Third Presbyterian Sunday Morning Bible Study - April 25, 2021

Below is the Bible Study written by Jim Rudiger for his Sunday School Class which meets at Third Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia. It's based on Galatians 1:1-2; 6-9 & 2:15-21.

What does it take to make you really mad?  I mean seeing red, blood boiling, steam coming out of your ears mad?  What have you been told to do when you get mad?  Count to ten, take a deep breath, grin through grinding teeth and walk away.  The thing about getting mad is that little things can set me off.  Ever been ignored by a salesman?  You patiently stand there waiting as the clerk chats with another clerk.  Occasionally, the clerk will look your way check on how annoyed you’re getting.  It’s almost like he is challenging you to be rude.  It is only when you start to show anger - you know, grinding your teeth and staring knives at him - will the clerk consent to selling you something that you probably really don’t need. 

Sometimes being mad can become a long term burden.  We can be mad at someone close to us and carry it with us for years.  And the longer it stays bottled up in us, the madder we get at that person.  Sometimes the person doesn’t even know why we are mad at them and then they become mad because we are mad.  It can be a vicious cycle.  Some psychiatrists recommend that we should write a letter and pour out all of anger in that letter.  We don’t have to mail the letter, but, seeing the real basis for our anger allows us to put it in the right context.  It may even reveal that we had been overly sensitive at first and all of that anger wasn’t worth all the work.  I do that all the time in my business.  Somebody pulls my chain and I sit down and write a really nasty response.  I save the letter and then forget it until the next day when I have calmed down.  I open the letter and make a lot of changes, mostly, taking out the nasty stuff like  challenging him to a duel and substitute reasoning for insults.  Oh, I let him know he got under my skin, but, I’m not out for his blood.

Should a Christian get mad?  I mean with all that turning the other cheek stuff, do Christians in the Bible ever get mad?  Well, I’ll tell you one Christian who got mad.  And he wrote a letter. too.  But he didn’t tear it up after he wrote it.  No sir.  He put a stamp on it and dropped it in the mail box.  In fact, that is what our study is about today.  Paul gets hot under the collar and lets the churches in Galatia know they’re skating on thin ice.

Galatia wasn’t far from Tarsus, Paul’s home town.  Actually, Galaitia wasn’t a town at all, but, a Roman province.  Galatia got it’s start in about 280 BC when a group of Celtic warriors from what we now know as Europe invaded Macedonia.  They were from the region in Europe known as Gaul and that is where the name Galatia comes from - men from Gaul.  They settled there and mixed with the Greeks.  Then the king of Bithynia invited them over to Asia minor to help him in his wars.  They became a fierce army when more of their clan joined them from Europe.  It wasn’t long before they turned on Bithynia and conquered them and made a living of plundering neighboring countries.

Galatians biggest money making business was hiring themselves out to other armies - sometimes fighting on both sides in battles.  Finally, in 189 BC, Rome stepped in and occupied the region. In 25 BC, Galatia became a Roman province.  During his second missionary journey, Paul, Silas and Timothy visited the region and planted churches there.  On his third missionary trip, Paul returned to the churches he founded in Galatia.  For the most part Galatia was Gentile.

Now, Paul had made some enemies back in Jerusalem among the Jewish Christians.  These Jewish Christians were called Judaizers because while they accepted the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, but they considered that the Messiah’s job was to save the chosen people, the Israelites.  In other words, Jesus was really meant for the Jews and the Jews alone.  In their eyes, this meant that Jesus’ ministry was just an extension of their Hebrew belief.  If Jesus was meant only for the Jews, how would a Gentile be saved?  Gentiles had to become Jews before they could become Christians.  And what was the physical symbol of being a Jew?  Circumcision.  Now it wasn’t the physical act that they were so keen on.  It was that circumcision was the first act in obeying the law.  That meant that for a Gentile to become a Christian, he had to live under the law and to prove he did, he got circumcised.  Being circumcised made them a cut above the other Gentiles.

So why did the Judaizers have a problem with Paul?  He was telling the Gentiles that they didn’t have to accept the law.  Judaiziers felt that Paul was perverting a perfectly good Jewish-Christian religion and had to be stopped.  Now, if someone is spreading a philosophy that you don’t like and you can’t develop a real good argument against it, then the best attack is to tear down the guy spreading the philosophy.  It happens all the time in politics.  So, that is what they did.  They formed a “Truth Squad” and followed Paul to where ever he went, refuting his Gospel and undermining his authority.

They had good ammunition.  In every political spin there is always an element of truth.  There wasn’t a “No Spin Zone” to deal with these Judaizers.  They had one strong point going for them.  When Judas had to be replaced as an Apostle, the other apostles developed a simple test. The candidate had to have known Jesus personally and was there when Jesus was crucified and resurrected.  The Judaizers argued: “Now this Paul guy, he never met Jesus when he was alive - not one time.  And while the other Apostles were witnessing Jesus’ resurrection, where was this fellow Paul?  I’ll tell you where.  He was hunting down Christians and inciting the crowd to kill them.  I know you’ve heard about that brave Christian, Steven, who was stoned to death.  A wonderful man.  Came from a good Jewish family too.  Paul was the guy who worked up the crowd and then held their coats while they stoned poor old Steven.  Yep, the same guy who was passing himself off as an apostle here last week.  We are here because we love ya’ and don’t want ya’ to fall into sin because you listened to that faker.  Now, here is the true Gospel.  Take the Torah and memorize it and when you are ready to become a Jew, let us know and we’ll pack up our knife and come see ya’.  And, bother way, I wouldn’t plan on doing any heavy lifting for a few days after you become a Jew.  But don’t worry about it.  It is only a little out patient surgery.  I mean babies have it done to them and do you hear them crying about it.  Well, maybe you do.”

Evidently, the Galatians were a very fertile soil for this kind of spin by the Judaizers, because before long they were applying for their Hebrew fraternity pin.  Paul is in Corinth when he gets word about what is happening in Galatia and he is hopping mad.  There is no indication that Paul used a secretary for this letter.  This was going to be writ by his own hand.  And Paul’s hand is shaking as he thinks about the people who he had given so much to, now turning not only on him but on the true Gospel.  Should he start with some pleasantries like he did in all of his other letters?  Should he puff them up with comments on how happy he is with their spiritual growth?  I don’t think so.  Paul is under attack and he is ready to return the fire.  The ink in his pen must have been boiling as he started this letter.

Galatians 1:1 Paul an apostle----sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the members of God’s family who are with me, To the churches of Galatia; 

How do you start a letter to a relative or friend?  “Dear so and so, how’s it going.  Hope everything is fine with you.”  It’s personal and lets them know how you feel about them.  That’s the way Paul starts most of his letters.  Anything like this in this letter?  This is more like a business letter.  Getting right down to where the rubber meets the road.

You have a problem and go to an expert for advice.  What gives you confidence that this person is an expert?  His credentials.  His resume.  If you want a teacher for Granby High School, you get somebody who is certified to teach.  You wouldn’t go to a doctor if he never went to medical school or wasn’t licensed by the state.  What does a resume contain?  It lists your qualifications as well as your experiences.  For Paul it  was essential that he establish his qualifications right up front. 

Paul wasn’t going to argue with the Judaizers.  He was going to start with a statement that the Judaizers would have to deal with.  Who didn’t send Paul?  It wasn’t any human authority and his commission didn’t come from humans, either.  Who gave him the right to speak for Christ?  Who gave him the authority?  It was none other than God All Mighty.  Paul was chosen on that day on the road to Damascus when he met Jesus face to face.  Jesus and God right then and there plucked Paul up from the camp of the enemy and made him an Apostle of Christ.  That is Paul’s claim to the office.  A direct commission from God himself.  Now put that in your pipe and smoke it.  When Paul talks about “all the members of God’s family who are with me”, who was he talking about?  The other members of the missionary team in Corinth.  He will point out later that this was the team sent by the church leaders in Jerusalem to spread the Gospel that they were rejecting.

Paul is sending this letter with the intention that every church in Galatia should read it and know where he stands.  It is written so there won’t be any weaseling later if he is confronted.  These are his words set down in a letter and he sticks by every thing he writes here.  You know how politicians say something and when they are called on it, always try to spin their way out of it.  Their words were taken out of context; they were misunderstood; it’s a right wing or left wing conspiracy. But, if it is something they wrote, it’s hard to deny that they said it.  Paul says, “Here it is and I welcome all of the churches to understand that if you want to question my calling, then you better go back to the one who called me - God.”

Galatians 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — 7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.  8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed!  9 As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed.

Paul lets them know why he sent this letter.  How does Paul say he felt when he heard what was going on in Galatia?  He was astonished. Why was he astonished?  They had gotten the true gospel and it must not have meant much to them, because they quickly accepted a gospel that was just plain wrong.  Just what was this Gospel that Paul was proclaiming that ticked off the Judaizers?  Paul preached that our salvation came as a gift of grace from God.  Since grace by it’s very nature eliminates any action on our part other than to accept it, then there is nothing we can do to earn it on our own.  There is no way we compromise God into granting us his grace.  This being so, no amount of work on our part will ever earn us God’s favor.  God just isn’t that shallow.  The grace we receive is due to God’s love for us even while we are sinners and turning away from him.  You see, while we are at our lowest point spiritually deserving of God’s anger, he not only gives us His love but the most valuable thing we could ever receive - righteousness before God.  It seems so simple.  So easy.  And that is some of the problem that the Judaizers had with Paul’s message.  It was just too simple.  The cost for us is too low.  This is a unilateral deal by God and he doesn’t care how wonderful others may feel about us.  For the Judaizers, the law has been around for a long time and it really was based on God’s revelation to Moses so lets tack that on as something from us to God.  It is as if they felt that God wants a gift from us.  But, you see, God wants our obedience not a Father’s Day tie.

Paul just can’t understand why the Galatians want to do all this work trying to follow the law and it not do anything for them.  It’s like being on a diet and sneaking in butter pecan ice cream by convincing yourself that it gives you the energy to deal with the starvation.  He identifies the reason for this letter.  What are they being exposed to?  There are people coming to them and confusing them.  What is confusing them?  They are hearing a gospel that flies in the face of the true gospel Paul gave them.  Are there any extenuating circumstances that would allow them to accept a different gospel?  Not even angels should be listened to if they don’t offer the same gospel Paul gave them. 

So, what exactly was this false gospel that these deceivers presented that would lead the Galatians to abandon the true gospel?  They were telling the Galatians that they need to follow the ritual Jewish law along side of having faith in Christ.  It looks like the Judaizers were telling them to be really sure of salvation they had better cover all the bases.  What could it hurt - following a few laws?  How does Paul describe anybody who would give a false gospel like this?  Paul says that these people are accursed.  That’s pretty serious stuff - being accursed.  Why would they be accursed?  He can say that because if our salvation could have been assured by our works, then Christ wasn’t necessary and he died in vain.  There would never have been any need for a Savior. We would be our won savior.  For anyone to take that position, he should be accursed because he is relegating Jesus to being a foolish man who needlessly died on the cross and lied to us about being the Son of God.

Galatians 2:15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.  And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.

One thing that these Judaizers were constantly doing was comparing Paul to Peter.  The Jerusalem church had declared that Peter was to take the gospel to the Jews and Paul was to bring the gospel to the Gentiles.  These Judaizers were brought up hating Gentiles.  From the time they were little children, they were taught that Gentiles were created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell.  They sincerely believed the Jewish saying that God will judge Israel by one measure and Gentiles by another.  In fact the law that they held so high dictated that if a Gentile mother was giving birth and a problem with the delivery should come up, the Gentile mother should not be helped because that would just bring another Gentile into the world.

Peter had been very conscious of the Judaizers.  He went out of his way not to agitate them.  This really got to Paul.  Paul gives an example in verses 11 and 12.  Peter traveled to Antioch and when he arrived had no problem eating with the Gentiles.  Eating meals together was very big in the early church.  The big meal was called the Love Feast.  Everybody would bring something and then it was put on long tables and all would share what was brought.  What does that sound like?  A Pot Luck Dinner.  There would be ham biscuits, all kinds of casseroles, home cooked bread, Pollard’s fried chicken - I mean food that demanded that you lick fingers after eating.  And deserts?  Let’s see.  There was home made Apple pie, not Mrs. Smith’s, but real apple pie with brown sugar and cinnamon.  There were Chocolate chip cookies and brownies.  The Love Feast was important to the early church because it demonstrated that everybody was on the same footing.  And Peter joined right in and probably pushed himself up to the front of the line for the fried chicken.  But when some Judaizers came to eat with them, Peter took his plate and sat with the Judaizers, not because he suddenly realized that he shouldn’t be eating with Gentiles, but to avoid a run-in with a powerful lobbying group - the  Judaizers.  Paul called Peter’s actions for what they were - hypocritical.  

Paul is driving the point home that the guy they are comparing him to was afraid to eat with uncircumcised Gentiles  when a company Judaizers came to the Love Feast.  Paul didn’t join Peter at the Hebrew table but stayed and ate with the Gentiles.  Besides, the same leaders in Jerusalem who had set Peter aside as the missionary to the Jews had also set Paul as the missionary to the Gentiles.  That very fact emphasizes that the leaders saw that the Gospel has to be brought to the Gentiles and that Paul was the guy to do it.

What does Paul acknowledge?  He is a Jew by birth and not a Gentile sinner.  Oh oh.  Gentile sinner?  Did Paul really mean to say that?  Is that a racist remark?  Sounds like it to me.  But what Paul is really saying is, “We Jews are sinners and Gentiles are sinners too.  We are all in the same boat.  The one thing that units us is that we are all sinners.  Jews should be proud that they have had a unique relationship with God.  But that uniqueness and one dollar will get them a Hershey chocolate bar with almonds at the Dollar Store, but it won’t buy salvation.  Salvation isn’t for sale.  It’s like a Hanes ad - salvation now and no interest or payments for the rest of your life.  For the Jew and Gentile, justification before God comes only through faith.  As Abraham was justified before God through his faith, so are both Jew and Gentile.  All people sin; therefore if people want to be righteous before God, they need God.

Galatians 2:17 But, if in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin?  Certainly not!  18 But if I build up again the very thing  that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.

When a Jew used the word sinners to describe Gentiles, he was not using the word in a moral sense; he was thinking about observing the law.  In Leviticus there are found the Jewish laws listing which animals may or may not be used for food.  A man who ate a crab cake or a ham sandwich broke those laws and became a sinner because he wasn’t following the dietary law.   Christ never once said that salvation would come by eating this kind of animal or not eating that kind of animal.  He said that salvation didn’t depend on these things but only on the grace of God.  Now if Christ says that it is all right to eat a Surf Rider crab cake and that is a violation of the law, is Christ encouraging us sin?  Obviously there is only one answer.  Jesus would never lead anyone to sin, therefore, the old laws don’t reflect God’s view of sin.

For Paul, to go back to the slavery of the law is to go in the wrong direction.  To chain yourself to the misinterpretation of the law is to forfeit the grace given by God.  You can’t have it both ways.  You can’t look for God’s reconciliation through grace and still think that God can be bribed into thinking you are a great guy because you wouldn’t eat a crab cake. 

 Galatians 2:19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.  I have been crucified with Christ; 20 and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.  21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

What in the world is Paul talking about when he says that “through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God”?   Paul’s point here is that based on the law, he has no choice but to be found guilty.  That’s what the law is for.  To tell us what it takes to sin and since it was impossible to satisfy all of the laws, the law itself condemns him.  If we have only the law, we are guilty as charged and the only thing awaiting us is final death.  But, if we have built our life on faith in Christ, then we have hope because he gave his life on the cross to remove all the times we broke the law.  

What does it mean when Paul said that “I have been crucified with Christ”?  A sinless man took our sins on his body and our sins were crucified with Christ.  Our sins - the things that really belong to us -  allows Paul to say that he and we have been crucified with Christ because the sinful part of his was just as much on the cross as Christ.  Since we are still breathing, then the Christ who has taken our place on the cross now takes our place in this world. This was the essence of the gospel Paul preached.  If this isn’t true  then we are to be pitied because we are truly lost.

Have you ever been really mad?  You can count to ten using both hands.  But, wouldn’t it be much better to use those hands to shape a world worthy of the Christ who lives within you.

Prayer: Merciful Father, every day we are bombarded with the Judaizers who proclaim that our faith needs something more.  Just a little compromise in proclaiming that Christ is the only way to God.  Bowing down three times a day toward the east.  Burning incense.  Accepting a more inclusive gospel.  Give us this day, the sense of Christ’s presence in our daily life and the power to defeat these modern day Judaizers.  In Christ name, Amen.