I want to perform a wedding for you. I would like to officiate at the marriage between you and the Letter to the Galatians. Letters from God, unlike people, are allowed to have many spouses. I have already taken my vows. I have married Paul’s letter to the Galatians, like Martin Luther before me.

What a book! What a book! Four pages of pure spiritual dynamite. The mighty Paul—livid with anger, bewildered with perplexity, groaning in childbirth until he bring forth Christ-filled churches. The great doctrine of justification by faith—sweetest music to a guilty conscience, mightiest achievement of the cross, unshakable foundation for a brand new life of power. The torrent of conflict between flesh and spirit—raging even in the holiest saint (yes, especially in the holiest saint!), fought with everything at stake, absolutely everything (“Those who do such things shall not enter the Kingdom of God”), won or lost on a cosmic field. For God is in this war. God the Holy Spirit wars against the flesh and does mighty miracles where his word of promise is heard with faith.

And freedom! “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand fast, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

And love! “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.”

And the crucified life with Christ alive within! “I am crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”

He loved me!

He loved me!

He loved me!

He loved me!

O, how Paul cherished the gospel of the love of Christ! “We did not yield submission for a moment that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you!” This book is the preservation of the gospel for Bethlehem Baptist Church. It is for you. Marry it! Marry it!

We will hold the wedding services beginning next Sunday morning. I begin a series of messages on Paul’s letter to the Galatians. If 1982 was the year of 2 Peter and the Minor Prophets, 1983 will be the year of Galatians and …?

We are hungry to know the power of God at Bethlehem. Galatians has exploded more than once in church history. O God, light the fuse again! Please pray for the messages—before and after. Many of you will want to pray during the services in the overflow room. Many of you will want to study along. Marry the book and be faithful.

The children you bear will be the fruit of the Spirit!

In love with my other wife,

Pastor John