his divine commission through the agency of man, meaning that it was not mediated to him by any human agency. No man told him that he should be an apostle. No man received a revelation from Christ and thus Paul learned second-hand through a mediator that he was called as an apostle. The Apostle Paul is emphatic that his apostleship had nothing to do with any human agency, any human decision, or anything human at all. It was not an apostleship of men. The false apostles that crept in and led some astray could not claim such divine authority and commissioning, but Paul here openly declares that man was not involved in his calling as an Apostle of Jesus Christ. He was an Apostle of a different sort. Well, of what sort was he?

            Paul’s apostleship was of divine origin. This is his second defense of his apostleship, and it logically follows his first. First, he was not an apostle by human means, but rather he was of divine commissioning and divine sending. He teaches us this in these words, not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead. It was directly through Jesus Christ that Paul received his calling as an apostle. The Lord Jesus appeared to Paul personally and commissioned him as an apostle, and this commissioning therefore was just as authoritative as that of Peter, James, John, and any of the other original apostles. By these words the apostle sets himself up as an equal to the most eminent apostles. To add weight, as it were, to his authority, he even adds the words, and God the Father, to his calling. The Father and the Son commissioned Paul. They were in unity in this calling.

            Paul further qualifies the Father by noting that He is the one who raised [Christ] from the dead. Why should he add this? I think the reason that he adds this statement is to show the Galatians that it is the same power that raised Christ from the dead that called Paul as an apostle. The same God who raised Christ called Paul as an apostle, making his apostleship undeniably authentic. If the one who raised Jesus from the dead sent or called Paul as an apostle, then clearly his apostleship cannot be reasonably disputed. Only a fool bent on destruction to himself would venture to call Almighty God into question, and so Paul makes it clear that to question his apostleship and his authority is to do nothing short of questioning what Almighty God has done, the very God and Father who raised Christ from the dead.

            O, there are implications for us in this statement, are there not? If Paul is an apostle sent through God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, we must humbly submit our hearts and our minds to his apostolic authority as he writes to us the commands and the will of the Lord in Scripture. How many there are today who would call Paul’s authority into question by means of science, philosophy, education, or any other number of human-contrived sources of so-called knowledge! The disputes about the truth and authenticity of the Scriptures do nothing less than call God’s prophets and apostles into question, and therefore they call Almighty God into question. How we should reverence the Word of God with fear and trembling, realizing how serious an offense it is to question it, deny it, ignore it, dispute it, or argue with it!

            Paul adds a third validation of his apostleship and his apostolic message in verse 2, saying, and all the brethren who are with me. Strangely, there has been a large amount of debate about the meaning of these words and the reason Paul wrote them. Notice that Paul does not specifically name any of these brethren. We have no way of knowing who they are. In a majority of Paul’s letters he names his companions. For example, in 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Paul writes, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. In Colossians Paul writes, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother. In Philippians we read, Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus. We read similar greetings in the letters to the Corinthians and the letter to Philemon. In fact, there is no other Pauline letter in the New Testament where he names the brethren without mentioning a specific name. In Romans he does not name anyone else, nor does he state that brethren are with him while writing the letter. The same is true of Ephesians. In 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus Paul is writing personal letters, and no one other than he and the recipient is mentioned. So Galatians is unique in this respect. The debate arises over why Paul mentions the brethren without any specific name.

            I think the reason Paul mentions the brethren without specifying who they are is this: Paul is concerned to show that he is not alone in what he has to say, but he also does not want to make it appear that he derives his authority or his authenticity as an apostle from any specific individual other than God. So while he concedes that the brethren are with him and send their greetings in this letter, and actually are even spoken of as co-authors, he does not want to specify to lighten his arguments for his authority as an apostle of Jesus Christ.

            Paul writes this letter to the churches of Galatia, and he proves his apostleship briefly by showing that it is not of human origin, but it is of divine origin, and he is not alone in his teaching but the brethren are also with him. As we go through Galatians, you will see that Paul begins the body of the letter defending his apostleship, and he will pick up this theme again most explicitly in verse 10.

 

The True Gospel Message that Glorifies God (vv. 3-5)

 

            Having begun with a defense of his apostleship, Paul goes on to give the Galatians a brief greeting. Remember, Paul’s purpose in this introduction is to show that he is a true apostle who preaches the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ to the glory of God. His greeting, then, serves as more than a greeting, as he expands greatly upon it to explain the heart of the Gospel message to these foolish Galatians who had been bewitched. In verse 3 he writes, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

            Paul begins with his customary greeting, Grace to you and peace. Yet, as you read through Galatians, it would appear that this customary greeting is more than just a catch-phrase for the Apostle, especially within the context of Galatians. In fact, the whole Gospel can be summed up with these two words: grace and peace. The Gospel is a message of grace and peace, which is something the Galatians had forgotten and forsaken in many ways.

            Grace means that it is undeserved favor. It is not something that is earned or something that we have a right to because of our behavior or our works or anything in us. Paul makes this abundantly clear in Romans 11:5-6 where he writes, In the same way then, there has come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. There is a great deal of theology in these two verses that is outside the scope of this message, but what is clear is that grace is rooted in the gracious choice of God, and it does not come on the basis of works. Grace is no longer grace if it is received or merited in any way by works. This greeting, then, cuts to the heart of the issue the Galatians were facing. The false teachers, the Judaizers, were teaching a salvation based on works, and that sort of teaching nullifies grace. So Paul begins with his customary greeting grace to you and immediately cuts to the heart of the issue.

            He adds peace to the greeting to demonstrate the outcome of God’s unconditional grace toward sinners who believe. Peace is the outcome of salvation because salvation removes the barrier of sin that puts us under God’s omnipotent wrath. When a person is an unbeliever, they do not have any peace with God or any real, lasting peace in any way. They cannot receive peace unless they receive Christ. So Paul’s greeting encompasses the cause of our salvation, namely God’s gracious choice, here called grace, and the outcome of it, namely peace.

            Notice that Paul says grace to you. Oh how zealous and earnest is this beloved Apostle that even these stubborn, gullible, misled Galatians should receive the grace and peace of God! Even these foolish Galatians bring forth a greeting of grace and peace from Paul, as he longs for them to be mature in Christ and to walk in Him unhindered. No doubt these Galatians had fallen into serious error, or Paul would not have spoken to them as forthrightly and harshly as he did, yet even in his zeal and his boldness he still gives them this blessing, longing for them to know the grace and peace of God.

            Notice also in verse 3 that this grace and peace is not of human origin or of a human nature. Paul writes, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Men will try to have peace between one another, and men will try to help others feel peace, but there is no genuine peace apart from that which comes from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

            I love Paul’s terminology here, as he calls God our Father. How personal a relationship this is that we have with our Father in heaven! This profound grace and peace come not from our slave master, not from some far away, disinterested God, not from an impersonal force, but from God our Father. He’s our Father! If God were our slave master, we would be in slavish fear, serving out of duty and fear rather than out of joy and wonder and love. Oh yes, there is fear in our relationship with God, but it is the fear and reverence of a son for his father, not the fear of a slave for his master. We have been adopted as children of God, and He has become our Father, loving us, giving us infinite grace and peace so that we might be reconciled to Him. The grace and peace we receive comes directly from God, who is our Father if we receive His grace and peace. I can think of nothing more comforting than that God Himself has taken it upon Himself to become our most holy, loving Father and to adopt us as His own beloved children.

            Paul adds and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ and the Father are equal in Paul’s mind, as he so often unites them in one quick breath without any disclaimers at all. Our peace and grace also come from the Lord Jesus Christ, and they come in a very specific way, which is the message of the Gospel that Paul presents in verses 4 and 5. How do we receive this grace and peace from God the Father and the Son? How is it made possible for sinners like us to have grace and peace from God the Father? It is only possible because of the Lord Jesus Christ.

            Notice that Jesus Christ, in verse 4, is described as the one who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age. The reason we have grace and peace is because of Christ’s self-giving sacrifice of mercy on the cross. He gave Himself means that Jesus Christ willingly and voluntarily gave up His own life. He was not compelled to do it. He did not owe it to us. No one constrained Him. Rather, He did it of His own will and of His own accord. It was a self-giving sacrifice given freely of His own good will and pleasure.

            The fact that He gave Himself for our sins demonstrates the atoning nature of His death. It was a substitutionary death on our behalf. He have Himself to atone for our sins, to take them out of the way. Why would He do this? Why would He desire to take away our sins by His voluntary sacrifice of Himself?

            Paul tells us that it was so that He might rescue us from this present evil age. In this phrase we have the only main verb in the entire passage. I’ve entitled this message, “Rescued by Jesus to the Glory of God” because that is the message of the Gospel. It was a rescue mission. We were dead in our sins. We were under God’s curse and sentence of condemnation. We stood utterly helpless and doomed to destruction, and we needed to be rescued! Our Lord and Savior took it upon Himself to carry out this mission. He died for our sins so that we might be rescued! But rescued from what? From this present evil age. This is another one of those phrases that has sparked some debate. What does it mean to be rescued from this present evil age? First, it’s necessary to define this present evil age. What is the meaning of the phrase? This present evil age is characterized by several things throughout the New Testament. Kim Riddlebarger, in his book A Case for Amillennialism, gives a list of characteristics of this present evil age. In this age, the present evil age to which Paul refers, the rulers of the world do not understand the wisdom of God because it is not wisdom of this present evil age. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:6, Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers or this age who are passing away. The wisdom of God is not of this present evil age, and the rulers of this present evil age are passing away. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 we read that Satan is the god of this age. Paul writes, The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving. This age is characterized by Satan blinding the minds of unbelievers, and Satan is the god of this age. The word translated world in this verse is the same word translated age in Galatians 1:4. The ways of this age are also considered to be evil and sinful, even inspired by Satan himself. Ephesians 2:1-2 makes this clear, saying, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course [or age] of this world, according to the price of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. This present age, the age of this world, as Paul calls it in Ephesians, is characterized by people walking in their sins and trespasses and disobedience. It is beyond all doubt an evil age. It is the present age. It is this that Jesus came to rescue us from. He came to rescue us from this age that is according to Satan who works in unbelievers. He came to rescue us from this age in which Satan blinds minds of unbelievers and of which he is the god. He has come to rescue us from the foolishness of this world that is passing away along with its rulers who don’t understand the wisdom of God. No wonder Paul says in Romans 12:2, And do not be conformed to this world, or, age! The word translated world is again the same word translated age in Galatians 1:4. This present age is filled with evil and wickedness, under the influence and power of Satan. Christ came to rescue us from this wicked kingdom that is perishing and someday will be destroyed. That is the meaning of our salvation – rescued from this present evil age, no longer blinded by Satan, the god of this age, no longer walking in disobedience and sin, no longer foolish thinking we are wise! We have been delivered! We have been saved and rescued from this wicked, perishing age!

            When you realize what Jesus has rescued you from, it ought to move you to holiness. When you realize the incredible mercies of God and the greatness of this salvation, deliverance from this present evil age and the destruction to come upon it, how can you live in conformity to it? It’s so easy to forget just what Christ has done for us, and so how often we need to give one another greetings like this! “Grace to you and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ who has rescued us from this present evil age! What would you like for breakfast?” Oh, that we could truly comprehend the richness and profound mercy found in our salvation! How much we would endeavor no longer to do the works of the flesh but to produce the fruit of the Spirit and be filled with the Holy Spirit! Jesus came on a rescue mission, not to set you free to live for this present age, but to rescue you from it and all the destruction that comes along with it. You have been delivered by the Son of God if you have believed upon Him for salvation!

            All of this is according to the will of our God and Father. It just gets better and better. Our salvation was God’s will. It was His purpose and His plan. Jesus rescued us according to the will of our Father. Before we were born God had a plan to save us, and Jesus came and lived out that will so that we might be rescued according to the will of God.

I have mentioned several times that Paul had the burden of proving the Gospel message from the Old Testament, and I believe that within this statement is a veiled reference to the Old Testament. When Paul speaks of the will of God, I believe he is referring to the many Old Testament passages that speak of our salvation being the will of God. One example of this is Isaiah 53:10 where the prophet says, But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief. That is just another way of saying that it was the will of God for Jesus to give Himself up, to die in our place, to suffer to the point of death, to be crushed. Why did this happen? Why was this God’s will? Verse 11. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. The grief Christ endured, the crushing, the anguish of soul, was meant to justify the many, to bear their iniquities, to deliver them from this present evil age. The plan of salvation was according to the will of God, and the Lord was pleased to crush His Son for our salvation and deliverance, and that plan is rooted in Old Testament revelation of the will of God.

Paul cannot help but end with a doxology: to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen. Because of this great rescue plan that was according to the will of God, Paul ascribes all glory to God forevermore. The word be in the NASB is added. There is no verb in the Greek text. It could be rendered, to whom is the glory forevermore, making it a statement of fact. Regardless of the rendering, the point is clear as a bell. All glory belongs to God for this great plan of salvation. It is all of grace, it brings us peace with God as we are rescued by His Son from this present evil age, and it is all in accordance with the divine will for His glory.

In this present evil age it may not seem that God receives all the glory forevermore, and there are many things that seem to obscure His glory from our view from time to time. Puritan John Brown, however, encourages us not to be disheartened by this present evil age, writing in his commentary on Galatians, “It is pleasing to think that what, owing to the fascinations of ‘the present evil world,’ attracts so little attention in time – on earth,  - shall be the grand subject of thought – the grand centre of feeling – the grand theme of acknowledgment and praise in heaven, throughout eternity.” Our great salvation, while spurned by the rulers of this present evil age, and ignored by those blinded by the god of this age, will someday be recognized as the great plan of God for redemption, and throughout all eternity will resound in unending praises to the Father and to the Lamb.

Paul ends with the word Amen, to which history tells us the congregation would have added their “Amen,” expressing their fullest agreement with the Apostle’s words. May it ever be that our hearts will resound in praises that glorify God because of His great mercy and grace in our salvation! May our hearts say “Amen” with all that is in them to this great introduction to Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, and may we ever seek to live for the honor and the glory of our merciful, loving, holy, Father God, having been rescued by Jesus to the glory of God. Let’s pray.

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