The year was probably a.d. 49. Paul and Barnabas had just completed their first missionary journey (Acts 13:2-14:28). By their standards, it must have been a whirlwind adventure. Following a brief stay on the island of Cyprus, they had visited Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, cities in the Roman province of Galatia (present-day Turkey). In their travels they had met with both wholehearted response and deep-seated resistance.
Usually Paul and Barnabas would introduce the gospel in a new area by starting in the local Jewish synagogue, demonstrating from the Scriptures that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. But they would venture beyond the Jewish community to offer the promise of forgiveness and eternal life to the Gentiles. And that would get them in trouble. Declaring that God wanted to save Gentiles placed Paul and Barnabas under a cloud of suspicion by Jews and Jewish Christians. As a result of their preaching, however, many Jews and Gentiles converted to Christ. The success of Christianity also created deep resentment in those holding positions of leadership in society and in religious circles. The work of Paul and Barnabas threatened their standing.
Thrilled by the number of persons who accepted their message, upon arriving back in Antioch, Paul and Barnabas “gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27 niv).
Shortly after their return to Antioch, some Jewish Christians arrived from Judea. These Judeans claimed that the Antioch church and its missionaries were diluting Christianity to make it more appealing to Gentiles, and they challenged Paul’s authority as an apostle. They disagreed with Paul’s teaching that Gentiles did not have to follow many of the religious laws that the Jews had obeyed for centuries. The resultant heated debate touched almost every church in the first century. The issue: how to maintain a proper place for the Jewish root from which the vine of Christianity was flourishing.
Some of Paul’s accusers went to the Galatian churches and insisted that the Gentile converts had to be circumcised and follow all the Jewish laws and customs in order to be saved. According to these people (called Judaizers), Gentiles had to first become Jews in order to become Christians. This caused much confusion in the churches that Paul and Barnabas had planted in Galatia.
In response to this threat, Paul wrote this letter to the Galatian churches. In it, he explained that following the Old Testament laws or the Jewish laws would not bring salvation. A person is saved only by grace through faith. Most likely, Paul wrote this letter about a.d. 49, shortly before the meeting of the Jerusalem council, which settled the law-versus-grace controversy (Acts 15). By this time, Paul himself had been a Christian for about fifteen years.
| LIFE APPLICATION – STAKING HIS CLAIMS |
| The Galatian Christians were in danger of being led astray by false teachers. Paul wrote to protect them from this danger. To combat the false teachers, Paul made three primary claims: |
| 1. Paul claimed divine authority for his appointment as an apostle. He contrasted his mandate with those who were sent by human institutions or presumed to be God’s messengers (1:12). |
| 2. Paul claimed his spoken and written message embodied the directly revealed will of God (1:11). Therefore, if he himself contradicted the message, he would be subject to judgment (1:8). |
| 3. Paul claimed that opposition and distortion of his message were evidences of the present evil age. The fact that the gospel offered hope to persons lost in sin made the message as much a threat to the evil age as Christ himself had been when he died on the cross (1:4). |
1:1 Paul, an apostle.NKJV First-century letters often began by introducing the writer, although this “writer” often dictated his letters to a scribe. Paul used a secretary for most, if not all, of his letters (see Romans 16:22), usually writing the last few lines in his own hand to authenticate his message (6:11). Tertius served Paul in this way (Romans 16:22).
Saul (Paul was probably his Roman surname) was born into a Jewish family from the tribe of Benjamin. He was raised as a strict Pharisee (Philippians 3:5), grew up in Tarsus, and was educated under a well-known teacher, Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). However, he was also a Roman citizen, a privilege he used to great advantage at times (Acts 22:27-29). Out of this diverse background, God formed and called a valuable servant, using every aspect of Paul’s upbringing to further the spread of the gospel.
The Jewish name Saul, given to a man born in the tribe of Benjamin, evoked memories of the tribe’s days of glory—the first king of Israel was named Saul and came from this tribe (1 Samuel 10:20, 24-26). The Roman name Paul (Paulus) was a common surname (see, for example, Sergius Paulus in Acts 13:7). We know nothing of the origins of Paul’s Roman citizenship; the name may have been a family name, or Paul may have chosen the name simply because of how close it sounded to his Jewish name. In Acts, Luke wrote, “Then Saul, who also is called Paul” (Acts 13:9 nkjv), then used only the name Paul throughout the rest of the book. When Paul accepted the Christian faith and began his mission to the Gentiles, part of his effort to identify with his listeners included using his Roman name. In all of his letters, Paul used his Roman name, linking himself with the Gentile believers to whom he had been sent with the gospel of Christ.
Paul was called to be an apostle by Jesus Christ and God the Father. Paul was not one of the original twelve disciples (later called apostles), but Jesus had especially called him on the road to Damascus to preach the gospel to Jews and Gentiles (Acts 9:3-19). The apostles’ mission was to be God’s representatives; they were envoys, messengers, and delegates who were directly under the authority of Jesus Christ. They had authority to set up and supervise churches and discipline them if necessary. Paul presented his credentials as an apostle at the beginning of this letter because his authority was being undermined in the churches in Galatia.
| LIFE APPLICATION – COURSE REVERSED |
| What a change had occurred in Paul’s life! At first he had been a fierce “apostle” of the Sanhedrin, persecuting the first Christians in the name of Judaism. But that calling was replaced by God’s call to follow Christ and to offer God’s grace to Jews and Gentiles alike. Paul’s apostleship was transformed. His intensity and zeal remained, but his purpose had been reversed. Paul had begun as the apostle of death to those who dared to be Christians, but he ended as the apostle for Christ who offered life to anyone willing to believe. |
| Whatever our past, God is able to call us out by his grace, transform us by his power, and give us a new purpose for life. Has God given you a new purpose for serving him? |
Sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.NRSV The title apostle means “one sent on a mission.” Paul had gone on a mission while he was still a committed Jew. Acts 9:1-2 records his mission, authorized by the high priest, to imprison Christians in Damascus. However, Paul’s mission here was of an entirely different character from an entirely different authority. Paul was sent with the gospel not by any person but by Jesus Christ and God the Father. Jesus’ name side-by-side with “God the Father” reveals Paul’s understanding of the oneness of God and Jesus Christ.
No human had commissioned him; no human authority had called him; instead, Jesus Christ himself had spoken to Paul (Acts 9:4-5). Thus Paul added, who raised him from the dead, further clarifying that it was the living, risen Christ who had met him on the road to Damascus. Paul was not called during Jesus’ ministry on earth; rather, he was called after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. Paul wrote that Jesus appeared “last of all . . . to me also, as to one abnormally born. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, . . .” (1 Corinthians 15:8-10 niv).
Paul explained his apostleship in these words, not to separate himself from the original Twelve, but to show that his apostleship rested on the same basis as theirs. If the believers in Galatia questioned Paul’s apostleship, then they also should question the apostleship of Peter, John, James, and all the others—and such questioning would be absurd. All the apostles were called by Jesus Christ and God the Father, and they answered to God as their final authority.
| LIFE APPLICATION – ON WHOSE AUTHORITY? |
| When challenged, Paul based the credibility of his teaching on the authority of Jesus Christ. In other words, he claimed to be consistent with what Jesus said and did. Those who questioned his message or methods were in danger of questioning Christ’s. But if they could find a discrepancy between Paul’s words and Christ’s, then they had a right to be suspicious. |
| We do not ignore the wisdom of humans, but we must base our theology, teaching, and ministry on Jesus Christ and his Word. As Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68 niv). Christian teachers are not to be evaluated on their personal charisma, the size of their following, or the boldness of their claims of truthfulness. Rather, what they say and do must be measured against the standard of Jesus Christ. Cult leaders are notorious for trying to dodge the standards of Jesus by claiming to be Christ. What sad results come when followers fail to question why someone who claims to be Jesus acts so unlike the original. |
Paul was also challenging those who were calling his teaching into question. Paul used neither by human commission as part of his defense against the Judaizers, who challenged his apostolic commission and rejected his credentials. From whom did they take their authority? The Galatians needed to develop a more discerning approach to those who claimed to speak for God.
1:2 And all the brothers with me.NIV Paul’s fellow workers in Antioch joined him in sending greetings to the Galatian believers, for all of them together were brothers or “members of God’s family.” These coworkers in Antioch, a sizable group, included Barnabas, Titus, Timothy, and some of the men listed in Acts 13:1 (see also Acts 19:29; 20:4).
In most of his letters, Paul sent greetings at the outset from himself and one or two traveling companions whom he named, reserving the greetings from others who were with him for the end of the letters (see, for example, 1 Corinthians 1:1 and 16:19-20; 2 Corinthians 1:1 and 13:13; Philippians 1:1 and 4:21; Colossians 1:1 and 4:7-14). In this letter, however, he sent greetings from “all the brothers with me” immediately after his salutation. Paul may have wanted to reinforce the solidarity of the Christian church to show that he was not alone in opposing the false teachings of the Judaizers and in confirming the truth of the gospel. Others, many of whom the Galatians may have known, were “with Paul” in being concerned for their faith.
On one hand, in verse 1 Paul declared that he was not sent from men or by men, meaning that he did not need or seek their endorsement. On the other hand, the unity of his fellow workers added force to his argument. Those with Paul in the Asian ministry were single-minded about the gospel content, Paul’s authority, and the role of the law in salvation.
To the churches in Galatia.NIV This letter is an example of Paul writing to a region or group of churches. Another such epistle is Ephesians, which was probably a circular letter to the whole region. The words “to the Ephesians” are missing in several early manuscripts and were probably added because that city’s copy was used to produce later copies. Each of Paul’s other epistles is addressed to an individual church (such as Philippians) or person (such as Titus). In Paul’s time, Galatia was the Roman province located in the center section of present-day Turkey. Much of the region was on a large and fertile plateau; many people had moved to the region because of its favorable agriculture. During his missionary journeys, Paul planned to visit regions with large population centers in order to reach as many people as possible and to plant churches in those centers. This letter was to be circulated among the churches in Galatia planted by Paul and Barnabas during the first missionary journey—in Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium.
While much has been written about the possibility of two distinct “Galatian areas,” one north and one south, the weight of scholarship and tradition still affirms the southern Galatian cities as the correct addressees for this letter. In either case, the addressees are not as crucial to identify as the message itself. After all, we study this letter as if written to us.
Either Paul expected each church to read the letter, perhaps make a copy, and then pass it along; or Paul’s scribe made several copies on which Paul wrote the authenticating final lines (6:11) and then had a copy delivered to each church. The first explanation is most likely correct, if Paul usually implemented the procedure explained at the end of his letter to the Colossians: “After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea” (Colossians 4:16 niv).
| LIFE APPLICATION – PRECIOUS WORDS |
| We can hardly appreciate the impact and value of Paul’s letters to the early church. To English speakers, the abundant availability of the Bible has resulted in our treating God’s Word as common. In a world without books, people were probably better listeners. Their minds were expected to retain more. Writing was a valued ability and a treasured product. |
| As you study Galatians, read the sentences again, aloud. Imagine hearing them for the first time. Treasure these important words revealed from God to us through Paul. |
1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.NRSV Paul used grace and peace in all his salutations, wishing his readers the benefits of both. “Grace” was the Greek greeting, as “peace” was the Jewish greeting. The two expressions were common greetings; jointly used in the context of the gospel, they gained unfathomable depth. The word “grace” (charis) reminded Paul’s readers of God’s kindness in offering salvation to undeserving people. It refers to the multifaceted gift that God makes available to us despite our unworthiness. Not only does God mercifully withhold the judgment and punishment that we so clearly deserve, he grants, instead, the almost unbelievable gift of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. God’s grace requires faith because the moral and legal case against us leads to an inevitable verdict—guilty.
| Grace means the forgiveness of our sins. It cannot be earned by works or by any goodness in us. It is free and undeserved favor on us by Christ’s faithful act of redemption. As long as we insist on finding or making our own way we remain lost. We who have shown a marked proficiency at sin find ourselves relentlessly pursued by God’s grace. We do not discover God’s grace; it finds us (see Romans 5:1-11)! | Grace releases sin, and peace makes the conscience quiet. The two fiends that torment us are sin and conscience. But Christ has vanquished these two monsters, and trodden them under foot, both in this world, and in the world to come.
Martin Luther
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“Peace” (eirene) was a familiar word often used in salutations of letters even by unbelievers. Paul used it to remind the readers of Christ’s offer of peace to his disciples as they lived out their faith in an evil world (John 14:27). Christian letters not only expressed the wish for peace, but identified the source of peace. If “grace” summarizes God’s gift to us, then “peace” summarizes the personal results of that gift (see John 14:27; 16:33). Peace describes felt grace. Peace combines a quiet conscience, cleansed by forgiveness, with a growing sense of joy in the unlimited possibilities of freedom in Christ.
True peace comes only from a right relationship with God because peace comes from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. As in verse 1, the connecting of “God” and “Jesus” reveals their oneness (John 10:30). God is called “Father,” a name Jesus taught his disciples to use in the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9). In contrast with verse 1, Paul here personalized the divine name by adding “our” to Father. The earlier titles emphasized the authority of the Father and Jesus, while this expression pointed to God as the provider of grace and peace. Also, Jesus Christ is identified as “Lord,” a title given to him after his resurrection and ascension that reveals him as worthy of worship (see John 20:28; Acts 2:36; Philippians 2:9).
1:4 Who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age.NIV Our Lord Jesus Christ (1:3) gave himself for our sins. “Giving” refers to Christ’s ultimate sacrifice for sin offered by his death on the cross. Jesus said of himself, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45 nkjv). Jesus died for “our sins,” not his own, for he was sinless. Jesus’ sacrifice was ultimate, voluntary, and substitutionary.
| This refers to Christ’s substitutionary atonement. Christ died for our sins, in our place, so we would not have to suffer the punishment we deserve (see 1 Peter 2:24). In 1 Corinthians 15:3 Paul regards this truth as a key element of the early Christian confession of faith. | This is probably the earliest written statement in the New Testament about the significance of the death of Christ.
F. F. Bruce
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Paul wasted no time in laying the groundwork for his message to the Galatians.
| If they were to accept as valid any other “gospel” as an answer to sin, including the one offered by the Judaizers, they would be denying the value and effectiveness of Christ’s sacrifice. So, having claimed his authority to speak, Paul briefly summarized the gospel that he had given them in person. | Our most active participation in God’s work of saving us is simply allowing ourselves to be saved.
Neil Wilson
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| LIFE APPLICATION – –ACCEPTABLE | |||
| God does not have to go against his own nature or be inconsistent in order to accept us. We cannot solve our sin problem that separates us from God, but God solved the problem for us by sending Christ to die for us. God’s demand for justice is satisfied by the ultimate sacrifice of Christ. Christ’s giving himself for us is the essence of love. Spiritual rebirth and all of our Christian experience begin as a gift. | |||
| “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) | |||
| “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18) | |||
| “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) | |||
| “For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. . . . But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.” (Galatians 3:18, 22) | |||
| “And live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2) | |||
| “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:25) | |||
| “[Christ] gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.” (1 Timothy 2:6) | |||
| “[Christ] gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:14) (The above verses are quoted from the NIV.) |
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| The benefits cannot be fully appreciated until they are personally appropriated. Have you received Jesus, who gave himself for you? | |||
The result of Jesus’ gift of himself was to rescue us from the present evil age. The Greek word for “rescue” (exeletai) could also be translated “deliver.” The nrsv used “to set us free” to emphasize the result of Jesus’ action; the rescue and deliverance had a purpose—to set us free. Christ not only gave himself for our sins; he also delivers us from the helpless condition where we cannot resist sin (present evil age) to his kingdom where he is Lord. Paul wanted his brothers and sisters in Galatia to be alarmed that they had exchanged their freedom in Christ for slavery under a system based on human effort.
| LIFE APPLICATION – RESCUE MISSION |
| Every rescue operation begins with an awareness of a problem. God’s rescue plan for us can be broken down into four specific components: |
| 1. We recognize that we live in an evil age. Sin has created a world hostile to God’s love and toward the church, or body of Christ, those who have been transformed by that love. |
| 2. We admit that without Christ our sins have enslaved us and keep us trapped in the evil age. Therefore, we acknowledge that Christ’s giving himself for us was necessary. Our helplessness required his personal intervention. |
| 3. We confess our willing participation in sin and our inability to rescue ourselves from it. Help and hope must come from outside our resources. |
| 4. We accept the loving Father’s concern for us and his provision of escape by faith in Jesus Christ. We acknowledge and submit to Jesus as our deliverer. |
This rescue or deliverance does not remove believers from the world (at least not yet); instead, it gives us the blessings of our future eternity with Christ and offers us his guidance and presence as we serve him in “the present evil age.” Indeed, if all the early believers had been rescued out of the evil age in which they lived, there would have been no hope for us. To use Jesus’ expression, though we are still “in” the world, we are no longer “of” the world (see John 17:15-18). In his letter to the Colossians, Paul enlarged his picture of Christ’s deliverance: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (Colossians 1:13 niv). From outward appearances we are still living in the same world, but our allegiance and “nationality” have been changed! (This is similar to Paul’s message to the Romans in Romans 12:1-2.)
Paul’s “present age” was “evil”; our present age could also be characterized as evil because Satan rules the world (1 John 5:19). The present evil age of Paul’s time was the Greco-Roman world. It was known for its intrigues, murders, adulteries, and military oppression. Has our age gone farther into decadence? Each newspaper contains stories of great wickedness. A man kills a woman because she won’t have sex with him. Several people kill another for twenty dollars so they can buy drugs. A neighbor systematically abuses young children. Millions of unborn children are destroyed with little if any remorse. Satan acts in every age, but we must see the tragedy of sin and the necessity for rescuing people in our own present evil age. The early believers committed themselves to their mission to carry the gospel down through the ages to us. Are we as committed to passing the gospel on to future generations?
| LIFE APPLICATION – DELIVER ME |
| God’s plan all along was to save us through Jesus’ death. We have been delivered from the power of this present evil age—a world ruled by Satan and full of cruelty, tragedy, temptation, and deception. Being delivered from this evil age means, not that we are taken out of it, but that we are no longer enslaved to it. You were saved to live for God. Does your life reflect your gratitude for being rescued? In what specific ways have you transferred your loyalty from this world to Christ? |
According to the will of our God and Father. God’s will is to bring people to himself (1 Timothy 2:4). But sin separates sinful people from a holy God. Thus, God made a way of salvation—the ultimate sacrifice of sending his only Son to die on the cross, taking the penalty for humanity’s sins. People can only be saved through Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6 nkjv). Salvation lies in Christ’s work, not in any works we do. Our role is to be glad receivers of what we neither deserve nor earn.
God is the Father, he is also our God and Father. All who believe are adopted into God’s family, becoming heirs with Christ of all God’s promises. Paul expands this theme in chapter 4 of this letter to the Galatians.
1:5 To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.NKJV Paul’s spiritual depth broke through as he uttered an expression of love and awe upon speaking the holy names “our God and Father” (1:4). Thoughts of God’s love, mercy, and guidance, and Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on our behalf evoke words of praise and thanks. Does the glory of God mean that much to us? Glory belongs to God alone. Even if God had not done so much for us, he would still be the only one deserving glory from his creation.
| As believers, we will be able to glorify our God forever and ever because of the promise of eternal life with him. | All I know about Jesus Christ lies in His name.
Martin Luther
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| LIFE APPLICATION – NAMING NAMES | |||
| The third commandment (Exodus 20) may bear the distinction of being the most frequently broken of the Decalogue. God’s name is used in vain regularly. But using God’s name this way by unbelievers should not be surprising—those people are being consistent with their attitude toward God. | |||
| We believers, on the other hand, ought to reflect on our familiar use of God’s name and the ways in which we refer to Christ. Do we convey reverence and awe? Can those who overhear us give examples of our respect and honor for the Lord’s name? How can we demonstrate for them what the name Jesus really means to us? | |||
With a decisive Amen (“Let it be so,” “Let it come to pass”), Paul closed his introduction to this letter. In these first five verses, Paul touched on what would be the intent of his letter: his authority as an apostle, and the fact that salvation is not by works but by grace through faith in Christ alone.
CARING CONFRONTATION / 1:6-10
Paul was amazed at how easily the believers in the Galatian churches had given up the good news of the gospel of Christ for the bad news that they had been taught. Paul’s concern was not over alternative viewpoints of interpretation; he was warning Galatian Christians about turning from the truth to lies, from what was right to what was wrong.
| The apostle made it clear that he was not concerned about competing in popularity with other messengers. He wanted it understood that once the truth of the gospel had been declared, all amendments were false. Paul also predicted dire consequences to those who propagate any false gospel. | One of the great difficulties is to keep before the audience’s mind the question of Truth. They always think you are recommending Christianity not because it is true but because it is good.
C. S. Lewis
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1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.NRSV The news that the apostle had received about the Galatians left him stunned. In most of his letters, Paul would follow his greeting with a prayer of thanks for his readers based on what he had recently heard about them. Paul thanked God for the Romans and commended them for their well-known faith (Romans 1:8); he thanked God for the Corinthians (despite the moral lapses that he denounced in his letter, 1 Corinthians 1:4-9); he thanked God for the Ephesians (Ephesians 1:15-16), the Philippians (Philippians 1:3-10), the Colossians (Colossians 1:3), and the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3).
However, no words of thanks occur in this letter; instead, Paul immediately expressed astonishment at the Galatians’ behavior. The expression “I am astonished” (thaumazo) conveys a rebuke similar to our expression, “I can hardly believe what I am hearing about you!” Paul found it difficult to comprehend that the believers could desert the one who called them. The believers were turning away from God (or Christ) himself—the God who loved them and called them because of his great grace in Christ. These believers were throwing aside that grace in order to try to earn their salvation. Paul was amazed that someone would insist on attempting to pay for a free (and priceless) gift!
The verb is in the present tense, “are . . . deserting” (metatithesthe), and was used in military circles to indicate that a soldier was AWOL (absent without leave). The process of desertion, of turning away from the faith, was happening as Paul wrote. This desertion connoted apostasy. Those who turned to this different gospel would no longer be Christians. Because it was in process, Paul was warning them against apostasy. Paul hoped to stop it immediately because desertion from the faith held dire consequences. Part of Paul’s astonishment focused on how quickly the believers were deserting—that is, so soon after Paul’s last visit and/or so soon after the false teachers had begun their destructive work. Apparently, it wasn’t taking much for the Galatians to be led away from the faith and to become enthusiastic about this different gospel.
What was the “different gospel”? If the original gospel involved God calling the Galatians by the grace of Christ, then this alternative “gospel” must invite a different trust and response. The Galatians were being invited to desert the kingdom of Christ for service in a kingdom without grace and, therefore, without hope.
The false teachers, Judaizers, taught that to be saved, Gentile believers had to follow Jewish laws and customs, especially the rite of circumcision. Faith in Christ was not enough. Note that they may have included in their teachings the need for faith in Christ for salvation, but they taught that additional requirements had to be met before true salvation could occur. Their message was “faith plus.” This infuriated Paul because the Judaizers’ message undermined the truth of the good news that salvation is a gift, not a reward for certain works.
Jesus Christ has made the gift of salvation available to all people, not just to Jews. And faith in Christ is the only requirement for salvation. Beware of people who say that we need more than simple faith in Christ to be saved. When people set up additional requirements for salvation, they deny the power of Christ’s death on the cross (see 3:1-5).
| LIFE APPLICATION – THE FATAL FLAW |
| The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news because it gives us the true life-changing message of hope from God. The world today is flooded with different “gospels,” each claiming to offer an easier, better, more meaningful, more effective plan than God’s original version. Not only do these “gospels” abound in the world; sadly, they even invade the church. |
| The fatal flaw in every different gospel lies in ignoring or trying to bypass grace. These gospels develop their “hope” from the wisdom of humans (technology, education, science). They assign divine value to ideas and principles limited to this present physical world (humanism, materialism, determinism, scientism), and they glorify self-effort (design-your-own-spirituality, moral progress, self-perfection through some program, or even reincarnation). |
| We must analyze ourselves and our faith in light of biblical truth. Helpful questions include: Is my life squarely founded on Christ’s gospel? Have I been taking grace for granted? Have I allowed other “requirements” to take their place alongside faith in Christ in my understanding of salvation? Am I living by “another gospel”? |
1:7 Not that there is another gospel.NRSV Paul’s sarcastic words in verse 6, “a different gospel,” were still too positive for the error he was resisting; so Paul pointed out that the Judaizers’ teaching was no gospel at all. There is only one way given to us by God to be forgiven of sin—through believing in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. No other person, method, or ritual can give eternal life. Attempting to be open-minded and tolerant, some people assert that all religions are equally valid paths to God. In a free society, people have the right to their religious opinions, but this doesn’t guarantee that their ideas are right. God does not accept human-made religion as a substitute for faith in Jesus Christ. He has provided just one way—Jesus Christ (John 14:6). That message alone constitutes the true gospel.
But there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.NRSV The people who were confusing the Galatian believers were zealous Jewish Christians who believed that the Old Testament practices, such as circumcision and dietary restrictions, were required of all believers (see 5:10). As long as Jewish believers made up the majority of the church, their emphasis made little difference. But the influx of Gentile believers with no Jewish background caused problems. Because these teachers wanted to turn the Gentile Christians into Jews, they were called “Judaizers.” This teaching confused the Galatians because they hadn’t heard from Paul about all these acts that they were being told were requirements.
In any event, the Judaizers had perverted the gospel of Christ. This term can be understood as a subjective genitive (Christ’s gospel—the gospel given to us by Christ) and an objective genitive (the gospel about Christ—Christ is the content of the gospel).
| LIFE APPLICATION – IT’S SIMPLE, BUT NOT CHEAP! |
| Make no mistake, people still find the bold simplicity of the gospel scandalous. “There must be more to it,” they say, “than merely realizing we are sinners, repenting of our sins, and accepting God’s absolutely free gift of forgiveness.” |
| But we wouldn’t think of asking a baby to pay for the costs of being brought into the world. So how could we imagine any way of meeting the cost for our spiritual birth? Confusion among Christians usually results from forgetting about God’s amazing grace in Jesus Christ. His grace keeps us from confusion. |
Many of the newer Galatian Christians were Greeks who were unfamiliar with Jewish laws and customs. The Judaizers were an extreme faction of Jewish Christians. Both groups believed in Christ, but their lifestyles differed considerably. We do not know why the Judaizers traveled so far to teach their mistaken notions to the new Gentile converts in Galatia. They may have been motivated by (1) a sincere wish to integrate Judaism with the new Christian faith, (2) a sincere love for their Jewish heritage, or (3) a jealous desire to destroy Paul’s authority. Whether or not the Judaizers were sincere, their teaching threatened these new churches and had to be countered. Based on Acts 15:24, the elders in Jerusalem denied giving any sanction to the teaching of the Judaizers, so any claim for their authority was false. But more to the point, the effect these “teachers” had on young Christians bears chilling similarities with Jesus’ description of the missionary efforts of the Pharisees: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are” (Matthew 23:15 niv). Whatever the Judaizers’ intentions, their efforts led to confusion. They were loading down people with the requirements of the “law” instead of encouraging them to live by grace in joyful obedience to Christ.
| LIFE APPLICATION – THE TWIST |
| A twisting of the truth is more difficult to spot than an outright lie. The Judaizers were twisting the truth about Christ. They claimed to follow him, but they denied that Jesus’ work on the cross was sufficient for salvation. There will always be people who pervert the Good News. Either they do not understand what the Bible teaches, or they are uncomfortable with the truth as it stands. How can we tell when people are twisting the truth? Before accepting the teachings of any group, find out what the group teaches about Jesus Christ. If their teaching does not match the truth in God’s Word, then it is not true. |
When Paul said others wanted to pervert the gospel of Christ, he was not rejecting everything Jewish. Paul was a Jew who worshiped in the temple and attended the religious festivals. But he was concerned that nothing get in the way of the simple truth of his message: salvation, for Jews and Gentiles alike, is through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Any other teaching is a perversion of that truth. The term “pervert” (metastrepsai) goes beyond the idea of confusion or complication; it implies reversal, or making something the opposite of what it was originally. Those who were trying to “improve” on Paul’s message to the Galatians were in danger of destroying their faith.
Paul’s concern invites the question: What is the gospel of Christ to which he was referring? At this time, the Galatians would not have had much more than eyewitness accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus. The application of that history and the invitation to believe had been given to them through Paul. We who have the Gospels in hand are perhaps able to answer the question: Was Paul himself consistent to the message and claims of Jesus as they are recorded in the Gospels? How did Jesus define the gospel?
The book of Mark introduces itself as “the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). Mark’s record of Jesus’ first public message indicates that Jesus was the source of the term good news, or gospel in referring to himself and his message: “Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news'”(Mark 1:14-15 nrsv). Twice in this Gospel (Mark 8:35; 10:29) Jesus placed equal and supreme value on the gospel and himself, claiming that he and the gospel were worthy of the most devoted followers. Jesus also prophesied that the gospel would be carried worldwide (Mark 13:10). Jesus and the gospel cannot be separated; to understand either one properly you must understand both. Jesus presents in person the invitation described in the gospel: Repent and believe. Paul was rightly amazed that the Galatian believers were swallowing the pseudomedicine of those who offered a works religion when they already knew they could be healed by God’s grace.
| LIFE APPLICATION – ON GUARD! |
| People pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ in many ways. Some are blatant; some are more subtle. Be on guard against the following strategies of those who pervert: |
| Weakening: those who undermine or deny the foundation of Jesus Christ and faith in him. They say, for example, that the Bible isn’t true and that the Resurrection is a myth. |
| Diluting: those who allow half measures to stand instead of absolute moral claims. They say, for example, that sex outside of marriage is all right for consenting adults. |
| Distorting: those who misrepresent what the Bible says in order to make it either “more palatable” or to make it appear to say what it does not. They say, for example, that the Bible only applied to people at the time it was written. |
| Blending: those who readily admit as authoritative the teachings of sources other than the Bible. For example, the Mormons regard the Book of Mormon as authoritative in addition to the Bible. |
| Poisoning: those who deliberately mix dangerous error and lies in with their teaching. They say, for example, that you should leave your spouse if you’re not being fulfilled in your marriage. |
| Deflecting: those who ricochet off of key words to promote their own ideas. They use the “church of Christ” to promote their own empire. |
1:8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!NIV Paul denounced the Judaizers’ perversion of the gospel of Christ. Using strong language to deal with this life-or-death issue, Paul said that even if an angel from heaven were to come preaching another message, that angel should be eternally condemned (other versions say “accursed,” meaning doomed to destruction). If an angel came preaching another message, he would not be from heaven, no matter how he looked. (This passage, for instance, strongly refutes the claim by Mormons regarding the source of Joseph Smith’s teaching, that the angel Moroni appeared to him.)
| Some think that Paul was referring ironically to the leaders of the Jerusalem church. Others think he was springboarding off the Jewish belief that angels had delivered the Law to Moses at Mount Sinai (3:19; Hebrews 2:2). Most likely, Paul was referring to the emissaries of Satan. | The outward person of the messenger does not validate his message; rather, the nature of the message validates the messenger.
Alan Cole
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| LIFE APPLICATION – SLIPS AND FALLS | |||
| Paul included himself among those who ought to be held suspect if they preach a different message. Once right does not necessarily mean always right. Recent times have been filled with stories of ministers who have fallen into sin. Their failures have done great harm to those who trusted in Christ under their ministries. | |||
| Is it possible that God allows some very successful ministers to fall in order to remind all of us who we are supposed to be trusting? Charisma or past effectiveness does not exempt anyone from remaining true to God’s Word. None of us become spiritual enough to make our own rules as we go along! | |||
In 2 Corinthians 11:14-15, Paul warned that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. Here he invoked a curse (anathema, see note below at 1:9) on any angel who spreads a false gospel—a fitting response to an emissary of hell. Paul extended that curse to include himself and any of the apostles (we) if they should pervert the gospel. For in the case of both apostles or angels, faithfulness in communicating the unchanging truth from God was the ultimate test of their rightful authority.
If the truth is changed, the teacher is false, regardless of his or her qualifications, accomplishments, or experience. Paul has already noted that there is no other gospel (1:7), thus a gospel other than the one we preached to you would be false. The gospel teaching must not be changed, for the truth of the gospel never changes.
1:9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!NIV Paul’s words As we have already said could refer to a warning Paul gave the Galatian Christians at the time he and Barnabas preached the gospel to them, or simply to his words in verse 8. In either case, Paul knew that some would come to distort the gospel, and so he had warned the new converts. Indeed Jesus himself had warned his disciples that false teachers would come, attempting to lead people away from the truth (Matthew 24:11; Mark 13:22-23).
In verse 8, Paul condemned anyone who preached a gospel “other than the one we preached to you”; here, he condemned anyone who preached a gospel other than what you accepted. In both cases, the gospel is the same—the apostles taught and the Galatians had believed the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The tense of the verb “accepted” (parelabete) signifies once-for-all action. Paul and Barnabas preached; the Galatians accepted. That decisive experience did not need to be added to by certain actions required by the false teachers. The acceptance of the message alone accomplished their salvation.
| LIFE APPLICATION – THE CURSE |
| Paul’s repeated use of the condemnation “let that one be accursed!” (1:8-9 nrsv) conveys the most severe penalties imaginable for distorting the truth of the gospel. In the larger biblical context, “accursed” (anathema) relates to the extreme curses that were invoked and carried out against blatant sin in the Old Testament (see Exodus 17:13-16; Numbers 21:2-3; Joshua 6:17; 7:12). The deliberate repetition by Paul indicates that the curse was no angry outburst. His intent was deadly serious. And he included himself as liable to the same judgment of God if he were to be guilty of preaching an altered gospel. The matter was of such importance that Paul was willing to endure the same measure on himself that he invoked for others (Matthew 7:1-2). |
1:10 Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.NRSV Undoubtedly the Judaizers had accused Paul of compromise, saying that he taught freedom from the Jewish law to the Gentiles in order to meet their approval and thus win as many converts as possible. The little word now has great meaning, for Paul meant, in essence, “Reread what I just said and tell me whose approval I’m seeking.” Anyone seeking approval from either human camp—the Galatian believers or the Judaizers—would not use such harsh language, berating the believers and cursing the false teachers. No, Paul’s purpose was always to seek God’s approval.
| LIFE APPLICATION – WAS PAUL TOO NARROW-MINDED? |
| No! Everything that we know about Paul shows him to have been a man of keen intellect, eager to engage in debate and reason about the truth of the gospel. This letter itself demonstrates that Paul could exercise authority without being autocratic. |
| But here he was dealing with the gospel itself. He was not discussing a theory, view, or concept about which there might be several human perspectives. Rather, the subject was the unchangeable truth of God’s message. The gospel was revealed by God (see 1:1, 11, 16). Paul did not own the message; he was owned by it! Christ had ordered him to pass on a dynamic message of salvation (see Romans 1:16) that must be kept pure and direct. |
| Some will always be offended by the truth of Christ. Both subtle and forceful pressure will come to change the message. But our efforts to be tolerant of others must never bring us to the point of betraying the gospel of Jesus Christ. |
Much of church growth philosophy centers on a “market” approach, discovering what people want and need. For a culture that treats God and the Bible as irrelevant, this approach may be the only way to break through barriers. But we must have our motives clearly understood. If our desire is to please people, our packaging of the gospel may take priority over the content. If our purpose is evangelism, then reaching people through felt needs can be legitimate. We must not forget that our allegiance to Christ comes first. We must never water down his authority in the life of a believer in order to bring him or her into a church.
While it is noteworthy that in some instances Paul did attempt to reconcile disagreeing believers when no vital issue was at stake (see, for example, 1 Corinthians 8-9), he was completely unbending when the truth of the gospel was the issue. There could be no compromise—the truth stood on its own, unchanging. Paul’s conversion itself displeased many people (especially his fellow Jewish zealots), so Paul knew from the beginning of his Christian life that his goal could never be to please people.
| LIFE APPLICATION – CONFLICT OF INTEREST |
| Pleasing people conflicts with being Christ’s servant. True servants know the master and the master’s priorities. They are not diverted from the main tasks by what other “servants” or would-be “masters” tell them to do. |
| Gaining the approval of others distracts us from pleasing God. As we do God’s will, we must resist the desire to please people. |
| The clarifying question of the believer will always be, Who am I really serving? If the answer is “people,” then we will be tossed back and forth by their conflicting demands and expectations. But if our answer is consistently “Christ,” we will only have one person to please and not have to worry about how much or how little we are pleasing others. Seeking to serve Christ alone will settle many conflicts of interest! |
Paul’s use of the word still offers us a glimpse into his inner self and his past life as a Pharisee. Paul understood that by living a strict, law-abiding, judgmental, and appearance-focused life of a Pharisee, his goal had really been to please people. Religious and pious people may receive mountains of praise for their supposed character and good works. Christians are rarely accorded such praise. Thus if Paul were still pleasing people, he would not be a servant of Christ. As there is no compromise with the truth, there is no compromise for the Christian with the “present evil age” (1:4). The life of serving Christ does not put people in the limelight, offer great material rewards, or promise worldly security. Thus, if Paul wanted to please people, he could have chosen many other routes or stayed a Jewish Pharisee. Instead, Paul’s conversion changed his life so completely that his only goal was to please God and serve Christ (see also 6:12-14; 1 Thessalonians 2:4). A servant can have only one master (Matthew 6:24).
| LIFE APPLICATION – PLEASE, PLEASE |
| Do you spend your life trying to please everybody? Paul had to speak harshly to the Christians in Galatia because they were in serious danger. He did not apologize for his straightforward words, knowing that he could not serve Christ faithfully if he allowed the Galatian Christians to remain on the wrong track. Whose approval are you seeking—others’ or God’s? Pray for the courage to seek God’s approval above anyone else’s. |
Source: Bruce B. Barton et al., Life Application Bible Commentary – Galatians, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1994), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: “GALATIANS 1”.
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