LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

Defense of Paul's Apostleship
Part One

Galatians 1:1-10

GREETINGS (Gal. 1:1-5)

Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead, 2 and all the brethren who are with me, To the Galatian churches: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins that He might rescue us from this age—the present evil one, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

Things to note about this greeting:

1. It follows standard first-century style of greeting: author, recipient, greeting. Normally, the greeting, in the Gentile world, would have been “Paul, to the churches of Galatia. Joy!” or in the Jewish world, “Paul, to the Galatian churches. Peace!” Paul modifies this (as he does all the other greetings in his letters) to make it a Christian greeting: instead of joy, he writes “grace” and then follows “grace” with “peace.” The truth is that the only way to experience God’s peace is first to experience God’s grace.
2. Paul immediately addresses the issue in Galatia with his greeting. “So, my opponents are claiming that I am not an apostle or that I am a second-hand apostle at best? Well, let me say right at the very beginning, ‘Paul, AN APOSTLE!’”
3. “Not from men”— men are not the source (“from”) of his apostleship. A committee of men didn’t get together and decide it was a good idea that Paul should become an apostle.
4. “Nor through man”—God didn’t use people (“through” signifying agency) to give Paul the message God had chosen him to be an apostle. On the Damascus road, God Himself gave Paul the message that God Himself had chosen Paul to be an apostle; Peter and James and John were nowhere to be found on that Damascus road. They were probably actually even hiding from Paul! Paul is an apostle whose apostleship was on the same par as that of Peter and John’s.

Jewish View of History

Creation       The Fall       Present Evil Age       Coming of Messiah       Age to Come

Time Line Characteristics:

1. Creation: Adam and Eve
2. The Fall: Adam and Eve sin, ushering in the PEA
3. PEA: time of sin, death, legalism, and Satan
4. Coming of the Messiah: ends the PEA and ushers in ATC
5. ATC: characterized by righteousness, life, and the Holy Spirit

Christian View of History

|-------------|----------------|-------------------------|

Creation   The Fall   PEA    1st Coming       2nd Coming

Time Line Characteristics:

1. Creation: Adam and Eve
2. The Fall: Adam and Eve sin, ushering in the PEA
3. PEA: time of sin, death, and Satan
4. 1st Coming of the Messiah: ushers in ATC with righteousness, life, and the Holy Spirit; however, unlike the Jewish version of history, the PEA continues to exist alongside the ATC.
5. 2nd coming of Messiah: PEA is destroyed and ATC is consummated. Now only righteousness, life, and the Holy Spirit exist.

The Christian view of history differs from the Jewish view of history in that the Jews believed that when the Messiah (the One anointed with God’s Spirit) came, he would put an end to the PEA and establish only the ATC. When the Messiah came, ALL sin and death would be destroyed, legalism, and Satan would be dethroned. Jesus’ coming changed all of that for Christians, even for Jewish Christians. When the Messiah Jesus came (the One Anointed by God with His Spirit so that all He did was in the power and under the leadership of the Spirit, see John 1:32-34), He did usher in the ATC because with Him He brought righteousness, life, grace, and the Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus the Messiah was anointed with the Spirit so that after His death/resurrection, He became the fountain of the Holy Spirit, see John 7:37-39 and 19:34-35. It’s just that He didn’t completely do away with the PEA. At this moment the PEA and the ATC co-exist. That explains why there are Christians in the world AND non-Christians.

This also explains why even we as Christians experience righteousness AND sin. John calls this period the dawn of history in which dark (evil) and light (righteousness) are co-existing. Although light and darkness co-exist at dusk, the great thing about the dawn is that whereas at dusk the darkness will win out bringing us midnight, the arrival of dawn lets us know that eventually the light will win out bringing us the full sun of noon (1 John 2:8). We are of the ATC living at a time in history in which the PEA is also operating. We live at the dawn of time in which light will eventually win out upon the second coming of Jesus.

So how is the gospel part of a rescue mission? Jesus, the One Anointed by God with His Spirit (the Messiah), Christ has come to save us from the PEA which teaches man must EARN his salvation and must keep working to maintain it thereby producing death, and then to bring us into the ATC in which grace and faith operate thereby producing life. When we receive Jesus the Anointed One by faith, He saves us and pours out His Spirit upon us so that when we live by faith, we will experience the very life of Christ/God Himself.

Notice what is missing in this greeting. Normally, in a first-century letter, after issuing a greeting, the author of the letter would express thanks to God for the person he is writing to. Paul follows this format in all his letters except for Galatians. The reason Paul doesn’t thank God for the Galatians? Paul is hot. He is in the midst of apostolic wrath at what is going on in the Galatian churches.

INTRODUCTION: THE SITUATION IN THE GALATIAN CHURCHES (1:6-10)

6 I am marveling that so quickly you are deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, unto a different gospel ; 7 which is really not another of the same kind; except some are troubling you and are wanting to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even though we ourselves[—the apostles]!, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, accursed let him be! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, accursed let him be! 10 For am I now pleasing men or God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were yet pleasing men, a bond-servant of Christ I would not be.

Before looking at the specific responses Paul made to the charges leveled against him, note one thing: he makes so many different kinds of responses to his opponents because they are leveling numerous charges against him. They are using a machine-gun approach in their attacks against Paul. They are shooting so many bullets against him hoping that at least one of them will hit its mark and destroy Paul. (Politicians today still use this approach in trying to destroy their opponents. People haven’t changed in the past 2000 years—that is the reason the Bible is so relevant.)

By Paul’s responses in Galatians, you can determine what accusations his opponents were leveling against him. For example, if somebody responded, “I am not a liar,” what do you think would be the accusation made against him? “You’re a liar!” Well, look at Paul’s responses and you will be able to determine what accusations they were making against him.

1. He’s a people-pleaser. How could they label him a people-pleaser? His opponents claimed that Paul preached the “easy” gospel of grace instead of the “difficult” gospel of keeping the Mosaic Law. (Instead of telling his converts that they needed to circumcised, he was just telling them that faith was the only thing necessary for salvation.)
2. He was a lackey, a Secondhand Rose to the original apostles. They claimed that he received all his knowledge about Jesus and training to be an apostle at the feet of the original apostles.
3. The apostleship of the original 12 was superior to Paul’s. Paul might be an apostle, his opponents conceded; however, if there was ever a disagreement between Paul and the original apostles, then Paul was wrong. They claimed that the original apostles demanded that Christians keep the Mosaic Law and that Paul claimed a person didn’t have to live by the Mosaic Law in order to be saved. Since the 2 contradicted each other, Paul, having an inferior apostleship (they claimed), therefore was wrong.

“I am amazed”: Paul is stunned at the quick defection of the Christians at Galatia. “I can’t believe this!”

“Him”: what is interesting is that Paul doesn’t say, “You have defected from the gospel”; rather, he states that they have defected from Him, GOD! Turning from the true gospel is not merely turning from what one person claims to what another person claims about the way a person is saved; it is actually a turning away from GOD HIMSELF! That is serious indeed!

         The gospel describes something very personal to God.
         It describes the story of how God Himself sent His only begotten Son to die for man’s sins so that he might have eternal life.
         Tampering with the gospel distorts the story of something very important to God,
         HIS sending of His Son, the obedience of HIS Son to the greatest degree of humiliation.
         This gospel, this description of what happened within the Godhead between the Father and His Son,
          is very personal to God, and He does not appreciate people tampering with it.

“Another gospel which is not another”: Paul’s opponents apparently claimed that they and Paul simply had different versions of the same gospel, and that their version was better than Paul’s. Their gospel was the new-and-improved version of Paul’s gospel. Paul flat-out denies this claim. Theirs is not a different version of the gospel; theirs is NO GOSPEL at all. The word “gospel” (Grk. euaggellion, pron. you-ahn-GEL-lee-ahn) literally means “good news.” Well, Paul’s gospel is good news! You don’t have to work for your salvation. You just receive by faith the salvation Christ has purchased for us on the cross. On the other hand, the gospel of the Judaizers was no good news at all. It led to a life of slavery and eventually death, no salvation at all!

The 3 “if” clauses: in English, the word “if” has primarily one meaning—condition. “If I go to the store” makes my going to the store conditional—I may or may not go. In Greek, though, the words translated “if” can actually have one of 4 meanings (3 of which appear in this passage).

1. In one case, the word “if” can mean possibility, “If I go to the store” means “I might possibly go to the store.”
2. In another case, the word “if” can mean reality, “If I go to the store—and I am going to the store.”
3. In the third case, the word “if” means UN-reality, “If I were to go to the store, but I am not!”

When Paul writes, “If I or an angel from heaven might preach to you a gospel contrary to that which you received,” he is using the word “if” in the first sense. It’s possible, though highly unlikely, that I or an angel might preach a gospel contrary to the one I preached to you.” Possible? Yes. Likely? No.

When Paul writes, “If any man is preaching a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you,” he is using the word “if” in the second sense. “If they are preaching a contrary gospel—AND THEY ARE!” In other words, the Judaizers are not about to preach a heretical gospel; it is not that they might preach a heretical gospel. They ARE preaching a heretical gospel to the Galatians. (We shall see the third use of the word “if” in v. 10.)

Well, what does Paul think should happen to him or to an angel who might preach a heretical gospel, and what does he think should happen to the Judaizers who are actually preaching that contrary gospel?

Now to our ears, this word doesn’t seem all that bad. It would have struck horror, though, into the hearts of the original readers of this letter. The English word here is actually based the Greek word anathema (anathema). When the Greek-speaking Jews translated the Hebrew OT into Greek around 250 BC in Alexandria, Egypt, they used the Greek word "anathema" to translate the Hebrew word "cherem." Where do we find the word "cherem"? In the Book of Joshua, applied to things and cities placed under the ban. For example, Jericho was placed under the ban. It was considered anathema. God claimed that something placed under the ban was so evil that He would be glorified if Israel should completely wipe it out—men, women, children, cattle, everything. Here Paul is claiming that the Judaizers who are preaching Jesus AND Moses, faith AND works, were under the ban. They are so wicked that God would actually be glorified by their complete annihilation.

Paul concludes this passage with a swipe at his opponents. They had accused him of being a people-pleaser. What has Paul just done though which demonstrates that he in fact was NOT a people-pleaser?

“For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God. If I were trying to please men [the third sense of the word “if”], if I were trying to please men—and I’m not!—then I would not be a bond-servant of Christ—which I am!”