1. Galatians: Paul’s Apostolic Proclamation of Freedom

Date
Today
Speaker
Pastor Tim LeCroy
Topic
The Gospel, Biblical Interpretation
Series
The Epistle of Freedom: Paul's Letter to the Galatians
Book
Galatians

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Should people freed from slavery be told it’s better to go back? Should they want to go back? Paul’s letter to the Galatians addresses that absurdity.

An introductory sermon to Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

Outline:
I. Apostolicity
II. Catholicity
III. Gospelicity

Quotations:
Thus does the apostle, being constrained to it by his adversaries, magnify his office, which shows that though men should by no means be proud of any authority they are possessed of, yet at certain times and upon certain occasions it may become needful to assert it.
-Matthew Henry, 18th c.

I do not, as Peter and Paul, issue commandments unto you. They were apostles; I am but a condemned man: they were free, while I am, even until now, a servant. But when I suffer, I shall be the freedman of Jesus, and shall rise again emancipated in Him. And now, being a prisoner, I learn not to desire anything worldly or vain.
-Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Romans, 100 A. D.

For our sins, says the Apostle, we had pierced ourselves with ten thousand evils, and had deserved the gravest punishment; and the Law not only did not deliver us, but it even condemned us, making sin more manifest, without the power to release us from it, or to stay the anger of God. But the Son of God made this impossibility possible for he remitted our sins, He restored us from enmity to the condition of friends, He freely bestowed on us numberless other blessings.
-St. John Chrysostom, 4th c.

These words, who gave himself for our sins, were intended to convey to the Galatians a doctrine of vast importance; that no other satisfactions can lawfully be brought into comparison with that sacrifice of himself which Christ offered to the Father; that Christ, therefore, and in him alone, atonement for sin and perfect righteousness, must be sought; and the manner in which we are redeemed by him ought to excite our highest admiration.
-John Calvin, 16th c.

Scripture Text: Galatians 1:1-5
Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

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