Audio readings: Psalm 107:10-22 Galatians 1 Isaiah 33, Isaiah 34, Isaiah 35
GALATIANS 1
The BibleProject summary is found here: https://bibleproject.com/videos/galatians/ .
TO: The churches in the Roman province of Galatia (probably Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe). These are the ones that Paul founded in his very first missionary journey. This would make this letter Paul’s first letter, written perhaps in 48-49, between that journey and the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15).
CC: All Christian believers alive today (and that includes you and me!)
FROM: Paul himself. He is the spiritual father of these churches and the one who cared about them most. Fathers take the highest interest in their children and are most hurt and concerned when their lives are side-tracked by deceptive people with ulterior motives.
SUBJECT: I am an authentic apostle, and my gospel is the true message from Christ. Don’t listen to those who say you must first become a Jew before you can be saved. Why enslave yourself again?
MESSAGE: This epistle was one of the foundations of the Protestant Reformation, relied upon by Martin Luther to prove that salvation is by faith alone, without the need to obey the Law of Moses. See 2:16.
Paul would have dictated this letter to a scribe but wanted to ‘sign off’ in his own handwriting – see 6:11. He cared passionately about his spiritual children, and it hurt him badly that they had begun to refuse to walk in their father’s footsteps of faith and had started to avoid him altogether, preferring the attention of some false apostles who did not have their interests at heart.
An Apostle – in the original definition – was someone who had spent time with Jesus himself and who could therefore witness to his life, message, and resurrection. See Acts 1:21-22. Paul was at pains to point out that he was set apart by God for this role, sent by Jesus Christ as an apostle, and had seen the risen Christ first hand – on the Damascus Road (vv15-16). Paul’s qualification to be an apostle was therefore rock-solid. Even Paul’s salvation was planned by God, from before he was born, and the date of his calling determined well in advance.
Also, Paul claimed that his message was direct from God – not plagiarised from the other apostles. It was “not of human origin” (v11) but received “by revelation” (v12). Paul did not even meet the Jerusalem apostles until many years later; this avoided contamination of the ‘purity’ of the gospel to the Gentiles by Judaistic legalism.
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all (v6). The ‘One’ who had called these Galatian believers was a combination of both Paul himself and, behind the scenes, Jesus; it was his gospel that they were now rejecting! (See 4:12-20). The phrase: “So quickly” also indicates that this was not too long after Paul had visited them on one of his missionary journeys. The date of this letter is therefore fairly early.
Is our gospel truly ‘good news’? Are we preaching and living a doctrine that is worth converting to? Is our message shrouded with ‘do’s and ‘do not’s, based upon an old-fashioned lifestyle that relates more to Eighteenth Century British life than to the vibrant truth of the true gospel. Does our gospel set people free or enslave them more? Is it a good story or no story at all? Are we promoting a Christ who really did “give himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age”?
ISAIAH 35
“Come quickly, Lord Jesus, and make this world new again!” That is the effective cry of Isaiah in today’s chapter 35. It is also the cry of every generation of desperate people, weary of the monotonous circuit of life and death, prosperity and famine, freedom and captivity, joy and depression – and it is to them and to us that the Lord graciously sends this prophecy of hope.
As you read on, it seems to speak on several levels: clearly painting a picture of a restored desert land with life-giving irrigation and stunning scenery, food in abundance and a peace-loving population. But this does not really explain the true depths and the ultimate fulfilment of this wonderful message. This new land is infused with the miraculous – in fact, with life everlasting – the lame not only walk again but leap around with shocking athleticism! Blind people are given 20:20 vision and those who are deaf receive ‘pin-drop’ hearing again. I wouldn’t expect to find any remaining trace of cancer, MS, heart disease, kidney failure, paralysis, or infertility here either! This place that was once a desert has become (again) a garden of plenty and full of satisfying long lives.
The clue is “The Highway” – and this is where our literal prophecy moves into metaphor and allegory – the Highway of Holiness. There were roads built up as raised causeways in ancient times, joining one temple to another, on which the holy priests were permitted to travel in safety – but only if you had kept yourself pure for the work of God. Isaiah and God extend this thought to describe the whole life of the believer – especially for us, the Christian. We are together on that ‘Way of Holiness’; Christ has made us pure already and we are safe from harm and from deadly attack. If you are ‘in Christ’ today, then you are a new creation: the old has already gone and the new has already come. The roaring lion who is the Devil is not permitted to touch us and we are protected from the foolish thoughts and corrosive philosophies of this surrounding corrupt world.
We, the redeemed, are walking on this Highway and we will continue to walk on it. It is part of our eternal life that Jesus has already opened the door for us to enter. Everyone that He loves – and who loves Him – is also on that Highway with us; it is not a straight road and there are bends, so some on the journey ahead of us are, for the time being, out of sight. But don’t worry, soon we will take that same path and they will be back in clear view again.
It is also a journey of incredible joy – of singing, of praising the King, of celebration and of laughter. It is filled with the conversations of the Redeemed of God. What else can people do, who have already willingly given up what they could not keep, in order to receive as a gift what they can never lose! Those on the Highway will make it to the City. Fact! “They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away”. It is interesting and significant that the gladness and joy will overtake and overwhelm them even before they reach their ultimate goal, the City of God. Why? Because once you are on that Highway, you are in most senses already in that City.
Sorrow and sighing will be banished – and He will wipe every tear from our eyes, since there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:4). Where we are headed, there cannot be any of these obsolete things since there will be no reason for them to exist.
The Big Picture 