No. 15. >> In the book of Romans Paul states that he is unashamed of the Gospel. Does Paul make a similar statement in his letter to the Galatians? >>DR. ARTHUR A. JUST, JR.: David, that is such an astute question. Because what it does is it brings up the epistle to the Romans. And I think this would be a good point to ask about the relationship between Galatians and Romans. Now, you're going to be studying the book of Romans, too. And they are very similar. I think Galatians everybody believes is before Romans. And it is in Galatians that Paul first uses the language of justification by grace through faith. In many ways Galatians is explained in more detail in a systematic kind of theological doctrinal way by Romans. And when Paul says he is not ashamed of the Gospel in Romans, he first makes that statement to the Galatians here in his epistle to them. Now, I call it epistle. But I really believe it's a sermon. It's a homily. And what Paul is repreaching them is the Gospel for all it is. Now, I haven�t mentioned -- and maybe this is a good time to do it -- that I'm following an outline that you have before you by Moises Silva, a very conservative man who is now retired from Gordon-Conwell Seminary in Boston. He wrote a wonderful book about Galatians as a test case for how to do interpretation of Scripture. And he has I think a very solid reasonable outline. I don't always agree with it. But I think he does a really nice job here of showing that the first part is an opening. And then the occasion for the letter. And the occasion for the letter is the Gospel. That's the theme of this letter. What is the Gospel? Is the Gospel alone by grace through faith enough? Or do you have to add something to it? Paul is not ashamed of the pure Gospel. And later on when he writes the letter to the Romans, which as we're going to see is much later, he still has the same passion for the Gospel and the Gospel alone that he had here in the Galatian letter homily. Now, we're going to see how he talks about the Gospel in various ways. And at this point, if this is in fact his first letter, he is setting forth for the first time what he understands the Gospel to be. So far he hasn't really defined it. Except that he has given the greeting of grace and peace. He's talked about how Jesus is the one who gave himself on behalf of our sins according to the will of God, our Father. And that he has rescued us out of this present evil age. Paul is going to use a number of different ways of speaking about the Gospel in this letter. One of course of which is justification. Another is new creation. He's going to talk about adoption of sons. We're going to look at all of these as we go through. But the fundamental point for Paul is that Jesus Christ is the Christ, the Messiah who has come to Jerusalem to give up his life for the world. What is underlying the Galatian letter, homily, is the life of Jesus, the narrative of Jesus' life. The gospels themselves, namely Matthew probably at this point and later Mark, Luke and John. Paul builds his theology upon the foundation of Jesus Christ and his teachings in the gospels. We don't hear him quote the gospels much. In fact, very little. But we do know that it is the fundamental reality that Jesus Christ broke into our world, became one of us, just like our creed speaks of, suffered, died, rose and ascended into heaven. That that is at the heart of the Gospel for Paul. And that is the Gospel that he is not ashamed to preach, not only to the Galatians, but to the Corinthians, to the Ephesians, to the Romans, to anybody who'll listen.