New Testament 6
Lecture 14
Galatians 
1: 1-5
These Verses
•	Deal with:
•	1. Paul’s ______________ (1: 1-2)
•	2. Paul’s ______________ (1:3-5)
I. The Immediate Setting Revisited
•	The Galatians Themselves
Apparently most of the Galatians within the ______________ were Gentiles who had converted from heathenism (4:8). This evidently happened under Paul’s preaching (1:8-9, 4:13 ). Paul first preached to them when he became ill in their region (4:13).  
Paul’s Preaching at First
He proclaimed to them that Jesus Christ and Him crucified was the only object of his preaching. 
He preached that men could through faith in Jesus escape from the present ______________ age and attain approval of God apart from the works of the law (3:1, 2). He taught a purely spiritual Christianity (3:2-3, 4:8-11; 5:3-4). 
The Galatian Response
Was to welcome Paul and his ______________ with enthusiasm (3:2-5).
They were baptized (3:27) and received the gift of the HS, miracle were done in their midst that gave them plenty of evidence that Paul was truly an apostle. 
The Current Problem
Appears to be that some false ______________had attempted to draw the Galatians away from the true gospel he preached to another false gospel (1:7; 5:12). This new gospel was Judaistic and legalistic. Apparently the false teachers appealed to the promise of Abraham and his seed as recorded in the OT. 
The False Gospel Generalized
Deducing from the letter itself, it seems that the false teachers promoted a______________that was possible only to those who were, by blood or by adoption, children of Abraham, or that the highest privileges belonged only to these. 
See 3:7; 3:9; 3:14; 4:21-31.
Chief stress 
was put upon circumcision as the initiatory rite by which a Gentile could be adopted into the family of ______________They had not imposed the whole Jewish ritual law upon the Gentiles, but induced them to accept the Jewish feasts and fasts (4:19).
 II. PAUL’S AUTHORITY (1:1-2)
Paul, writes to the churches which had gladly received his gospel, but had recently been under the influence of false teachers who taught a different type of Gospel.
Paul affirms in the very opening verses his direct commission as an apostle from Jesus Christ and ______________the ______________. He adds an invocation of God’s grace and peace upon the Galatians. He follows this with a characterization of JC as the Savior of men from their sins, as opposed to that of his attackers.
•	 AN APOSTLE –
Paul, an apostle.  What is Paul’s purpose with the addition of this “______________”? From the very beginning, he is claiming that he has a divine commission to preach the gospel of Christ and is authorized to plant Christianity. 
The Apostles were given the responsibility to lay the foundation of the church (1 Cor 3: 6, 10; Eph 3:20). They were given gifts of the Spirit for building up the church and therefore constituted the highest rank (1 Cor 12:24; Eph 4:11-12).
What makes one an apostle in technical & primary terms?
•	The rabbi’s say that a “______________ sent by another ______________” is as that man himself.”(Vaughan, 15). This reminder is for the Galatians that Paul feels the letter has come from God, Himself.
I. The 12 chosen by JC
•	 at the beginning of his earthly ministry.

•	MK 3:14

•	LK 6:13
2. Set apart to lay ______________ of early church

•	Acts 2:42
3. To be channels of ______________ completed revelation

•	Eph 2:20
4. Given power to heal diseases, cast out demons, a sign of authority from ______________.

•	Acts 2:43

•	2 Cor 12:12

•	Heb 3:3-11
II. Wider Sense of term:
•	Simply a messenger called out to go to the ______________Used of men like:
•	Barnabas – 
•	Acts 14:14
•	Silas & Timothy – 
•	1 Thess 1:1
•	1 Thess 26
The 12 and Paul – 
•	These apostles to Jesus Christ and not to just the churches!
•	Paul asserts his right to apostlehip based on having seen the risen Christ.
•	Acts 9:3-5 - 
•	Acts 22:17-21 –
•	Acts 23:11 -
•	Acts 26: -
•	1 Cor 15: 5-8 – last to me…one born at wrong time.
•	2 Cor 12: 1-4 - 
Paul’s References to Apostleship
•	Occurs in each of his letters except Philippians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, and Philemon.  Here the importance of it is seen in the abruptness with which it is introduced.  
•	Paul’s Call: from the negative (1:1-2)
Paul counter attacks the challenge to his apostleship in the very first verse.  He uses a negative phrase to show how he did not get a call to ______________.  He was not sent by men, nor by a committee of men.  There was no human source, ceremony, laying on of hands for Paul.  He had gotten nothing from Jerusalem nor from Antioch.  He had simply met the Lord Jesus on the Damascus Road.
Paul’s Call: origin & instrumentality
Came from the Lord Jesus.  It was purely ______________ and not ______________.  We don’t have any statement of when the call came, but if one waits to verse 15 it appears that Paul’s call came at the same time as his conversion.  
b. Paul’s Call : from the positive (1:1-2)
The call came from Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead.  Paul’s call is different from that of the original 12. They had been with the earthly Christ. Paul was called by the ______________, glorified Christ.  Paul, though, wants to show that his apostleship rests on the same foundation as the other 12: The LJC!
The Question?
Who was behind Paul’s letter? Who was the chief authority for this letter?
God!  
It is the Father who is behind the authority of Paul’s apostleship, ______________ and call.
b. His Commission:
Paul Has Authority to be an Apostle because:
•	His______________from the Call
•	His ______________ of the Call
•	His ______________ with those accompanying him.
c. His co-laborers: All the Brethren (2a)
Who are with me.  These are not ______________, but those with Paul.  Who they are we are not told.  It appears obvious that these had nothing to do with writing the letter, because this letter is heavy in first personal pronouns and first person references.  These may be mentioned because they are to be seen as sharing Paul’s understandings of what he is writing to the Galatians.
The Readers (2b)
This letter was written to a group of Christian assemblies simply identified as “the ______________ of ______________”.  This is the only letter in which no qualifying epithet is added to the description of the readers.  
The Corinthians – “church of God” “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1 Cor 1:2).  
The Philippians – “saints in Christ Jesus”
Colossians – “saints and faithful brethren”
Thessalonians – “the church ..which is in God the Father and in the LJC.”
Here:
No title of ______________ or ______________ word to describe them.  This seems to highlight Paul’s eagerness to get into the problem and his distress over their spiritual declension. 
2. PAUL’S GOSPEL (1:3-5)
This is the heart of Pauls’ gospel. It is his entire theology wrapped in a ______________.  Paul must define what the true Gospel really is. In these  three verses Paul shares a prayer (v. 3); a statement (v.4) and a doxology (v 5).
The Prayer (v. 3)
The prayer is for “______________ and ______________” to be the normal experience of the Galatian believers.  The Greek word essentially means “that which causes joy., but the word came to mean any free gift.  In the NT it generally denotes the divine favor.
Peace – usually denotes wholeness or well-being. It means God provides everything that a man needs to live life to its fullest as God intended him to live it!   As Paul continues he will show the law in all its glory cannot deliver grace and peace!
The Statement (v. 4)
This should be seen as an expansion of the greeting, but in doing so, we don’t want to miss its statement on the redemptive work of Christ.  Paul will define his ______________with four ______________:
Phrase 1: Christ Gave Himself
For our sins (4a)  This is so essential to our gospel message.  Christ gave Himself, that is, He laid His life down for us!  The word “gave himself” stresses the voluntary nature of Christ’s death. 
    
The heart of Gospel: 
Christ’s willingness to die for our sin!

See the seriousness of sin…
it always brings its wages:      DEATH!  
Salvation
Is not earned by one’s efforts, but only by trusting in the work of JC.
Paul desires the Galatians to know that there is no other way than by the death of JC . This hints that ______________ will be ______________, not just covered another year.
1 Cor 15: 14-17 –

Rom 3: 20 -

1 Ptr 2:24 –
Phrase 2: Might Deliver Us
Here we see the clearest PURPOSE for the gospel.  This is its essential essence.  “______________” strikes a keynote of the epistle of Galatians.  It is used by Paul only in this verse. It means 
“to ______________ out”-  Matt 5:29
“to ______________ from danger” Acts 12:11
23: 27
“to deliver from bondage” Acts 7:10, 34; 26:17.
Here seems to be a joining of delivering from bondage and rescuing from danger.
The Present, evil world
The word “______________” is actually the Greek word for “age.”  This is the world considered in time rather than in space.  The Jews often distinguished between this age (dark and evil) with the age to come (bright and righteous).  This present “______________” or “world” is under the influence of Satan (2 Cor 4:4).  
Evil
Is in a position of emphasis in the Greek sentence.  The translation would be “the world with all its ______________”.  This is probably best understood with the translation “the present course of the world, dominated by its evil.”
Jn 17:11
Jn 14: 18
Phil 3:20-21
1 Jn 5:5 
The Judaizers
Were part of this present evil age.  Their system was not content with dragging down its own followers, but wanted to destroy and pull down the Christian church with it.  Paul makes it clear that the substitutionary atonement of the LJC will rescue poor lost sinners from the claws of such teachings and evil ways. 
Phrase 3: The Will of God
The thought is that both the ______________ of Christ’s life and the rescuing from the present evil world were the will of the Father.  This is, it was the will of God that we be delivered from the evil world and that His Son, Jesus Christ, be the means of such deliverance. So, Christ did not die in order to obtain Gods love for us, but because God already loved us and willed to save us.
Jn 1:12-13
The Doxology (v. 5)
Who could have withheld any ______________ after what Paul had just penned? I wonder how long Paul had been meditating on such a thought prior to putting pen to paper?  This does not follow the normal pattern of the rabbis who put a doxology after the mention of God’s name.  For Paul, it was an expression of real feelings and emotions, not conforming to some rabbinical norm. 
Rom 11:36
Rom 16:27
Eph 3:20-21
This Doxology
Can be seen as either a ______________ or as a request that the glory of God be seen and given as it ought to be.  Glory should be seen as an essential attribute of God for ever.