A (3:54)

The Letter of Paul to the Galatians Chapter 1 Salutation Paul an apostle, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren who are with me to the churches of Galatia, Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. There is no other gospel. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ, and turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another Gospel. But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed, as we have said before. So now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed. Am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God, or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ. Paul's Vindication of His Apostleship Brethren, I would have you know that the gospel which was preached by me is not man's gospel, for I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I went away to Arabia, and again I returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Kepha, and remained with him 15 days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. And what I am writing to you before God, I do not lie. Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still not known by sight to the churches of Christ in Judea. They only heard it said, he who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. And they glorified God because of me.

A (6:20)

Paul and the other apostles. Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up by revelation, and laid before them, but privately before those who were of repute, the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, lest somehow I should be running, or had run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. But because of false brethren secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage to them, we did not yield submission, even for A moment that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you and from those who were reputed to be something, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Those I say, who were of repute added nothing to me. But on the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised. For he who worked through Peter for the mission to the circumcised worked through me also for the Gentiles. And when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Kepha and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised only they would have us remember the poor, which very thing I was eager to do. Paul rebukes Peter at But when Kepha came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James he ate with the Gentiles but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party, and with him the rest of the Jews acted insincerely, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their insincerity. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Kepha before them, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? We ourselves, who are Jews by birth, and not Gentile sinners, yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if in our endeavour to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not. But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God. For if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose.

A (9:14)

Law or faith. O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? Let me ask you only, did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so many things in vain? If it really is in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Thus Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all nations be blessed. So then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them. Now it is evident that no man is justified before God by the law. For he who through faith is righteous shall live. But the law does not rest on faith, for he who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. The promise to Abraham. To give a human example, brethren, no one annuls even a man's will or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one and to your offspring, which is Christ. This is what I mean. The law which came 430 years afterward does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance is by the law, it is no longer by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. The purpose of the law, why then the law it was added because of transgressions, till the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made. And it was ordained by angels through an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one. But God is one. Is the law then, against the promises of God? Certainly not. For if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But The Scripture consigns all things to sin that what was promised to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe now. Before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed, so that the law was our custodian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian. For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, Heirs according to promise.

A (12:39)

The book of Proverbs 29:12 14 if a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked. The poor man and the oppressor meet together. The Lord gives light to the eyes of both. If a king judges the poor with equity, his throne will be established forever.

A (13:02)

Father in heaven, we give youe praise and glory. We thank youk, thank youk for this day and thank youk for a new day. Day 345 of just being able to Gosh, Lord, we have 20 days left. 20 days left of listening to youo Word. 20 days left of being able to just be penetrated by youy Word. We soak in youn Word to be able to be transformed by youy Word. Help us to not simply be informed by youy Word, but be transformed by youy Word. Help us not just learn about yout, but to become like youe. Let this time we spend with you change us. And we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It kind of reminds me that end of that prayer, that time we spend with you, Jesus, let that change us. You remember earlier on in the Acts of the Apostles, when they saw the apostles, they recognized that they had been with Jesus. We look at ourselves after 345 days and ask the question, okay, God, would people now looking at me recognize that I've spent time with you? Would they recognize that I've allowed your character and your thoughts and what you love, what you hate, to shape my heart, my thoughts and how I live and what I love and what I hate. I think that there's something powerful there. Or we can remain unconverted. I mean, in chapter 24 of the Acts of the Apostles, that's kind of what we have. We have Felix. And Felix is, you know, big man in town. And Paul makes a defense before him. Now Felix has a wife, Drusilla, and Drusilla is Jewish. And you think, well, that's kind of a bonus and their part. But yes, it is. And yes, yes, it isn't in terms that, well, Drusilla had been married before to a king of a small little kingdom, small little nation. And so Felix was able to apparently convince her to leave her small king husband for him and saying that, yeah, I'm more connected to the Roman Empire than him. And however he convinced her, the reality, of course, is that Felix and Drusilla, both of them have a certain character. Not only about that, her leaving her husband and whatnot, but also history books have kind of indicated that Felix was a man who is not necessarily a good man. At the same time, this little snapshot we get in Acts chapter 24 is of kind of a Herod character, right? Remember how Herod longed to see Jesus? Remember actually, before that, even Herod wanted to hear from John in kind of a similar situation where John was accusing Herod of living with his brother's wife and how that was wrong. And here he says in the Gospels that Herod still liked to listen to John. Well, here we have the case of Felix, and we have Paul preaching to Felix. And it's very fascinating that it says in chapter 24, verse 25, as Paul argued about justice and self control and future judgment, Felix was alarmed. And that reality, of course, that Felix is alarmed is it reveals something to us about Felix. It reveals that not only was he convicted by Paul's preaching, but also that he remained unmoved even after he was convicted. He remained unmoved because what's he say? He says, go away for the present. When I have an opportunity, I will summon you. And he sent for him often to converse with him. But when two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Portius Festus. And desiring to do Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison. So again, I can be really compelled by the Lord. I can be compelled by God's grace. He can open up my heart in all these ways, but unless I act on that, there's no change, right? Unless I act on what I believe, there is no change. Now let's jump into Galatians. We have St. Paul's letter to the Galatians, which isn't too long. It's simply six chapters. We have half of today, chapters one through three. The background for St. Paul's letter to The Galatians is, you know, the background. The background is that Paul went to the region of Galatia, right? And he established these churches and he proclaimed Jesus Christ. Obviously, these Gentiles had come to faith in Jesus Christ. But then what happens is some people follow, just like in Corinth, people followed Paul and start began to say that you have to also get circumcised in order to experience the fullness of the Christian faith, in order to experience the fullness of what it is to be a follower of Jesus Christ. And the Galatians are beginning to believe. They had already believed them. And yet here, as St. Paul is making a case for himself, saying that, listen, the way in which I have preached the Gospel to you was not about the law. It was not about obeying the ritual laws of Judaism of circumcision, of kosher meals, of ritual purity. But it was faith. It was the faith that came to you when Jesus Christ was proclaimed. And in fact, remember the Holy Spirit that came upon you. When we prayed for the Holy Spirit, just like in Ephesus, and those Gentiles were prayed with and they received the power of the Holy Spirit in all these other occasions that we had heard about in the Acts of the Apostles. And not Only that, but St. Paul even points out the fact that makes sense that you might be a little confused because there was even this guy named Kepha. And you all know Kepha because Kepha here is the Al Habait, right? He doesn't say the Al Habait, but we all know that he's the one over the house, he's the prime minister, that even him, even he was insincere. What happened? Well, Paul, when he was living amongst the Gentiles, he was eating like a Gentile. He was not eating according to the Jewish customs. And yet when a bunch of Jews who really, really were holding strong to the idea that you needed to eat according to the Jewish customs arrived, then Kepha Peter, he began to shrink back and he wouldn't eat with the Gentiles anymore, and he would observe the Jewish customs in the presence of the Jewish Christians. And Paul said, I publicly opposed him to his face because he was in the wrong. And that is. That is true. And one of the things that sometimes people bring this up and they say, well, yeah, so the Pope was wrong. And we'd say, yeah, I mean, he was so infallible does not mean impeccable. Impeccable means without sin. Infallible means doesn't teach error. And we don't say that the pope, or the Holy Father, or even the first pope here, Peter, that anything, everything they teach is without error. There are certain conditions for a pope to teach without error. For example, the first pope, St. Peter, he spoke without error when he preached the sermon at Pentecost. He preached without error when he wrote 1 Peter and 2 Peter. So we have that. That case there. In this case, though, he was insincere. He was, you might say, hypocrite. But ultimately he was wrong. He was wrong in how he lived. And so, as Paul says, he opposed him to his face. And that was very important because of the fact that Peter was in the wrong. And so here is St. Paul showing the people in Galatia that what they're counting on is not the law. What they're counting on has to be the Holy Spirit. And there's this line, Galatians, chapter 2, verse 20, that is so important. It says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. That the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for. For me. And this is so, so important because the Holy Spirit comes to us when we ask him. Holy Spirit comes to us by the name of Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes to us through baptism, through confirmation, and the Holy Spirit comes to us in so many ways that the Lord just wants us to have access to himself. The Lord wants us to have access to the Father. In fact, he redeems us, right? He has redeemed us. The Law had his purpose. And that's the end of chapter three. The law had its purpose. It was our custodian. It was our guardian. And so the idea behind that is that on your way to school, there was a custodian, there was a guardian, or there was a teacher who brought you to school to make sure that you learned your lesson. And here's St. Paul at the end of chapter three, saying, yeah, that's what the law was. It was our guardian, it was our custodian until Christ came that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has gone. This is verse 25. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. And this key was obviously affirmed by the Council of Jerusalem in Acts, chapter 15. And we already heard about the Council of Jerusalem, where the Holy Spirit and us, right, the apostles gathered together with the first pope, and they determined that, yep, you do not have to get circumcised in order to have the fullness of the faith, simply baptized, simply living out the faith, the Christian faith, not necessarily the Jewish faith. And again, once again, how do people experience this? They experience it equally. This last line in chapter three is important for us because St. Paul is making it very, very clear that it's not some people who experience the faith. You have to be a free person, or you have to be a man, or you have to be a Jew. He says, no, no, no. In Jesus Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. That's not negating the reality of male and female. It's not negating the reality of Jew or Greek or of slave or free. What it's saying is there's an equality. There's. So everyone experiences the equality of grace, even amongst the differences between Jew and Greek, or slave and free, or male and female. Does that make sense? We're all one in Christ Jesus. And so the ultimate point does a Paul's making then here is that everyone has become an heir in baptism to the promises of the Father, the promises that God made all the way back to Abraham. So hopefully that makes sense. I don't know. When we get Paul's letters, there's so much stuff that we can break down, so much to learn from him. That's why I'm so grateful we're going through this letter to the Galatians in two days, only to be able to just, you know, absorb it, maybe rewind and take it back in, and rewind and take it back in, to be able to hear what is it that God is saying through St. Paul's letters, not just to Galatians, but all these letters that we're going to be diving more deeply into in the days to come. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.