Galatians Chapter 1.

GALATIANS CHAPTER ONE

1:1-5.  The First five verses comprise Paul's Address to the Churches of Galatia.  This would include churches at such places Psidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra And Derbe.

           

Paul boldly and strongly affirms his apostleship.  He emphasizes its Divine origin and its independence of men.  He specially mentions the resurrection of Christ.  That Paul so carefully affirms the Divine Origin of his Apostleship and carefully emphasizes its independence of men both as not origination with men nor dependent on human agency, would suggest that his adversaries sought to depreciate his apostleship.  They argued that in comparison with the apostles at Jerusalem he was of inferior rank and only derived his authority from them.  So Paul strongly affirms the Divine character of his Apostolic calling, and that men had nothing to do with its appointment.  For Paul his Conversion to Christ and his Commission to be an apostle were one.

           

Paul includes the brethren with him, yes, all of them were united in addressing the Churches of Galatia, and they all were in unison with the apostle.

           

1:3. Paul sends their greetings to the Galatians.  This would be a form of prayer.  He requests that grace and peace should be theirs, that is, that they should fully appreciate the reality of their salvation.  The word "from" should only occur once in verse 3.  Paul thinks of a most perfect harmony and co-ordination in the activity of God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

           

1:4 Paul now represents the facts that proclaim the goodwill of our Lord Jesus Christ.  His voluntary sacrifice is proof he desires to bless his people.  He gave himself for our sins.  This was not a heroic act, nor one of reckless enthusiasm, but in obedience to the will of God. He gave himself that our sins should be forgiven.  For only in effectively dealing with our sins could he deliver us from this present evil age

           

1:5 With this Doxology Paul makes it clear that we owe everything to God's gracious will.

           

1:6  The theme of the Epistle.  Like the epistle to the Romans, the theme of the Galatians is the Gospel.  Paul marvels that the Galatians should so quickly begin to depart from the gospel.  The word is in the present tense - they were in the process of moving from God.  They were going over to a religion of law, but in doing this they were leaving God who had called them in the grace of Christ.  Therefore to go over to the law was to leave God. 

           

The Galatian Christians had come under a subtle form of heresy that was turning them from God who had called them in the grace of Christ. They had come under an exterior influence that was opposed to God. Their desertion was not yet complete but they were departing and in the mood to go from one position to another.

           

God had called them in the grace of Christ.  And this call had been made known to them in the apostle's preaching of the Gospel.  Now they were abandoning it.  It was not that they merely were leaving Paul.  This was true, but much more serious they were leaving God who called them in the grace of Christ.  They were leaving the grace of Christ for a different Gospel.  But this was apostasy.  It was a complete departure from God.  So it was not another Gospel.  It was destructive to the Gospel of Christ, and Paul makes it plain in verse 7 that no other Gospel exists.  The so-called Gospel they listened to was a perversion of the Gospel of Christ.  For no other Gospel could exist than that the Lord Jesus charged Paul to preach.

           

1:8 Paul now warns them of the danger of listening to another Gospel. The Galatian believers had been unsettled but not fully convinced by the Judaizers but they were giving some attention to the plausible arguments of the legalists.

           

Paul emphasizes the authority of the preaching they had heard from him.  In verse 8 Paul speaks of his preaching of the Gospel to the Galatians when he first formed the Church.  This was the laying of the foundation.  Paul still held fast to what he had preached.  The Galatians in their doctrinal decisions must still be guided by the same preaching.

           

The apostle is positive, for not even himself or his colleagues nor, for that matter, an Angel from heaven could preach any other Gospel.  He has no doubt about the finality of the Christian Gospel.  The Gospel was a divine revelation that could not be superseded or contradicted in any way.  Not even an angel from heaven, that is, an angel from God can declare anything else that what has been said in Jesus Christ and his redemptive work.  So Paul firmly stands for the finality of the revelation in Jesus Christ.  Paul uses his apostolic authority to pronounce an anathema upon those who reject the Gospel.

           

1:10  Paul refutes those who suggested that he aimed at winning men by flattery.  They would say he pandered to the pagans by making things easy.  They said that he demanded only faith as the condition of acceptance in the church.  But the Judaizers demanded Circumcision.  Paul denies this, he didn’t preach to please men.  If he did, then he would not be the servant of Christ.

           

1:11  In this verse Paul sets about to show that he was fully authorized to preach the Gospel.  Judaizers attacked his apostleship or at least sought to show he was not an apostle on the same standing as the Twelve at Jerusalem.  They would argue that he must receive his authority, his message and his method from them.  (See 1:11-2:22).  It was directly from God alone that Paul had received his Gospel.  He did not receive it from men.

           

1:11-24 :

a.   Paul was called to be an apostle by revelation of Jesus Christ.                      1:11-12:

b.   It was the good pleasure of God that Paul should become an apostle.          1:13-16.

c.   Paul's apostleship was independent of any human authority.             1:17-24

The Judaizers aimed to overthrow his Gospel by assailing his apostleship.  But Paul had not received his Gospel from men.  Since he had received his Gospel from the risen Lord he was not under obligation to please men as the Judaizers suggested.  Paul was confident that God had spoken in Jesus Christ both fully and finally.  Therefore the gospel could not be changed, added to, nor in any way supplemented.  It was a final exclusive revelation.  He emphasizes the finality of this revelation in Christ.  He is confident there was only one gospel.

           

1:13  Paul refers back to his unregenerate life:  He was an outrageous persecutor of the church.  He speaks too of his zeal for the religion of his forefathers.  He was exceedingly zealous of the traditions of his fathers.  So he was the most unlikely person to be converted to Christ. His former life in Judaism was well known to them all.  So the Conversion of Saul would involve a revolutionary change and the persecutor became a preacher of the faith he once sought to destroy.

           

1:15-16  Paul puts special stress upon the initiative and activity of God in his conversion.  He recognizes the over-ruling hand of God right from the time of his birth.  It was the good pleasure of God that called him through his grace to reveal his son to him.  The divine purpose was that he should preach Christ among the nations.  For to Paul conversion and commission were one.

           

1:16  Paul continues to emphasize his independence of men.  He had not received his commission to preach from the apostles at Jerusalem.  Neither had he received his message from them.  Neither had he derived any status as an apostle from them.  He had not conferred with flesh and blood, and after all, the greatest apostles were only flesh and blood.  He had not gone up to Jerusalem to learn from those who were before him.  But he had gone away into Arabia.

           

Arabia was a long strip of land to the east of Palestine.  Did he make his way to Sinai where the law was given?  I am doubtful.  I think he entered where King Areteas ruled.  Probably he went to the rock city Petra.  Why did he go?  It was probably to think things out.  Not until three years later did he go up to Jerusalem that he might visit or become acquainted with Cephas, that is Peter.  And he saw none of the other apostles save James the Lord's brother.  So obviously he did not receive his commission nor authority from the Apostles at Jerusalem.

           

1:20   Paul swears to the truth of all this.  Then he came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia and therefore isolated from the apostles at Jerusalem and quite unknown by face to the Churches in Judea.  But they were hearing that Paul was now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.  And they glorified God because of Paul's conversion.  We do not know much of Paul's activity during this time, but the statement in 1:23 suggests he was actively preaching in these two provinces.  The remarkable change in Paul, in fact, we can say, the miraculous change, was a cause of their thanksgiving to God.

           

In conclusion, we say, that chapter one is the first part of Paul's defense that he had been divinely commissioned and fully authorised to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. N.E.B.