God's Great Gospel of Grace in Galatians

By Herman Bauman

This book is an endeavor to present the beauty of Gods grace through a careful study of the Book of Galatians. My own experience of struggling with righteousness by works, trying to be good enough to be saved, as well as my observation of other trying to be Christians through the years convinced me that there is a great need for a clear understanding of Gods plan to save people, and the accompanying assurance of salvation that comes with it. Having assurance in Christ, then, brings much better obedience than a religion of fear ever could.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 16, 2009
• ISBN: 9781462828265

Herman Bauman

Herman Bauman was a farm boy, born and reared in Wisconsin. In his early years, he lived in a religious environment, but didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. When he was sixteen years old a young baptize preacher led him to Jesus and salvation. Herman believed he was called by God to be a preacher and, against all odds, prepared for that profession. He pursued an education, married a wonderful young woman, the former Janice Wright, and together they served the Lord very successfully in ministry for than 44 years. They are now retired in Arizona.

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God’s Great Gospel of Grace in Galatians

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HERMAN BAUMAN

Copyright © 2009 by Herman Bauman.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Dedication

I proudly dedicate this book to my dear Baptist preacher friend, George Cable. It was George who lovingly led me to accept Jesus as my Savior and to experience the assurance of salvation. Shortly after my conversion God called me to dedicate my life to Him as a minister of the gospel. When I shared that conviction with George he was thrilled. Even when I informed him that I could not be a Baptist minister because I really believed the doctrines taught by Seventh-day Adventists, he assured me that he simply wanted me to be the very best minister I could be. What a wonderful, Christian friend he is and, oh how I admire and love him. He and his precious wife, Romelle, are treasured friends to this day.

PREFACE

IN GALATIANS 3:23-25, Paul Says,

"But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

"Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

What does Paul mean when he says a Christian is no longer under the law?

What law was he talking about? Was it the ceremonial law or the moral law: the Ten Commandments? Was Paul an antinomian (against the law)? Does faith destroy the law or make it unnecessary? Did Christ nail the law to His cross? These are vital questions that have been discussed for centuries.

The issue of the Law in Galatians has been discussed by Seventh-day Adventists for a long time. It was debated quite heatedly at the 1888 General Conference Session of Seventh-day Adventists held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Far from solving this controversy, perhaps that event made the differences of opinion even more obvious and prominent. Today there is a resurgence of the 1888 controversy in its many facets, along with all the accompanying ramifications. This book by no means attempts to deal with all segments of the controversy but, because it is a study of the Book of Galatians, will deal with the important issue of the Law in Galatians.

INTRODUCTION

NINETEEN HUNDRED EIGHTY-EIGHT was designated Righteousness by Faith Year by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. This, of course, was in commemoration of that great historic Righteousness by Faith General Conference session of 1888. Surely, it is a special and honorable thing to set aside an entire year for the emphasis of Righteousness by Faith. I was pleased to see this action taken; however, I also have a bit of negative feeling about it in that I strongly feel that every year, yes every DAY, ought to be Righteousness by Faith Day for every Seventh-day Adventist Christian.

Righteousness by Faith is the central doctrine of Christianity and ought to be the most basic part of the theology of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Elder H.M.S. Richards was asked some years ago what he thought about Righteousness by Faith. In response, he wisely asked with a rhetorical question, Is there any other kind? No, there is no other kind of faith, certainly no other kind of SAVING faith. The Bible makes it clear that man could never be good enough by his own accomplishments to be acceptable to God. Only the righteousness that we receive by faith as a gift from God through the sacrifice of Jesus can make us citizens of God’s kingdom of grace. As someone has aptly said, Righteousness by Faith is like a parachute. There is just no substitute.

Although the message of Righteousness by Faith permeates the entire Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, in my view there is no book in the Bible that presents it with more clarity and with greater force than the book of Galatians, written by the Apostle Paul. Consequently, I have chosen to present a brief study of this wonderful book of Galatians. It is presented in a non-theological, non-scholarly form. It will not take a theologian to understand it; however, I believe, and pray, that in its simple, down-to-earth presentation, the message of Jesus, His love, and His righteousness will shine through in all its glory.

Since the King James Version is the translation still preferred by most Christians, I have chosen to utilize that version in this study.

CHAPTER ONE

Please Believe Me

SOME YEARS AGO my associate in evangelism, Lorie Purdey, and I were holding evangelistic meetings in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. One day Lorie visited a local used car lot and was looking with interest at some of the cars displayed there. He soon began to talk with the owner of the lot, not only about used cars, but also about religion. The owner was obviously a devout Christian and was shocked when Lorie told him he was a Seventh-day Adventist minister. The car lot owner immediately asked, Haven’t you ever read the book of Galatians? Lorie assured him that he had, not once but many times; to which the man responded, You haven’t read it, then, as carefully as you should. You’ve read it with preconceived opinions. I want to make a bargain with you. I challenge you to go home and read the book of Galatians prayerfully and carefully, asking God to really reveal His message of truth to you. After having done that, if you can come back to me and honestly tell me that you are still a Seventh-day Adventist, I will allow you to have any car on my lot absolutely free.

Galatians is probably the most misunderstood book in the entire Bible, not just by that car dealer, not just by non-Seventh-day Adventists, but by Seventh-day Adventists as well; however, I believe it is also the most important book in the Bible because it contains the very essence of the plan of salvation. If there were no other portion of Scripture in the world, the book of Galatians contains a message more than sufficient to save all mankind.

I would like to begin by giving the setting of the book of Galatians. Today Judaism and Christianity seem quite divergent one from the other, but it was not so in Paul’s day. In fact these two great religions are actually vitally related. It could be stated, Judaism is the blossom, Christianity is the fruit. In Romans 11, Paul, using another metaphor, indicates that Israel is the olive tree, but that we Gentile Christians have been grafted in as branches.

It is understood by most Christians that all the Jewish ceremonies, as well as the laws that were part of the ceremonial system, pointed forward to Christ and His sacrifice. Paul recognized that when Christ, the Substance, was come these ceremonies and laws which were a shadow pointing forward to Christ, would no longer be needed. Many in Paul’s day insisted that acceptance of Jesus, by both Jews and Gentiles, did not negate the purpose of, and need for, keeping the ritual laws of Moses. That philosophy seemed to have much support. Even Paul himself kept various feasts and took Jewish vows. He gloried in his relation to the Jewish race.

It was Paul’s task, however, to show the relationship between law and grace and to establish that the purpose of any and all laws was not to save, but to lead to Christ Who is the only One Who can save.

A careful study of Old Testament Scripture reveals at least four types of laws: 1) The moral law, or Ten Commandments, containing principles of right and wrong that never change; 2) Ceremonial laws which required rituals and ceremonies connected with the sacrificial system. These included the sacrifice of animals, observation of yearly feast days, and circumcision; 3) Dietary laws that were intended to preserve the health of God’s people; and 4) Civil laws that applied to the nation of Israel.

The issue in Paul’s day was primarily the ceremonial law. Paul was endeavoring to make it clear that the ceremonial law could not save anyone. However, to put it in modern terms, today the issue is the moral law and Paul just as clearly emphasizes in the book of Galatians that the moral law also cannot save anyone. Both laws had their purpose simply to reveal sin and to lead to the One Who is the Solution to the problem of sin.

Paul makes this clear in Romans 3:20,

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

And again in Romans 5:13,

For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Paul was well prepared for his task. He was a Hebrew by birth but, born in Tarsus, was also a Roman citizen. He was a Pharisee. He had studied the law under Gamaliel, the outstanding Jewish teacher of his day. But Paul also knew the Gentile, or Greek, culture well; for Tarsus, along with Athens and Alexandria, was of great importance in the Greek culture, being a significant university center.

Paul passionately loved his Jewish people, their history, their customs, their traditions and beliefs and, before his conversion, while still Saul of Tarsus, hated the Christian Church. However, after receiving a vision of Christ on the road to Damascus his whole life was changed and his hatred of the Christian Church was changed to love. From then on the Jewish ceremonies become matters of insignificance to Paul. He kept them to avoid offending the Jews; but taught clearly that Gentiles did not need to keep them. He insisted that to keep the law as a means of salvation was to turn from Christ and His atonement. This is the message of the book of Galatians. SALVATION IS FREE, IT IS NOT BY WORKS.

A review of the specific circumstances will help us to understand the book of Galatians better. Apostasy was threatening to destroy the work Paul had established in Galatia. Judaizers, who were former Jews who had become Christians, but, admittedly, with Pharisaical attitudes, came into Galatia and taught that all the law must be kept in order for an individual to be saved. Paul was very concerned about this teaching, but not because he was against Jewish ritual. He himself observed much of it (Acts 18:18 and Acts 21:20-27), even taking the old Nazirite vow of shaving his head as described in Numbers 6.

Paul also demonstrated his support of the law and Jewish custom according to Acts 16:1-3, by having Timothy circumcised, though Timothy’s Father was a Greek and though Paul taught that circumcision was no longer necessary since the death of Jesus.

I Corinthians 7:18, 19,

"Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised.

Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.

Though Paul clearly taught that circumcision was no longer necessary, to keep from offending the Jews he chose to have Timothy circumcised.

So we see that Paul’s main treatise was not that the law and rituals should not be kept, but his genuine concern was the teaching, or even the suggestion, that man can save himself, or even HELP save himself, by observing the requirements of any, or all, laws.

The Judaizers taught that if a Gentile wished to become a Christian, he must first become a Jew; that is, he must take the whole burden of the law upon him, including being circumcised. That teaching for Paul was the opposite of all that Christianity meant, for he believed and taught that salvation is absolutely free.

As we continue now into the Book of Galatians, let me emphasize that when Paul uses the term, law, he is talking about the entire system of law: moral law, ceremonial law, dietary law, civil law, all law. He makes it clear that salvation is not the result of observing the law in any way whatsoever. His message is, Righteousness is by Faith in Jesus Christ and in Him ALONE.

In the book, Acts of the Apostles, Ellen White says of the Galatians and their being led astray by the Judaizers,

"The men who had attempted to lead them from their belief in the gospel were hypocrites, unholy in heart and corrupt in life. Their religion was made up of a round of ceremonies, through the performance of which they expected to gain the favor of God. They had no desire for a gospel that called for obedience to the word, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ John 3:3. They felt that a religion based on such a doctrine, required too great a sacrifice, and they clung to their errors, deceiving themselves and others.

To substitute external forms of religion for holiness of heart and life is still as pleasing to the unrenewed nature as it was in the days of these Jewish teachers. Pages 386, 387.

As you can see she, writing under the inspiration of God, makes it clear that the message of Galatians is just as applicable to us today as it was to the Galatians in the days of Paul.

GALATIANS 1:1, 2,

"Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)

And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:

The Judaizers had claimed that Paul, since he was not one of the twelve original apostles, was not truly an apostle and consequently his teaching could not be trusted; so Paul presents his credentials. He begins the letter by immediately asserting his apostleship and, in fact, spends virtually the entire first two chapters of the Book of Galatians defending his right to be called an apostle.

Usually in Paul’s letters he simply refers to himself as the servant of Jesus Christ, or some similar term, but here he refers to himself as an apostle in order to give more strength to his message; for it seems that the Judaizers are putting a great deal of emphasis on the value of apostleship and have excluded Paul from that special group.

It is true, of course, and Paul is admitting, that he was not sent out by the Mother Church in Jerusalem. He was not ordained in Jerusalem. He was not one of the original disciples sent out by Jesus, nor was he appointed or commissioned by those disciples. BUT Paul’s commission, he emphasizes, was by Jesus Christ, Himself, and not by men. Paul was commissioned to be an apostle as the result of a direct confrontation with Jesus as he was traveling the road to Damascus. There, in that vision, he saw the resurrected Christ and was converted. So now his apostolic commission testifies not only to the truthfulness of the crucifixion,