Galatians 1:3,4 - Who gave himself for our sins

1:3

“Grace and peace” is the common greeting in Paul’s letters. This grace and peace comes from “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”. Grace and peace could be described as key blessings of the gospel, and they come from God Himself. They are not the product of a set of ideas nor even of a way of life, they are a direct gift from God. It is so important that we realise that the gospel is not about a set of ideas, it is not a philosophy, it is gift from God. Once again we have God the Father and Jesus Christ mentioned together and given equal status. People sometimes say that New Testament does not support the doctrine of the Trinity. This is nonsense. The word trinity is not in the New Testament, but the doctrine of the Trinity seeks to encapsulate what the New Testament does say about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And unless we assume that they are distinct and co-equal, then the New Testament does not make any sense at all.

1:4

“who gave himself for our sins ...”. Notice that this is clearly referring to Jesus. The previous verse has said “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”, this is more implicit evidence that the New Testament writers clearly thought that Christ was God. There are those who say that the divinity of Jesus was a concept that was not held by the early church, but only developed much later. Such notions are without foundation and are totally inconsistent with the Biblical evidence. Much of the letter is focused on how we are to live, with particular emphasis on whether Gentile Christians needed to be circumcised or not. Christ has given himself for our sins, there is nothing we need to do, indeed nothing we can do, to rescue ourselves. We have been rescued by the only one who could do so. And it is Christ who has rescued us from “the present evil age”. Observance of the Law could not and cannot do that, and there is no need for it to do so. Everything is in Christ and in Christ alone. Moreover, this plan was “according to the will of our God and Father”. The Judaisers would have argued that the Galatians needed to get circumcised in order to really please God. This was not true. Total salvation in Christ and in Christ alone is God’s plan.