The Gospel Revealed

a study of Galatians 1

Introduction

Greek letters normally began by saying who wrote the letter and the people it is being sent to. Paul modifies this pattern by adding a lengthy comment about the basis of his authority: Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— (v. 1).[2]

Several times in this letter, Paul denies that he was sent or authorized by other people, especially the apostles in Jerusalem. Apparently his opponents said that the apostles had sent Paul on a mission, a mission he supposedly had not finished, and the apostles had then sent more people to tell the Galatians about their need to obey the law of Moses (cf. Acts 15:5). Paul says that they are mistaken: They might have been sent by human authority, but he had divine authority for his mission.

The letter is being sent not only by Paul, but also all the brothers with me—he has supporters, though the letter does not name them, perhaps because the Galatians do not know them. To the churches in Galatia: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (vv. 2-3). Greek letters usually began with charein, or “greetings.” Paul modifies this by using a similar word, charis, “grace,” and adding the Jewish greeting, “peace.”

In verse 1, he noted an action of the Father. Here, he describes the work of Christ: who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father (v. 4). This is the gospel in a nutshell: Jesus has taken care of our sins and rescued us, giving us a place in the age to come as children of God. Paul will elaborate more on this later in his letter. Here he specifies that this rescue is precisely what the Father wanted, and it is to his glory for ever and ever. Amen.

An astonishing curse

            Most Greek letters included a brief prayer to the gods; Paul usually expands that by thanking God for the faith of the readers and asking a blessing on them. But in this letter, Paul gives no thanks—he begins abruptly and includes a curse instead of a blessing: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— (v. 6). “Paul’s expression of amazement…was a common expression of rebuke in Greek letters of his day…. The tone of rebuke pervades the…letter from 1:6 to 4:12” (G. Walter Hansen, Galatians, 36, 35).

            The readers may have been astonished, too, because Paul is telling them that they are deserting God. That is not what they want to do, but Paul is telling them that’s what it amounts to. They had been called by grace, and if they give their allegiance to the law, they will be denying their call (cf. 5:2). The opponents claimed that their message was the original gospel, but Paul says that it is really no gospel at all (1:7). It was bad news, not good. It was requiring elements of the old age, the age that Jesus had rescued us from.

            Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. Paul then announces his curse: 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![3] (v. 8). Paul is not asking for personal loyalty—he wants the people to be loyal to the message of Jesus Christ.

            Paul is so insistent on this that he repeats himself: As we have already said, so now I say again: If[4] anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! (v. 9).

            After this strongly worded outburst, Paul asks, Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still[5] trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ (v. 10). His opponents apparently said that Paul focused on grace because he was afraid of telling people about the laws of Moses. But as Paul has just demonstrated, he is not afraid of offending people. He serves Christ, not public opinion. He was commissioned by Christ, not human beings.

Paul’s commission from God

            To support his point, and to show that the opponents were not telling the truth, Paul tells his story, particularly his relationship with the apostles. In the book of Acts, Luke tells us many more details, but this is Paul’s own description of what happened.[6] I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up (v. 11). Paul is here responding to his opponents.

            I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ (v. 12). It was not just a revelation from Christ—it was Christ being revealed to Paul (v. 16). Paul saw Christ, and that required a re-evaluation of everything that Paul had believed. Based simply on that appearance of Jesus, Paul could have understood quite a bit:

“Jesus has been resurrected into glory, so he must be God’s Anointed, the Messiah. But I was persecuting his people! If zeal for the law caused me to persecute God’s people, something must be seriously wrong in my use of the law. Not only that, I was an enemy of God, and yet God spared me—I was accepted by grace, not by careful observance of the law.[7] And the Messiah did not bring political blessings, so the salvation that he brought was a spiritual one—one available to Gentiles as well as Jews.”

But I am getting ahead of the story. Here’s the way Paul tells it: For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it (v. 13). They already knew the story, but Paul tells it here to highlight certain facts, and to present himself as a model they could imitate. If someone had been there, done that, and found it deficient, then maybe it would not be wise for the Galatians to adopt a law-based approach to religion.

I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers (v. 14). Paul had viewed Judaism as a “performance” religion, in which some people did better than others, and he did particularly well. Following the example of Phineas, Elijah, and Mattathias, his zeal for the law caused him to persecute people who were leading others astray (see Num. 25:6-18; 1 Kings 19:10; and 1 Maccabees 2:23-26, 58).[8] This is one of the ways in which he worked harder than other people his age. According to their standards, he had everything going for him (see Phil. 3:4-6). But he gave it up:

But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles… (Gal. 1:15-16). The basic components of Paul’s calling are God’s grace, Jesus Christ the Son of God in him[9], and the mission to the Gentiles. Paul’s message had its origin in God, not in the apostles.

I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus (v. 17). Paul spent several days with Ananias and the disciples in Damascus (Acts 9:19), and they no doubt told him what they knew about Jesus. Paul’s point is not that he didn’t talk to anyone, but that he did not ask anyone to tell him what to preach. The opponents in Galatia may have been trained by apostles, but Paul was not. And that’s good—the apostles did not yet know that God was calling Gentiles into his family, and if they had heard Paul talk about a Gentile mission, they probably would have tried to talk him out of it!

Paul does not tell us where in Arabia he went, or what he did there. If he began to preach in Damascus, then he may have preached in Arabia, too, perhaps in Nabatea, southeast of Judea. Jesus told him to preach to the Gentiles, so he probably did.

Then after three years,[10] I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days (Gal. 1:18). Peter no doubt told him as much as he could about Jesus, but it was not a training session in which Peter told Paul what he should preach. Paul is stressing his independence.

I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie (vv. 19-20). Paul’s insistence that he is not lying indicates that he is responding to accusations—that he was an agent of the apostles. Paul’s opponents claimed an equal authority, so they tried to “flesh out” Paul’s message with more details. They have my story wrong, Paul says, and they have the gospel wrong, too.

Paul explained that he left the area: Later I went to Syria and Cilicia. I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ (vv. 21-22). Antioch is the most likely location in Syria, and Tarsus in Cilicia. Paul’s main point is that he did not stay in Judea. Jesus had not sent him to Judea either to preach or to put himself under the apostles’ authority.

Paul’s only relationship with the Judean churches was that they heard about him: They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they praised God because of me (vv. 23-24). So Paul abandoned his pursuit of Jewish traditions, and began to preach another faith, the one we call Christianity. The Judean Jewish Christians had not brought this about, but they were in substantial agreement with Paul’s conversion and the faith that he preached.