Galatians 1:2
"And all the brethren which are with me, (that was his traveling companions) unto the churches of Galatia: 3. Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ."
Now, in verse 4, right off the bat we find Paul bringing out the Gospel by which we are saved (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Roman 6:4-11, and Galatians 2:20). We mean the guy can't help it, its in his writings, it's constantly going to come to the top. Just like the best cream which always rises.
Galatians 1:4,5
"Who (our Lord Jesus Christ of verse 3) gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: 5. To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Now that's the simplistic statement again of the Gospel ( I Corinthians 15:1-4) How that Christ gave Himself. He wasn't forced, it was of His own volition. In fact, turn ahead a few pages to the Book of Philippians.
Philippians 2:5-7
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: (He was God!) 7. But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, (or a slave. He was nothing in the eyes of Jewish religionists nor the Roman world) and was made in the likeness of men:..." We've got to be careful here. In fact, the question came up recently regarding where II Corinthians chapter 5 says, "He became sin for us."
II Corinthians 5:21
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew not sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Well, Christ didn't become a sinner per se, but what did He do? He took the sinners place. He was our substitute. God laid our sin guilt on Him. We can't just leave it there so what are our other examples in the Scripture. For example God provided the blood and the skin of covering to Adam and his wife first then when Abraham was going to offer Isaac: just when he's ready to fulfill the command from God to offer his only son Isaac, what does God provide in the thicket? The ram. What did the ram become? The substitute. The ram didn't become Isaac. Now the same way with Christ. When He went to the Cross, He did not, become a vile sinner, but rather He took on Himself all the sins of the human race and the world without becoming a sinner, and says, "Yet without sin." Now that's beyond most human comprehension, it turns mans intellect and wisdom up side down and in side out. But it was His substitutionary work, that where we should have died, He took our place. He didn't become Bill, He didn't become Kenneth, David, Rosalee or anybody else, but merely became our substitute. God saw us as being in Him, IN Christ and God credited us as having been hung on that tree, that is the Gospel of Grace in action. In fact Peter in his letter of 1 Peter in chapter 2 verse 24 tells us that we were placed in Christ's wounds when it says by His strip we've been healed. Healed here means to made hole, or restored to our original condition, Paul says to be clothed with Christ, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ which is the same thing. From this then we'll move on to what Paul is referring to here. Now verse 8 of Philippians chapter 2:
Philippians 2:8
"And being found in fashion (form) as a man, (totally man, totally human but also totally God) he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, (the most horrible death ever devised) even the death of the cross." Now that is what becomes, then, the very bedrock of our redemption and salvation. We believe it, we receive it and we place our full trust in it. That's it, and yet it's so simple that people stumble over it. But on the other hand, as we've said so often, it is so complex. It's possible for us as humans to comprehend the power and the depth of the work of the Cross. It is beyond most of us, but on the other hand it's so simple that all God asks us to do is "Believe it!" As a little child. And the world refuses to do so. Now back to Galatians chapter 1 and let's look at verse 4 again.
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