Greetings to a Trouble Church (No Other Gospel #2)

If you look at most of Paul's letters, they begin with a salutation and that salutation contains certain key elements. Take 2 Corinthians for instance. “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia: Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” Here Paul identifies himself by name, identifies his profession, joins others with him in the salutation, addresses the church to whom he writes, wishes them grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. There are some variations, but this basic formula is in most of Paul's letters. And we have that in Galatians as well. Those key elements are here. But the salutation is longer and sets the keynote for the entire letter.

Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) and all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Galatians 1:1-5)

We already stated that the keyword of Galatians is Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus. And here in these five verses, we have the entire Gospel laid out.

First, we have the nature of Jesus. Note that in the first verse, Paul speaks of his call and says, on one hand, that it was not from men or from human authority, but on the other hand it WAS from Jesus and from God the Father. By placing human authority on one side and the authority of Jesus on the other alongside the Father, Paul was clearly saying that Jesus was something more than a man--that He is God. There are some people who will tell you that Christians originally saw Jesus as a good man and it wasn't till later that they started believing He was God. But here, in one of the earliest books of the New Testament, we already have Paul quite casually and almost by accident throwing out this testimony to the deity of Jesus.

Second, we have a testimony to the resurrection of Jesus: “God the Father, who raised him from the dead.” Again, here in one of the earliest books of the New Testament we have a clear testimony to the truth of Jesus' resurrection.

In verse 4 we have more: “Who gave himself.” This is the means of the gospel--the gospel came about because Jesus gave of himself. “For our sins.” This is the need of the Gospel--the reason why Jesus gave of himself was because man had become lost in sin. “That he might deliver us from this present evil world.” That is the goal of the gospel. Jesus came to bring about salvation. Sin had initiated a world order of evil; an age of corruption. But Jesus came to deliver us out of it that we might serve him in righteousness and holiness all the days of our life. “According to the will of God and our Father.” That is the source of the gospel. God did not provide salvation because He was forced to or because somebody talked Him into it because He “thought it was His duty.” He freely chose to do it and that act of His will is the only reason why salvation exists. The gospel came about because of the will of God. And then verse 5 gives us our response to the gospel: “To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Because God willingly gave His own son to bring about our salvation, the proper response is to give him glory both now and forever, glory being the proper recognition of His action. We do not give glory to God because He needs it (He obviously doesn't) but because He deserves it.

Salvation came solely from the will of God; it was procured solely by the actions of God; and the glory for it belongs solely to God. This a direct contradiction to the Judaizers who would make salvation be partly of God and partly of man. In the first verses, Paul clearly lays out the gospel and will immediately launch into his defense of it.