Courage - The Price of Freedom

Galatians 1:18-2:10

INTRODUCTION

The theme of Christian freedom runs through Paul's letter to the Galatians. In Galatians 2:4, Paul spoke about " . . . some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves." It can also be said that Galatians is about courage. Courage is the price we pay for freedom. Elmer Davis was a news commentator in the early days of radio. He once said of our country, "This will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave."

In the spiritual realm there are two opposing philosophies that we constantly face. We often use the labels "liberalism" and "legalism" to describe these clashing philosophies. Such labels have limited value because they mean different things to different people. If you will allow me the privilege of defining terms, I'll use them as a convenient means of dividing the territory.

• Liberalism, as used in this study, refers to a philosophy that seeks to eliminate all restraint. The most extreme example would be summed up in the cliché "If it feels good, do it."
• Legalism, as used in this study, promotes the belief that we can achieve righteousness through our own efforts.

Both philosophies pervert, distort and deny the gospel and threaten our freedom in Christ. By lifting restraint, liberalism enslaves us to our own passions. By turning salvation into a work of man rather than a work of God, legalism enslaves us to human performance and frustrates us because our performance is never adequate.

Courage must be displayed if we are to avoid being swayed by the libertine on the one hand and the dogmatist on the other. Paul was a man who had these matters in perspective and our text opens up our thinking to his thoughts on the matter.

PAUL'S POST-CONVERSION EXPERIENCES

To follow his thought patterns, we need to retreat backward into some of the verses we covered in a previous lesson.

Galatians 1:15-16
But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man. . .

If Paul didn't compare his understanding of things with others, what did he do after his conversion? According to Acts 9:20 " . . . he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. " His courage asserted itself right then and there. He started toward Damascus with an agenda - that agenda was to arrest Christians. The one place where he would have found the highest approval rating for his agenda would have been the synagogue. Don't miss the picture here. Ananias baptized Paul and then he headed for the synagogue to preach the very message he had been fighting. Think what might happen today if a converted Muslim, went back to a Shiite mosque to preach Christ. I would probably admire the guy's courage and question his judgment. Paul displayed that level of courage when he preached the gospel in the synagogue.

To figure out what happened to Paul, we have to go back and forth between Acts and Galatians. There are gaps in both accounts. Acts has no record of what happened after Paul preached in the synagogue. But Galatians 1:17 says that he went into Arabia.

Then sometime later, he returned to Damascus. It really isn't clear whether the three years mentioned in verse 18 covers the time he was in Arabia or if it covers all the time between his departure from Damascus and his return to Jerusalem. Acts 9:23 speaks of "many days" and you figure there's a considerable amount of time compression in Luke's comments in Acts.

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