Introduction

The book of Galatians has been conferred with such titles as the Magna Carta of spiritual liberty, the battle cry of the Reformation, and the Christian’s declaration of independence. It is clearly the Holy Spirit’s charter of spiritual freedom for those who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Many church historians maintain that the foundation of the Reformation was laid with the writing of Martin Luther’s commentary on Galatians. The great German Reformer said, “The epistle to the Galatians is my epistle. To it I am, as it were, in wedlock. Galatians is my Katherine [the name of his wife].” It was out of his careful and submissive study of Scripture, especially the book of Galatians, that Luther discovered God’s plan of salvation by grace working through faith, a plan unalterably contrary to the thousand-year-old Roman Catholic teaching of salvation by works.

Merrill C. Tenney wrote of Galatians: “Christianity might have been just one more Jewish sect, and the thought of the Western world might have been entirely pagan had it never been written. Galatians embodies the germinal teaching on Christian freedom which separated Christianity from Judaism, and which launched it upon a career of missionary conquest. It was the cornerstone of the Protestant Reformation, because its teaching of salvation by grace alone became the dominant theme of the preaching of the Reformers.” (Galatians [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1957], p. 15.)

The message of Galatians is the message of the Christian’s spiritual freedom, his deliverance by Christ from the bondage of sin and religious legalism. Its message is particularly relevant in our own day, as personal freedom has become the dominant emphasis of countless philosophies both within and without Christendom.

Perhaps because Paul was so intensely concerned about the matter of gracious salvation in Christ and about the violent attacks on the gospel being made by the Judaizers, Galatians is the only one of his epistles that gives no word of commendation to its readers. After a brief salutation, the apostle immediately states the problem that prompted the letter: “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ” (1:6-7). From that point until the closing benediction (6:18) the letter is a flashing sword wielded by a burning heart.

At first thought it seems strange that Paul would have words of commendation for the worldly, divisive, immoral, and immature Corinthian believers and yet have none for the saints of Galatia. To the Corinthians he wrote, “I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:4-7). But for the churches of Galatia the apostle had no such praise.

The difference was that, as bad as the Corinthian situation was, the major problem there (with the notable exception regarding resurrection; see 1 Cor. 15) did not pertain so much to right doctrine as to right living. In the Galatian churches, on the other hand, the very heart of the gospel was being undermined by false teachers. The gospel of grace was being trampled, and in its place was being offered the gospel of works, which is no gospel at all but a distortion of God’s truth (Gal. 1:6-7) that leads to damnation rather than salvation (Rom. 3:20).

Galatians is not a detached theological treatise but a deeply personal letter written from the grieving heart of a godly man for his spiritual children, whose faith and living were being undermined by false teachers. His heart cry to the Galatian believers was, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).

DOCTRINAL EMPHASIS

Paul had special concern for the believers of Galatia and was gravely distressed about the doctrinal dangers that threatened them. The Jewish leaders who stoned Paul at Lystra no doubt continued to intimidate and persecute Jewish converts in Galatia. They were implacable enemies of the gospel and were used by Satan to sow confusion and discord in those and many other infant churches.

An even greater danger, however, were Jews who had made a superficial profession of Christ but turned back to Judaism and sought to make Christianity an extension of their traditional system of works righteousness. Like the false teachers about whom Paul warned the Ephesian elders, the Judaizers arose from within the church itself, “speaking perverse things” and trying “to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:30).

The Judaizers were causing great confusion in the churches and were seriously distorting “the gospel of Christ” (Gal. 1:8). They taught that Gentiles must become Jews by circumcision before they could become Christians and that all Christians, Jewish and Gentile alike, were righteous before God only if they remained bound under the Mosaic laws, regulations, and ceremonies (see 2:3-5,11-14; 3:3-5; 4:8-11, 21-31; 5:1-4; 6:12-13). This danger had probably threatened the churches even while Paul was in Galatia, and it doubtlessly intensified after he left. “As we have said before, so I say again now,” the apostle reminded believers there, “if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:9; cf. w 6-8).

In addition to teaching the necessity of being circumcised and of keeping the Mosaic law, the false teachers also attacked Paul personally, seeking to undercut his authority and thereby his doctrine. Consequently, he was careful to reaffirm his apostolic credentials. He begins the letter by referring to himself as “an apostle (not sent from men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father)” (1:1). Throughout the first two chapters he continues to affirm his divine authority as an apostle of Jesus Christ, equal in every way to the Twelve, including Peter (see 1:12, 15-17; 2:2, 7-9).

The theme of Galatians, and a central theme of the entire New Testament, is that true freedom comes only through Jesus Christ. In this letter Paul deals with spiritual freedom on two fronts. The first front (chaps. 3-4) is that of salvation, through which Christ sets a person free from bondage to sin and the law. As the apostle declares in the book of Romans, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (8:2). Paul’s second front in Galatians (chaps. 5-6) is that of sanctification, the freedom God gives His children to live out lives of faithfulness and genuine righteousness, free from sin’s control and legalistic bondage.

BACKGROUND AND DESTINATION

The name Galatia is derived from the barbaric Gauls, or Celts, who settled in Asia Minor after several centuries of plundering the Greek and Roman empires. Under Roman rule, the original region of Galatia was made part of a larger province by the same name in central Asia Minor (modern Turkey) that encompassed an area some 250 miles north to south and up to 175 miles from east to west.

In Paul’s day the name Galatia was used for the original smaller region as well as the province. On the first missionary journey Paul and Barnabas established four churches in the southern part of the province, in the cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts 13:14-14:23), and those churches apparently came to form something of a regional body of believers. The Galatian epistle itself does not identify the specific local churches, but they were churches in which Paul had personally ministered (4:13-15). The fact that the book of Acts mentions the four churches established by Paul in south Galatia and mentions none in the rest of the province makes it probable that the epistle was addressed primarily to those southern churches. While in Galatia, Paul nearly lost his life, having been stoned and left for dead by antagonistic Jewish leaders who followed him from Antioch and Iconium to Lystra (Acts 14:19-20). After establishing a church in Derbe, Paul and Barnabas revisited the other three cities, “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith” (14:22). On his second journey Paul visited the Galatian churches with Silas, “delivering the decrees, which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem, for them to observe. So the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were increasing in number daily” (Acts 16:1-5).

THE AUTHOR

Paul, whose original name was Saul, was a native of Tarsus, a city in southeast Asia Minor not far from southern Galatia. He was raised in a strict Jewish family and was steeped in traditional Jewish legalism. He had been educated under the famous rabbi Gamaliel and carefully trained in Jewish law (Acts 22:3). He was “circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless” (Phil. 3:5-6). Before his conversion he “was advancing in Judaism beyond many of [his] contemporaries among [his] countrymen, being more extremely zealous for [his] ancestral traditions” (Gal. 1:14).

Despite his strong legalism and traditionalism, Saul does not appear to have been a religious hypocrite, as were so many other Pharisees. He was spiritually blind and was an enemy of God and His people; but he was not hypocritical. He sincerely believed and adhered to traditional Judaism as God’s way of life for His chosen people. Like many other Jews of his day, Paul truly loved the traditional law and sincerely sought to keep every commandment, to observe every ceremony, and to offer every sacrifice that the covenant of Moses required. He was a legalist of the strictest kind, but he was honestly trying to please God by obeying what he thought was God’s will and does not seem to have been trying to impress others with his religiousness.

Defending himself before the Sanhedrin, the apostle declared, “Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day” (Acts 23:1). Although by that time Paul had been a Christian for many years, the context suggests that his statement about having a good conscience before God included his life before conversion. When he persecuted Christians, causing many of them to be imprisoned and put to death (Acts 22:4-5; 26:10-11), he doubtlessly did so with the sincere conviction he was doing God’s will (see Acts 22:3). Although he “was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor,” he nevertheless was “shown mercy, because [he] acted ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Tim. 1:13). Long before Saul of Tarsus became a zealous and dedicated legalist God “had set [him] apart even from [his] mother’s womb, and called [him] through His grace” (Gal. 1:15).

The apostle spoke of legalism from firsthand experience, and he also spoke of grace from firsthand experience as well as from firsthand revelation. More than any other apostle he understood the bondage of the law and the freedom of grace.

OUTLINE

Personal: Paul’s apostolic authority (1-2)

Salutation and introduction (1:1-9)

Apostolic credentials (1:10-24)

Apostolic commendation (2:1-10)

Apostolic confidence (2:11-21)

Doctrinal: Salvation only by grace through faith (3-4)

Confirmed by experience (3:1-5)

Affirmed by Scripture (3:6-4:31)

Practical: Living in Christian freedom (5-6)