As we sift through the multilayered narrative of the book of Galatians, we discuss its historical, religious, and cultural implications. Today it's Chapters 1 and 2. We'll grapple with the tension of Gentile inclusion in Abraham's family, the hypocrisy Paul exposes in the Jerusalem Church, and the struggle of being a faithful Jew under Roman oppression.
With our teacher Pastor Ryan Brown, we embark on an enlightening journey tracing Paul's experiences and revelations. From his years spent in study, to his journey with Barnabas and Titus, to Jerusalem; each pivotal moment pushing Paul's understanding of the what the Gospel reveals. We also examine the, at the time, radical nature of Paul's message that justification comes not by legalistic observance but by unwavering faith in Christ.
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As we sift through the multilayered narrative of the book of Galatians, we discuss its historical, religious, and cultural implications. Today it's Chapters 1 and 2. We'll grapple with the tension of Gentile inclusion in Abraham's family, the hypocrisy Paul exposes in the Jerusalem Church, and the struggle of being a faithful Jew under Roman oppression.
With our teacher Pastor Ryan Brown, we embark on an enlightening journey tracing Paul's experiences and revelations. From his years spent in study, to his journey with Barnabas and Titus, to Jerusalem; each pivotal moment pushing Paul's understanding of the what the Gospel reveals. We also examine the, at the time, radical nature of Paul's message that justification comes not by legalistic observance but by unwavering faith in Christ.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RealBibleStories
Notes: https://sermons.church/archives?church=PalmsBaptistBibleStudy&id=126
Website: https://real-bible-stories.square.site
Check us out on these Streaming Platforms: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1912582/share
Hello and welcome to Real Bible Stories. Join us as we deep dive into the historic, religious, cultural, political and emotional context surrounding the real lives of real people in the Bible and the stories we've all grown to love. Hello and welcome to Real Bible Stories. I'm your host, Imran Ward. We're joined by my wife, Selena, and our teacher, pastor Ryan Brown. What's going on everyone? So last week we started off a new series on galations. Who knew you could talk an hour and 45 minutes about just the context, history, and it was really awesome.
Imran:So I highly recommend, before you even dive into this episode with us, go back to last week, because we talked about a little of the history of Paul, a little of the history of Galatia as a, as a region, and we talked about, kind of, how we're gonna be going through Galatians over the next couple weeks. So if you haven't hit that episode yet, go ahead and hit it. And if you haven't gone through and enjoyed all the other series that we've gone through, enjoy them too. It's a quality is there? And, man, I go back to different, different episodes all the time, especially like the Jacob ones. That tree of episodes I go back to all the time. All right, but I wanted to tell you this, ryan I tried reading Galatians and, oh my Lord, this is one of the densest pieces of text I have ever read outside of a college experience.
Ryan:It's dense, you need to get into Romans, but yeah, it's any Paul. Like Paul, just writing the way he does is you obviously see his education come out compared to. You know a lot of the other. You know books and authors that you'll find in scripture and you know Galatians is actually in. There's always, there's a course, there's debate, there's debate over everything, but consensus generally majority and I'm in this camp as well would place Galatians as the oldest New Testament document.
Imran:So this is probably your own after revelation and after, like everything, no written before Oldest isn't. Oh yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry, sorry.
Ryan:Sorry, see, even before the Gospels Galatians it was written most likely in between, like if you got. If you're reading the book of Acts, between chapters 13 and 15 of.
Ryan:Acts of Acts, that's that's when this was most likely written. The reason being is that the issue that is centered to Galatians, circumcision and bringing the Gentiles into, you know, the the family of Abraham was really largely resolved at the Jerusalem Council that you read about in Acts, chapter 15. So, being that, paul and we're about to get into it tonight, but he he builds this argument of why the Gentiles should be brought in. And he's really. We kind of get exposed to this epic church fight that's going on.
Ryan:Yeah, we're kind of like. You know, like if you guys ever watch the Office, I don't know that may be.
Imran:Yeah, yeah. So there's this episode. I've watched a couple cuts from it. It just didn't make sense to me.
Ryan:There's this episode called dinner party and they come over to this dinner party. You know Steve Carroll, you know Mike is the character and he's in just this toxic relationship with his girlfriend and they're living together and they have him over for dinner and they're just fighting the entire time and making the most awkward situation for the guests. Right, yeah, and it's kind of like. That's kind of like the sense you get Like when we read it. You're kind of like reading this fight between mom and dad at the dinner table. Yeah.
Ryan:And the Gentile Galatians, who this is written to for the first two chapters. They're kind of that way too. It's like this fight, and he's kind of going after a lot of the Jerusalem church, the really the Jewish church and that doesn't apply to me and they're just kind of like reading this.
Imran:But it does kind of apply to well it does.
Ryan:But like that he's talking about a bunch of history and the Galatians are kind of like man I, because they're young. They're young believers that they're coming out of paganism. Yeah, they don't have all this history Right and they're just trying to honor God the best way they can and you got these different groups of people fighting over what that means Right.
Ryan:Yeah. And so you're kind of exposed to this church fight and Paul kind of makes this argument of why he's right and why the others are wrong, which we'll get here in a second. But if this letter was written after the Jerusalem Council, not only would Paul have referenced it based off of what he's writing about, but it would probably be like the hallmark, like this is like the final nail in the coffin, right. My final, most decisive point is the Jerusalem Council, when all the leaders of the church got together and resolved and said hey, we all agree that they can be brought into the family and the two things that they must do is refrain from sexual immorality and refrain from worshiping other gods. Those are the two stipulations that was put on them to be brought into the family.
Ryan:And there's nothing. There was circumcision. There was nothing there about following Torah no, kosher, you know nothing like that. So it was very decisively resolved then at that council and it's not referenced at all in his letter and so you know like this was dated right before. And if you start reading in Acts, chapter 13, that's actually when you start seeing the missionary trip with him and Barnabas going to this region, so when he they actually go into and start planning churches in this region. That starts in Acts 13. So those two chapters in Acts you're talking probably a span of a decade, yeah, going from 13 to 15. And this letter was written, most likely right in the middle of there.
Imran:But I think I've been. I've mentioned this before, but I think a study of Acts would be. I know, I know it would be a fun one.
Ryan:It would just that'd be like a year long but that's okay, yeah, or we just stopped doing hour, 45 minute episodes and we just, you know, calmed it down a bit.
Imran:Yeah, that's not gonna happen. See, jesus, we're on type of episodes. Yeah, it's just school. At that point, then we're just like in class and it's just school. Yeah.
Ryan:Well, a couple things though. So if we could just kind of, maybe very quickly summarize what we talked about last week, the problem set, right. So you have, the Roman government had made a pact with the Jewish people that essentially said you are exempt from worshiping the other Roman gods as long as you pray to your God on behalf and for Rome, right, so they called it the Jewish exemption, and it wasn't the most popular politically for for the rest of Rome, but it was a very so it was a very delicate thing, right? The Romans you know the ones who worshiped and part of the Roman occult, you know they felt, you know, in terms of their theology, that they were now at risk. They were in danger, like, if people are leaving the occult and not worshiping the gods, that's gonna anger them and that's putting us in what they were in, a legitimate fear. So the fact that Rome was allowing them to do this, you know already, didn't make them feel comfortable.
Ryan:So now, when you start having a lot of Gentiles kind of going over into the faith and claiming the same Jewish exemption under Christianity, then people really start freaking out. Right, then you get into the Jewish authority, you know, particularly the ones who may not accept Christ as Messiah. This is obviously a delicate thing for them. They're trying to play this political balance game and now you got a bunch of Gentiles who don't look Jewish, don't act Jewish, are claiming Jewish exemption under Christ, but then at the same time, they're being told you're free from the law, you're free from kosher, free from Torah, free from the high holidays, free from all those things. You don't need to be circumcised Zero marks of what they believe to be Jewish. But yet they're claiming the same exemption right.
Imran:So which is also confusing for those that are probably new, that are new in their faith and didn't understand Torah, and it's like they don't even understand what they've been freed from. It's hard to kind of relate that to the other, particularly, though, when the people who brought the message to you, paul and Barnabas.
Ryan:we'll read that here in a second, but when they brought that message to them, that was not a part of it right.
Ryan:So they're feeling a lot of pressure from Rome, of you have a lot of people here claiming this exemption as Jewish, but there's nothing about them that seems. Jewish Explain this to us. So now they're going to the Jewish believers and saying you better figure this out, because we have to answer to Rome. They may rescind our exemption, and then we're all in trouble, right? So there's this whole deluge. That's the problem, okay?
Ryan:So what actually starts happening? What we're going to get into tonight just kind of add further context to this whole thing, right? Is that the compromise that the church which was mainly Jewish at this point came up with is like okay, to ease all the tension, to make the Jewish authority kind of less combative to this, to get Rome a little off the back, to make this a little bit more obvious, just having to get circumcised, right. So what ends up happening, though, is that the church in Jerusalem ends up sending people out. They're called the circumcision party or the circumcision group, also sometimes called Judaizers, but they're like missionaries for Judaism, but in this case, they're going to Christian churches and pretty much proclaiming a gospel of circumcision, saying, yes, that there is inclusion for the Gentiles within Judaism.
Ryan:Christ did that, but that means you now have to come under Torah or at the very least circumcision.
Ryan:Now the temptation if you're a Gentile, because if you're like, well, look, I'm not, I'm now expected not to worship any other gods, only worship Christ. If that's true, but yet I may not have that same Jewish exemption. And if the Jews say, hey, they're not a part of us and we're on our own thing, it's gonna get very painful for us.
Ryan:So, as extremist circumcision may sound out of an authentic love for Christ, but also out of a authentic fear of the Roman authority for real persecution like circumcision seems like an actually a good like. Okay, if I get circumcised, I'll get them off my back. I get to worship freely. I have the exemption right. So, there's this whole temptation with it.
Imran:And it almost and I guess it's things like that always seem to make sense on the surface. It's like it seems convenient. Right and for all parties. It's like you have to do something extreme to show your dedication and then you get the exemption, and it for the Romans.
Ryan:But this small extreme thing is not in comparison to the larger thing that could happen, yeah, which is mass persecution, right? So real temptation to go do this. And then you've got. So James and the church in Jerusalem are sending people out, coming in behind Paul to the churches that he planted, and he's gonna take this very personal I'll talk about it here in a second but coming in essentially undercutting Paul and saying, no, you need to get circumcised. And now people are starting to do it, right?
Imran:So and James, who was a disciple of Christ right, His brother.
Ryan:Oh right, James the brother of Christ. Yeah, so there are these giants. Right, You've got James the brother of Jesus. You have Peter, who's referenced in this letter, right, the giants and the pillars of the faith are coming in and saying you need to do this.
Ryan:Then you got Paul, who, at this point, like we would have got Paul, kind of put him on the sped of stool, right, and in the sense that I mean, he has so many letters and we refer to him so much, but at this time he wasn't really a force to be reckoned with. He was just a guy who used to persecute the church and is now no longer persecuting the church, and this is very early in his ministry so he hasn't even made a name for himself in terms of like a holistic witness across his life right Christianity.
Imran:But I mean he already had authority because he was able to persecute and kill. We'll talk about that here in a second.
Ryan:So one thing just about us, because we're gonna go through really two chapters and it'll make sense because once we kind of between last week and kind of the context we're going over now, it's gonna flow pretty easy where people are gonna like, oh, I got it, I know what we're talking about now and it'll flow pretty quickly. But to kind of set the stage for this right, paul takes this very personal and you see his frustration and his anger play out in the letter. And the reason he takes it personal is for a couple reasons. One, there are actual personal attacks against Paul. There is a it's what you would call being a people pleaser. So in Paul's day, part of the rabbinical library included within this rabbinical library, not part of Torah. What is the rabbinical library?
Ryan:It's just like a. It's just a library for rabbis, for reference, so it's not scripture. But they're these extra sources that kind of shape culture.
Imran:Is that what people call, like the apocrypha and stuff?
Ryan:Yeah, yeah, that is a library right. Okay, this one is actually referred to, as you know, the apocrypha books that didn't make it into the Bible.
Imran:It's not really just books that didn't make it in, but it's just things that were written around the same time.
Selena:Yeah, different, well, not around the same time, I think, for at least from you can correct me, ryan is it was written like much later.
Imran:Around the time and much later, sure, but it's just yeah. It's yeah, you got first and second.
Ryan:Maccabees, which talks about the time between the Old and the New Testament. That's part of the apocrypha. This is part of the pseudographia rabbinical library, but it was a. It was.
Ryan:this is what rabbis study this is if you were a student of the law, like you would study this library, right and the big, but it's not the law. It's not the law, no, but it's. There are commentaries on the law and there are or things just surrounding the faith. Yeah, and one of the books that was big in Paul and Jesus' day was the book called the Psalms of Solomon. It's about 18 chapters. Okay, it's in your Bible. No.
Imran:The Songs of Solomon, no Psalms, oh, the Psalms of Solomon, psalms of Solomon.
Ryan:It's not in your Bible this is part of the rabbinical library the pseudographia, okay, and the Psalms of Solomon. It's about 18 chapters long, and there's three groups of people that are presented in this. One are the righteous, ie the Jewish people. Second are sinners, ie Gentiles, and then the third are people pleasers, and so those are the three. Okay, now, that's an odd third class, and we'll talk about it, because one of the supreme thoughts during like Jesus' and Paul's day was not just how to be a good Jew. Right, it's not about it being just how to be a faithful Jew, but how do you be a faithful Jew under Roman? Oppression.
Ryan:What does that mean? What does it look like to be a good Jew under Roman oppression? So, and that's kind of like the context to which that book was written. So the people-pleaser was a class that essentially said that there were people part of the righteous, but they would do or say or promote certain things that would be pleasing to the sinners or the Gentiles. In other words, you're not doing what is right, you are doing what is convenient to please other people.
Imran:That just reminded me of the and we don't have to talk about it, but just reminded me of the sparkle, the Lutheran thing, that I'd sent you a text about.
Ryan:Oh, the sparkle creed, the sparkle creed, oh man, there's a lot of associations to something like this. Yeah, you know in modern churches right, yeah, people-pleasers. So it's about appeasing, trying to be, yeah, appeasing and pleasing to the culture.
Imran:So they like you, yeah, and if you, oh, it's like it's a different time. That's not what Jesus meant, that's not. It's like well, actually, let's go back and actually study exactly what Jesus meant, because we can do that, you know, and not try and adapt to what Jesus said to modern times. That doesn't make sense.
Ryan:Right. The whole point of Christ's coming was that you actually adapt culture to the kingdom of heaven, that you don't adapt to the kingdom of heaven, to the modern culture. Yeah, but so, yes, so, and the reason that that plays a big contextual role is because one of the claims that is coming at Paul is that he's being a people-pleaser. They're essentially coming and say, paul, you know, you're a zealous Jew, but now, under Roman oppression, you are being a people-pleaser. You are telling the Gentiles they don't need to get circumcised and they don't need to follow the law. Because you like them, your friends, you started these churches in the Gentile areas. They look up to you, they love you, and for you to go tell them that they have to get circumcised, it's gonna cost you some leadership, capital or rapport with them. Yeah.
Ryan:So you're really just being a people-pleaser? This was one of the claims against Paul personally.
Selena:Yeah.
Ryan:So he's like. So they're coming at him like you're being a people-pleaser. So part of his argument that we're gonna read here in Galatians 1 and 2 is how he actually sets and turns it and says I'm not the one being the people-pleaser. In fact, you're the one being the people-pleaser because the whole reason you're wanting to get circumcised in the first place is to please and appease the Jewish authority, who don't accept Christ as Messiah, and to appease the Roman authority, who were under oppression of. That's who you're trying to please. I'm not the one trying to be the people-pleaser. You are, because there's far worse consequence in not pleasing Rome and pleasing the Jewish authority than if I'm trying to please the Gentiles Right. So that's one big piece of the Psalms of Solomon, you know, worth a quick read. I'm sure you can find it online because that's a big contextual piece with this. But the other thing, the reason why Paul takes this personal and why you see it in this letter, is that he planted these churches and it came at a huge cost to him in Barnabas. Four times in this letter he refers to the Marks and you see it, we'll see it one tonight but four times he refers to the Marks and the scars that he had Apparently, and we kind of deduce this.
Ryan:But by the time Paul gets to this church and these people him and, by association, barnabas, who was with them were in such bad condition physically because of the persecution they received to plant these churches and bring the gospel to them that, like he this is actually, I want to say it's chapter 4 or chapter 5, but he commends them. He says remember when I came to you in the state I was in and the amount of love and grace that you showed me, but also remember what it cost me to bring you this message. Yeah, right, you don't do that just to go be a people-pleaser, right? And here's a lot of the reason why. And this is like a good geographical kind of context. So there's two things going on One, southern Galatia, which is where these churches are. Him and Barnabas went and started planting these churches and within Southern Galatia, I feel like I'm bringing my Bible map.
Imran:What's that? I feel like I need to bring up my Bible map.
Ryan:Southern Turkey, southern Turkey. So it's in Southern Turkey, okay so right there in Southern.
Imran:Turkey, Alright because you said Galatia was modern-day Turkey or part of modern-day Turkey.
Ryan:Correct. Asia Minor is modern-day Turkey, galatia is Southern Turkey. Okay, okay, excuse me. So Galatia in itself like Southern Turkey. What was happening then is that you had that region, was really kind of committed to. It was like a new developing area, in a sense, for the Roman Empire, and that land had been allocated to Roman soldiers who had retired from service and as like a it's almost like a retirement package for a Roman soldier.
Imran:That I definitely remember that, that, like they didn't pay them in the same way that we're paid now, there was a promise that after a certain amount of service, your family would be given land in the conquered territory that you know that they had Right and it came in different forms right.
Ryan:So sometimes, like if you were like the emperor would reward like Julius Caesar, right? Mm-hmm. He had his conquest and the emperor would say here's a slew of land as a reward.
Imran:And it wasn't just the land, it was like whatever people, exactly All of it was yours, and then Julius.
Ryan:Caesar would then reward, like his officers, and say here you go, here's your allotment. And then his officers could be like all right man, here's your allotment, right Based off of that and it depends on the era, right. It kind of changed and it was always there's exceptions, right? Yeah.
Ryan:But what we know is that this part of southern Galatia was an area that was allocated for Roman soldiers who were retiring. Okay, well, why does that matter? Because, and depending on the era of Rome, the lowest being like when we enlist in the military today, you're going in with about at least four years.
Ryan:right, there's some five year contracts and officers I know are a little different, but for an illicit guy you know, four years is kind of what you commit to your first enlistment at the low end, the lowest that they knew when you signed up for the to serve in the Roman army. You're doing at least a minimum of 12 years and in certain times within the Roman Empire you were serving 22. Wow, so a full career.
Imran:So yeah, so when you go in and you're like hey, I guess, land makes sense, then it does but I?
Ryan:what I want you to kind of hone in on that, though, is that? What does that say of the people who would volunteer and say I will commit 12 to 22 years of my life To this cause? Yeah, that means that they believe in the ideal right, the values of Rome. That's their values, and, just like anything, sure that there's Economics with it, you know maybe some of it was a reward plan.
Imran:It's like a lot of people enlist now, you know, to get their families into the country or get them citizenship, or get themselves citizenship or have some kind of economic advantage. I don't know what specifically I was going to do without the Marine Corps getting me to where I am now. I can't even really imagine it, honestly, but it's like. The country.
Ryan:I definitely Deals of my country exactly, and and so the supreme ideal of America, you would say, is, you know, generally, freedom, freedom right. So so anybody who is saying hey, yeah, I am willing to commit a Big set of my youth, my time, you know. Sacrifice, body, mind, spirit, like all that put myself in harm's way For the supreme ideal of freedom, right?
Ryan:So if you imagine like a catamacars were Largely military based, a lot of retired people who fought and bled for that ideal and then I'll imagine somebody coming in Proclaiming something hey, we don't really want your American freedom, we want some authority, we want a general freedom, we want a dictatorship.
Imran:And they start proclaiming this message and this new Confucianism is the way we ought to go through the Confucianism and and there should be, just you know, a dictator in charge of this country and so the way.
Ryan:This constitution and the ideal of freedom. You know, blah, blah, blah.
Imran:Right Sylvia anthems playing the background as yeah yeah, so.
Ryan:Somebody like that comes in right and then they start proclaiming that they're not gonna do well in a town like ours, because you're talking to a group of people who committed their entire life, or at least a big portion of their life, to defending the ideal of America freedom right Same thing is in southern Galatia, except the supreme ideal of Rome was glory.
Imran:So anytime we're going to Rome though, right glory to Rome.
Ryan:So anytime you come in say oh, no, no, no. The supreme ideal is not about the glory to Rome, it's glory to God and specifically glory to Christ, the glorification of Christ. The whole idea bearing witness to the glory or the Parasia of Christ Is in direct conflict with the ideal of Rome. In the glory of Rome, yeah, on a couple fronts. One there the whole road that ran through Southern Galatia was called the Villa Labaste, which is really just Latin for the road of Augustus and the idea is that if you traveled this road, you're paying homage to now notice the word the gospel of Augustus.
Ryan:Everyone know. Oh, where do we get these ideas in the terms gospel, the good news? Right, like why didn't we call it something else? Right, like why is it the good news?
Imran:where those words come from, right.
Ryan:The idea is that it's a royal term actually, and it's the gospel of Augustus, means the good news of Augustus, that Augustus has not only ascended to the throne of Rome which were he, but he'd already been dead at this point but he's also now ascended to the gods. So it's the. So it's talking about royal ascension of Augustus. Now they're coming in and saying no, I am proclaiming the gospel of Christ, the royal Ascension of Christ as king of the universe. Yeah, so it's in direct conflict With the supreme ideal that that entire region of retired military members fought for, you know, with tears, blood, sweat, right.
Imran:So yeah, because it wasn't. It was polytheistic for one, and then also there was a significant overlap with what men could accomplish versus what God could accomplish, and it was a much more, I guess, a combative relationship. Like men could have a lot more influence over what God was or did, or what the gods were or did, and God, the gods, would come down and sleep with man and you get demigods and all these stories of legend. It's like there was a much whole different interaction. It was between gods and men there but like the, I guess, like.
Ryan:the supreme point I'm trying to make, though, is that the ideal was about the glory of Rome, the, the good news of Caesar Augustus ascending to the throne with the gods.
Ryan:Yeah and now you've got Paul and Barnabas Walking the road of Augustus. That is paying homage, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, saying we don't care about Augustus. Christ has ascended his throne, he is king, he is who you need to bend the knee to right. So, on the Gentile Roman side, how is that going to be received? Well, just say it was very violent. Okay, it was a very violent.
Imran:Yeah, you gotta remember this is also a conquered people, you know. So you have a conquered people coming through and Declaring that, like, not only are your, is your God wrong, but also your. This leader that you're saying ascended to be with the gods is also wrong, walking his road saying that this, this, from their perspective, this man that Rome killed, is actually God Manifest with us is above. Augustus and above Rome. It's like that's crazy if you don't know anything about it's horror, anything about the tradition or history or anything like that.
Ryan:It's offensive to them. So you go and you proclaim this they got beat right, they got beat a lot, they got thrown in prison, they were mistreated, all as they walked the Villa Basta right on this main road going through southern Galicia. Now, that's one side of it. Okay, the second side of that it's kind of like the capital of this region, in a sense, was a. It was called Antioch Poseidon and that city, which was like a new city, it literally means the new Rome, right?
Ryan:This is how zealous the Romans were in this region for Rome, that they wanted to create the new Rome. This is it, the new glory of New York.
Imran:Yeah, you know in a sense right. Yeah, so because it's a kind of a new up-and-coming area.
Ryan:Now that was like the main city right off Kind of the this road as you started working your way towards Rome. Yeah but, if you like, went through that city and then kind of out into the countryside. This is when you kind of get this, this area of zealous Jews.
Ryan:And so out there you get this group in the countryside area, right, like you'd have to like go through Antioch, poseidon kind of go in that area, mm-hmm. But this particular group of Jews out there, they were very zealous for the law. They felt like the, the Jewish Authority in Jerusalem, had been too compromised. They're kind of like the the kumran community where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Mm-hmm.
Ryan:They were out, that there were a bunch of former priests that had left and kind of started their own community because they're like, hey, like this whole area is so corrupt, right, you're not zealous enough, right? This is the same kind of Jewish community, very backwards, who are saying we're gonna come out here, we're gonna be faithful to the Torah as it should be and not be corrupt like they are in Jerusalem. So you got this group of very zealous Jews out in this area. So not only when Paul and Barnabas are going and proclaiming the gospel of Christ above the gospel of Augustus, they're getting beat by them. But then it says that one thing that Paul always did anytime you went to a new area, he would first start in the synagogue. So he would go into now the Jewish synagogues in this area of very zealous Jews proclaiming Christ as Messiah.
Ryan:He's the answer to the question in the new gospel right, the gospel of Jesus, and they were like that's heresy, stonem. So that's why you see Paul and Barnabas getting stoned by the Jewish people too, so they're getting their butts kicked by the zealous.
Imran:Roman, you know soldiers and they're getting their butts kicked by. If you ever Jewish community right, if you ever thought that following Christ was gonna be easy, and if you ever thought that blessed and highly favored Met your life was gonna be easy or convenient, Let me.
Ryan:Let this be a lesson. Let this be a lesson death doesn't mean anything to a God who raises the dead. So God has no problem sending you into dangerous situations.
Ryan:You know, and suffering doesn't mean anything to a God that's eternal right and his own promise eternal life and I bring all that up right, and why that is contextually matters is because that was the environment Paul and Barnabas were going through to establish these churches and share the gospel and the good news with them, right, so this came with a lot of pain. He personally did this.
Ryan:Now you got a bunch of teachers from Jerusalem who didn't go through all that pain to establish the churches there you're coming up to the churches, coming in behind Paul and Barnabas and now saying, hey, paul, barnabas, hey, I'm glad they came and brought this to you, but they're a little wrong. You need to go get snipped, snip, go get circumcised, you know, completely undercutting Paul, his message and really the pain it took to establish the churches to begin with.
Selena:So this is personal to him he takes his personally.
Ryan:He's like you didn't go with me when I wanted.
Imran:I want to throw out that. That's an interesting kind of I'll bring that into the modern day just thinking about the Protestant Reformation and the and the giants of that Luther, luther, calvin, all these giants of the Protestant Reformation and then Fast-forwarding to the American church today and watching leaders come in behind those giants and try and appease the people or change it to be communities like you didn't have any of the struggle of Of making sure there was a good understanding of the faith here and then going at the Catholic Church and saying no, you're wrong, and then being persecuted for it and breaking away. But here you are trying to take advantage of that later on.
Ryan:So we're gonna talk about a little bit like in a bit, because One of the big primary things Paul is about to talk about is the fact that he did not receive this from any man, but this gospel came from Christ directly. We'll get into it right now, but that's important. That's important on a couple different levels, right, but to the same thing is that Paul wrestled with this. He's like One. Not only did this gospel not come from it, I wasn't taught by anybody this is me just spending time with Jesus.
Ryan:You know, kind of going through this on my own, but nobody. I didn't come into a church already established like that in Jerusalem. I came in and established new churches. Yeah, with this message, with a lot of pain.
Imran:Imagine Paul there with his 99 thesis nailing it to the, to the synagogue wall.
Selena:Yeah, I think the Jews are like stone him the original reformation.
Ryan:Yeah.
Imran:I mean it is is the original information.
Ryan:So the last thing I want to say, just as a quick recap, is well, what does the gospel kind of look like?
Ryan:To Paul, there's a, there's the constant promise of the seed that through the seed that life would come, through Abraham's seed that he's gonna be a father of many nations. And then to Isaac that it's all the nations of the earth will be blessed through it. Then you get to Moses and Deuteronomy 27 through 29, which is the promise of a curse if you're unfaithful to the law. So because they were unfaithful, they came under this curse that the nations you're supposed to rule over, one will be ruling over you. But then, once you get into Deuteronomy 30, there's the promise that God will remain faithful Through that and still maintain his covenant and his promise that you will rule over the nations through this seed. Right. So to, and Biblically and even largely in Paul's day, it was referred to as the current, present evil age and the age to come. And to him the good news is this is that we had been under the Current evil age for so long that curse of Deuteronomy 27 through 29. But now the age to come is here.
Ryan:Christ has ushered in this new age and it's really important to remember that because he's going to start an argument about the law and its relationship to all this, and we get deeper as we go. But his central point that was the law was established for a certain period of time, that that Sort of certain function for that time, and that was the old era. Crisis ushered in the new era, so things are a little different, right, so we're gonna really try to go through two chapters, okay, cuz we'll take breaks, but most of if you just listen to last week's episode and this week, right, that contextual this is gonna make a lot of sense, it's gonna flow through it.
Ryan:We're like oh, I see what's happening right. Absolutely, we'll take a little there's a few other tidbits that we can add, but so we're just gonna kind of take this a little bit at a time. So now we get to go into it.
Ryan:Galatians 1, verse 1 it says this Paul, an apostle, sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God, the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers and sisters with me. So first Remember who. The other teachers who are coming in an undermining Paul are being sent by somebody right there, being sent by James. They're being sent by the church in Jerusalem. They're being sent by men and he's like hey, I Paul, an apostle who came to you and was sent to you. Nobody sent me to you, like this wasn't a charge from the church in Jerusalem.
Ryan:This wasn't a charge of anybody. He's sent to you by Christ himself.
Imran:He's opening up with a. You know that opening punch. Yeah, yeah, mouth right there, yeah right. He's coming out swinging, so it continues. Four words in.
Ryan:So remember, I came to you and I was not sent by men, I was sent by Christ himself to the churches in Galatia. Grace and peace to you from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God, the Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. So you see that the present evil age, right. And? And to Paul, it's not simply you know why. Did Christ die for us? Right? It wasn't just simply so. Oh, we can go to heaven. Like he died for me, so I could go to heaven. To Paul. Christ died to rescue us, like the new exodus. There's been a new exodus, a new Passover to rescue us from the present evil age, right? So, yes, heaven and being justified is a piece of that, but it's a much larger concept. We're talking about something, a new age. We're not talking just about you personally, what this means for you and your destiny. We're talking about what this means for the world.
Ryan:Yeah there's this new age, the present evil age. We've been rescued from it. Verse 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly Deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ. So whenever you hear the term called with Paul, it's kind of synonymous to our the way we would use saved Right when we say how saved their terminology. You were called, god called you, you were called out of the present evil.
Imran:Interesting because one of so saved from is Is how we look at it. But called to is how is purpose describe it?
Ryan:It's very purpose oriented purpose, oriented right. It's very do.
Imran:You are called and Rescued out of the present evil age and called to do yeah, called to purpose, because we talked about the saved from and not always talk about the called to the saved or the called to.
Ryan:Very good, yeah, so you can read that I'm astonished that you're so quickly deserting the one who saved you to live in the Christ or the grace of Christ. What he's essentially saying is I'm the one who brought this gospel to you. I'm the one. When I showed up, I was bloody, beaten, bruised, broken. For your sake, I'm the one who brought this, sent by Christ himself, to you. And how quickly you are deserting me. So, essentially, these teachers who are coming in behind them I actually think it's not just teachers, I think it's there's actually one specific teacher and that that may, that'll make sense in later chapters, but but these teachers are coming in undermining Paul and they're listening, either having success with that community, and he put to Paul yeah, you're deserting me. It's like how quick. He's, like I'm astonished how quickly, how you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel Okay, which is really no gospel at all, evidently you don't give it any weight right, which is really no gospel at all.
Ryan:Evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion and trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. So there's a couple things here. What do we mean by a different gospel? Right, and we've kind of talked about this before. But how you understand the death and the resurrection of Jesus, like what, how you understand the implications of that is going to heavily influence your view of what you think the gospel is Right.
Ryan:So if you think that the reason Christ died and was confirmed in his resurrection was simply so you could go to heaven, you think the good news is that I would say from hell, yeah, right. And now that that's certainly a part of it, right. But if you view the reason he died and the good news is that it's not just to so to justify you to go to heaven, but it's to deal with the source of all pain and suffering in this world and that he's now ushering in a new age to come that's something completely different. The good news is isn't simply that you're justified. The good news is also, now that there's a new order of things that world is fundamentally changed.
Ryan:It's going to fundamentally change, right? And if you're looking at wanting to adopt Something from the old present, from the present evil age, right, what you were rescued from then snow gospel at all. If it's not good news to say that there's something new on top of the old, right, that's not new, that's just you building on the old.
Imran:It's a new series we knew is happening right, it's a new show, right. So not any season it's a new show. We're in a different show now, right, and then.
Ryan:I Don't think. When it says a different gospel, in one sense, I don't think we're talking about Like a rival message, like a rival Messiah. I think what we're talking about is that I think some of the Jewish teachers and believers thought Jesus was the fulfillment of a completely different Jewish narrative, that is, that he didn't come To fulfill and satisfy the law, to rescue us from the current evil age, but that he, he, was just merely kind of like an add-on to the faith. No, like Isaiah, right, yeah, exactly yeah, I guess. Like, maybe like a prophet, but a bigger than a prophet. Right, he's a messiah, but, but it's it, but he's fulfilling something different.
Ryan:He's not really fulfilling law, yeah, so when he says it's completely different gospel music, but that's no gospel at all, right, that that's not really what we've been waiting on, right, and I would just say how easy it is, though, for us to fall into the same trap, though, where I Think part of what was happening to them in this community, on the Jewish side at least, is that they were adding they're just treating Jesus as an add-on. Right, like I'm Jewish, I have this tradition, I have this faith, and here comes Jesus. Now I'm just kind of adding him on to, to the identity that is that is already right, already what you're doing.
Ryan:And almost in a sense like he's just kind of like a fulfillment of what my need is now and this time, but he's not necessarily fulfillment of holistically what the world needs, right, it's not as transformative and impactful and Maybe I think that it's hard for us to comprehend the universality of God because it's easier for me to.
Imran:it's like I felt this when we did the prayer series. It's easier for me to pray for God to help me or to help my wife or to save me because we think about ourselves all the time. I think about me all the time. I know my struggles in relation to myself. But when I tried to pray with God, the Father, king of the universe, and with that in mind and bringing that to the forefront, it's hard to conceptualize that all the time. But that is who he is. He's not just God of my life, he's the God of the sinner's lives too, that don't wanna follow him. He's still God of everything, our Father our Savior, our God.
Ryan:And we hit that a lot when we were doing that in the Lord's.
Ryan:Prayer a couple of weeks ago, and the thing about this, though, is that and Paul will start to kinda work through this, but to him he's like look, if Jesus is going to upset everything, if Jesus is who he says he is and all this happened he's going to upset everything and everyone, because every one of us possessed something within us that needs upsetting. You know what I mean. So Jesus isn't a guy who's gonna come in and just fit perfectly within what you want a savior or a god to be.
Ryan:He's going to come in and offend and upset and start demolishing things that need demolishing in your life. To make this happen because that's what's required and to Paul's point is this is that if you're going to do any sort of transformative change in the world and if Jesus is really the one ushering in a new age, things are gonna get destroyed.
Ryan:Things are gonna have to be destroyed and it's gonna upset a lot of people and a lot of things, but that's necessary and if that's not happening, then he's not who he says he is and it's really no gospel right.
Imran:And if you're saying you're a follower of Christ and that he's the Lord of your life, but there's no change, just no sanctification taking place.
Ryan:You just continue to do whatever you want and living in your sin and saying that this is fine because me and God are good, that's a problem in and of itself as well, because then he's not really Lord of your life if you're not pursuing his ideals and that's kind of his point with the Jerusalem church, who's really seems to be playing the Jerusalem agenda, which is, hey, we're trying to keep things balanced and we're trying to keep things not from getting upset, like what you are preaching and what's happening is upsetting our arrangement with Rome, it's upsetting our relationship with the synagogues and the Jewish leadership in the temple, like you're upsetting a lot of things with this, so go out and get circumcised so it doesn't upset them as much.
Ryan:And then one Paul's like well, one who's now being the people pleaser right, which we'll get in here in a second. But two it seems like your agenda, then, is more the agenda of Jerusalem and less the agenda of Christ and his gospel, and we tend to do that though oh, we all do that in some degree where we start leveraging and abusing the grace and you see this in politics all the time Right when you start seeing, well, the gospel says this. Therefore, you should vote for me, because I hold this position right.
Imran:Well, now you're no longer concerned about the kingdom of God, you're concerned about your political kingdom right and you see this happen a lot and you're trying to use God or use Jesus, or use the faith to bolster your own political agenda. And this is the God's, not the God of the Democrats or the Republicans. He's God, period.
Ryan:He's not about your agenda. He's not about the Democrat or the Republican agenda. He's not about the American agenda or the Western agenda or the Eastern agenda.
Ryan:He's about his agenda right, and I think the one thing that made Paul really upset with this as well is that you got this young church. I don't mean young by age, I mean young in the sense they're immature in faith, they just got brought over but they don't have like a lot. This church is in real need of discipling and now the leaders right, the pillars of the faith. The Jerusalem church is more concerned about getting them circumcised for things that don't even matter and less concerned about actually discipling this young church, because that'll get Rome off their back, cause that'll stop the persecution from taking place.
Ryan:Right and he's like they need discipleship, they don't need your agenda right Now. The other possibility to this, when he refers to this different gospel, could also be that the pressures of leaving the Roman occult or shipping Christ only. But I'm a Gentile, so I'm not accepted into the Jewish synagogues in that area because I'm not really Jewish, right? I got Paul telling me this. I got this guy saying I need to go get circumcised, but I didn't sign up for that Cause Paul didn't say that was what.
Imran:I needed to do that wasn't good news to me.
Ryan:So this doesn't seem to be good news to me anymore. And what may have happened?
Imran:is that this news definitely isn't as good anymore.
Ryan:Right, like congratulations. This is the best news of your life. Yeah, here's some scissors.
Imran:Yeah, a few weeks later they're like yeah, cut it off.
Ryan:What Kind of a bait and switch right. So what also could have been happening and what he may be referring to.
Imran:He thought it was a carrot, but it was actually the stick.
Ryan:What may be happening is that they came in excited through the gospel message that Paul gave. Now they're teaching a different gospel and what they may be saying is hey, this isn't what I thought it was. I thought it was something amazing. But now you're asking me to get circumcised and they're going back to the gospel of Augustus, right Back to the Roman occult, which is documented to be spreading pretty again, largely because of the zealousness of the Romans and the retired soldiers who were there. But the Roman occult and the gospel of Augustus was spreading in that same region at the same time.
Ryan:They may have been abandoning it and going back, but anyways, verse eight but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preach to you, let them be under God's curse, as we have already said. So now I say it again if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse. So back up to last week, if you remember. What is he referring to with God's curse? The curse of Deuteronomy 27 through 29. He's not saying, like you know, let them be damned right, that's not what he's saying?
Ryan:What he's saying is that if they're trying to teach you a gospel of circumcision, that means they believe we are still under the curse of Deuteronomy 27 through 29. That's what they're saying. They still think we're part of the present evil age and if we're still part of the present evil age, we're still under the curse. And if we're still under the curse we're still under the law, so go. If they are teaching you anything different, let them go live under the curse. Go. Let them live in Deuteronomy 27 through 29. But what he?
Ryan:wants them to know. I want you to live free in the freedom of Deuteronomy 30. And that's what he's starting to build out here. And then he continues, verse 10. Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God, or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Notice the three pleases there, how he keeps referring to people pleasers, right?
Ryan:Am I trying to win the approval of human beings or of God? Am I trying to please people? Essentially, what he is saying is that he understands that this is going to cost something. In certain ways, he's saying, yes, you refuse to get circumcised. This may create and upset the social, cultural, societal order of things. This may lead to a lot of pain. This may lead to persecution, as I was persecuted bringing the gospel message to you.
Imran:right, he's saying that may be a very real reality for you and that will probably be Right the situation that I am presenting you, I'm telling you to live free in Christ, with the risk that you're going to get persecuted heavily.
Ryan:Now, am I trying to be a people pleaser or am I trying to please God in this? Yeah. Right.
Imran:It's a fun thing to think that people will either shy from the faith or misunderstand the faith because they think it's supposed to just make things easier. And it's like you know.
Selena:Make your life better.
Imran:Yeah, it's like it will be better. But you will go through the fire to get to better. You will have to go through trials to get to peace, to understand the grace. You have to kind of go through the process and it makes sense Like we live in a fallen world. So you come out preaching the gospel, trying to live a life of Christ. The world is going to fight you. The world is a broken, cursed world. It will not want. It's not. You're not. You are no longer compatible with the world. So of course there's going to be struggles and conflict.
Ryan:Paul's point is that if Christ is who he says he is, he's going to upset everything. Right, if he's ushering in a new age, he's going to upset everything. And the truth is, is people who belong to the present evil age right? And Paul's terms don't want there to be a change. Rome was completely fine with their situation. They're on top. Yeah, right, they're on top. Why do we want this to change? Right? We don't want this to change. So they were completely okay with the current age, because that was the age of the Roman Empire, right?
Imran:It's interesting too to that with the current church. Now it's like America, you can say, is on top, that biggest economy in the world, most powerful military in the world, security, all this stuff right, but it's but from that perch of being on top. Now the infighting is so dramatic, the breakdown of social structures is happening more frequently because we don't have that direction or that we're already at the apex. The only way you can go is down, and so if you can't fight anyone else, are you going to fight?
Ryan:Well, I guess I'll fight myself, and it's a very real temptation for Americans and the West at large, where it says, hey, jesus is coming in to upset everything, create something new. Well, again, if we're on top, we don't want a whole lot of things to change and we're perfectly fine. You know being where we're at, but you travel. I mean there's some places you could go in Mexico. You don't have to go far you don't have to go far.
Ryan:To realize the state of how most of the people in this world live and realizing how much change is needed and what Christ came to change. Yeah, we are not done, but we're comfortable because we like where we're at right, Like well, that's not me, I got my running water. We had that pastor from Africa.
Imran:More than that, I have the freedom to worship. Like this place is many places in the world where there's no freedom to worship at all, where you'd be persecuted or killed. Who is it?
Ryan:What's the Royals name? Always in the news because he left the royal family, prince Harry, Harry and his wife. Yeah, Harry. He was going on about how he finds the first amendment of the Constitution absolutely insane. He's like is any living here now?
Selena:Yeah, yeah in LA or something like that.
Ryan:But he thinks it's crazy. He's like I can't believe right, like how unique.
Imran:But before we go on, what is he saying? It's crazy that the fact that that survived 250 years and no one's like stopped it Does others understand like why we would have this, and like, oh, why you would let people have, like, the free speed right, oh interesting.
Ryan:But the idea, though, is that when you're comfortable and on top like that, you don't want a whole lot of that change. So the idea, the gospel message to the American church of crisis coming into upset everything. Well, what is he upsetting? I mean we don't want him to upset me. I mean we're fine, like things are great. God is good. You know what I mean. And I would say this I think people look at this generation and I think one of the historically speaking right, like 100 years from now, 200 years from now, yeah.
Ryan:They're going to look at this time as one of the greatest eras of global income and equality that's ever existed, right? So we always talk about inequalities, you know, within our own country all the time, yeah, right, and I want to go through all that. I could say this globally speaking, I mean how much wealth really flows through probably five nations, yeah, and how the rest of the world is really living and the disparity of that is so large, right?
Ryan:So for anybody to think that the world does not need upsetting right that God looks at that as like.
Ryan:I'm good with that because America is on top.
Selena:No.
Ryan:There needs to be correction and that correction will happen, and we're uncomfortable with that because we're very comfortable.
Imran:Right. I wouldn't say don't be surprised, america, if part of that, because there was a time where Rome was on top and they thought that that would never change. Don't be surprised, america, don't be surprised.
Ryan:Right, all right, continuing on verse 13. It says now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preach is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. Now this is a really big deal coming from Paul. Ok, on two accounts. Again, the people who are coming in behind him preaching this gospel of circumcision is being sent by men, but is also carrying the message of other men. Right, the gospel of circumcision is being generated by men. Paul's like my message, my gospel, and he's about to go through and talk about how the message that he developed was under zero counsel of the apostles at all. We'll read that here in a second. It's not like James or Peter or John or any of them came and said all right, paul, let's sit you down, let's tell you about what the gospel is. That's not what happened.
Ryan:His conversion came under the mascus road. He gets knocked off a donkey and has this incredible experience that he references in this letter, but also references all throughout his life and many of his other letters. I think it's Acts 20 or Acts 22. But he's even using it as a defense in court about his conversion experience. But Christ knocks him off. Kind of glories surrounds him. He says why are you persecuting me? He's like who are you Lord? And he says I'm Jesus Christ, the one you persecute. Like that's how Saul was called out into the gospel. And then he's going to tell us how he spent time away wrestling with this on his own and just spending time with Jesus developing this gospel?
Selena:OK. So when he says I spent this time with Jesus Christ, he's not talking about when Jesus Christ was in the flesh, Like he wasn't walking around.
Ryan:He wasn't one of those disciples. Paul never knew him when he was actually.
Imran:Yeah, ok, just wanted to clarify that that's a huge win too, because I hear people say oh well, it's easier for the disciples to follow Jesus because they physically saw him do all those things, and it's like sure that may be true, but over half of your New Testament is written by Paul, who never met him and did his study, his research.
Ryan:The most prolific author in the New Testament and the second most prolific author of all of scripture. So between both Old Testament and New Testament, you know who it is, luke, luke. Luke never met Christ either personally. All of Luke's interactions had been through the Holy Spirit. So that's why there's such a Holy Spirit emphasis in his gospel. That's why the Acts is such an emphasis of we call it the Acts of the Apostles or the Book of Acts. It's really the Acts of the Holy Spirit. That's how you read Acts. This is a book as a testimony to the Holy Spirit, and it has it manifested through the early church. So Luke is the same way. Yeah Right.
Ryan:But the second thing, though, here with Paul saying that I was not taught. This is not preach of any human origin. I did not receive it from any man. Paul his teacher when you found a rabbi, then when you became a disciple of somebody, you found a rabbi, a teacher, and you became their disciple. That means I'm studying under you, I'm following you, I'm learning from you. So the idea is that the disciples of Christ were students. He's our rabbi, he's our teacher. Paul didn't have Christ as a rabbi when he was physically manifest Right when he was here, but who was his teacher?
Ryan:And his teacher was a man by the name of Gamma Weel, and Gamma Weel is one of the most respected Jewish scholars in Paul's day. So imagine the intellectual giants of our day in any given industry. It's like saying, if Paul was a physicist, it's like he studied under Stephen Hawking.
Imran:Yeah.
Ryan:You know what I mean.
Imran:It's like saying it's like Neil deGrasse Tyson or Jordan Peterson or CS Lewis.
Ryan:I wouldn't say Neil deGrasse Tyson. In terms of sheer popularity Popularity I'm talking about pure intellect and what they've done for science.
Imran:Oh, yes, oh, we're talking science specifically.
Ryan:Well, that's like Bill Nye, the science guy who's an engineer, but, yeah, somebody who's an intellectual giant in their field, who has made impacts to their field of study. Yeah, like CS Lewis. Like saying I studied directly under CS Lewis, he was my teacher, and what he's saying that was Camille and in fact he's referenced a couple of times In Acts, chapter 5, gamma Weel came to the defense of the apostles, not because he wasn't a follower of Jesus, but what he said, his defense is this he said many men have come before stating it through the Messiah. There's been all these men who have shown up, who have garnished followings, and those men are killed and it dwindles away and he gives all these examples of who that's happened to.
Ryan:He said if this is a worldly origin, this is just going to die away on its own. They're going to get killed. It's going to go away on its own. You guys don't need to worry about it, you don't need to sentence them to death, which is what they did. The Sanhedrin Council said you're all going to die. They said hey, politically that's just stupid. This is going to die out on its own if it's a worldly origin. But then he says but if this is a godly origin, then you're just putting yourself against them. You're putting yourself against.
Ryan:God, and you're going to lose that battle too. So he's essentially the one who provides the defense to the Sanhedrin, and the Sanhedrin are like, ok, we'll listen to you, and then let the apostles go and then kill him. So that's Gamma Weel, and then that's who Paul studied under. Later Paul refers to the fact in Acts 22 how he studied under Gamma Weel.
Imran:So he has this powerhouse teacher that he had studied under so he talks later about him being so young that he was wise beyond his years and that Under Gamma Weel.
Ryan:So it's not just that. This is it's like saying hey, I was valid Victorian at my community college. He's like I was valid Victorian in Harvard. I was valid Victorian in Yale. That's essentially what he's saying. He's going to say it here in a second, but here's the point with this, though. If you have one of the best teachers in the world in your field of study, for Paul very well could have said guys, I studied under Gamma Weel, I know law, I know Judaism and he does make that point later, but he could have used that. As I've studied under Gamma Weel, I know what the gospel should be.
Selena:He does. It Is this after he was like knocked over after persecuting Christians, or this was.
Imran:Galatians he was already studied up before he was knocked down.
Ryan:No, this is when he was studying before his conversion.
Selena:OK.
Ryan:Yeah, he had been raised in Tarsus. All the schools of philosophy and Judaism all had the highest teachers. He's part of that elite. I mean, paul was also a Roman citizen.
Selena:OK, so he was a Jew and Roman citizen?
Ryan:Yes, yeah, but he's in he's high class Like he's like the private school kid, the Ivy League school kid.
Imran:That's what I said earlier. It's like Paul wasn't just, like he didn't have no authority, he still. He had some power, some authority already because of his upbringing, because of his family history, because who he studied under, because and then he was converted.
Selena:OK, which way? Which makes sense. When you said that, when you're right through Galatians, that it was like reading an essay, like yeah, like reading a doctoral dissertation.
Imran:It's extraordinarily. You have the argument, the justification, but sorry, go ahead.
Selena:But when he refers to Jesus Christ, because I guess it just surprises me that he at least my translation, or our translation says Jesus Christ, Would that be more of the Holy Spirit? Because when he just verse 12 for I did not receive it from any man- nor was I taught it. But I received it through every revelation of Jesus Christ.
Imran:By revelation from Jesus Christ.
Ryan:Right. So, whatever that means. Spending time with Jesus right like his interactions at this point would have been the same as our interactions, which is through prayer, right Through engaging with the spirit. When he's saying revelation from Jesus Christ, he's saying Christ came and in his revelation had opened the door, open to this gospel. So the revelation is Christ, spending time with Christ, spending time in the spirit with him.
Selena:Yeah, I just find it interesting because he's telling this to people who were actually disciples of Jesus Christ in the flesh.
Ryan:No, he's going into the church. This is to the Galatian church.
Selena:But we're talking about like oh James is saying, and other disciples are saying James and Peter are sending people to counter Paul. You need to be circumcised. So, even though he's writing this to the church of Galatia, essentially he's convincing the disciples of Jesus Christ Like you got it wrong. Like, yeah, you spent time with Jesus in the flesh and you walked with him for three years in the ministry. Like I spent time with him differently in the spirit.
Ryan:So the time that they spent right. Yeah so they generally say that was about his ministry was about three years, yeah, Now we don't know that for certain.
Selena:No, but it's like he did spend time with, or the disciples did spend time, but Paul makes the point that he went out and spent time in Arabia for three years with God and God alone getting this gospel.
Ryan:Yeah. In other words, what he's almost kind of pinning up against is this he said as the other apostles, like Peter and those giants, had spent three years with Christ in ministry, I spent three years with Christ in Arabia. There's also developing the same message, which we'll get to in a second.
Imran:I will also highlight that in the gospel there are the gospels. There are countless occasions where Jesus is explaining things to the disciples, and it had not been revealed to them yet, so they didn't understand it. He told them several times I will die.
Imran:I will come back, I will die, the son of man has to die, son of man has to die. And they and it says in the text but they did not understand, yeah, you know. And so it's like, just because they were with him does not mean that they knew Even to the moment of resurrection day.
Ryan:Right, yeah, yeah, they yeah they ran away.
Imran:He was killed and they ran away, but they weren't confident that he was going to come back. They didn't understand. I would say they weren't confident. They still didn't understand.
Ryan:But the idea though, with him making that point though, is that if you have one of the best teachers in the world, well who else you go get taught by? You already have one of the best teachers, right?
Ryan:The only person that could disciple and teach Paul, beyond the menly, the man, the teachers of men that he had yeah, gamma will would be Jesus himself. Right, like what rabbi is greater than gamma wheel? But really nobody except for Jesus, right? So making that point like I had all that, but I got, I got taught my revelation.
Imran:So right, it wasn't just taught, he says it was revealed. I got my revelation from Jesus.
Selena:Christ Right. But like, for example, we get our, I guess we get to know Jesus Christ through some of Jesus' disciples' writings. But Paul, in this case, is not necessarily knowing Jesus Christ through the Bible, right, Because it wasn't written in it.
Imran:You hadn't written it. The writings hadn't been written yet.
Selena:Yeah, so I don't know, it's just all really interesting to me he was using the witness of the apostles.
Ryan:He's using Old Testament that he was very well versed and studied in and it came in the revelation that Jesus is who he says he was.
Imran:And who would the disciples? Say he was, so this would have been like something like four to ten years or so after Jesus left right Because he was. It's like Jesus left acts as happening. He's persecuting the Christians and then he's knocked down, and then he goes and studies for a few years and then he establishes his church in Galatia.
Selena:And then sometime after that yeah, we're talking years after. So it seems like he lived a long life, because at least my side note says that Paul wrote this letter to the church 48 and 55, between 48 and 5580, so after Jesus Christ.
Imran:That makes sense.
Selena:About 15, they placed us about 15 years after yeah, but was Sanjampah?
Imran:There's also debate on this at the time Was Sanjampah had too much.
Ryan:We're jumping ahead a lot right now. Yeah, we're only on verse 13 of the first chapter. But the thing with Paul is, you know what? I'm just going to save it.
Selena:We'll hit it when we read through there.
Ryan:Okay. So verse 13,. For you have heard of my previous way of the life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. So when he's talking about Judaism, he's not like trying to set up Judaism versus Christianity. He's talking about essentially. You've heard of my zeal. You heard of the zeal I had for the law for Judea because one of the other claims coming against Paul.
Ryan:Paul, you don't care about the law. You're throwing the law away. Man, what Torah means nothing to you? You're being a bad Jew, right? And he's like hold on. One, don't tell me I don't know the law. Two, you heard about my zeal for the law. You knew how else I was for the law. You know who I studied under you can't throw that, it's like.
Selena:I was persecuting people. He believed in it so much. Exactly he was actually like killing for it.
Ryan:So he's like. You heard about my previous life in Judaism right Now, verse 14,. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age, among my people, and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who sent me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son and me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. That's what he said. So when I was persecuting the church, I was zealous. He has his big Damascus road conversion and what he says my very first. My immediate response was to what? Not consult any human being?
Ryan:I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus. Then, after three years right, three years, that three years again, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas, who was Peter, and stayed with him 15 days. I saw none of the other apostles, only James, the Lord's brother. I assure you before God that I am. What I'm writing you is no lie. Then I went. Then I went into Syria and Sicily.
Ryan:I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard of the report that the man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. And they praise God because of me. So, essentially what he knows what he did there, right? He said. When I got called, when God called me out with that conversion, I immediately right. My immediate response wasn't to go to like the apostles and figure all this out, he said. My first response was I went into Arabia and I spent time with God because, to him, right, he had such a zeal of how this was wrong. Now he had absolute confirmation. This is right.
Selena:Okay.
Ryan:So, if this is right though, this has implications. Yes, like, so what does it mean?
Imran:If this is right, so what?
Ryan:does it mean, and he knew it was right. He's like so if this is right, then that changes everything. Yeah. He's like I had the zeal for the Judea. But if this is right, then this changes everything. Yeah so he didn't rush into ministry, he didn't rush into his gospel message.
Imran:He took time to work through this and say which is different than what the apostles did, which is what I find fascinating.
Selena:He didn't even go to them and play like wow, you were like walking with Jesus.
Imran:I mean I'm sure he was like you know. He said he just spoke to James.
Selena:Yeah, just the brother of Jesus.
Imran:Yeah, and that's huge yeah.
Ryan:And notice he it says I spent three years in Arabia with God. I spent 15 days with Peter, meaning the theological formation from my gospel came from God, because you're not going to have that kind of theological formation. Spending 15 days with Peter or James yeah Right, he only spent a couple of weeks with them, but it's like also it kind of lends a lot of weight to that's almost an entire college degree.
Imran:That's actually about the amount of time it takes to get a doctor. It's assuming you already have a bachelor's is another about three to four years. So he took time to study.
Ryan:But I think the bigger point he took about a doctor.
Imran:It's worth the work, to the point he's making, though, is that he's like I wasn't.
Ryan:I was not influenced, and I have no loyalty to any man. I'm not.
Ryan:He's like I'm not preaching the gospel of Gileal, he's like I'm not preaching the gospel of James. Yeah, he said I'm preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and I know that because I didn't consult them on any of my development on this. I took this to Arabia by myself and work through this by myself, between me and God, he said. I came to an absolute understanding and knowing that this is true, how does that then impact my life? The theology in the world. Yeah.
Ryan:So he took that and he took time, wrestled with it and says I know what this means. This is why it's good news Right Now he's going to keep developing this argument because it's going to get into a point. He starts really going after the church, really that the church should be unified and correct in this gospel message. So one of the big remember the big point of Galatians is unity, right, unity in the church. So for him he was saying it's not that I came in teaching an unified message. He's setting this up. How I developed this gospel message was between me and God and nobody else. Right Now, notice what he says. Now we're going into Galatians 2. This is a good example of why chapters don't always right. Western minds think, hey, chapter 2, new thought, yeah, we're continuing the same path here.
Imran:Yeah, if you didn't know in your Bible what chapters came.
Ryan:And verses and all that came no chapters came hundreds of years later, and then verses came like hundreds of years after that if I remember correctly, they're all pretty much associated the same French monk as he was on his way to Rome from Paris, or something like the 15th or 16th century.
Imran:I heard it differently, but it's like 15th 16th century by the way. It came later. 15th 15th, 100 years later.
Ryan:Paul did not write this with chapter 1 and then chapter 2, right.
Imran:It was just a letter. It was just a letter like that, right, exactly, weirdo. That's where I started with then. Therefore, that's how you start letters.
Ryan:So now we're back at verse 1 and chapter 2. It says now so he visits Peter, he visits James, after a few years of just wrestling with this in Arabia. The Arabia point, by the way, is an important point for later, when we get into the law. Okay, we'll get to it in due time. Just remember it. Just kind of take a little note that he mentioned that he went into Arabia to consult this. Okay, but that'll come later weeks. So verse 1. So then, after going to visit them, he said then after 14 years. Okay, so 14 years later, there's been another 14 year separation, 14 years. I went up again to Jerusalem and this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also, disciple Barnabas, right, his ministry partner, right, the one who went and established the churches with him in Galatia?
Imran:No, but wasn't Barnabas, he did walk with Jesus Right. No, wasn't one of the 12?
Selena:Was the one that replaced.
Ryan:He came in after. You'll see the story of him in Acts, chapter 4, and his name is actually Joseph.
Imran:I thought he was one that was voted to replace Judas. No that was Matthias. Matthias, oh, sorry, actually you're right.
Ryan:He was one of the ones, but he wasn't selected.
Imran:He wasn't selected.
Ryan:Matthias was selected, but he was one of two voted, but he came in after he didn't walk with Christ in his worldly ministry.
Selena:But is that the one we're talking about? The one that's not? Yes, the same, barnabas. Okay.
Ryan:The same Barnabas out of Acts 4.
Imran:So that Barnabas would be a contemporary of Jesus, though he would have walked with him at some time. No, oh, okay, he came in after. I know he came in after, but I'm asking was he one of the ones selected? He did not walk physically with Christ in his ministry.
Ryan:He came into the church after, after Pentecost, barnabas comes in. We're actually there's a whole thing with that, because he's the cousin of John Mark, the one who wrote the Gospel Mark. That's his cousin, but that's a whole other thing. But Barnabas was the ministry partner who established these churches in Galatia with Paul. Okay, you get that out of Acts 13. So he says so. After 14 years I went again to Jerusalem this time with Barnabas, chapter 2, verse 1.
Ryan:Yes, oh man, okay. Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I had preached among the Gentiles, ie in Galatia, with Barnabas, I wanted to be sure I was not running and they had not been running my race in vain. So notice what he's saying. He's like I had gone out and started doing active ministry, sharing the gospel that I had received and been discipled by through Christ directly Right. So after I went, took Barnabas and Titus with me because I wanted to make sure that my message was united with their message. Okay.
Ryan:I want to make sure it was not in vain. Verse 3, he had not. Even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. I did not know that, so notice what he says. He says when I had come to Jerusalem, I had already been preaching this gospel to the Gentiles, established these churches in Galatia, went to Jerusalem, I had a uncircumcised Greek with me and he was coming out of that meeting with all those leaders. He was not compelled to get circumcised because he was uncircumcised.
Imran:Right yeah.
Ryan:If you, this matter arose because of some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, to make us slaves. We did not give into them for a single moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. As for those who were held in high esteem, whatever they were, makes no difference to me. This is like Paul's, not starstruck at all, right. Like if we were to be walking down the street and you're like wait, that's Peter, peter, peter, come here, right, paul's. Like, whoever they were, those who were held in high esteem, whatever they were, makes no difference to me. God does not show favoritism. They added absolutely nothing to my message. You see, that Isn't that incredible. He's saying that I went and I studied this with Christ on my own.
Ryan:I think the next verse is even more on the contrary, yeah, right, before we go to verse seven, though, but he's essentially saying when I did consult my message with them, I said hey, this is the gospel as it applies to me. How I sifted through this and I just want to make sure that this is your message. We need to be united in this. They not only affirmed it, right, but he said not only did they affirm my message, they added nothing to it. It's not like there was further like hey, but you're missing this, right.
Imran:Like imagine being in seminary and like then presenting your argument to your teachers and they're like this is fundamentally perfect.
Ryan:Or imagine your professor kind of giving you his. You know like, yeah, this added absolutely nothing to my message.
Imran:Right, on the contrary. Sorry, what was the I?
Selena:was going to say, which his case is so unique? Because I feel like nowadays we actively discourage that to like don't do Jesus by yourself. Like be with the church making sure you're on the right path.
Imran:Like, if you need correction, you have the church there to correct you, but he had the foundation of all of those years and schools of study. Most people that just come into the faith don't have all of that history Don't confuse.
Ryan:Yes, he was developing the gospel message separate from them because he had to sift through this for himself. Yeah, Right, but he's not doing church alone. He's part of the church in Antioch.
Selena:Okay.
Ryan:He has an active church family.
Selena:He's a part of.
Ryan:It's about the message.
Selena:Okay.
Ryan:He's saying the gospel message that I've been developing was not given to me by anybody.
Selena:Okay, this was mine. Thanks for that, and not just mine.
Ryan:He's not saying it's mine Like. This is Paul's gospel. This is Christ's gospel as revealed to me through my time with the Lord Through my years of study time with him, and he's saying that the other apostles added nothing to his message, not to his life. The church didn't add any value to his life, just to his message. Right, because right here, verse 7, kind of.
Imran:Thank God for verse 7.
Ryan:Yeah, On the contrary. So he's still talking to the Jewish leaders, right, they're bringing in this uncircumcised Greek with me to confirm the gospel message that I preached to you all in Galatia, to make sure I wasn't running this in vain. So he says, on the contrary, they recognize that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. So he said, not only did they affirm me in my message, they affirmed me in my mission.
Selena:So it wasn't just that they're like, hey, why are?
Ryan:you going to the Gentiles. You know preaching this gospel of inclusion and preaching this gospel that that they could be part of Abraham's family and that they don't need to be circumcised. And why are you? He's like. I went to them, I told him the message I was preaching and they not only said, yes, that's the same message, and they added nothing to it, but they also affirmed him that, yes, you should be going to the Gentiles, just as Peter has been tasked to go to the Jews.
Imran:Right. And they were like, oh, awesome, because without that, like if they, it's like, let's say, they fundamentally voted the other way, and they were like, no, god's just for us and not for the Gentiles at all.
Ryan:It's like where would we be? We would not be 2000 years later. Paul, if Paul, if Paul if Paul was not brave enough to fight this church, fight for us. How radically different it would look for us.
Ryan:Yeah, in terms of faith, you know. So verse eight, if you feel the freedom. So, on the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted to the task of preaching the gospel to the young circumcised, as Peter had been to the circumcised. For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. James Cephas, who is Peter, and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. When they recognized the grace given to me, they agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and that and they to the circumcised.
Ryan:All they asked, only to stop right there for a second. Okay, so don't you know. You see this. You notice how earlier he refers to Peter as Peter, but twice he's been referring to him as Cephas.
Imran:Yes, but I don't know why.
Ryan:So this is kind of interesting because the same thing happens with Paul and Saul. Saul is Paul's Hebrew name, Paul is his Greek name. Cephas is Peter's Hebrew name and Peter is his Greek name. So why is he differentiating? Why does he use Peter's Greek name in the statement that they recognize had been entrusted to the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter Greek name had been to the circumcised? And then down here for God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. So you see how he associates Peter's Greek name anytime he is in reference to his mission to the Gentiles.
Selena:But then here.
Ryan:James, Cephas and John, now his Hebrew name. Those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. When they recognized the grace given to me, they agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. So there's some subtleties Paul is doing here because he's about to go after Peter. It's very awkward right.
Ryan:Because Peter again, those highly esteemed is like wherever they are, make no difference to me. They added nothing to my message. God shows no favoritism. Just because Peter walked with Jesus when Jesus was here does not mean that he loves Peter more or that Peter's message is more powerful than mine in the experience I've had with God.
Imran:I did bring it to him and he walked with me and fellowship and said that what I was doing is right.
Ryan:I think this is a very good message for us modern believers. Peter and the apostles experience with Jesus is not higher or better or more powerful than your experience with Jesus. God shows no favoritism right.
Imran:I want to say yes, but because for you to say that your experience with Jesus is right and correct, but it's incompatible and congruent with what Jesus says is right and correct, means that you probably should think about You're talking about message again, I'm talking about living your life with Christ.
Ryan:He got knocked off a donkey. He had this experience with Christ and Christ and say therefore, here is the relationship between the law and my gospel.
Imran:he says you're persecuting me and Paul says, lord, right that interaction, right living that interaction and that experience, right, so me me trying to live my life for Christ is no different than Paul trying to live his life for Christ and Peter trying to live his life for Christ, even though Peter walked with him and who they are, make no difference, and I am just emin, god shows no favoritism, right, he loves you and desires that same walk with you as he does with them, right?
Ryan:So that's comforting. Verse 10, though, and I think this is a beautiful, this is a beautiful. That's first for the church.
Imran:I see that that's comforting, because it's like this is not just a story that happened. This is a, this is a God. That's ongoing right. You know, it's not a God I'm trying to relate to, that existed back then. This is the God that wants me now now first 10 here beautiful message for the church.
Ryan:All they asked was that so when we back up, just we have the context of it. They gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. All they asked Okay, so James, john and Peter? All they asked Right in this time. They didn't ask them hey, just have the Gentiles get circumcised. Or hey, make sure that the Gentiles are following Torah. All they asked that we continue to remember the poor, the very thing that I had been eager to do all along.
Ryan:Right, and I just because we're this this letter is kind of in the middle of a church fight, right, and sometimes I just wonder, when you start having those little tips in church or the larger church fights that that occur, right, the more public, corporate ones, like the ones happening right now with SBC and Female pastors and all that yep Do we ever just step back and ask how does this benefit the poor? No, does this argument Serve the poor better or worse? Mm-hmm, and if it's well, I should. It's neither. Well then, how important is it?
Imran:He took it for in faith or the poor in finance.
Ryan:No he's talking about the physical, like the, like poor, poor people, like, yeah, they do not have food they need taking care of, right? They said we don't care that, what they do care. But they affirmed him that, yes, this is the gospel message go to the Gentiles. We affirm your calling, that you are to go to the Gentiles, just as Peter has gone to the Jews. We affirm all that. The only thing we ask is that, as you do this ministry and you go out to the Gentiles, don't forget to continue to love and serve the poor. That was their son. That was like their primary concern in church. Right, the church leadership was like hey, like our primary concern in this is that you make sure that you are loving people the way Christ wanted us to love people. Take care of the poor.
Imran:I remember was there a concern I remember you talked about?
Ryan:not circumcision.
Imran:I remember you talked about the Romans. Were concerned about persecuting Christians because they were well liked, because they took care of the poor exactly that was one of the chief reasons why I made them hard to pursue, because people like them because they took care of the people and in that same letter to the emperor, I think it was to Hadrian, to the procounsel in his area.
Ryan:He said I would love to exterminate them, but we can't, because they don't not only take care of their own poor, they take care of ours as well. Right, this was a hallmark of love for them is how they took care of.
Imran:It's a hallmark of how Gentiles, non-believers, saw Christians. They they could not persecute or destroy them because they were well liked. And why were they well liked? Because they took care of not Just their poor, but the others but that's that, but you see like but look at us today and that's the thing is like. Look at us what?
Ryan:is the supreme concern of the church, of the church now. But people say taking care of the poor. And it's not that churches don't. You know, it's not, it's just. But is that the? Supreme concern. Right, they're like hey like they didn't even bring up circumcision at all. That wasn't their concern at all. Their concern was that we continue to love people or and so you see this Unity and message, this unity and mission, and this unity and love now.
Imran:Now I'll get back to what we mentioned like 45 minutes ago probably at this point to the, to the. You set up 100 years from now, 200 years from now, that the wealth inequality would be what we look at today and it's like okay, american church, what about the rest of the world? You remember the poor in theology?
Ryan:Yeah, when, when you are showing up to whatever your church services, Whatever that looks like. You know we beat up on the American church a lot.
Imran:And we are, we're in it, we we love the American church. Yeah.
Ryan:American church is still beautiful, as much as we point out warts. This is the bride of Christ God loves in. The American church is beautiful. Yeah. Even though it has probably some, in some regards probably need some reform, just need some corrections, as we all do as individuals. Right?
Imran:It's beautiful, right, yeah but when we're called to, we're called to go to our own and you know, and Correct, correct them and doesn't mean that we don't need correction and of ourselves, I'm sure bombs, church needs its own.
Ryan:But it doesn't mean that we don't look at that and think Am I remembering the poor? Yeah, in my own personal life. Are you remembering the poor?
Imran:Yeah, well, you know and the family is a collective of individuals. So if we and we've talked before like there are so many Christians on this earth, but yet there's, also so much.
Ryan:We've gotten some of that right and we've made it about other things, so Point he makes the point that we were united in mission, we were united in message, we were united in our love and now he switches it and he's like.
Ryan:Now let's talk about the people pleasing. And what changed all this? Verse 11 so when Cephas I, peter, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face Because he stood condemned Condemned, that the Greek there is strong. It's condemned, it's guilty. He stood in shame right, it is a very strong word there in the Greek.
Ryan:For before certain men came from James Okay, before these men coming into backstab me, essentially, before they came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself From the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belong to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy so that, so that by their hypocrisy, even Barnabas was let astray. Remember how heartbreaking that is to Paul. Barnabas was the one who went and established these churches to begin with, who blood with, was imprisoned with, went through all that suffering to go through all this to teach and proclaim that gospel. Right, and now things have shifted. Now Peter is drawing away, barnabas is drawing away because these people from James are coming in and are Challenging that gospel message all the sudden right after they had affirmed it after they had even gave him the blessing and both Message and mission and love.
Ryan:Now things are changing. He's like I'm not the one who has been inconsistent.
Ryan:Yeah they're the ones now being inconsistent and now it's creating disunity. And remember the supreme thing from last week, right? The supreme question Paul is trying to answer Right and provide is who belongs to the family of Abraham? And before they had no problems with the Gentiles coming in to be part of Abraham's family. Now he's drawing himself away at the table. That that idea of. He used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they arrived he began to draw back and separate himself.
Ryan:That's one of fellowship, that that is one of saying you are not in the family.
Imran:When they showed up, peter says I'm backing out, you're not part of the same family, which is interesting because I remember in the gospels it was even conflict when Jesus would go to the sinners, go to the Gentiles and break bread with them and and share meals with them, and Peter would be like what are you doing? You know it's like there was conflict back then, but you know he had Jesus next to him to be like this is the right thing. Yeah right now he's back to his old ways.
Ryan:You know, 15, 20 years later, peter is such a great character because he's the only one, one of the few, we get to where we have. We know so much about him. Before he met she met Jesus, his walk with Christ, after Christ, you know, ascends and then how he dies. Like we get the full story of Peter. And I actually like Peter because as a Character, it shows his imperfections. Even after walking with Christ and going through all that, that, he still messes up. Yeah you know.
Ryan:I mean, like it just shows the process that we're not finished products. Right, it's okay that you don't get it right every time, right? This is a church fight where church leadership made a judgment To try to Love everybody in a situation.
Ryan:But it was improper, right yeah it wasn't that they were being evil Right, it wasn't they?
Ryan:were being evil, but they were wrong. Yeah, and it's okay to have that. You know I mean you're gonna mess up sometimes, but it corrects itself. And you don't see the resolution in the letter. You see it at the resolution in Acts 15, when there's the Jerusalem Council and James and Peter and all them come together.
Ryan:To discuss this very issue to finally put it into it, and they rule in favor of Paul, right. So Paul wins the day, he wins the argument, but it took some time. But the point here being, though, is that we started off with the mission. We start off with a message. We started off being united in love, but now Somebody started being inconsistent in that, and it's creating division right verse 14. So when I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas, in front of them all you are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? He's essentially saying you're a Jew, you act like a Gentile. Now You're expecting Gentiles to come in and act like a Jew.
Imran:He's telling. He's telling Cephas or Paul, not Paul.
Selena:Peter, that yes.
Imran:But what did why? Why is he saying that Peter is acting like a Gentile? What does he mean by that?
Ryan:because he was breaking bread with him.
Imran:He oh, just to break bread.
Ryan:Remember Peter was actually the first one to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. That's all the way back in Acts. Peter is the first one to bring it to the Gentiles. That's where you see all his dream of all the unclean food. So he was the first one to bring Gentiles into the family of Abraham and now, all the sudden, you're separating yourself from them.
Ryan:We're not conditions on it and all that right, he's like you live like a Gentile now. You live in that freedom, but now you're asking those Gentiles who start with that freedom to now go become and live in the as a Jew under the slavery of the law. And he's gonna build this out as he builds out his law argument.
Ryan:You know more in a bit, but they're being inconsistent right Now, but watch, he's gonna continue this right. So, for you are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it then that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles he's referring to you know Paul himself, to Peter we who are Jews by birth and notice how he says sinful Gentiles, remember Psalms of Solomon three groups of people the righteous, the sinners ie Gentiles and the people pleasers.
Ryan:Right, we who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles, know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. In other words, he's saying this you and I, who are Jews by birth, who grew up with Torah, who live by Torah, and we recognize in ourselves that Torah could not justify us, we need Jesus. As Jews, we recognized we need Jesus.
Ryan:So why then are you going to Gentiles and saying that they need the law Because they already have Jesus. Nobody is justified by the law. If we were justified by the law, you and I would be justified, because we Resells for the law from the beginning. So he's saying why this isn't making sense that if we, as Jews, say we recognize we need Christ, now you have Gentiles who also have Christ. That's how they're justified. Just because that's the way we're justified. Why are you now saying that they need more to be justified? Yeah.
Ryan:Do you need more to be justified, peter, or you only justified through Christ? And Peter would say, well, through Christ. Yeah, then why are you telling them they need to go to law?
Selena:That's a strong case, right.
Ryan:And he built. This is like the beginning of it, right? This is also where we find remember when we were talking about, during the Reformation. Right, the soul of fight. By faith alone, how am I assured of salvation? That was the argument that the reformers they needed to go to. Like how are you assured if you get rid of purgatory? Right, that's all last week, right? Just? Go listen last week but, this is the big soul.
Ryan:This is the proof text he uses here. A Person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ. So One thing about this, because I think we've even kind of got this wrong a bit the word there for faith is the Greek word pistas, and Pistas means something more than just simply belief. Right, when we think of faith, it's not that simply you believe in Jesus Christ. The idea is faithfulness. It is a faith, a belief that manifests itself in certain behavior, action, in faithfulness to that belief. Right, so you have. When you guys got married, right, you had love and faith in each other. Right, that, enough that you say we're gonna get married so that you had that.
Ryan:It manifests itself in faithfulness to one another yeah right and marriage is obviously just like our Relationship with Christ. Sometimes there is unfaithfulness. I'm not even talking like sexually, I'm just talking in terms that we don't always submit to our spouse. Yeah right.
Ryan:That's how most arguments kind of come up, right? Somebody's not submitting to the other and usually it's both aren't submitting to each other, right, yeah, so the idea there of pistas and faith we read it again is by now and this is, by English translations kind of assumed theology, sometimes on top of the text. We're not justified by works of the law, but by faith. See how it says in Jesus Christ.
Ryan:The idea is that it's the pistas of Jesus that justifies us. In other words, we are not justified by the law. We are justified by Jesus's faithfulness to us and his faithfulness. We are justified not in our faithfulness to him, but notice what he says is the faithfulness, the pistas of Jesus Christ. So we too, then, have put our pistas in Christ Jesus, that we may then be justified by the pistas in Christ and not by the works of the law. In other words, because Christ was faithful In Christ, faithfulness is what justified us. Because we recognize his faithfulness, we then put our faithfulness into him, so that we are aligned into that same justification. So the idea is this it's not that we can do anything that justifies us. Christ is the one who is justified, the only one who's been justified. So by us associating ourselves and pistas to him, we then, by that association, share in his justification Because God was faithful.
Ryan:Again, deuteronomy is the one that we are justifying. Deuteronomy 30, right. Well, how is God going to rescue them out of the curse of Deuteronomy 27 through 29? How do you get out of that? How do you usher in the age to come? Well, deuteronomy 30 God will remain faithful to you to rescue you from it. Well, how the faithfulness has manifested and revealed through Christ Jesus. Therefore, it is your pistas and him that, then, has justified you, because it's through his faithfulness to which all is justified. It gets built out a little bit more here in a bit, yeah, but the idea, though, is simply this though, and what Paul's making it is no longer a Jew or a Gentile, besides, it's not the separation with the law was to actually separate. This was the very interesting thing that, when you look at how this all plays out in terms of biblical narrative, Um-hmm initially, the goal was not unity of humanity.
Ryan:After the fall, the goal was actually division of God. He's like I need to divide you out, to separate you, so I can usher in the seed singular Um. So that's why when it says, like at the tower of babble, that all were united and essentially their Defiance and rebellion against God, he divides them, divide them, confuse them, separate them out, divide them out. And then he calls out the Hebrews right.
Ryan:Yeah, he's chosen people and he's like here's the here's. What's going to separate you is Torah Right, and this is going to separate you from the Gentiles. There was meant to be separation and division.
Ryan:You're meant to be divided from them. Right now, though. That was all leading, though, to the, to the promised seed, who is Christ, who has come Now. It's no longer about division now. It's about inclusion. Now bring them in. Yeah, the division was to protect you. He builds us all out here, and you know, waiter, in Galatians.
Ryan:So I don't want to skip too far ahead, but the idea, though, is that one of the things that Paul's going to argue is that it's no longer about Jew or Gentile, or who is circumcised and who is not circumcised. It's not about, it's solely now about those who have been Crucified and resurrected with Christ. So it's no longer about your heritage. It is no longer about you know, ethnically, where you were born. It's all about who is the children of Abraham. Now it is about those who've been. Are they are the crucified, resurrected people of Jesus? They are now the ones who are in the family. It's not ethnically based, it's Messiah based, right? So it's not? Well, you're not a Jew by birth? No, I'm not, but I belong to Jesus, right? It is through his pistis that has justified me and my faith in him. It's Messiah based now. That's no longer, you know, ethnically Jewish based anymore. Does that make sense?
Ryan:It does because it gets a little loaded. So To to close this out here, verse 17 but if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among sinners, doesn't that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not. If I rebuild what was destroyed, then I really would be a wallbreaker, right. So in other words, what he's saying is that If, in seeking to be justified in Christ, and we Jews find ourselves also among those sinners, if we then, as Jews by birth, realize we need Jesus, we have the law, the law can justify us, we need Jesus. Does that mean then that Christ promotes sin because he wants the Gentile sinners to come in? Absolutely not. But if I rebuild what is destroyed, then I really would be that wallbreaker.
Imran:In other words, if you go, back and rely on the law, then now you're just breaking the law by bringing the Gentiles Exactly so they're therefore there must be a new.
Ryan:You got it right.
Imran:Because look at the very next.
Ryan:Verse, for it was through the law that I died to the law, so that I might live for God. In other words, remember the argument Paul, you're just, you don't care about Torah, you're throwing it away. It doesn't matter to you, apparently, but it matters to us because we are good Jews. Right? He's saying no, no, no, no, no. It is through the law that I have died to it. I'm not throwing the law away. When I'm saying is that it was through the law that I have now been able to die to it so that I could live for God and he's. This is where he starts to build his law argument, that he starts to Slowly um, it's like your freedom in the house allows you to.
Imran:Understand the moral authority understand what. God's law is, and now you have the freedom to pursue it Right. He's the freedom to pursue that ideal to be more like God. It was more like Christ, through the law that we were able to recognize the faithfulness of Christ, so that we can now be dead to the law and live for Christ.
Ryan:It's kind of the one who was faithful to it, so if I could say this way, just quick.
Ryan:I try to remain and live for the law. I couldn't get justified through it. Christ remained faithful to the law and therefore I don't live for Torah. I now live for Christ. And if I live for Christ and have a little bit of faith, I now live for Christ. And if I live for Christ and have an association with Christ, I then also am satisfied in Torah. So it is through the law I eat the faithfulness of Christ and my association to him that I'm now able to die to it and live for God and my association with Christ. Yeah, right, because Christ is above it.
Imran:The way it kind of played out in my head is that Torah, the law, was this thing that I was in fear of. I was in fear of failing to Um to meet it. I was in fear of being persecuted because I wasn't able to uphold it. And now, instead of me being in fear of the law, I now view the law as an ideal to strive towards, because I just want to be more like Christ. I just want to be, I just want to live my life for him.
Ryan:So now the law is something that helps guide me toward that ideal, that that got that Jesus fulfilled well, I would, maybe I could say If Jesus died and rose again, right, if he died and rose again, but you still must abide by Torah, then Jesus is not greater than Torah, torah is greater than Jesus.
Imran:Yeah, right, I guess like I was just to clarify. I'm more talking of like. You still need a framework to understand what is right and wrong and the law is right, and that's what the law provided.
Ryan:Yeah, how about my?
Imran:metric to know. How do I know that I'm living for Christ and it's like well, here you go. Exactly.
Ryan:Here's the metric that he was faithful to yeah that you're able to see, ah.
Imran:That's what I need to.
Ryan:That's my ideal to strive towards and because Christ was faithful to it and that was affirmed in the resurrection. That's God's stamp of approval of his faithfulness to Christ. That means, then, that Christ is greater than the law. If you still have to abide by the law, even though it only takes one greater than the law, to actually follow the law and right fully and completely.
Imran:You still have to abide by the law.
Ryan:After Christ has been crucified and resurrected, then the Torah is greater than Christ. Right, and what Paul was saying is that to live for Christ is to live Torah. Right for me, to live to Christ is to live Torah. But where the Torah ultimately enslaves people, christ frees. Yeah, because he's greater than it right instead of being afraid of.
Ryan:I have the freedom to pursue it. So, and since Christ is greater than the Torah, my aim, right, the aim of my heart, then is Is for is to follow Christ, not Torah, so that, because here's the thing, if I fall short of Torah, um, that's okay, because I'm no longer under Torah, but then I just fall under God's grace. So, in other words, what Paul is also kind of separating here is that if you go and you want, you want to be under the curse of Deuteronomy 27 through 29, you want to be under law, be under Torah, and that's what you got to live under live in fear, live in, live in the but when you fail.
Ryan:You're under Torah, yeah. The beauty, though, is that when Christ, he was faithful to Torah. If you live for him, when you fail, you now don't fall under the law, you fall under his grace, and that is To Paul. What is almost most offensive about circumcision and going back to the law is that it's not only that you are Defaming and saying that the Torah is greater than Christ, but what you're also then saying is that to then Follow Christ and to fail to mean that I'm then under back under the law and not under God's grace. He's like then what did Christ die for? That's why, in the very beginning, he says this is no gospel at all. If you are under the law, if you're under the law, then this isn't a great gospel, because when you fail, you're still under the law.
Imran:Something that you're not under God's grace and another way to think about it that that just kind of came to me is that if I let's just bring Torah into the modern day and and let's say, all the same, punishment still exists. It's like if I watched porn, the punishment for that Would probably be stoning or something similar to it. All right, so it's like I'd be afraid if I, if I, if I watch porn, I'd be afraid of getting caught or be or afraid of Uh being punished by getting stoned, because that's what the law says, and then that's what the law says. But Instead I'm afraid to watch porn now because it's going to hurt my witness, it's going to hurt my walk, it's going to hurt my pursuit, and so it's different. So it's like in my freedom to pursue Christ, I don't want to interrupt that witness, I don't want anything to bring that down and hurt that, and I would say most gentile Christians, which is probably the majority of everybody in America.
Ryan:We obviously have Messianic believers. By and large, most Christ followers in the West are probably from the Gentile era. Nobody really ever makes the argument that you need to go to Torah within our precincts, but we do have our own version of it where you say if you need to do this righteous thing in order to be saved or in order to be brought, to our family or whatever right, then you're essentially profaning the blood of Christ and saying he died for nothing.
Ryan:Let me just close this out because I think the way he closes this is beautiful. It is through the law that I died, to the law, so that I might live for God. I'm not throwing away Torah. It's actually through the Torah that I'm able to die to it. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ who lives in me, the life I now live in the body. I live by the faith, by the pistas, in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, christ died for nothing. If you could be justified, by the law.
Imran:If in your good works you could be good enough on your own, then Christ died for nothing.
Ryan:And that's the thing with people right, like, well, you have to do this if you want to be saved, or you have to do this if you want to be part of our church. Well, if you have to do that, then Christ died for nothing. Yeah, right. And if you're going to be, if putting your faith in Christ still requires you to be under some sort of law, that means you're under that law. So when you fail, you're not falling under Christ's grace, you're falling under law, and that means, again, he died for nothing, christ dying. Why did Christ die for nothing, then?
Ryan:Because to Paul, like for John, for example in John's Gospel, the crucifixion of Christ is his glory, right. And there's this whole like theological thought with John that the reason that's him and his glory is because that's the supreme expression of the heart of God manifested in his love for us, right, yeah. So Paul, the supreme demonstration of the cross and his crucifixion is grace. He died for us, for the grace, so that we're not under the law, but that we're under grace. So when we fail, we're not under the law, when we fail, we're under God's grace. Therefore, if I'm justified through Christ, when I fail, I'm under his grace, and I'm still justified. If I am justified by God's, by Christ initially, but then every single action after that, I'm still under Torah. I'm going to fail again, I'm going to be unjustified again, but instead it's the same grace that saves you, it's the same grace that sustains you, right.
Ryan:That's the beauty to Paul. It's not just that he saved you, it's that same grace that sustains you. To say then that his grace justified you, but now you still have to follow Torah to sustain you, he's like. Well then, you're profaning the blood of Christ. That's not grace at all and that's no good news.
Imran:And I think that's the ultimate point here, right Before we go into next week in chapter three All right, so it's like those young in the faith will say, and this because I'm talking about me. Young in the faith was like well, if I'm justified by grace and I'm sustained by God, I'm sustained by his grace, then I can do whatever I want. But then, immediately in chapter three, then Paul goes into like well, this is the function of the law after we established that. So we're going to get into it. So we did two chapters right in this sitting.
Ryan:It's going to slow down a bit because it gets a little bit more dense. So chapters one and two was really his, him going after the church in Jerusalem, essentially showing their hypocrisy in this role right. Chapter three. He now shifts focus to the Galatian church itself and he starts going after them. And so that'll be fun, he starts off with essentially six questions that are very relevant questions to us today, so I'm looking forward to it.
Imran:That'll be next time. Yeah, that was awesome. So that this episode is like, right, perfectly in the spirit of, like, the real Bible stories that that like made me come and ask you if we could do this podcast because, like, I feel like I just watched Paul just violently writing that letter myself, just like, oh man, he, he, he was definitely justifiably frustrated and angry. Now that I understand a lot more about what was going on in the area and going on in the times, so I truly appreciate every time we get to have these talks and conversations. So, but I hope that you feel what I'm feeling right now and that you're nervously sitting by your phone waiting for next week's episode to come out. So you have to make sure you stay tuned, got your notifications turned on, make sure you subscribe to the Facebook page and you're on the palms Baptist church page as well so that you can get notified when the next episode drops for real Bible stories.
Imran:But I hope you enjoyed this conversation. If you go on our page, you can leave a comment or a question or direct message us. A couple of people have done that and we'll definitely respond. We'll definitely engage with you as much as we possibly can and if you give us something to look into or you have a different perspective, you know, let us know and we'll work with you, or maybe we'll learn something from you too. All right, cause we're all going down this journey together, all right, so, as you go remember the poor this week.
Ryan:Oh man, remember the poor.
Imran:That is awesome. All right, thank you all for joining us this week with your Bible stories, and we'll see you next week.
Selena:Thank you for tuning in to real Bible stories. If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to leave a review, share and subscribe to be notified each week when we upload new episodes. Real Bible stories is produced in partnership with Palm Church in 29 Palms, California. If you would like more information or want to check out archive sermons and Bible studies, please check out the church website at palmsbaptistchurchcom or check them out on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. Real Bible stories can be found wherever podcasts are found. Thank you again and we will see you next week.