Galatians 1:1-10 * June 10, 2007
* Pentecost 2 *
Pastor Leyrer
Dear Friends in Christ,
One second century source described the Apostle Paul as “a man small in size, with meeting eyebrows
and a rather large nose, bald-headed, bow-legged, strongly built, full of
grace: for at times he looked like a man, and at times he had the face of an
angel.”
That’s an interesting physical description of the person we rightfully consider to be the greatest Christian missionary of all time, but to really know Paul is to know his heart. And his heart comes through in our text for today. What it tells us in a couple of different ways is this: Paul was a man who was in love with the Gospel message.
Maybe it was because he lived so long without it and
personally knew the spiritual emptiness that accompanies a life void of
Christ. Or maybe it was because of the
dramatic and miraculous way he was introduced to Jesus on the Road to
For these and for a hundred other reasons, Paul was in love with the Gospel message. In fact we can take it a step farther that. We can say that
PAUL WAS PASSIONATE ABOUT THE GOSPEL
1. Because of what it is
2. Because of what it does
And here’s the best news yet. Through an examination of these passionate
words from Paul we get to fall in love
with the gospel all over again this morning.
Before we start working our way through this text, a little background information may prove helpful. It will also explain the strong words we find here.
Paul’s method for “church-planting” throughout his three extensive missionary journeys was pretty much the same. He would enter a city or region and proclaim the message of Jesus Christ to the people there. Oftentimes (but not always) the Holy Spirit would work through his preaching to create faith in the hearts of the hearers and establish a young Christian congregation.
Paul would then stay on location for a certain amount of time and provide further and deeper instruction in God’s Word. After that he would make the necessary arrangements for their spiritual well being and then move on to a new place where the whole procedure would be repeated.
Unfortunately, what often happened is that as soon as Paul left, other clergy-type people moved in. Such was the case here. One particular group generally referred to as the “Judaizers” was having discussions with the Galatian church. The problem was that they did not preach the same message as Paul. In fact, their message was the exact opposite of what Paul had preached.
Whereas Paul liberated their souls by speaking of full and free salvation by God’s grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ, the Judaizers sought to imprison them once again by telling them they had to earn their salvation by following certain rules and codes. Paul preached grace. They preached personal performance. Paul attributed eternal salvation entirely to the work of Jesus. They attributed salvation – at least a good portion of it – to the work of the individual.
When Paul heard about this, he responded with this letter. Consequently, the letter to the Galatians is as clear and forceful an exposition of the Gospel message as we have coming from the inspired pen of Paul. Because the Galatians were in danger of what they had, Paul at times became firm and stern with them. But always out of love.
Let’s turn to our text.
After establishing his credentials and addressing his audience, Paul
begins with a salutation and an expression of good will and thanks to God. “Grace
and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to
rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and
Father, 5 to whom be glory
for ever and ever. Amen.”
Within these words is a wonderful explanation of what the Gospel is and what the Gospel does. But let’s take up that word itself: the gospel.
For many us the word “gospel” has at least two different meanings according to the context in which it is spoken. Sometimes we talk about the gospel as a message to be proclaimed or received. Other times we use it reference to the first four books of the New Testament. The basic meaning of “good news” that many of us learned for “gospel” applies in both situations.
But did you know that (according to one language expert and Bible scholar) originally the word “gospel” in the Greek language represented “good news” in the sense of announcing some significant event that made a change in world history, like the birth of a Roman emperor? And if we explore the equivalent word in the Hebrew of the Old Testament (a word that means “to announce the good news”) it means “the in-breaking of God’s kingly rule or the advent of his salvation” (from a commentary on Mark by Donald English in the Bible Speaks Today series).
Think about that. The Gospel means a significant change has taken place in world history. The Gospel means God has broken into our space and our time and become a part of our history. This took place, of course, when Jesus Christ walked on our planet roughly 2000 years ago. He was no ordinary man. This was “Immanuel” – God with us.
And He came for a purpose. Paul says he “gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” We are told two important things here.
First, we are reminded why Jesus came. He didn’t come to teach us an enlightened way of life or to be a political revolutionary or to unveil great moral teachings. No, he came for the express purpose of righting a wrong; our wrong. He “gave himself for our sins.”
Every time we see a cross in church or on a piece of jewelry we remember that on a lonely, dusty hill outside of Jerusalem Jesus willingly and voluntarily took upon Himself the punishment our disobedience deserved. To the Corinthians Paul would write, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” We’re the ones who should have been strapped to the cross, because we’re the ones who sin. But the Gospel says otherwise. The Gospel says Christ “gave himself for our sins.”
The second thing we are told is that Christ came “to rescue us from this present evil age.” Christianity at its core is essentially a rescue operation. Not only have we been rescued from the damning consequences of our sin, but we’ve also been rescued “from this present evil age.” In what way?
Not in the sense that we will not feel the effects of living
in a sinful world. We will and we
do. Tragedy, heartache, seeming
reversals of fortune, etc., enter the lives of both Christian and non-Christian
alike. The difference is, we know that
this world is not all there is. We also
know that even in the things we would not choose for ourselves a loving
Heavenly Father is still in control, and as Paul told the Roman Christians, “in
all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
Now I’d like to go back to the opening words of our
text. They are familiar ones. We hear them every Sunday. Because we have Christ and know the Gospel,
we have “grace and peace.”
Grace and peace is the result of intimately knowing God and His Son, Jesus Christ. From God flows grace. From Christ flows peace. Let’s briefly expand on these well known words.
The common definition of grace that many of us learned is
“undeserved love” or “mercy.” Behind it
is the idea that God owes us nothing, yet gives us everything. The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah tells us
in the Book of Lamentations that “His mercies are new every morning.”
The evidence of God’s grace in and upon our lives is everywhere, but nowhere is it more evident than in our presence here today. God in His grace has called us to be His own, worked faith in our hearts, and moves us to enter into an ever deeper relationship with Him through Word and Sacrament.
And that brings us peace. The peace of knowing we are loved and taken care of. The peace of knowing this journey called life will end in a place prepared for us in heaven by Jesus. The peace of knowing we don’t have to perform our way into heaven, because Jesus accomplished that for us on the cross. The peace of being freed from viewing God as some sort of celestial tyrant who has to be appeased, but knowing Him for what He really is: a Heavenly Father who is deeply and devoutly interested in the lives of His children.
The peace of knowing that even in life’s darkest and most trying moments, our God will never leave us or forsake us. Peace not from trouble, but in the midst of trouble. The peace of knowing that, in the words of the writer to the Hebrews, here on this earth we’re really strangers because a better country lies ahead.
A peace which resides in our hearts and passes all understanding. And a peace which only the Gospel can produce.
Jesus once said, “What is a man profited, if he can gain the whole world and lose his soul. Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” The unstated but obvious answer is that there is nothing more important than our eternal souls. The Gospel message tells us that all is well with our souls – for now and for eternity.
May the passion with which Paul proclaimed and defended the Gospel reside in our hearts as well as we contemplate what it is and what it does for each of us personally. Amen.