Galatians 1: 10 (I Fear that Man has somehow become bigger than God)

Summary:  Paul is continuing his defense of the Gospel with logic.  He begs the question as to whether or not he serves man or God.  Following this question he states another question: or am I trying to please man?  According to this text it follows that if the answer to the previous question is yes, then it must follow that that person would not be a follower of Christ.

                Timeless Principle:  One way to break down this text is to simply begin with Paul’s question.  The first question is that of “am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?”  Here it may be noted that a possible reason that he asks this is that essentially the church in Galatia was trying please man, specifically the judaizers who had been “troubling” them, in submitting to the laws of men despite the freedom that they had been given in Christ.  Now perhaps it would be fitting for us to answer this question on our own.  Am I, Canaan, now seeking the approval of man, or of God?  The answer, at least is my own heart, is often man.  Inherently, in this action of submitting to the bondage of man’s opinion, I am creating a couple of ideas in my heart.  First I am telling God that he is small.  I am saying even confidently it my ignorance that a perfectly omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God is insignificant.  My value no longer comes from the resurrected Christ.  God is dwarfed in my heart and in my sin, man is made to be giant.  The opinions of a finite man now drown out the splendor of the king.  This is dangerous, deadly even.  When I serve man, I constantly want more and more approval, even in my best attempts in some way my life or my actions fall short.  I am saying essentially that what matters isn’t the fact that Christ values me so much that he willingly submitted himself to death, but rather what matters is how many pats on the back I get from deprived sinners who, like me, declared war against God in their sin. 

                God, by his very nature and by his own perfect character, is a jealous God (see Exo. 20, Deut. 5).  God longs for our attention, he begs for our love.  God created us in his image for his glory.  So then if this true then we must then consider that in serving man, we are bringing a holy God to indignation.  Perhaps this is why Paul states that if a man were trying to serve man then he cannot be a servant of Christ.  Jesus, in his famous sermon on the mount, says this, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will love the one and hate the other.”  We cannot serve two masters; therefore, we cannot worship both God and man.  It is this simple.  God by his nature will not and cannot justly allow this idolatry (see Exo. 34: 7, Nahum 1:1-3).  We must make war against our desire to please man.  This might lead you to another question: how?  The answer is found in the Gospel.  We must remind ourselves of our worth in Christ.  Think about it this way, we are loved by the Father not because we were the biggest, or the mightiest, where in fact we are the weakest.  We are loved by him simply because he has chosen to love us.  He has loved us with a love that denied his son’s agonizing appeal in Gethsemane three times eventually crushing him on a roman cross.  This is what we fight our man-loving idolatry with, we fight it with the truth of where our true value comes from, Christ alone.  Thinking about these things, read this hymn for the very first time:

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless Babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live, I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again

And as He stands in victory
Sins curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From a lifes first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell, no scheme of man
Could ever pluck me from His hand
Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I stand

My Prayer:  Father, I am constantly falling and being held captive to man’s opinion of me.  Lord I Know that it is no good for a free man to return to the slavery that he has been slave driver.  And so I pray that as I fight the lies of man with the Gospel that your word would pierce my heart and kill my treacherous desire for the approval of man.  I pray that this would be true for all people who have given up their lives to follow hard after you.  I ask these things in Christ’s name, Amen.