Galatians: The Gospel of God’s Grace

#4:  Giving Up On the Gospel Galatians 1:1‑9

Introduction –Paul Under Attack

Someone has likened the letter to the Galatians to a sword flashing in a great swordsman's hand.  Both Paul and his gospel were under attack.  If that attack had succeeded, Christianity might have become just another Jewish sect, might have become a thing dependent upon circumcision and on keeping the law, instead of being a thing of grace.  It is strange to think that, if Paul's opponents had had their way, the gospel might have been kept for Jews and we might never have had the chance to know the love of Christ.

PAUL'S APOSTLESHIP ATTACKED

It is impossible for a man to possess a vivid personality and a strong character like Paul and not encounter opposition; and equally impossible for a man to lead such a revolution in religious thought as he did and not be attacked.  The first attack was on his apostleship.  There were many to say that he was no apostle at all.

From their own point of view they were right.  In Acts 1:21, 22 we have the basic definition of an apostle.  Judas the traitor had committed suicide; it was necessary to fill the blank made in the apostolic band.  They define the man to be chosen as one who must be "one of these men who were with us during all the time our Lord went in and out amongst us, beginning from the baptism of John, until the day he was taken from us" and "a witness of the Resurrection."  To be an apostle a man must have companied with Jesus during his earthly life and have witnessed his Resurrection.  That qualification Paul obviously did not fulfil.  Further, not so very long ago he had been the arch-persecutor of the Christian Church.

In the very first verse of the letter Paul answers that.  Proudly he insists that his apostleship is from no human source and that no human hand ordained him to that office, but that he received his call direct from God.  Others might have the qualifications demanded when the first blank in the apostolic band was filled; but he had a unique qualification-he had met Christ face to face on the Damascus Road.

INDEPENDENCE AND AGREEMENT

Further, Paul insists that for his message he was dependent on no man.  That is why in chapters 1 and 2 he carefully details his visits to Jerusalem.  He is insisting that he is not preaching some second-hand message which he received from a man; he is preaching a message which he received direct from Christ.  But Paul was no anarchist.  He insisted that, although his message was received in entire independence, it yet had received the full approval of those who were the acknowledged leaders of the Christian Church (2:6-10).  The gospel he preached came direct from God to him; but it was a gospel in full agreement with the faith delivered to the Church.

THE JUDAIZERS

But that gospel was under attack as well.  It was a struggle which had to come and a battle which had to be fought.  There were Jews who had accepted Christianity; but they believed that all God's promises and gifts were for Jews alone and that no Gentile could be admitted to these precious privileges.  They therefore believed that Christianity was for Jews and Jews alone.  If Christianity was God's greatest gift to men, that was all the more reason that none but Jews should be allowed to enjoy it.  In a way that was inevitable.  There was a type of Jew who arrogantly believed in the idea of the chosen people.  He could say the most terrible things-"God loves only Israel of all the nations he has made."  "God will judge Israel with one measure and the Gentiles with another."  "The best of the snakes crush; the best of the Gentiles kill."  "God created the Gentiles to be fuel for the fires of Hell."  This was the spirit which made the law lay it down that it was illegal to help a Gentile mother in her sorest hour, for that would only be to bring another Gentile into the world.  When this type of Jew saw Paul bringing the gospel to the despised Gentile, he was appalled and infuriated.

THE LAW

There was a way out of this.  If a Gentile wished to become a Christian, let him become a Jew first.  What did that mean?  It meant that he must be circumcised and take the whole burden of the law upon him.  That, for Paul, was the opposite of all that Christianity meant.  It meant that a man's salvation was dependent on his ability to keep the law and could be won by his own unaided efforts; whereas, to Paul salvation was entirely a thing of grace.  He believed that no man could ever earn the favour of God.  All he could do was accept the love God offered him by making an act of faith and flinging himself on his mercy.  The Jew would go to God saying, "Look!  Here is my circumcision.  Here are my works.  Give me the salvation I have earned." 

For him the essential thing was, not what a man could do for God, but what God had done for him.

"But," the Jews argued, "the greatest thing in our national life is the law.  God gave that law to Moses and on it our very lives depend."  Paul replied, "Wait one moment.  Who is the founder of our nation?  To whom were the greatest of God's promises given?"  Of course, the answer is Abraham.  "Now," went on Paul, "how was it that Abraham gained the favour of God?  He could not have gained it by keeping the law because he lived four hundred and thirty years before the law was given to Moses.  He gained it by an act of faith.  When God told him to leave his people and go out, Abraham made a sublime act of faith and went, trusting everything to him.  It was faith that saved Abraham, not law; and," Paul continues, "it is faith that must save every man, not deeds of the law.  The real son of Abraham is not a man racially descended from him but one who, no matter his race, makes the same surrender of faith to God."

THE LAW AND GRACE

If all this be true, one very serious question arises-what then is the place of the law?  It cannot be denied that it was given by God; does this emphasis on grace simply wipe it out?

The law has its own place in the scheme of things.  First, it tells men what sin is.  If there is no law, a man cannot break it and there can be no such thing as sin.  Second, and most important, the law really drives a man to the grace of God.  The trouble about the law is that because we are sinful men we can never keep it perfectly.  Its effect, therefore, is to show a man his weakness and to drive him to a despair in which he sees that there is nothing left but to throw himself on the mercy and the love of God.  The law convinces us of our own insufficiency and in the end compels us to admit that the only thing which can save us is the grace of God.  In other words the law is an essential stage on the way to that grace.

In this epistle Paul's great theme is the glory of the grace of God and the necessity of realizing that we can never save ourselves.

The lad at my front door was trying to sell me a subscription to a weekly newspaper, and he was very persuasive. “It only costs a quarter a week,” he said, “and the best thing about this newspaper is that it prints only the good news!”

In a world filled with trouble, it is becoming more and more difficult to find any “good news,” so perhaps the newspaper was a bargain after all. To the person who has trusted Christ as Saviour, the real “Good News” is the Gospel: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures . . . He was buried, and . . . He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4). It is the Good News that sinners can be forgiven and go to heaven because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross. The Good News of salvation through faith in Christ is the most important message in the world.

This message had changed Paul’s life and, through him, the lives of others. But now this message was being attacked, and Paul was out to defend the truth of the Gospel. Some false teachers had invaded the churches of Galatia—churches Paul had founded—and were teaching a different message from that which Paul had taught.

One way to deny the truthfulness of a message is to deny the authority of the one who gives it. The Galatian church had received the true gospel of grace from Paul and had believed it until some false teachers came in after he was gone. They not only attacked the validity of the message but also that of the messenger. Apparently the Judaizers had convinced some of the Galatian church members that Paul was a self-appointed apostle with no divine commission. So at the outset of the letter Paul dispensed with the usual personal greetings and immediately began to establish the genuineness of his apostolic authority, which he later (1:11-2:21) expands on in detail.

In this brief salutation Paul summarizes his authority (his right to speak), his message (the truths he speaks), and his motive (his reason for speaking).

Several years ago a friend of mine was working in his garage. He was the kind of person who did not like to be interrupted while engaged in a project. Knowing this, his wife walked into the garage and stood quietly at his side for several minutes, waiting for the proper time to speak. At last her husband looked up, the signal that she was free to say what was on her mind. Very calmly, and without a trace of panic, she said, “The house is on fire.”

As you begin to read Paul’s letter to the Galatian Christians, you can tell immediately that something is radically wrong, because he does not open his letter with his usual praise to God and prayer for the saints. He has no time! Paul is about to engage in a battle for the truth of the Gospel and the liberty of the Christian life. False teachers are spreading a false “gospel” which is a mixture of Law and grace, and Paul is not going to stand by and do nothing.

There definitely is a time to forsake the customary, polite, social graces and bluntly state the problem. The burning house was a time for immediate communication. Likewise, the desertion of the churches of Galatia from the teaching of Paul and from the gospel of God’s grace was the time for the sounding of the alarm. Paul had little time to waste in polite introductions, for the problem facing these churches could have had devastating results.

It is possible that this epistle to the Galatians is the first letter of the Apostle Paul. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to compare the way Paul begins this letter with his customary introduction. The way you and I begin and end our personal letters is quite similar in form, if not in content. As customary in the letters of that day, Paul’s letters had a predictable form.[1] There was an initial greeting, a prayer or petition for grace and peace, thanksgiving to God, the body of the letter, personal greetings, and a farewell.

In this letter the thanksgiving section, present in Paul’s other epistles (Rom. 1:8; 1 Cor. 1:4; 2 Cor. 1:3; Eph. 1:3; Phil. 1:3; 1 Thess. 1:3; 2 Thess. 1:2), is missing. Instead, Paul bluntly expresses his dismay: “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel” (Gal. 1:6). Something was seriously wrong in the churches of Galatia to prompt such a sobering introduction. A careful reading of the entire epistle confirms this observation. The gospel which Paul had preached and which these Christians had accepted was somehow quickly set aside for other teaching.

The study of the Book of Galatians is of critical importance to Christians today. Not only do we learn of a departure from the gospel in ancient days, but we shall see that there is similar error being proclaimed today. Many Christians have accepted this divergence from the gospel, not knowing the seriousness of their error. It is important for us to understand what the Galatian error was so that we can recognize similar false teaching today. God‑willing, we will reject false teaching for what it is—a departure from the gospel by which we have been saved.

Before we begin our study there are two introductory matters which we need to discuss at the outset. First, we must understand where “the churches of Galatia” were located. Secondly, we must agree upon the date of the writing of the epistle, for it helps define the region of “Galatia.”

The North and South Galatian Theories

The difficulty in determining what Paul meant by the term “Galatia” results from the fact that “Galatia” can be used in two ways: first, it can refer to the whole Roman administrative district (especially the southern part of this district), such as we find on the map in the back of many Bibles, or secondly, it can designate ethnic Galatia (only the northern portion of this district). Older scholars tended to support the latter view, while more recent scholars[2] seem inclined toward the former. Let me summarize the reasons why the evidence for the South Galatian theory seems to outweigh that for the North Galatian theory:

(1) In his epistles Paul used the Roman provincial names, while in Acts Luke used the ethnic designations.[3] We would therefore expect Paul to be speaking of the larger territory, which included the southern portion of Galatia.

(2) Acts 14 describes the missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas (who is named in the Galatian letter) to “South Galatia,” while any missionary efforts in ethnic Gala­tia are much more hypothetical. We have no evidence of any churches being established by Paul in the north, while ample evidence exists of the establishment of churches in the south.

(3) Since the Jewish populace was greater in the south than in the north, a problem with Judaizers would be more likely in that region. In Galatians Paul assumes his readers have a fair knowledge of the Old Testament and of Judaism, which would have been more likely in the south. We also know from Acts 14 that there was consi­derable opposition to Paul’s preaching in the cities of “South Galatia.”

I have to smile to myself as I share these arguments in favor of the “South Galatian theory” with you. As a seminary student, I was sick when I took the final exam for New Testament Survey. Naturally, the professor asked us to defend one position or the other. I was not able to defend either, and I always felt badly about that. At least now I can answer the question. Having done so, let me emphasize that godly men have taken both positions, and the true scholars are those who give careful thought to both sides and who cautiously express a preference for one or the other. In the final analysis, much thought is given to this problem only because of its bearing on the dating of this epistle.

The Writing of Galatians in Relation to the Jerusalem Council

We have already studied the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 as background for the study of the Book of Galatians. Based upon what I have already said, it might appear that Galatians was written after the Jerusalem Council. Indeed, some scholars believe this to be the case. I am still of the opinion, however, that the Book of Galatians was written sometime shortly before the Council.

Understanding this epistle to be written to those churches in “South Galatia,” we can tentatively outline the events leading to the Jerusalem Council. Paul and Barnabas had gone forth in their first missionary journey, traveling to the “South Galatian” cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. Paul and Barnabas then returned to Syrian Antioch, where they spent a considerable time (Acts 14:28). Peter had come to Antioch to see how this church was doing, and fell into hypocrisy when some other Jews from Jerusalem arrived. Paul thus rebuked Peter publicly (Gal. 2:11‑21).

While in Antioch, Paul must have received word that some of the saints were already falling prey to the teaching of the Judaizers. The arrival of Judaizers in Antioch would have intensified Paul’s concern. A letter to the Galatian churches was then written some time before the Jerusalem Council. Naturally, no mention of the Council’s decision would be included in the letter.

THE TRUMPET CALL OF THE GOSPEL

To the people of Galatia there had come people saying that Paul was not really an apostle and that they need not listen to what he had to say.  They based their belittlement on the fact that he had not been one of the original twelve, that, in fact, he had been the most savage of all persecutors of the Church, and that he held, as it were, no official appointment from the leaders of the Church.  Paul's answer was not an argument; it was a statement.  He owed his apostleship to no man but to a day on the Damascus Road when he had met Jesus Christ face to face.  His office and his task had been given him direct from God.

(i)  Paul was certain that God had spoken to him.  Leslie Weatherhead tells of a boy who decided to become a minister.  He was asked when he had come to that decision and he replied that it was after hearing a certain sermon in his school chapel.  He was asked the name of the preacher who had wrought such an effect upon him.  His answer was, "I do not know the preacher's name; but I know that God spoke to me that day."

In the last analysis no man can make another a minister or a servant of God.  Only God himself can do that.  The real test of a Christian is not whether or not he has gone through certain ceremonies and taken certain vows; it is, has he seen Christ face to face?  An old Jewish priest called Ebed-Tob said of the office which he held, "It was not my father or my mother who installed me in this place, but the arm of the Mighty King gave it to me."

(ii)  The real reason for Paul's ability to toil and to suffer was that he was certain his task had been given him by God.  He regarded every effort demanded from him as a God-given task.

It is not only men like Paul who have a task from God; to every man God gives his task.  It may be one of which all men will know and which history will remember or it may be one of which no one will ever hear; but in either case it is a task for God. 

Tagore has a poem like this:

"At midnight the would-be ascetic announced:

"This is the time to give up my home and seek for God.  Ah, who has held me so long in delusion here?'

God whispered, 'I,' but the ears of the man were stopped.

With a baby asleep at her breast lay his wife, peacefully sleeping on one side of the bed.

The man said, 'Who are ye that have fooled me so long?'

The voice said again, 'They are God,' but he heard it not.

The baby cried out in its dream, nestling close to its mother.

God commanded, 'Stop, fool, leave not thy home,' but still he heard not.

God sighed and complained, 'Why does my servant wander to seek me, forsaking me?'"

Many humble tasks are a divine apostolate.  As Burns had it,

To mak' a happy fire-side clime For weans and wife, That's the true pathos and sublime O' human life.

Paul's God-given task was to evangelize a world; to most of us it will simply be to make one or two folk happy in the little circle of those most dear.

Right at the beginning of his letter Paul sums up his wishes and prayers for his friends in two tremendous words.

(i)  He wishes them grace.  There are two main ideas in this word.  The first is that of sheer beauty.  The Greek word charis means grace in the theological sense; but it always means beauty and charm; and even when theologically used the idea of charm is never far away from it.  If the Christian life has grace in it, it must be a lovely thing.  Far too often goodness exists without charm and charm without goodness.  It is when goodness and charm unite that the work of grace is seen.  The second idea is that of undeserved generosity, of a gift, which a man never deserved and could never earn, given to him in the generous love of God.  When Paul prays for grace on his friends, it is as if he were saying, "May the beauty of the undeserved love of God be on you, so that it will make your life lovely, too."

(ii)  He wishes them peace.  Paul was a Jew, and the Jewish word shalom must have been in his mind, even as he wrote the Greek eirene.  Shalom means far more than the mere absence of trouble.  It means everything which is to a man's highest good, everything which will make his mind pure, his will resolute and his heart glad.  It is that sense of the love and care of God, which, even if his body is tortured, can keep a man's heart serene.

Finally, Paul sums up in one sentence of infinite meaning the heart and the work of Jesus Christ.  "He gave himself . . .  to rescue us."  (i)  The love of Christ is a love which gave and suffered.  (ii)  The love of Christ is a love which conquered and achieved.  In this life the tragedy of love is that it is so often frustrated; but the love of Christ is backed by an infinite power which nothing can frustrate and which can rescue its loved one from the bondage of sin.

Paul the Apostle (1:1)

“Paul, an apostle (not sent from men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead),”

AUTHOR: Paul, the Apostle.

There is little if any question of Paul’s authorship.

DATE: Uncertain. Somewhere between A.D. 48-60. Some scholars hold an early date of A.D. 48-50 and some a later date of A.D. 51-60.

TO WHOM WRITTEN: “To the churches of Galatia” (Galatians 1:2).

Some believe the letter was written to churches in southern Galatia, others to churches in northern Galatia. Acts 13 and Acts 14 are a record of the southern mission. There is no account in Acts of a northern venture.

PURPOSE: To vindicate Paul’s call by God and the gospel of grace.

Paul and the gospel of Christ were both under attack. Some false teachers, who were professing Jewish Christians (called Judaizers), were teaching a double error. They taught (1) that a person was saved partly by faith and partly by works, and (2) that a person grew in Christ partly by faith and partly by his own effort. A person had to believe in Christ, yes, but he also...

·                                          had to undergo the main ritual of religion which was circumcision (compare baptism, church membership, and other requirements today).

·                                          had to observe all the ceremonies and rituals of religion.

Of course, Paul did not teach this. He taught something different—that a man is saved by Christ and by Christ alone. His message was the message of God’s grace, of pure grace. A person does not win, earn, or merit salvation. A person is saved by the grace of God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of this, the Judaizers charged Paul with deceit: his apostleship was a false claim of his own making, created in his own imagination. They said that he was not a true minister of God—not a true apostle as he claimed, for he minimized the law of God and no true minister would ever minimize the law of God.

Paul thus sits down and pens Galatians to combat these charges. Writing with great force and stern insistence, he lays down the wonder of God, the wonder of God’s glorious grace.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

1.  The Area of Galatia. Galatia was a district that stretched across the middle of Asia Minor. The Galatian district sat in the highlands, several thousand feet above sea level. It was formerly settled by the Gauls. The cities visited by Paul stretched across southern Galatia. They were Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Pisidion, and Antioch of Pisidia. There is no record of Paul ever visiting northern Galatia.

The native Galatians were themselves an emotional, impulsive, and changeable people. They were an impetuous, fickle, arguing, loud, boastful, and immoral people. They had a love for the strange, the curious, the unknown. They were attached to a religion that was mainly the worship of nature. The area was also heavily populated by Jews who clung to their staunch Judaistic religion. Greeks were also numerous and gave the area a strong Hellenistic influence. The nature and strange mixture of people in southern Galatia can be seen in their treatment of Paul. They could both worship and stone him (Acts 14:13-19).

2.  The churches in Galatia. Paul visited Galatia on his first and third missionary journeys (Acts 13:14; Acts 18:23f). He was forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach in Galatia on his second mission (Acts 16:6).

The church was spiritually immature. The very reason for Paul writing the Epistle was to deal with the basic doctrine of Christianity: salvation by grace. As one would expect, there were Gentile converts in the churches. In Acts 20:4 Paul lists the delegates who were going to Jerusalem with him. There is at least one Gentile delegate, perhaps two, from Galatia. This would point to a large group of Gentiles within the churches. There was also a large number of Jewish converts. The problem of mixing the law with grace is evidence of an influential body of Jewish members.

3.  Galatians is “The Heart of the Gospel.” Man must receive the gospel by faith. He does not work for it by keeping the law. The law does not produce faith. It only works a curse. Therefore, Christ Himself has to redeem man. But man must go beyond receiving the gospel; he must live it out in his life. This is done by the power of the cross and by the power of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:1-6:18).

The one point Paul makes is that man cannot earn or win or do anything for salvation. Human effort is nothing more than a fleshly sign, a sign that is born within man himself, of his own thought and energy. It is earthly, and the earthly and corruptible perishes. The works of men and of the law do not last. Human effort is not of a spiritual or eternal nature. It has nothing to do with spirit. Salvation is a free gift of God. It is eternal and lasting. It is spiritual. Therefore, salvation is by the grace of God and by the grace of God alone.

4.  Galatians is “The Message of Liberty, yet Subjection; of Unity, yet Diversity; of Oneness, yet Difference.”

a. There is a recognition that Gentiles do not have to live as Jews, and Jews do not have to live as Gentiles (Galatians 2:11f). Paul never says it is wrong for Jews to be circumcised. He never says it is wrong for them to keep the law or to observe special festivals. What he says is that these have nothing to do with salvation. Customs and practices differ, but salvation never differs. There is only one way to be saved: by the grace of God.

b. There is also a recognition that ministers are not all alike (Galatians 2:1f). They are not all called to serve the same kinds of people, nor are ministers themselves called to observe the same customs and life-styles. Paul was called to the Gentiles; Peter to the Jews. The customs and life-styles of Gentiles and Jews differed radically. Yet both Paul and Peter were still ministers of the same Lord.

c. There is also a recognition that all Christians are to fellowship and share with one another, and they are to cooperate. Paul just could not see how two different groups of Christians could be in the same place and refuse to eat with one another because of some theological difference (Galatians 2:11f). This was the very point that brought about the crises. And Paul came down hard upon it—fighting tooth and nail for a gospel of grace and a life to match that grace.

5.  Galatians has been called “The Magna Charta of the Church.” God has used its message to stir world revivals in former generations. The great spiritual awakening of Martin Luther and of the Reformation was stirred as Luther studied its message. John Wesley received peace of heart—peace for which he had so long searched—when he heard a sermon preached from Galatians.

The message of Galatians will pierce the heart of any generation and stir it to action—if that generation will just hear and heed its message.

He Explains His Authority (Gal. 1:1-5)

(1:1-5) Introduction: Paul’s greeting to the Galatians is different from his greetings to other churches. He was writing under heavy stress and strain. False teachers and critics had arisen in the church who were criticizing and attacking him. They were questioning his call to the ministry and his authority as God’s messenger. Some were even questioning the very gospel itself. Therefore, the usual affection expressed toward churches and individuals is missing. From the very first sentence his writing is abrupt. He assails the Galatian churches with words straight to the point: he is a true minister of God, a true apostle and messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ.

     1.     He is commissioned by God alone (v.1).

     2.     He is recognized as God’s man by Christian believers (v.2).

     3.     He wishes the very best for other believers (v.3).

     4.     He proclaims the work of Christ (v.4-5).

Later on in his letter, Paul will deal with the Galatians on the basis of affection (Gal. 4:12-20); but at the outset he is careful to let them know the authority he has from the Lord. He has three sources of authority.

His ministry (vv. 1-2).

“Paul, an apostle.”

(1:1) Minister—Call—Apostle: the minister of God is called and commissioned by God alone. There were those in the church who questioned Paul’s call and ministry, questioned if he had really been called by God to be a minister. They were set on destroying Paul’s ministry. Why?

Þ Because he had lived such a terrible life before his conversion: he had been the savage persecutor of believers.

Þ Because he was not one of the select officials of the church; that is, he had not been taught by the Lord Himself when the Lord was on earth. This was one of the basic qualifications for being recognized as an apostle.

Þ Because he had not been appointed by the official or mother church, that is, the home church of the apostles, the church in Jerusalem (cp. Galatians 1:17-18).

Þ Because he by-passed the religious forms and rituals of the official church (cp. Galatians 4:9-10; Galatians 5:6; Galatians 6:12-15).

Þ Because he preached a different message than the official church: that a person is not saved by ritual and works, but by the love and grace of God demonstrated in the death of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:4-9; Galatians 2:16; Galatians 3:1f, esp. Galatians 2:10-11).

Paul answered his critics in no uncertain terms: he was an apostle (apostolos). The word apostle means a person called and sent forth on a very special commission. The apostle...

·          is like an ambassador who is sent forth to represent the Person who called and appointed him.

·          is like a very special messenger who is called and sent forth to proclaim the message of the Sender.

·          is like a very special minister who is called and sent forth to serve as the Leader wills.

·          is like a very special servant who is called and sent forth to do the bidding of the Master.

Note that Paul was not arguing with his critics: he was declaring that God had called and appointed him to the ministry. He was making his call a part of his personal testimony (Acts 9:1f; Acts 22:7f; Acts 26:16f; 1 Cor. 9:1).

     1.   His call and ministry were “not of men, neither by man.”

Þ “Not of men”: men were not the source of his call and ministry. His call had not come from man.

Þ “Neither by man”: no man had qualified or made him fit for the ministry. He was not made a minister by man.

2.  His call and ministry were by Jesus Christ and God the Father.

Þ        Note that Jesus Christ is placed side by side with God the Father. This is a crucial fact, for it means that Paul’s call and ministry came from the highest source possible: from both God the Father and God the Son.

Note also that Jesus Christ is said to be raised from the dead. Therefore, Paul’s call and ministry came from the Risen and Living Lord Himself. He was called to serve the Living Lord, the very same Lord served by the twelve apostles. If they were true ministers, then he also was a true minister, for he had been called by the same Living Lord who had been raised from the dead by God the Father.

In the early days of the church, God called special men to do special tasks. Among them were the apostles. The word means “one who is sent with a commission.” While He was ministering on earth, Jesus had many disciples (“learners”), and from these He selected 12 Apostles (Mark 3:13-19). Later, one of the requirements for an apostle was that he have witnessed the Resurrection (Acts 1:21-22; 2:32; 3:15). Of course, Paul himself was neither a disciple nor an apostle during Christ’s earthly ministry, but he had seen the risen Lord and been commissioned by Him (Acts 9:1-18; 1 Cor. 9:1).

Paul’s miraculous conversion and call to apostleship created some problems. From the very beginning, he was apart from the original Apostles. His enemies said that he was not a true apostle for this reason. Paul is careful to point out that he had been made an apostle by Jesus Christ just as much as had the original Twelve. His apostleship was not from human selection and approval, but by divine appointment. Therefore, he had the authority to deal with the problems in the Galatian churches.

But in his ministry, Paul had a second basis for authority: he had founded the churches in Galatia. He was not writing to them as a stranger, but as the one who had brought them the message of life in the beginning! This letter reveals Paul’s affection for these believers (see Gal. 4:12-19). Unfortunately, this affection was not being returned to him.

This matter of the founding of the Galatian churches has kept serious Bible students at work for many years. The problem stems from the meaning of the word Galatia. Several hundred years before the birth of Christ, some fierce tribes migrated from Gaul (modern France) into Asia Minor, and founded Galatia, which simply means “the country of the Gauls.” When the Romans reorganized the ancient world, they made Galatia a part of a larger province that included several other areas, and they called the entire province Galatia. So, back in Paul’s day, when a person talked about Galatia, you could not be sure whether he meant the smaller country of Galatia or the larger Roman province.

Bible students are divided over whether Paul wrote to churches in the country of Galatia or in the province of Galatia. The former view is called the “north Galatian theory” and the latter the “south Galatian theory.” The matter is not finally settled, but the evidence seems to indicate that Paul wrote to churches in the southern part of the province of Galatia—Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe—churches he founded on his first missionary journey (Acts 13-14).

Paul always had a loving concern for his converts and a deep desire to see the churches he had founded glorify Christ (see Acts 15:36; 2 Cor. 11:28). He was not content to lead men and women to Christ and then abandon them. (For an example of his “after-care,” read 1 Thes. 2.)

When Paul heard that false teachers had begun to capture his converts and lead them astray, he was greatly concerned—and rightly so. After all, teaching new Christians how to live for Christ is as much a part of Christ’s commission as winning them (Matt. 28:19-20). Sad to say, many of the Galatian Christians had turned away from Paul, their “spiritual father” in the Lord, and were now following legalistic teachers who were mixing Old Testament Law with the Gospel of God’s grace. (We call these false teachers “Judaizers” because they were trying to entice Christians back into the Jewish religious system.)

So, Paul had a ministry as an apostle, and specifically as the founder of the Galatian churches. As such, he had the authority to deal with the problems in the churches. But there was a second source of authority.

(1:2) Minister—Call: the minister of God is recognized as God’s man by Christian believers. Note: the brothers with Paul were not just sending their greetings to the Galatian churches, they were agreeing with everything that Paul was writing. They were as concerned as Paul over the critics and false teachers in the churches of Galatia, and they clearly recognized Paul’s call and commission as being of God. This is the stress of the point. Paul called them brothers, not friends. A true brother in Christ is much more than a friend. True brothers have a much deeper and richer bond and relationship: they are of one faith, mind, spirit, and purpose. They may have different abilities and be assigned different work, but they believe in and serve the same Lord.

This is what Paul was saying: there were brothers in the Lord who knew him and his call. They readily verified his call and ministry. In fact, they joined him in writing and declaring the truth.

Note: there was more than one church that was questioning Paul’s call and ministry. All the churches in Galatia were attacking him.

(1:3) Minister—Grace—Peace: the minister wishes the very best for other believers. The minister, Paul, wanted the believers of Galatia to experience the grace and peace of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Note again how the deity of Jesus Christ is proclaimed: He is placed side by side with God.)

1. Grace (charis) means the undeserved favor and blessings of God. The word undeserved is the key to understanding grace. Man does not deserve God’s favor; he cannot earn God’s approval and blessings. God is too high and man is too low for man to deserve anything from God. Man is imperfect and God is perfect; therefore, man cannot expect anything from God.

Man has reacted against God too much. Man has...

Man deserves nothing from God except judgment, condemnation, and punishment. But God is love—perfect and absolute love. Therefore, God makes it possible for man to experience His grace, in particular the favor and blessing of salvation which is in His Son, Jesus Christ.

2.  Peace (eirene) means to be bound, joined, and weaved together with God and with everyone else. It means to be assured, confident, and secure in the love and care of God. It means to have a sense, a consciousness, a knowledge that God will...

A person can experience true peace only as he comes to know Jesus Christ. Only Christ can bring peace to the human heart, the kind of peace that brings deliverance and assurance to the human soul.

The point is this: not everyone in the church was experiencing the grace and peace of God. Some had fallen from the grace of God, no longer trusting Christ to save them; they depended upon their own works and goodness to make them acceptable to God. As a result they did not have peace of heart. Some had even fallen into all forms of sin and shame (Galatians 5:19-21). Others had become extremely critical and divisive, standing against Paul and any who supported Paul. Note: Paul wished the very best for the churches of Galatia—even for the false teachers and critics. He wanted everyone to experience...

·          the grace of God by coming to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord.

·          the peace of God as they walked through life confronting all its struggles and trials.

(1:4-5) Jesus Christ, Work of; Death: the minister of God proclaims the work of Christ. This verse is one of the great summaries of the gospel, that is, of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Note four significant points.

1.  The message of the gospel is that Christ “gave Himself for our sins.” Christ died as our substitute. He took the place of the sinner before God. Two things show this.

a. The word “for” (huper) means instead of, in place of, as our substitute, in behalf of our sins.

b. The phrase “gave Himself” (dontos eauton) means that He sacrificed Himself for us. He gave His life for the sinner’s life.

Jesus Christ...

· offered Himself to God as the sacrifice for our sin.

· offered Himself as the sin-offering, the offering that was to stand as the substitute for our sin.

· accepted the judgment and condemnation of sin for us.

· bore the punishment of God’s justice against sin for us.

Note that “our sins” are not listed or described. This means that Christ died for all our sins: big sins as well as little sins, known sins as well as unknown sins, terrible sins as well as mild sins, sins of the flesh as well as sins of the spirit.

2.  The purpose of Jesus’ death was “to deliver us from this present evil world.” Note that the present world or age is said to be evil. It is evil in at least two senses:

Þ The present world is sinful: it causes men to ignore, neglect, deny, and curse God. It also stirs and excites ungodliness, unrighteousness, immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, strife, deceit, ill will, cruelty, back-biting, gossip, slander, pride, boasting, inventions of evil things, disobedience to parents, misunderstanding and false undertanding, the breaking of covenants, and the destruction of true love and mercy. (Cp. Romans 1:29-32.)

Þ The present world is corruptible: it keeps both man and his world from being healthy and from living eternally. The present world of corruption causes man and his world to suffer and experience disaster, accident, disease, distress, sorrow, and calamities. It causes everything to age, deteriorate, waste away, decay, and die.

Þ The present world causes man to die and face the judgment of God who is perfectly holy. Therefore, the present world dooms man to face the holiness of God as an unholy, sinful, and corruptible creature. The world dooms man to an eternity of death and judgment—dooms him to be separated from God forever.

But note the point: this was the very purpose for Jesus’ death. He died to deliver us from this present evil world. The word “deliver” (exeletai) means to rescue and to pluck out. Jesus Christ died to rescue and to pluck us out of this present evil world. How? As stated above, “He gave Himself for our sins.” He delivers or rescues us from both the power and the fate of the world. The believer experiences both abundant and eternal life now and forever.

3.  The reason Christ died for us is because God willed it. This is a most glorious truth: God loves us even as Christ loves us. It was God’s will that we be saved and delivered from this evil world. God loves us so much that He wills us to be saved—wills it so much that He sacrificed His own Son for us.

Note that God wills to be our Father. The death of Jesus Christ makes it possile for us to be adopted by God as His sons and daughters (Romans 8:15-16; Galatians 4:4-6).

4.  The result of Jesus’ death is the glory of God. Note: Paul could not mention the death of Christ and the will of God without breaking forth in praise. All men should praise Him for His wonderful love and the unspeakable gift of His Son.

His message (vv. 3-4).

From the very beginning, Paul clearly states the message of the Gospel, because it was this message that the Judaizers were changing. The Gospel centers in a Person—Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This Person paid a price—He gave Himself to die on the cross. (You will discover that the cross is important in the Galatian letter, see 2:19-21; 3:1, 13; 4:5; 5:11, 24; 6:12-14.) Christ paid the price that He might achieve a purpose—delivering sinners from bondage.

“Liberty in Christ” is the dominant theme of Galatians. (Check the word bondage in 2:4; 4:3, 9, 24-25; 5:1.) The Judaizers wanted to lead the Christians out of the liberty of grace into the bondage of Law. Paul knew that bondage was not a part of the message of the Gospel, for Christ had died to set men free.

Paul’s ministry and message were sources of spiritual authority.

His motive (v. 5).

“To whom be glory forever and ever!” The false teachers were not ministering for the glory of Christ, but for their own glory (see Gal. 6:12-14). Like false teachers today, the Judaizers were not busy winning lost people to Christ. Rather, they were stealing other men’s converts and bragging about their statistics. But Paul’s motive was pure and godly: he wanted to glorify Jesus Christ (see 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 10:31-33).

Paul has now explained his authority. He is ready for a second step as he begins this battle for the liberty of the Christian.

We have already seen from Acts 15 that the Judaizers implied, if they did not say it directly, that they had come with the authority of the apostles who resided in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Council very flatly denied this in their letter to the Gentile churches (Acts 15:24). At best, the Judaizers could have claimed to be apostles of the church at Jerusalem. In a similar way, Barnabas and Paul were “apos­tles” of the Antioch church to the church in Jerusalem, for they were sent by the church with the collection to be taken to the elders in Jerusalem (Acts 11:30).

Paul’s apostleship was of a different and very limited order. He was an apostle of Jesus Christ, commissioned and sent out by Him. This is Paul’s thrust in verse 1: “Paul, an apostle (not sent from men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead).”

The structure of the Book of Galatians is the outflow of the claim of apostleship which Paul has made in this first verse. Chapters 1 and 2 contain Paul’s defense of his apostleship, a fact denied by the Judaizers and now doubted by some of the Gala­tian saints. Having defended his authority in the first two chapters, Paul reiterates the message of the gospel in chapters 3 and 4. Paul’s gospel exposes the error into which some have fallen, by placing themselves under the Law after having been saved by grace. Chapters 5 and 6 spell out the practical outworkings of the gospel of God’s grace, which enable the saint to live a godly life in a fallen world.

Another Gospel (1:6‑9)

6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.

(1:6-9) Introduction: the churches of Galatia were being led astray by false teachers, and the very souls of the believers were at stake. Paul had no choice; he had to be strong in what he wrote, for Christ had taught that the value of a single soul was worth more than all the wealth of the world.

Again, the souls of the Galatians were at stake. Forcefully and powerfully, Paul warned both the false teachers and believers: God has only one message—the gospel of Christ. It is God’s gospel and God’s gospel alone that must be obeyed, preached, taught, and heeded.

     1.     God’s gospel (v.6).

     2.     Some persons turned to false gospels (v.6-7).

     3.     Preachers of false gospels are accursed (v.8-9).

Throughout history God has devoted certain objects, individuals, and groups of people to destruction. Of ancient Jericho He declared, “And the city shall be under the ban, it and all that is in it belongs to the Lord; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in the house shall live … But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things under the ban, lest you covet them and take some of the things under the ban, so you would make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it” (Josh. 6:17-18).

But “Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the things under the ban,” and because of his disobedience, “the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel” (7:1). Because he disobeyed and attempted to selfishly salvage something from what God had previously devoted to destruction, he brought tragedy on his fellow Israelites, and they could no longer “stand before their enemies” (v. 12). After Achan, his family, and all his possessions were destroyed, “the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the valley of Achor to this day” (vv. 25-26). Achor means “trouble” and symbolizes the destiny of those who try to take advantage of that which God has condemned.

The New Testament speaks of two general categories of people whom God devotes to destruction. The first category is “anyone [who] does not love the Lord” (1 Cor. 16:22). The second is false teachers, who in Galatians 1:8-9 Paul twice calls accursed. Jesus warned His disciples that “false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect” (Matt. 24:24). False teachers are children of their “father the devil, and … want to do the desires of [their] father,” who “whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Paul reminded Timothy that such people in the leadership of the church at Ephesus he had “delivered over to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme” (1 Tim. 1:20).

In the early days of the church, Elymas the magician opposed the preaching of Paul and Barnabas and in particular tried to keep the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus “away from the faith. But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze upon him, and said, ‘You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?’” (Acts 13:7-10). In that rebuke Paul exposes four characteristics of false teachers: they are deceitful, children of the devil, enemies of righteousness, and perverters of the gospel.

Among the chief characteristics of Satan and his followers is deception. Paul warns that in the end times the Antichrist will come “in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thess. 2:9-10). John tells us of “the great dragon [who] was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Rev 12:9; cf. 13:14; 20:3, 10).

Satan and his demon emissaries do their deceptive work usually through human beings and most often through religious leaders. Among such religious leaders are those who pose as Christians, whom Paul describes as “false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ” (2 Cor. 11:13). “And no wonder,” Paul goes on to explain, “for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness” (vv. 14-15). Paul acknowledged the human agents used by Satan when he spoke of the “deceitful spirits” who propagate “doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars” (1 Tim. 4:1-2).

Satan has effectively accomplished his most destructive deception through demon-energized false teachers who pose as God’s spokesmen. It was when their own priests and prophets compromised God’s truth that the Israelites were most prone to idolatry and other pagan practices. It was false teachers claiming to preach the gospel who were most successful in weakening the early church, epitomized by the legalistic Judaizers who wreaked spiritual havoc on the churches of Galatia. It was false teachers within the church of the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries who gradually turned biblical theology into the various forms of modernism and liberalism. Today even the tenets of Eastern mysticism and occultism are finding their way into the church, often under the guise of spiritually “neutral” philosophy, psychology, or self-image improvement.

In the life of the churches, Paul feared nothing so much as false doctrine, since it is the underlying source of ungodly behavior. His deep concern for the spiritual welfare of the Corinthian believers would be fully as apropos for the church today. “I am afraid,” he wrote, “lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” by one who “comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted” (2 Cor. 11:3-4).

To the Ephesian elders on the beach at Miletus, Paul said, “Be on guard for yourselves and f