In this episode, we are going to jump into a new series from the book of Galatians. This series of teachings were delivered at Ariel Chapel in Norman Oklahoma back in 2011 and overlapped into 2012. Paul’s letter to Galatia, like many other books, has its own theme. For example, the theme of the book of Romans’ is Justification by Faith. The theme of Ephesians is the Church. The theme of Philippians is the joy of the Holy Spirit. Well, Galatians has a theme too, and it is one that was very special to dad. So much so that it became the focus of his entire ministry and basically his life. You see the theme of Paul's letter to Galatia is salvation through grace or as Pastor Harris would go on to call it, “Relational Grace”.
So let me provide a little background to help set up this initial message. You see, Paul initially wrote this letter to address the mammoth problem that had originated in the churches in Asia Minor or what we would know today as modern Turkey. Galatians were noted for their impetuosity, fickleness and love for new and curious things. Paul established churches in Galatia on his first missionary journey. And revisited them on his third missionary journey. Paul considered them to be the first fruits of his missionary outreach to the world. However, the believers had proven to not be stable. They had begun to accept the idea that Grace was not sufficient for salvation. This idea was birthed as the result of a vicious virus known as legalism. And this virus had infected their body. So how did this virus germinate? It was actually a fairly sad tale. And Pastor Harris will discuss the origins of this virus in this episode.
You can expect this series to take us through the majority of the book of Galatians. However, the goal of this teaching series is not to simply go through the book of Galatians scripture by scripture. No, Pastor Harris’s goal with this series is to drive home the understanding that it is Jesus plus nothing. Stop. Period. This is the point he continues to help us understand, and from many different angles.