Ep. 18 | Why Galatians is so Special to Me

Speaker: Jesse Turkington

Summary: The Bible was written for specific people at specific times but its value carries over to people of all eras.

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Music created by Chad Hoffman
Artwork created by Anthony Kuenzi

Jesse’s Personal Notes:

Galatians 3:23-4:7

Introduction

Hey welcome to Pickled Parables! My name’s Jesse, I’m the host for this podcast.

 I have been so encouraged recently with how this podcast has been received by you guys. Some of you have reached out and shared very kind words with me which just put me on cloud nine. It just made my whole day. 

I want to thank you for your prayers and for your support with this ministry. I started Parable Ministries with the goal of building people up with the Word of God. And Pickled Parables, this podcast, is now kind of our primary way of offering that. 

I’m also putting together a video series right now – it’s taking a lot longer than I’ve wanted. There’s just some learning curves that I’m trying to figure out. But it will be a series that will help people read the Bible with better understanding. It’s going to look the different literary styles of the Bible and the different approaches that each one kind of requires. 

We’re also in the beginning steps of applying for nonprofit status with the US government which would then allow us to begin accepting donations and really begin growing this ministry into a self-sufficient organization that is able to be more than a podcast.

So please continue to pray with us. I am really excited for our future. My passion is to share the Word of God with the hope that it may promote spiritual grow in my brothers and sisters in Christ. 

So thank you for your support. Thank you for your prayers. Please (don’t stop), continue in giving us that because this ministry is meant for your edification and your spiritual growth, all for the glory of God our Father. 

Galatians 3:23-24

I want to tell you guys a little bit about why Galatians is so special to me. 

It was shared with me in a pivotal, just a crucial, moment in my life. It was explained to me. It was really just given to me through the courage of my brother and I believe through the leading of the Spirit. 

I was a wreak. I had reached, I think, the lowest point I have ever reached. And my brother Matt pulled me aside one evening and he was like, “Are you ok?”

 And I was, “No. I’m not ok. I carry around an incredible amount of guilt. I’ve been scarred through inappropriate interactions. I’m battered every night with sweat inducing nightmares. I’m completely disoriented and I feel utterly alone.”

And I don’t really know why but Matt took me to his room and he sat me on his bed and he pulled out his Bible and he said, “Listen.” And he presented to me this passage:

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:23-29 ESV)

I don’t know why Matt shared this passage. It’s not the typical salvation passage that evangelists would like use. (idk) whatever his reason might have been, these words sunk deep into my spirit and they bulldozed my thoughts. 

I felt like I was a captive to something. I felt imprisoned. Just incapable to escape. 

But this passage talks about something that’s is given. Something frees us from captivity – But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. What’s that talking about?

 Contextually, in Galatians, Paul’s talking about the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law. 

You see, the Law of the Old Testament was a good and perfect gift that God gave to the ethnic people of Israel. But because of mankind’s short comings and because we are not able to live up to God’s righteous standards, the goodness of the Law became a curse to those who lived under it. We were held captive under the law, imprisoned. 

Listen to how Paul talks about this in Romans chapter seven:

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 

But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 

So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. (Romans 7:7-13 ESV)

So, the Law didn’t create sin. The Law revealed what sin is. And that revelation left us in a state of captivity because we are an inherently sinful people.

Like:

(Romans 3:23 ESV) For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

 (Ecclesiastes 7:20 ESV) Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

 (1 John 1:8 ESV) If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

 So, through the law, because of sin, we were held captive. We were imprisoned. We were made aware. And this awareness not only paralyzed us, it condemned us.

…

As I sat on Matt’s bed listening to him explain this passage, I sat with the weight of my sin, the weight of sin from other people who sinned against me. I sat with the weight of this sinful world on me and I had no escape. 

I couldn’t break out of this prison. Believe me, I had tried. I tried raking up anything that I could to show for merit. I tried hiding the fact of it. I tried ignoring it. I tried fighting it. I did everything I could and I had reached a pivotal point where I was fully aware that I was incapable to save myself. 

But, just as this passage says, something was given. Something was revealed. 

I’m not saying it can’t be done, but generally speaking, it’s very difficult to save someone who doesn’t know they need saving. 

The law of God, in its perfect divine wisdom, reoriented the sinfulness of mankind and aligned it to God’s standard. It became clear, through the law, that there was an impassable gap in between mankind and God. 

The law served as a righteous guardian, keeping mankind, and specifically those who lived under the law, keeping them under guard until the coming faith would be revealed. 

Galatians three, verse twenty-four:

So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.(Galatians 3:24 ESV)

The law provided the way for Jesus. It is only through Jesus Christ the fulfiller of the law that we are able to be set free from the bondage and the weight of sin. 

Galatians 3:25-4:3

Verse twenty-five:

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. (Galatians 3:25-24 ESV)

This is what Paul has been building up to this entire letter. Notice the pronoun change: we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God. Paul’s being very intentional with his words here and he’s directing the attention to the actions and the fulfillments of Jesus’ earthly life. 

The Old Testament law was not only the constitution for an identity-lost nation, it was the revealing of God’s heart and worldview. So even for those who did not enter this covenant, the awareness of its existence allowed people to understand God’s holy and righteous standards. Which then condemned our sinful natures. 

 The law served as a guardian, as a keeper, as a structural manager, because it funneled people into the loving arms of Jesus our Redeemer. It made us aware that we needed to be saved and it led us to the Person who could save us. 

 So, we are no longer under a guardian because you(!) have been saved by Jesus Christ the fulfiller of the law and now through Him have become identified with Him and adopted into His family. 

 Verse twenty-seven:

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.(Galatians 3:27-29 ESV) 

This is Paul wrapping up his correction for the Galatians with a beautiful little bow. Baptism was a practice of surrender and identification. Spiritually, it happens when you believe but the physical demonstration of it comes as an outward confession. 

Now undoubtable, the Galatians had been baptized by the Spirit upon belief and it’s very safe to assume that they had demonstrated this confession publicly with the sign of water baptism. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Then Paul emphasizes that God shows no partiality. It doesn’t matter your ethnic lineage or who you’re related to. It doesn’t matter your social class or your gender; upon faith in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, the fulfiller of God’s promises, you are given righteousness through the literal gift of the Spirit of God – who is our down payment and our seal. 

If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. 

 Again, this is a callback to earlier in chapter three. Verse seven:

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify (or count righteous) the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (Galatians 3:7-9 ESV)

And verse thirteen:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:13-14 ESV) 

So, if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

This was incredible news for the Galatians because they were struggling with idea that they needed something else. Works of the law, physical demonstrations, certain relationships – something more than Jesus Christ. But Paul makes it very clear that righteousness is only given through faith.  

 In chapter four, verse one, Paul makes it even clearer:

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. (Galatians 4:1-3 ESV)

Galatians 4:4-7

(continuing)

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:4-7 ESV) 

As I sat on Matt’s bed listening to him present this passage, I experienced an awareness that I had never experienced before. I became aware, with the full understanding that I was incapable of saving myself and abandoning my sins (I couldn’t even give them up), I became aware that there was Someone out there who was willing and able to take my burdens and give me, not only freedom, but righteousness. 

I listened to my brother and I don’t know if I heard every word he said because I was just enchanted with the grace of the Gospel. 

But when he finished, I mumbled some sort of “thank you” and I walked off to bed. And as I was brushing my teeth, I believed. I had such a faith that Jesus was willing and able to cover my shortcomings. That he would adopt me into His holy family. That he would give me the Holy Spirit as a seal and as a down payment. That He would save me from myself and from the wrong of others. 

I needed Him and I surrendered to Him the in the time it takes a person to brush their teeth. 

This is why Galatians is so special to me. Because even though this letter was written by Paul to a group of Christians who lived in the region of Galatia so long ago, the truth of God’s Word was able to reach a little twelve year-old boy who lived in the twenty-first century. 

The Bible is an incredible, incredible book. Because it’s filled with life-changing truth. 

Sometimes, we try to organize the Bible into topics or into categories. Or we try to extract principles out of it or main ideas.  

And while there is room for that, we need to remember that the Bible isn’t an encyclopedia, it’s a story. And more than a story, it’s an invitation to enter and a have a place in God’s story. 

That’s why Galatians is so special to me, because from this ancient letter I was redeemed and saved from my sin and now I am being renewed through the work of the Holy Spirit until my Heavenly Father calls me home. 

 The Bible tells the story of God’s desire to love you. So please read God’s story. 

Conclusion

You know the reason I named Parable Ministries, uh, Parable Ministries is because of the Bible’s story. And also how Jesus used parables in His teachings to communicate hard truths. 

Now I guess, Pickled Parables could also be known as fermented stories because we’re breaking down the stories of the Bible and enriching the flavor of the stories with exploration. But fermented stories don’t sound nearly as good as Pickled Parables.  

 Thank you for listening this week. 

 If you would like to support this podcast and our teaching ministry, share it with your friends and tell your family about it. Word of mouth is the best way for this to grow. And also, be on the lookout for new avenues for teaching. Like I said, we at Parable are working on a video series, it’s gonna be bit before it’s ready to be shared, but I’m really excited for this new project. 

Thank you again for listening. Be sure to share this with your friends and family. Our goal is to reach as many people as possible with the Word of God. 

I’ll catch you next time.