Today, Paul Trask continues last week’s New Testament background and then begins discussing Galatians 1:1-10.
- Galatians is one of 4 of the Apostle Paul’s “Capital” letters, the other 3 including Romans, and 1st and 2nd Corinthians.
- Galatians was so important, that some early compilations of the New Testament placed this epistle 1st among Paul’s letters. Important to the Reformation as well; Luther wrote a full length commentary on Galatians.
- Verse 1 = Paul’s “Declaration of Independence” from the Jerusalem Church
- First century was a collision of cultures – the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31:31, ushered in by Jesus, versus those who clung to the Old Covenant which had been both fulfilled and then abolished by Jesus.
- Jerusalem Church incapable of fulfilling the Great Commission of Matthew 28, and actually impeded Paul’s work of taking the Gospel to “the nations.”
- Attempting to encumber the Gospel of the New Covenant era with baggage of the Old Covenant resulted in “NO GOSPEL AT ALL.”
- Extended discussion of Paul’s description (2 Corinthians 11:3-4) of “another Jesus,” and “another gospel,” which is “no gospel at all.”
(Galatians 1:1-10; Matthew 10:5-9, 20, 15:21-28, 28:18-20; 2 Corinthians 11:3-4; Jeremiah 31:31ff; Genesis 3:1-7)