Galatians 1

Galatians 1:1

I. PERSONAL: PAUL DEFENDS HIS AUTHORITY (Chaps. 1, 2) A. Paul’s Purpose in Writing (1:1-10) 1:1 At the outset, Paul insists that his call as an apostle was divine. It did not originate with men, nor was it communicated from God through some man. It came directly through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead. A man who is thus called by God alone and is responsible to God alone has freedom to preach God’s message without fear of man. So the apostle was independent of the twelve apostles and of everybody else, both as to his message and his ministry. In this verse, the deity of Christ is both stated and implied. It is stated in the expression nor through man, but through Jesus Christ. It is implied by the way in which Paul links together Jesus Christ and God the Father, putting them on equality with one another. Then God the Father is mentioned as the One who raised Jesus from the dead. Paul had good reason to remind the Galatians of this. The resurrection was proof of God’s complete satisfaction with the work of Christ for our salvation. Apparently, the Galatians were not wholly satisfied with the Savior’s work, because they were trying to improve on it by adding their own efforts at law-keeping. Paul was called by the risen Christ, in contrast to the twelve apostles, who were called by the Lord Jesus during His earthly ministry. Ever afterward, the resurrection formed an important part of his message. 1:2 The apostle associates himself with all the brethren who were with him. These brethren joined in appealing to the Galatians to hold on to the truth of the gospel. This Letter to the churches of Galatia shows a deliberate lack of warmth. Ordinarily Paul addressed believers as the church of God, saints, or the faithful in Christ Jesus. He often expressed thanks for the Christians, or praise for their virtues. Frequently he mentioned individuals by name. But there is none of that here. The seriousness of the error in the Galatian churches caused him to be stern and cool toward them. 1:3 Grace and peace are two of the great words of the gospel. Grace is God’s undeserved kindness toward ungodly sinners. Instead of asking man to do, it tells what God has done, and invites men to receive salvation as a free gift. Scofield says, Instead of looking for good men whom it may approve, grace is looking for condemned, guilty, speechless, and helpless men whom it may save, sanctify, and glorify.Peace is the result of grace. When a sinner receives the Savior, he has peace with God. He rests in the knowledge that the penalty for his sins has been paid, that all his sins have been forgiven, and that he will never be condemned.

But grace not only saves; it keeps as well. And we need not only the blessing of peace with God but the peace of God also. These are the blessings which Paul wishes for the Galatians as he opens his Letter. Surely the Galatians realized that these blessings could never come by the law. The law brought a curse on all who broke its precepts. It never brought peace to a single soul. 1:4 Paul next reminds his readers of the tremendous cost of their salvation. Note the words: our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins. If He gave Himself to settle the sin question, then it is both unnecessary and impossible for us to add to such a work, or to help atone for our sins by law-keeping. Christ is the sole and sufficient Savior. Christ died to deliver us from this present evil age. This includes not only the moral and political corruption of this age, but also the religious world which mixes rituals and ceremonies with faith in Christ.

It was especially timely, therefore, for the Galatians to be reminded that they were going back into the very system from which Christ had died to rescue them! Christ’s redemption was according to the will of our God and Father. This places the credit where it belongsnot in man’s puny efforts, but rather in the sovereign will of God. It emphasizes that Christ is God’s way of salvation and that there is no other. Verse 4 should be a reminder that God is not interested in improving the world, or making men comfortable in it, but in delivering men from it. Our priorities should coincide with His. 1:5 According to the gospel of grace, all the glory for man’s salvation goes to God the Father and to the Lord Jesus Christ. Man cannot share this glory as a co-savior by keeping the law. Each phrase in these five verses is meaningful, much truth being expressed in a few words. Paul has stated in embryo the two main subjects which will occupy the rest of the Epistlehis own authority as an apostle and his gospel of the grace of God. He is now ready to speak directly to the Galatians concerning the problem at hand. 1:6, 7 Paul confronts the Galatians at once on their readiness to accept error. He is amazed that they should so suddenly surrender the truth of the gospel, and he solemnly labels their action as deserting God for a false gospel. God had called them into the grace of Christ; now they were putting themselves under the curse of the law. They had accepted the true gospel; now they were abandoning it for a different gospel which was not good news at all. It was just a perverted message, a mixture of grace and law. 1:8, 9 Paul twice pronounces the solemn curse of God on anyone who preaches any other gospel. God has only one message for doomed sinners: He offers salvation by grace through faith, entirely apart from law-keeping. Those who proclaim any other way of salvation must necessarily be doomed. How very serious it is to preach a message that results in the eternal destruction of souls! Paul was not tolerant of such false teachers and neither should we be. John Stott warns: We are not to be dazzled, as many people are, by the person, gifts or office of teachers in the church. They may come to us with great dignity, authority and scholarship. They may be bishops or archbishops, university professors or even the pope himself. But if they bring a gospel other than the gospel preached by the apostles and recorded in the New Testament, they are to be rejected. We judge them by the gospel; we do not judge the gospel by them. As Dr.

Alan Cole expresses it, The outward person of the messenger does not validate his message; rather, the nature of the message validates the messenger.Notice that the apostle says an angel from heaven, not an angel from God. An angel from heaven could conceivably bring a false message, but an angel from God could not. Language could not express more clearly the uniqueness of the gospel. It is the only way of salvation. Self-effort or human merit have no part. The gospel alone offers salvation without money or price.

Whereas the law has a curse for those who fail to keep it, the gospel has a curse for those who seek to change it. 1:10 Paul is probably reminded at this point that his enemies accused him of changing the message to suit his audience, so he asks, in effect, In insisting that there is only one gospel, am I trying to please men, or God? Obviously he is not trying to please men, because they hate the suggestion that there is only one way to heaven. If Paul changed his message to suit men, he would not be a bondservant of Christ; in fact, he would be inviting the wrath of God to fall upon himself.

Galatians 1:11

B. Paul’s Defense of His Message and Ministry (1:11-2:10) 1:11, 12 The apostle now presents six arguments in defense of his message and ministry. First, the gospel was received by divine revelation and independently of man. It was not according to man in the sense that man did not originate it. A moment’s reflection will confirm this. Paul’s gospel makes everything of God and nothing of man. This is not the kind of salvation that men would devise! Paul neither received it from some other person, nor was he taught it through books. It came to him by direct revelation from Jesus Christ Himself. 1:13, 14 Secondly, Paul’s failure to include Jewish law in his gospel could not be laid to any ignorance of Judaism on his part. By birth and training, he was steeped in the law. By personal choice, he became a notorious persecutor of the church. In passionate zeal for the traditions of his fathers, he surpassed many other Jews of his own age. Therefore, his gospel of salvation by faith apart from the law could certainly not be attributed to any ignorance of the law. Why then did he omit it from his preaching? Why did his gospel run counter to his background, his natural inclinations, and his whole religious development? Simply because it was not the result of his own thinking, but was given to him directly by God. 1:15-17 Thirdly, the first few years of his ministry were carried on independently of the other apostles. Paul now demonstrates his independence of other men in connection with his gospel. After his conversion, he did not immediately confer with human leaders, nor did he go up to Jerusalem where the other apostles were. Instead, he went to Arabia, then returned again to Damascus. His determination to avoid Jerusalem was not out of disrespect for his fellow-apostles; it was rather because he had been commissioned by the risen Lord Himself and given a unique ministry to the Gentiles (Gal_2:8). Hence his gospel and his service needed no human authorization. He was independent of man altogether. Several expressions in these verses deserve careful consideration. Note the expression in verse 15: God … separated me from my mother’s womb. Paul realized that even before his birth, he had been set apart by God for a special work. He adds that God called me through His grace, referring to his conversion on the road to Damascus. If he had received what he deserved at that moment, he would have been cast into hell. But Christ, in wonderful grace, saved him and sent him out to preach the faith he had sought to destroy.

In verse 16 he shows that God intended to reveal His Son in him. This gives us a wonderful view of God’s purpose in calling usto reveal His Son in us, so that we may represent the Lord Jesus to the world. He reveals Christ to our hearts (v. 16) in order that He may display Christ through us (vv. 16-23) in order that God may be glorified in this display (v. 24). Paul’s special assignment was to preach Christ among the Gentiles. In verse 17 he says, I went to Arabia. Every servant of the Lord needs a time of seclusion and meditation. Moses had his forty years on the backside of the desert. David was alone with God while he tended sheep on the hillsides of Judea. 1:18-20 Fourthly, when Paul finally visited Jerusalem, he met only Peter and James. Apart from that, he was relatively unknown to the churches in Judea (1:21-24). To demonstrate further his independence of the other apostles, Paul recounts that he did not visit Jerusalem until at least three years after his conversion. He went up to make the acquaintance of Peter a personal, not an official visit (Act_9:26-29). While there, he also met James, the Lord’s brother. His stay with Peter lasted only fifteen daysscarcely long enough for a training course! Moreover, the text indicates he was on perfect equality with these servants of the Lord. 1:21-24 After that, he spent much of his time in the regions of Syria and Ciliciaso much so that the churches of Judea did not know him personally. All they knew was that this one who had treated the Christians so cruelly was now a Christian himself and was preaching Christ to others. Because of this they glorified God for what He had done in the life of Paul. (Do others glorify God because of the change in our lives?)