Derek Thomas

It's faith in Jesus plus obedience to the law.

And Paul is now explaining that theologically.

And he's saying, it's never about our obedience.

Our justification can never be about our obedience.

But I live to God, he says at the end of verse 19.

Yes, as gratitude for the grace that has been displayed to me in the gospel.

The law showed me that I could never make myself acceptable to God, so I quit trying.

But now that I have been justified, now that I'm in a right standing and relationship with God, now I live for God.

I live to obey Him, not in order to be justified, but because I know that I am already justified.

I'm a child of God and an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ.

He loved me, He gave Himself for me, He lives in me, and I, in response, live for Him.

Reverse those two, and you've upset the entire narrative of the gospel, the entire balance of the gospel.

We are justified apart from works, but we are sanctified by obeying God's law out of gratitude for grace that has been received.

We cannot overemphasize the degree to which Saul of Tarsus almost extinguished the early church.

He had it within his power, or at least almost from a human point of view, to actually put out, to snuff out the Christian church at its very infancy.

Galatians 1, and this time verses 11 through 24, a larger segment.

And I want to draw attention immediately to verse 11.

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.

As we saw in the first lesson, Paul is writing this letter to the Galatians because there are certain folk in the church, let's just call them Judaizers for now, who are insisting that it's not enough

to believe in Jesus, you need to believe in Jesus plus be circumcised, plus obey the dietary laws, plus, plus, plus.