(Episode #20): Study on Galatians: To deliver from this present evil age: Gal 1:1-7

In this podcast summary, we're diving into the Book of Galatians, which is all about finding freedom in Jesus. It was originally written to a church in Turkey (formerly known as Galatia), and it's like a comic book adventure where some folks messed with the good news about Jesus. The author, Paul, was seriously upset and went all out to explain why the real deal is all about Jesus and His grace. The point is, a lot of churches today get mixed up with legalistic stuff, and it's confusing. So, the podcast suggests we should all check what we hear against the Bible to know what's true and what's not. Galatians 1:3-4 kicks it off, talking about grace and peace – the go-to solution for all church problems. It's not just a greeting; it's a reminder that grace and peace come from God, no matter what's going on. And it's this grace that helps us live a victorious life, not just muddling through.

Paul also gets into how some people quickly ditched the real gospel for a different one that added rules and stuff to Jesus. It's like human nature, right? We often want to do something to earn God's favor, but the gospel says we just need to believe. Paul was pretty amazed that the Galatians fell for it so fast. He explains how these folks are trying to mess with the gospel of Christ, and he's not having it. He believes the true gospel is all about resting in what Jesus did for us, not piling on more rules or rituals. So, the podcast challenges us to be careful and not fall for legalism, which can sneak into our churches. It's all about trusting Jesus, not what we can do.

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[00:00:00] The book of Galatians is probably the best book when it comes to freedom in Christ Jesus.

It was written to the church in Galatia, which was a Gentile church in modern day Turkey. And it's the same place where the Gauls lived, if you're familiar with the Asterix comic series, I used to read that as a child.

The church in Galatia was formed by the ministry of Paul. Later Paul gets this information that some smooth talkers and some legalistics preachers made their way into the congregation and distorted the gospel preached to the Galatians. They added Jesus plus some law. Paul was extremely upset that they had allowed themselves to believe this wrong gospel and makes a very detailed study and explains why the [00:01:00] gospel, which he preached is true.

I believe that we should look into the book of Galatians because what is being preached in churches is not actually the true gospel. A lot of legalism is being preached in churches and because of that a lot of people are very confused.

When you hear the word of God being preached. It's important that you check, if whatever is being said is true or not. Because it's important to get to the bottom of this. It might have a few things different from what you've heard so far. But that doesn't make it not true. Each of us are growing in our understanding. I encourage today, that each of us go through the scriptures to see if what I say is true or not. If, what I say is true, I want you to believe it. I want you to stand by it because it's the truth that sets you free.

Let's dive into this. In Gal 1:3-4, it says grace to you [00:02:00] and peace from God, our father and Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and father.

Let us unpack one by one. First of all, he says, grace and peace. This is not just a greeting. When Paul always presents the gospel, no matter what the church is, he always writes grace and peace from God. That's because no matter what the condition of the church is. No matter what the condition of the people is, the answer to every problem is grace and peace. That's why when he writes to the church of Galatians and he writes grace and peace and when he writes to the church in Corinth, which was a church with a lot of problems, divisions, Conflicts and everything, but still when he writes the epistle, he writes grace and peace. No matter what the [00:03:00] church is going through, whether the church has sinned divided or messed up. We, as believers need to extend to each and every one, grace, undeserved merit. You have peace with God through Jesus Christ by what Jesus did.

Most of the time Paul's message has been about grace. People get uncomfortable with grace because they think if you preach grace, it gives a license to sin, but that's not what the Bible teachers in Titus 2:11-12, it says for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men. And instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires. And to live sensibly righteously godly in the present age.

So it's the grace of God that instructs us to deny ungodliness, worldly desires and to live sensibly. When we brought, the woman who was caught in adultery to Jesus, what did he do? He first [00:04:00] extended grace undeserved merit. After that, he said, go and sin no more. I did not condemn you. Go and sin no more. He first extended grace. And then he instructed her to stay out of ungodliness.

Continuing to read verse 4. Who gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and father. He say's about rescuing us from this present evil age. The gospel was given not so that we can get by on this earth and when we reach heaven, everything is goody-goody. That's not why the gospel was given. The gospel was given so that we could live victoriously in this present evil age. it was just about getting by, on earth we could all might as well just drop dead and [00:05:00] go to heaven and have a good time right after we were born again, but that's not why the gospel was given. The gospel is for now.

2 Pet 1:3 says that He has blessed you with everything pertaining to life and godliness. Why does he give it right now. So that you can live victoriously. What does it mean to live victoriously to be victorious in your spiritual life? That means to live a life that is set apart for the gospel, to be victorious over. Sicknesses and diseases. That means that you don't have to go under sickness. You don't have to be in pain. You don't have to go through difficulty. You don't have to go through problems.

If you are sick understand that it is not God's will for you to be sick. He gave himself up. So that you would be rescued from this. Hold wherever that problem is right now and command in the name of Jesus. If you're a believer and hold right now in Jesus [00:06:00] name, be healed, sickness be healed right now in the name of Jesus commanded, because it is God's will for you.

So that is the will of our God and father. we were rescued from the domain of sin. He placed us in Christ before the foundations of the world. And in him, we were justified. In him, we were crucified in him. We died with him and him. We were cut off from this jurisdiction of law and sin in our lives. So you see that we have been rescued from the present evil age, and you should understand that the rescue is greater than forgiveness. So forgiveness it's about forgiving what you've done so far, but rescue gives us a new life, a new identity and, being severed from the power of sin. And so that it doesn't have any power over us, any dominion over us. The temptations of sin might [00:07:00] come, but we don't have to give under its temptation. Like to Bible says. I walk in the spirit and you shall not obey the desires of the flesh. God picked us up where we were broken and he rescued us from Adam. He placed us in Christ and that is how he rescued us. Paul goes on to say in v.6-7, I'm amazed that you're so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ. For a different gospel, which is really not another only, there are some who are disturbing you and want to, distort the gospel of Christ.

So Paul is saying here that he is amazed how quickly people leave the true gospel for a different gospel, which has legalism embedded into it. That is human nature. People in general always want to do something for God because it makes them feel that they have done something for God[00:08:00] to earn the blessing. That is human nature. . But the gospel says that you just have to believe, you have to just believe and you will be saved. You will be delivered you will have a new life. It makes people who are very religious people who are legalistics uncomfortable because they want to do something they want to add to their holiness . Paul preached the right gospel to Galatians and he is amazed that they quickly deserted the gospel of the grace of Christ for a different gospel. Paul goes on to explain what the new, what the different gospel is. He say it's really not gospel. What is gospel? Gospel means good news. Paul is saying that whatever those infiltrators are preaching is not really a different, good news. He's saying it's not even good news at all.

Paul is saying that there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. So he's [00:09:00] saying there are people who want to disturb you want to stir you up to get you outside your place of rest. Because grace is about resting, resting in the promises of God resting in what God has done resting in what Christ has done. Resting in the finished work of Christ. And here he says that there are some who are disturbing, you stirring you up, making you get out from that rest state and say, you need to do something on top of what Christ has done in order to sustain your salvation, in order to gain favor from God, in order to be more anointed . So he is saying. We have a certain kind of gospel being preached from churches to churches and going all over the world. And it's like do more, be more, try to please God, be more anointed. Wait for this particular anointing. Wait for that particular anointing. [00:10:00] If Paul would see this, he would ask the same questions that he asked the Galatians, why are you deserting the gospel of the grace of Christ?

The Bible says that we have died to sin. There are people deserting the gospel of grace saying that I'm not yet dead. I have to crucify my flesh. The Bible clearly says that you are one with Christ at the same time, There are people deserting the gospel that say, bring me closer, draw me closer. That's a different gospel and it's about performance. Everything in, the gospel of grace is about what Christ has done and you trusting in God and believing in what God has done and having it substantiated in your life.

This is what happened even during the time of Galatians. There were people who tried to distort the gospel by bringing the law into the mix. [00:11:00] They said they wanted to include the law on top of Jesus.

A lot of people ask me. But it's just good things, right? It's not a bad thing. He's not asking you to sin. So what's the problem with that. Once I shared the gospel to a person who was not a believer, so she went against all opposition and she believed in Christ. Her family was totally against it. But still she took the decision to believe in Christ. And her life possibly could have been in danger because she came from a different religion. So what happened was that? So I took this girl to the pastor of the church and our church traditionally was always , no ornaments wore no ornaments. But the pastor was like, I cannot baptize her. And I was like, why. And he was like, because she hasn't removed her ornaments. This made me angry [00:12:00] because I was thinking here is someone who has taken the decision to get baptized. And here we are not letting her be baptized because she hasn't removed her ornaments. A lot of churches, there are people who will be asked to not take part in the communion, if there wear ornaments. There are some other churches where if someone wears non white colors , the pastor is a bit reluctant to let you be part of the communion.

This is where you see legalism comes in. i have been to these churches. They are including the law into the gospel. The bible clearly says that christ is the end of the law that we are not under the law. We saw this in the gospel series . The church of Galatia started off well But later off they went astray.

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