Why was Paul’s letter to the Galatians so crucial in bringing about the Protestant Reformation? Today, R.C. Sproul introduces this New Testament letter and outlines its urgent defense of the true gospel against manmade distortions. Get R.C. Sproul’s commentary on Galatians, plus lifetime digital access to his teaching series Galatians and Pleasing God, for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3609/pleasing-god Meet Today’s Teacher: R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. Meet the Host: Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
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Paul's anger here is a response to what he considers to be a critical attack on the truthfulness and the purity of the Christian doctrine.
When we think of the writing of the Apostle Paul, the book of Romans often comes to mind first. But we mustn't miss the significance of his letter to the churches in Galatia and the serious attack on the gospel that was taking place. Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and I'm thankful that you're with us for this Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind.
Galatians clearly outlines the Apostle Paul's theology and lays out the good news of the gospel against the distortions of the gospel that were beginning to enter the church. It's a letter to read, to study, and to meditate upon. And you can be helped to do that when you request not only R.C. Sproul's series on Galatians, but also his hardcover expositional commentary.
You can request this week's resource bundle when you give a gift of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. Well, here's Dr. Sproul to introduce us to Galatians and the battle Paul was fighting.
What I'd like to deal with today is a little bit of background and introduction to the book of Galatians, and if time permits, move into the content itself in the first chapter. A lot of the kinds of problems that surround this kind of introductory material to an epistle, Paul, are absent from the book of Galatians.
If there's any book in the Pauline corpus, that is, in that body of literature that is traditionally attributed to the Apostle Paul, if there's any book that today receives virtually unanimous consensus of scholarly opinion that it did indeed come from the Apostle Paul, it's the book of Galatians.
In other words, there are no serious controversies presently existing over the authorship of this epistle. This one was written by Paul. There were some skirmishes about it in the 19th century. Some of those coming out of the radical critical school tried to challenge even the authenticity of this epistle. but that was quickly disposed of and is no longer a live question.
What we do have in terms of background material that remains a problem, however, with Galatians is the question, what is the problem that has provoked Paul to write this epistle? Let me again say, by way of background, that first of all, the book of Galatians...
is probably the clearest epistle that comes from the pen of Paul that really shows Paul's unique contribution to the development of Christian theology. This is the clearest exposition we have of Paul's theology, even more so than the book of Romans. And I might say that the book of Romans stands, of course, in a very close relationship to the book of Galatians.
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