Galatians - Chapter 1

As we begin the epistle we see quickly that the relations between the author and his readers are strained. Instead of offering a usual greeting, Paul expresses his amazement at the sudden defection of the Galatian Christians to a position contrary to the gospel they had accepted.

AN IMPORTANT BEGINNING

VERSES 1-5

Paul begins by affirming his own apostleship not by direct command but rather by denial. He claims his authority not from a human source or through any human mediator, but through Jesus Christ Himself and from God who raised Jesus from the dead. He engages his opponents by clarifying this supreme source of his authority.

His conviction is clear that there is no salvation except in the crucified Christ and the gospel He brought. By the death of Jesus our sins are atoned and we therefore no longer shall cling to them. By His saving act, we are delivered from this present evil world, according to the will of the Father.

By that rescue we are liberated into the service of a new Lord. Not only has the past been dealt with, but also the present and future is under new control. This act was not an accident of history nor a tragedy of some believer who was made a martyr. It was the integral part of the eternal divine plan. Moses revealed this matter in Genesis 3:15. Therefore the suggestion by the agitators in the churches in Galatia that the death of Christ was insufficient and must be supplemented by anything further was a position contrary to the will of God.

When believers are abandoning the gospel for a perversion of the truth, the situation leaves Paul no reason to be thankful and the issue is considered by him to be grave.

THE AUTHORITY OF THE GOSPEL

VERSES 6-10

If there is conflict in the community who will settle it and on what grounds? 

Paul is saying that this conflict poses a threat not to his own personal position but to the actual message of grace. Now he argues for the authority of the gospel over any opponent who teaches falsely.

We cannot overlook that these agitators were not openly opposing the preaching of Jesus or Paul, just that the teaching of both was insufficient without including Jewish tradition or law. For Paul this moment is urgent.

The matter is one of the absolute authority of the gospel given to Him to preach by Jesus Himself. The nature of the gospel was grace and its power and that fact has not changed from that day to this day. The gospel is a divine activity by means of which people are drawn into the realm of God’s kingdom by grace alone. To abandon this fact is to forsake God. 

The absolute power of the gospel subdues any efforts to either domesticate or control it. Jesus gave us the example of new wine in old wineskins to demonstrate this same point.

To be completely sure of the understanding that Paul wished to send he says that if anyone, himself and his helpers or even an angel preach another gospel they are to be accursed.

We must not miss the larger point here. The preacher does not authenticate the gospel. The gospel authenticates the preacher.

THE ORIGIN AND POWER OF THE GOSPEL IN PAUL’S LIFE 

VERSES 11-24

The issue of Paul’s call must be understood. He has not been commissioned by the Jerusalem authorities. He has received his commission from the RISEN Christ. Paul did not seek to break into the circle of previously known apostles. Any and all power Paul possesses came from the gospel. He was not interested in legitimacy but in authority.

He reminds the readers of his calling and report by Jesus, which he says was not by man. It was received by the revelation of Christ. He will not later explain his time in Arabia after conversion. 

He reminds them that he was a persecutor of the faith beyond measure and did all he could to waste the church of Christ. Paul is explaining what each and every Christian since his conversion knows which is that the gospel is a divine power whereby God changes people and situations for His own good purpose. What happened on the road to Damascus was a violent and unique moment which changed Paul instantly. The power of God to do so was clear to Paul and he was clearly well chosen to teach that power and authority to others.

Verses 15-16 take us a step beyond the Damascus road. Paul says God separated him from his mother’s womb and called him by grace. Paul was one of the highest Pharisees, studying under the famous Rabbi Gamiliel, strongly educated in the law. No man could out Pharisee Paul. He therefore was the perfect chosen vessel and was made so from his beginning by the sovereign hand of God. 

It was not his decision to become an apostle. It was God’s decision.

At the center of Paul’s calling is his new understanding of Christ and the gospel likely incarnated into the inner being of Paul during his three years in Arabia as God prepared him for the ministry. Verse 16 is very clear on this point saying that the Son was revealed to him and that Paul had no reason to confer with flesh and blood.

Closely related to Paul’s changed view of Christ is his view of the people of God. As a Pharisee it was impossible for him to accept that God had acted toward the early Christians in the way they claimed. It was outrageous to him that the Messiah had been revealed to people who were at best marginal in importance and at worse were less than Samaritans or dogs. These early believers lacked any known piety to commit to God’s law and they were to be looked on with contempt for they were not children of Abraham, and therefore reconciled to God by their own blood.

Paul’s conviction was reversed and he found himself engaged in a mission not merely to Jews of imperfect spiritual knowledge but also to the gentiles who stood completely outside the law that Paul held to be holy.

In this Galatian letter the issue is theological because the message of justification by faith was completed to the Temple master Pharisees, who rejected it, but was spread with massive love over those who did not appear to deserve it.

We will later learn in the writings of Acts 9:23-25 that the Jews sought to kill Paul for this message of grace. But until a Roman prison held him for execution, Paul was effectively immortal for he was God’s chosen vessel.

This paradox remains with us today. Still today in the church we hear the continued preaching of that which a sinner must “DO” to gain salvation when all that is necessary to gain it was already “DONE” on a dusty hillside outside the walls of Jerusalem.