Galatians: A Supernatural Justification

Galatians central message teaches how a person is justified before a holy God. This once precious and central teaching of Protestant theology is often misunderstood or relegated the pile of irrelevant, stale doctrine. Perhaps that is why the Apostle Paul supercharges his teaching with an oft-overlooked side of this letter - the supernatural beings who tempt us and teach us to give up the only truth that will save us. Galatian Christians would have been familiar with these supernatural beings; their culture was steeped in it. Thus, they mistake Paul for the messenger-healer god Hermes, and Barnabas for Zeus. Paul’s warning: Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. This is Paul’s fatherly way of showing his children in the faith that the gospel is paramount; it alone is able to save. Such a warning like this can have new power, as people are returning with reckless abandon to the worship of the old gods. This book is a series of sermons preached at the Reformed Baptist Church of Northern Colorado in 2011.