Gálatas 1
David Guzik · Citado em PreceptAustin
Gálatas 1
Guzik adds the interesting thought that "The idea behind the word deliver (rescue) is not deliverance from the presence of something, but deliverance from the power of something." Webster says rescue means to set free from confinement, danger or evil. To liberate from actual restraint, or to remove or withdraw from a state of exposure to evil. To rescue is to actively deliver someone out of danger. This implies that the one being rescued passively receives the rescuing. Rescue - Deliverance from people or forces that are overwhelming. It implies a liberator with strength and wisdom to ensure true freedom. God’s physical rescue of the Israelites points to the spiritual deliverance obtained by Jesus Christ. (Manser) Freedom as the result of emancipation by the Cross of Christ is the great blessing of the Gospel and is a keynote of Galatians, the very "keynote" the Judaizers were attempting to "dismantle!" Galatians 5:1,13+ It was for freedom (eleutheria) that Christ set us free (eleutheroo); therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. 13 For you were called to freedom (eleutheria), brethren; only do not turn your freedom (eleutheria)into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. John 8:32-36 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (eleutheroo).” 33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free (eleutheros)’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. 35 “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. 36 “So if the Son makes you free (eleutheroo), you will be free (eleutheros) indeed. Criswell comments that "Deliverance from "this present evil age" is assured through the atonement of Christ. This is accomplished in the present in the sense that Christ gives victory over the powers of Satan now. Ultimate delivery awaits either death or the translation of the saints...(See Rapture)" Brian Bell applies this passage to us today - Our present evil age whispers: Live for self! Yet, the worse bondage, is living for self, and yielding to the desires of the old nature. (Sermon) The Galatians needed to sing Charles Wesley's hymn O For a Thousand Tongues and we too do well to sing it as a reminder of the "triumphs of His grace." (especially when we sense we are falling in a subtle snare of legalism!)... Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer’s praise, The glories of my God and king, The triumphs of His grace! My gracious Master and my God, Assist me to proclaim, To spread through all the earth abroad, The honors of Thy name. Jesus! the name that charms our fears, That bids our sorrows cease— ’Tis music in the sinner’s ears, ’Tis life, and health, and peace. He breaks the pow’r of canceled sin, He sets the pris’ner free; His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me. He speaks, and, list’ning to His voice, New life the dead receive, The mournful, broken hearts rejoice, The humble poor believe. Glory to God, and praise and love Be ever, ever giv’n By saints below and saints above, The church in earth and heav’n. Rescue (deliver) (1807)(exaireo from ek = out + aireo = to take, remove, seize) literally means to take out (used literally in Lxx of Jdg 14:9KJV "he took the honey out of the mouth of the lion"). In some context it means tear out or pluck out (Mt 5:29, 18:9, Lxx = Lev 14:40). To take out from a number. To select. In the middle voice (most of the uses in the Lxx and NT are middle voice) it means to take out for oneself and hence to rescue or deliver someone from a perilous or confining circumstance, setting them free. Spicq adds that "This idea of extracting or removing is indicated by the reflexive meaning of the middle voice, which places the beneficiaries of the act of deliverance in the hands of the agent of deliverance (Ed: Which in Gal 1:4 is Jesus!)." Vine adds that "the middle voice, suggests that He who thus delivers us has an interest in the result of His own act. Thus in Ephesians 1:4 there is the thought that God “chose us for Himself” in Christ, i.e., that we might be His sons, verse 5. So here. The words may be paraphrased, “Who gave Himself for our sins, in order that He might deliver us out of this present evil age that so we might belong to Him.” Exaireo signifies to deliver by rescuing from danger! In some secular uses exaireo meant to choose for oneself or to carry off as booty. J. B. Lightfoot writes that the exaireo, rescue, ‘strikes the keynote of the epistle’. ‘The Gospel is a rescue, an emancipation from a state of bondage. THOUGHT - Since Jesus has rescued us from perishing forever in eternal hell, we now must go in the power of the Spirit (Acts 1:8+) into the highways and byways and rescue the perishing with the message of the Gospel... Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen, Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save. DELIVERED FROM THE POWER NOT PRESENCE OF THIS EVIL AGE Guzik has an excellent explanation of this rescue or deliverance - The idea behind the word deliver is not deliverance from the presence of something, but deliverance from the power of something. We will not be delivered from the presence of this present evil age until we go to be with Jesus. But we can be experience deliverance from the power of this present evil age right now. (Galatians 1 Commentary) Max Anders adds "Grace not only saves us from the penalty of sin; it also delivers us from the power of sin. We have been rescued from the enslaving power of this present evil age––a world ruled by Satan, full of cruelty, tragedy, temptation, and deception." (Ibid) John
Gálatas 1
Guzik points out that "The other gospel was really a perversion or a distortion of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. It didn’t start from nothing and make up a new name for God and pretending to have a new Savior. It used the names and ideas familiar to the Galatian Christians, but it slightly twisted the ideas to make their message all the more deceptive." (Galatians 1 Commentary) So we need to remember that these false teachers are good at hiding their lies in a veneer of truth - while Paul does not specifically say, these men must have agreed with most of the orthodox teaching about Jesus (even His crucifixion and resurrection, etc), and their apparent orthodoxy would have gained them entry into the churches. Once in the churches, they added the poison of Jesus PLUS. Jesus plus works, plus circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, etc. Jesus plus anything equates with nothing! See the danger of Hebrew Roots movement. Here is a short excerpt from that article... The premise of the Hebrew Roots movement is the belief that the Church has veered far from the true teachings and Hebrew concepts of the Bible. The movement maintains that Christianity has been indoctrinated with the culture and beliefs of Greek and Roman philosophy and that ultimately biblical Christianity, taught in churches today, has been corrupted with a pagan imitation of the New Testament gospels. Those of the Hebrew Roots belief hold to the teaching that Christ's death on the cross did not end the Mosaic Covenant, (ED: NOTICE HOW THEY TEACH THE CROSS BUT ADD LAW!) but instead renewed it, expanded its message, and wrote it on the hearts of His true followers. They teach that the understanding of the New Testament can only come from a Hebrew perspective and that the teachings of the Apostle Paul are not understood clearly or taught correctly by Christian pastors today (THUS THEY DISTORT PAUL'S TEACHING - I HAVE HAD LETTERS FROM BELIEVERS WHO HAVE RELATIVES IN THIS MOVEMENT AND THEY WERE UNABLE TO GET THEM OUT! BEWARE!). Martin Luther writes "To paraphrase this sentence: “These false apostles do not merely trouble you, they abolish Christ’s Gospel. They act as if they were the only true Gospel-preachers. For all that they muddle Law and Gospel. As a result they pervert the Gospel. Either Christ must live and the Law perish, or the Law remains and Christ must perish; Christ and the Law cannot dwell side by side in the conscience. It is either grace or law. To muddle the two is to eliminate the Gospel of Christ entirely.” (Galatians 1 Commentary) Luther adds "Note the resourcefulness of the devil. Heretics do not advertise their errors. Murderers, adulterers, thieves disguise themselves. So the devil masquerades all these devices and activities. He puts on white to make himself look like an angel of light.”" (Galatians 1 Commentary) Distort (3344) (metastrepho from meta = change + strepho = to twist) means to turn about or turn around. Transform into something of an opposite character. Corrupt. Pervert. Reverse. The idea is to turn something (here the true Gospel) to it opposite state, so altering it and causing it to be different, so that it really no longer a gospel of Christ and of His grace. In this passage metastrepho is in the aorist tense in this passage which indicates this was a complete and thorough change, a complete perversion of the Gospel of Grace! The intent of the Judaizers was to pervert Paul's message of grace by adding salvation by works instead of by faith alone.
Gálatas 1
Guzik - False doctrine was a real problem in the Galatian churches, and their false doctrines robbed God of some of the glory due to Him. By emphasizing the rightly recognized glory of God and His plan, Paul hopes to put them more on the right track. (Galatians 1 Commentary) Will (2307)(thelema from thelo = to will with the "-ma" suffix indicating the result of the will = "a thing willed") generally speaks of the result of what one has decided. In its most basic form, thelema refers to a wish, a strong desire, and the willing of some event. (Note: See boule for comments relating to thelema). Our Father - Do not miss this precious possessive pronoun "our." Contrary to popular opinion, God is not the Father of all mankind but only of those who have entered His family by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Not only can we call God our Father, but now "because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"" (Gal 4:6+, Ro 8:15+) John explains He (Jesus) came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:11-13+) See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. (AS FATHER)(1 John 3:1+) Father (3962)(pater) is used of our heavenly Father. He imparts life, from physical birth to the gift of eternal life through the second birth (regeneration, being born again). Through ongoing sanctification, the believer more and more resembles their heavenly Father (cf Mt 5:48). The NT refers to God as Father 29 times.... God the Father (15x in NAS, Not once in the OT): 1 Cor 8:6; Gal 1:1; Eph 6:23; Phil 2:11; Col 1:3; 3:17; 1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:2; 1Ti 1:2; 2Ti 1:2; Titus 1:4; 1Pet 1:2; 2Pet 1:17; 2 John 1:3; Jude 1:1 God and Father (14x NAS, Not once in the OT): Rom 15:6; 1 Cor 15:24; 2 Cor 1:3; 11:31; Gal 1:4; Eph 1:3; 4:6; Phil 4:20; 1Th 1:3; 3:11, 13; Jas 1:27; 1Pet 1:3; Rev 1:6 J. I. Packer considers one's grasp of God's Fatherhood and adoption as His child as of essential importance in one's spiritual life explaining that... If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. "Father" is the Christian name for God. (Packer, J: Knowing God) Kent
Gálatas 1
Guzik points out that "The ancient Greek word aphorizo is related to the word used as a title for the religious elite in Paul’s day, the “separated ones” known as the Pharisees. Before Paul came to Jesus he was an important Pharisee (Philippians 3:5), but he wasn’t really separated to God. Now through the work of Jesus he was really separated to God." (Galatians 1 Commentary) Paul's testimony before King Agrippa... And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. 11 “And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities. 12 “While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, 13 at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. 14 “And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ 15 “And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 ‘But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; 17 rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, 18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’ 19 “So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, 20 but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance. (Ac 26:10-20+) A T
Gálatas 1
Guzik adds "Paul did not travel to what we would call Saudi Arabia. The area known in that day as Arabia in his day extended all the way to the city of Damascus. Paul probably lived in some quiet desert place outside of Damascus." (Galatians 1 Commentary) John Brown - He went into Arabia, for the purpose, it may be, of yielding himself up in its solitudes to solemn meditation and communion with his divine Master. No proof can be derived from these words that Paul preached in Arabia. There is no trace of that in the Acts of the Apostles. (Reference)
Gálatas 1
Guzik adds that "The word (historeo) translated to see (to become acquainted with) speaks of someone coming as a tourist. ” ‘A word used,’ says Chrysostom, ‘by those who go to see great and famous cities.’ ” (Lightfoot) The idea is that Paul was not commanded to come to Jerusalem to give an account to Peter or the other disciples, but he came of his own accord and visited as a tourist. (Galatians 1 Commentary) Anderson - Here was the CHIEF PERSECUTOR of the Gospel and the CHIEF PROPAGATOR, meeting together and sharing with regard to their oneness in Jesus Christ. (Notes) Galatians 1:19 But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord's brother. Amplified - But I did not see any of the other apostles (the special messengers of Christ) except James the brother of our Lord.