The Christ Church Conway Podcast

Continuing his tour through the OT, showing that the gospel is not something new that he dreamed up, Paul takes a minute to remind us why the law offers us no hope.

In these verses Paul links together six different OT passages to show that the gospel is an ancient promise.

The doctrines we have been discussing pertaining to God’s eternal decree are difficult. It their wisdom, the framers of the Westminster Confession of Faith reminded us that they are to be handled with care.

Through a series of rhetorical questions, Paul gets at the heart of the issue with the Galatians.

Paul makes clear. We are either justified by faith in Christ or by law. It can’t be both. These two propositions are mutually exclusive.

If we are dead to the law, how then do we live the Christian life? By faith in Christ.

The point of the law is to show us our sin and lead us to Jesus. If we don’t let it do that, but try to justify ourselves by our law keeping, we only make ourselves greater transgressors of God’s law.

We are always tempted to offer our works for our justification. Paul reminds us, that will always fail. We are justified by faith alone in Christ alone.

Here we have the difficult other side of the election coin. The key to this doctrine is recognizing that it is actually biblical.

Paul was committed to the gospel. He refused to have the truth if the gospel shaped by fear of man. When Peter made that mistake, Paul had something to say about it.

Paul eventually made it back to Jerusalem. On his trip back he visited with the apostles. Here he lets us know that they added nothing to his ministry but their confirmation.

This popular story may have more than meets the eye. When we follow the clues pointing to why the crowd was there, we realize their being fed might have been something other than what they wanted.

Paul continues his brief autobiography in order to dismiss the false accusations made against him.

Paul was literally killing Christians when God called him in grace. You can read the story in Acts 9. Here Paul reminds the Galatians of this story in order to remind them how he received the gospel - it wasn’t from man.

One of the accusations Paul faced was that his gospel was just something some group of people were wanting to spread. Paul reminds us how he actually received the gospel, but from man, but from Jesus.

Having looked at the fact that God has decreed our redemption. The Westminster Divines now remind us that he has also decrees the means by which we are redeemed.

Jesus said we can’t serve two masters. Paul makes the same point here. We either are seeking to please man or we are serving Christ.

Paul takes the gospel very seriously. In these verses, we see just how seriously he takes the right preaching of the gospel. Getting the gospel right matters. It’s the first order of business.

There is a lot we learn from the beading of John. It both foreshadows the fate of Christ and the apostles and warns us of a fleshy response to being challenged by the Word of God.

The Galatians’ issue wasn’t rank idolatry or open sin. It was much more subtle than that. Their issue was a distorted gospel, adding good works to Jesus. This serves as a warning for us that turning from Christ doesn’t always look like turning to blatant sin. It might look like turning to good works in Jesus’ name for our hope.

Jesus didn’t die for our sins by accident. It was according to God’s will and for his glory; therefore, so is our salvation.

Paul announces why Christ died for our sins- that we might be delivered. What hope that this age does not speak the final word.

Some present predestination as a mean doctrine, but here we see it is just the opposite. The reality of the doctrine of predestination is that it is a great comfort because it reminds us that our salvation is all of grace.

Paul tells us that Christ gave himself for our sins. There is not a more hope-filled sentence that can be written or uttered.

In this episode we look at Galatians 1:1-2. Here Paul reminds the Galatian that his calling is from God not man.