Shots Across the Bow
Galatians 1:1-5

Whenever we wander from the truth, often it’s because we’ve forgotten what God has actually done for us. The apostle Paul begins his letter to the Galatians with a loaded reminder of their spiritual rescue. Let’s review the players:

1. Paul (1:1)
2. Paul’s Companions (1:2)
3. The Galatians (1:2)
4. God the Father (1:3-5)
5. Jesus Christ (1:3-4)

This is Paul’s greeting and salutation to these Christians in Galatia.

Galatians 1

¹ 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),
² and all the brethren 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 so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
⁵ to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen

Everybody likes a rescue. Rescues are always good. There was one on the news this morning. A boat capsized in San Francisco harbor and a couple dozen folks were plucked from the deep. That’s good.

I read a book not long ago about the rescue of 500 prisoners of war in the Philippines toward the end of World War II. A parallel story to that is the rescue of some 2300 civilians in the Philippines toward the end of World War II. In both of those cases, those people would most certainly have been slaughtered as the Japanese were losing the war and it was coming down to the end. Yet the courage and coordination on the part of the forces of the U.S. were able to get them out of there and save their lives.

I was looking carefully at these verses. My eyes are drawn to an expression in verse 4 where, talking about Jesus, it says, “He gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us.” That word “deliver” is really the key to the thought he’s trying to get across.

It’s an interesting word and it made me think. “Deliver us” -- that word basically means to choose, to take out for oneself. I think of it this way: To choose, to take out for oneself – my first thought is a box of chocolates. I got to reflecting more on it. No, it really isn’t like that. It has more to do with a rescue idea.

How about this -- we go to the pet store and there is a bunch of puppies dancing and barking and yipping and I’m going to choose one out of that litter for myself. No, that doesn’t work. That doesn’t do justice; that’s not quite what’s in view here. Here’s what’s in view. Gradually the right thought comes. It’s not the pet store, it’s the humane society and you don’t have a bunch of purebred sweet little puppies, just a bunch of mutts. You go in and pick one out, knowing that if you don’t, he’s going into the incinerator eventually. It’s a real rescue.

That is the word the apostle uses. What we have in these first five verses is a preview of the whole book of Galatians to come. In these first five verses the apostle is going to introduce a couple of themes that he will return to over and over and over again because these people need to understand what it is they’re doing.

These people have been rescued by God’s grace and for some reason, they’re drawn back into the pit from which they were plucked. The apostle is saying, “Don’t do that.” The book of Galatians is a series of the apostle’s arguments, points, tirades, persuasive words, in order to get these people to see, “You don’t want to go back there!” If you’ve responded to the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ, there is nowhere else to go but to Him.

They’re threatening to return, so this little five-verse greeting is a shot across their bow, saying, “Whoa, stop.” Before you go any further, understand this, that Paul the apostle did not make this up and he’ll spend a lot of space in the book of Galatians convincing these folks that he is not just acting on his own. He truly is a genuine messenger from God and they have to take him seriously.

The second thing he’s going to tell them in the course of the book of Galatians and is introduced in these five verses is, “Jesus is enough. He really is all we need plus nothing.” That is the passionate argument of the book of Galatians.

In order to accomplish that, this is how we packaged the first paragraph. “Get ready, Galatians. Remember, you’ve been rescued,” he would say to them and to us. These are the good guys on the rescue side. We’ll talk about the bad guys eventually, the ones who would lead these folks down the wrong path, but for now, in the introduction, Paul is saying, “This is the good team. Let’s remember where we’ve been.”

Paul, an apostle. That’s such a huge word. An apostle, he says, a sent one. Remember the road to Damascus. Personally, God had shanghaied him in a sanctified way, completely turned him around, disrupted his life, changed the entire course of his priorities, his agenda, everything, and said, “Now, Paul, you are mine. And I have this for you to do. You’re an apostle now. You have seen the risen Christ.” That’s why Paul goes to such detail here to remind these readers who he is and who he isn’t.

He says, “I’m an apostle. I’m not from men. I don’t have the source of my commission in people.” Nobody got together and nominated him. The source of his commission is not men and he didn’t come through a man. They’re probably thinking Ananias, the one who laid his hands on Paul in Damascus so that he could receive his sight. It was through Ananias that Paul first learned of his journey to the Gentiles.

They’re thinking, “This is just Paul. This is just a man-thing, a human-thing.” Paul will come back to this in the first two chapters of Galatians, saying, “No, you have to understand. I didn’t make this up. I’m not working for anybody. I’m not on any payroll here that would satisfy any human agency. I’m not from the human end of things.”

This is something that they and we must understand about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It didn’t come from here. We need to think spatially. We need to think – this started in heaven. This is neither an earthly idea nor an earthly notion. What Paul is going to do is to say this came from God; He’s the originator through Jesus Christ; He’s the mediator. This is a heaven thing and it’s all about getting us back to heaven with Him. That’s what it’s about. That’s where it’s going.

If you’re not interested in heavenly designs, you’re not interested in the gospel. If you’re not interested in a heavenly agenda, you have no interest in the God of the gospel. It’s not an earthly thing.

You see how it begins. Paul, an apostle, not from men, neither through a man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised Him from the dead, and (verse 5), to whom be the glory forever and ever and ever. We cycle back to heaven in these five verses and he’s placing himself squarely in that camp.

To underscore this, look at the first three verses of I John. A different apostle, same weight. The problem in I John is similar to the problem in Galatians in that the people who are being addressed in I John are really shaky as to their faith. They’re not sure whether they’re afoot or on horseback in some cases and so I John is written in order that they might know for sure whether they truly are Christians.

The first three verses of the book is an address from John, who is an apostle, who says, “Look here, we know who we are and we know who we know. We are apostles and we know the God of heaven. Who are you?”

John says, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld, our hands have handled.” We know what we’re talking about. We were there.

Verse 3: “What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also.” Why? So that you may know where you stand; so that you may have fellowship with us. We’re not talking about after church with refreshments. We’re talking so that you may share common ground with us. We know our fellowship is with the Father and with Jesus. We know who we are. We know who our fellowship is with. Who is yours with? We are apostles and we know.

It’s critical for Paul to establish that in the beginning. An apostle is someone who is giving a clue from heaven, a spokesman from the other side, heavenly eternity. I further define an apostle this way: someone whose idea it wasn’t. He did not come up with this.

There are no second-generation apostles. Sometimes we think missionaries’ children oftentimes should return to the mission field, second-generation missions. Great! Wonderful! Not so in the world of the apostles. One-generation apostles. That’s it. And they aren’t reared to be that way by parents who say, “When you grow up, wouldn’t it be great if you were an apostle?”

God reached into the lives of Peter, James, John and Matthew, the tax collector. Think it through, Paul, reached them when they were minding their own business, doing their own lives, and the God of heaven invaded their lives and changed them around. That’s what He has done to Paul and that is the point He wants them to make.

Paul’s Companions

He says “and all the brethren who are with me.” We might just gloss that and say, “Oh, big deal.” It is a big deal, because it further goes to underscore the fact that this is not just Paul sitting off somewhere in a sanctified spot, making things up and dictating spiritual terms to them.

“And the brethren with me” speaks of accountability. It’s not just my idea, this gives weight to his argument and there are those scholars who say probably when Paul wrote this, he wrote the whole book, all six chapters of Galatians, and then took it to the church leadership at Antioch, where there would have been other apostles and other elders, and asked what they thought.

In all likelihood, they agreed. “And all the brethren with me,” he puts there, because this isn’t just Paul talking. Who would they be? They would be Barnabas, Silas; they would be the list of folks in the first verses of Acts 13:

Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with the Herod the tetrarch, and others, individuals who had seen first-hand the working of the Holy Spirit, who had heard from the apostles in Jerusalem, who had understood that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the homes of the Gentiles. All was clear to them and they’re saying, “We are with you, Paul.” It’s important to have that kind of accountability.

By the way, there is a debate as to when Galatians was written. I think that this very reference indicates that Galatians probably was written very early. Paul came back from his missionary journeys, it probably took him a couple years up to about A.D. 48. Galatians was probably written no later than A.D. 49. Why? Because there’s no mention in the book of Galatians of the big council in Jerusalem that decided a lot of these things. Had that happened already, Paul certainly would have referenced it, saying not only is it me and these brethren with me but the Jerusalem council is behind me.

So it hadn’t happened yet. This is early. It doesn’t always take a long time for people to get distracted from the truth of the gospel. Paul is not a maverick. He’s not out there on his own personal crusade. He’s an individual with accountability and he knows it.

The Galatians

“To the churches.” We know of at least four. We’re now talking east central Asia Minor, today Turkey, Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. In Pisidian Antioch, Paul won a hearing in the synagogue and a lot of people believed, Jews and Gentiles. Remember, his object was Gentiles and he got to them, by the grace of God.

They believed and there were many among them, who had for years tried to keep the rules in order to be right with God. They were frustrated and defeated, and here comes Paul saying, “Jesus kept the rules for you. Put your trust in Him.” That’s it. “Hallelujah,” they said, and they rejoiced. Not just the Jews, but what about us Gentiles? You Gentiles too! That should make us happy. They’re rejoicing; they’re ecstatic about what God has given them in salvation in Christ.

But the Jews among them, the ones who have determined that somehow by my personal merit, as an outworking of my personal pride, I’m going to help God get me to heaven so that I can get some credit for it. They’re stirring up trouble. They started in Pisidian Antioch. Paul and Barnabas moved down to the road to Iconium. They stayed there a long time, possibly as long as a year, perhaps a bit longer.

Many people came to faith. Same thing. Until the Jews showed up, saying, “No, you need to work your way to heaven.” And they put them on the run. They went to Lystra, where they were going to sacrifice the bull to them, thinking they were Hermes and Zeus come down from heaven. They were utter pagans.

Paul preached the gospel there and some of them came to faith. We know at least one of them, Timothy. He gets two books in the New Testament. Paul moved on from there to the little frontier border town of Derbe and there many more came to faith. All these people from varied backgrounds, just like us, put all their trust in Jesus only, experienced the new birth that only God can provide through His Spirit, begin to walk in newness of life and then somebody comes along and says, “What are you doing not acting like Jews?”

“We were told we don’t have to. We were told that all we have to do is put our trust in Jesus.” “Who told you that?” “Paul did.” “Well, who’s Paul?”

Paul would say, “an apostle, not from men, neither through a man, but from God through Jesus Christ.”

So those are the Galatians, all of them compelled by the Jews to add something to God’s grace. Paul says, “Jesus alone.”

God the Father (1:3-5)

I hesitate even to put Him here as though He were just another player, because He is considerably more. As a matter of fact, He doesn’t need to play at all. He is in and of Himself utterly self-sufficient, totally self-contained, perfect in every conceivable sense and many we can’t conceive. And yet, of the three members of the triune godhead, least is known, I would suggest, of the Father. He’s the one shrouded in mystery, He’s the One whose idea this was. He’s not the One we get to see. We get to see, in a sense, the Spirit, at least what He does. Jesus came in the flesh. He was seen and heard. The Father seems to stay behind the clouds, occasionally parting them to insert a word.

I love these verses from Romans 11. They help us understand our Father maybe just a little bit.

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
³⁴ For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR?
³⁵ Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN?

God doesn’t need us to loan Him anything, and He doesn’t need our advice.

³⁶ For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory florever. Amen.

This rescue was His idea. It says in verse 4, “according to the will of our God and Father, Jesus delivered us,” rescued us. So with what we don’t know, we do know whose idea it was. It was His idea, and secondly, His power. Want to authenticate the person of Jesus? Is He who He claimed to be? It says here that God the Father, who raised Him from the dead. What other convincing proof would we like?

His idea, His power, His provision. The apostle says in verse 3, “May grace and peace be yours.” Grace, ill-deserved favor from God, leads to peace, reconciliation, cessation of hostilities. Remember Paul’s expression in Romans chapter 5, verse 1 that says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace face to face with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ ” Because He has given grace, His provision, His grace and peace, His glorious eternity. To Him be the glory (verse 5) unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

No matter what else we understand, we need to know this gospel, His rescue, all this business about Jesus and church and all that -- it’s all about Him. It started with Him, it’s His idea, and it brings us to Him. If we’re not interested in heaven, we’re not interested in Him. If we’re not interested in things eternal, the gospel is nothing. Paul will emphasize that.

Jesus Christ (1:3-4)

Jesus – absolutely sufficient. Jesus is God’s agent to make sure the will of the Father happens. It says that Paul is an apostle not from men, didn’t originate with men, didn’t come through mediation by men, but through the agency of Jesus he delivered the message. It was Jesus who knocked Saul to the ground on the road to Damascus. It was Jesus who presented himself in blazing white. It was Jesus who spoke to him. It was Jesus who did all that. He’s the agent. He brings the message. He speaks to Saul.

He takes his eyesight, sends him down the road, sets him up with further of Jesus’ people waiting in Damascus.  All of that is good. You see, that’s what He does. That’s what He did with Saul. He didn’t need any help. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? How about we talk with you on the ground. Boom.” That’s what happened, but more than that, God can do similar works and has done similar works through angels, but indeed through no angel can it be said that he is the Savior. Our key is verse 3, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself.” Gave Himself in behalf of our sins.

Two points in that regard: Please remember, He did not write a check, He didn’t send somebody else. He gave Himself and there is no more He can give. In any relationship what is needed is not things, but self. It’s the person, it’s the heart, it’s the soul. Jesus didn’t commission it done; He did it. He did it Himself.

There’s a deliberate use of a little word in that verse, the word “for.” There are a number of ways he could have said it, a number of words he could have used. He picked the word that instead means, “in behalf of, in place of.” Instead of our sin, He became the curse. He who knew no sin became sin in our place (II Corinthians 5:21). He didn’t buy it off; He gave Himself in place of our sins.

To rescue us, to deliver us, the verse says, to select us out, to rescue us from the penalty and the power of sin. He will save us from its penalty; He will justify us; He will bring us His own righteousness. That’s the theology of Galatians, and by His power, the power of sin in our lives is dealt with.

There’s not a lot said in Galatians about Jesus delivering us from the presence of sin; in other words, not any end time stuff here. But He will deliver us from its penalty and He will deliver us from its power according to Galatians and we go elsewhere in the Bible for deliverance from its very presence. The sooner, the better, in my opinion.

To rescue us from sin’s penalty and power, and again, the verb is deliberate – for Himself. He’s not doing things in our lives so that we will be happy or nicer or better and more fulfilled. If we are, that’s great. That’s a wonderful by-product of being a Christian most of the time, perhaps. That’s not the point. The point of it is that He will have for Himself a bride, a people, for Himself, for all eternity. It’s His to do.

It’s about Him; it’s for Him. His people, His bride, His body and here we have these Galatians saying, “He’s not enough.” And Paul is screaming, “He sure is, and I’ll show you how He is.” That’s what Galatians is all about. He gave Himself.