LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

Defense of Paul's Apostleship

Galatians 1:1-21

INTRODUCTION

General Introduction

Galatians deals with the most important issue that each person has to confront, how to enter into a right relationship with God. The issue is important because the way a person responds to it determines his eternal destiny. The person who finds favor with God will experience an eternity in His presence, while the person who does not find favor with Him will experience an eternity away from His presence. Although this will be the most important issue dealt with in Galatians, a corollary issue flows out of this major issue. After a person discovers how to enter into a right relationship with God, the issue then becomes how a person lives out that right relationship. The purpose of God making me right with Him is that I may then live rightly.

There are 2 basic approaches to finding a right relationship with God. The first centers on grace. By grace God freely offers to each of us the gift of salvation. The only appropriate way to respond to grace is faith. This is salvation by God’s grace through man’s faith. The other way to find salvation is to work for it. Works can take all shapes and sizes. In Paul's day the main work that some claimed you had to perform in order to be saved was circumcision. Today some stress that you need to perform certain good works to be saved. No matter what work you perform, when you try to work for your salvation, you are out of the realm of grace.

There are two problems to mixing grace and works. First, once you take a step in the direction of works, you place your foot on a slippery slope which shoots you down to disaster. At first, you might just add the one work of baptism; however, before you know it, you’re adding work after work. All of a sudden you can’t have musical instruments in your churches any more. You can't eat food on church property. Whenever you drink from the cup of the Lord’s Supper, you must all drink from one cup instead of from individual cups. You must join a church organization, especially if it is missions, if you are going to be right with God. Since you’ll be afraid you won’t get it all right, you’ll keep adding work after work after work just to be safe.

The second problem with mixing works and gace is that you CAN'T mix the two and keep grace grace. Works pollute grace. I illustrated this in front of the class by giving a young lady a glass of orange drink. The glass was almost full. After she took a sip out of the glass, I took it back, refilled it, and then spit in it. I then handed the glass back to her. She didn’t want to get anywhere near that glass. "Why?" I asked. "Each glass is 99.9% orange juice; they’re just .1% spittle." Well, she understandably didn’t want to have anything at all to do with that glass anymore. No matter how little spittle was in it, the little amount of spittle totally ruined the O. J. The same applies to grace. It is 100% pure. Add some works, no matter how few, and you totally pollute the grace.

The above may surprise some people because I am Roman Catholic which many wrongfully claim that works are necessary for salvation in the Catholic Church. Not so. The great teacher of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), St. Thomas Aquinas, differentiated between operative grade which occurs at the time of justification and cooperative grace which is important during the sanctification process. Operative grace is primarily that grace which operates no matter what I do. Yes, I must receive it by faith, but it is operating no matter what. For example, grace is operating in the sacraments regardless of how I respond to them. If I respond in faith, they produce positive results in my life; if I don't, then they bring condemnation to my life. Cooperative grace, on the other hand. requires me participating in the process. Engaging in Bible study, attending mass regularly would be examples of cooperative grace. We hear this distinction in Paul's command to us: "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling [cooperative grace], for it is God who is at work in you [operative grace]" (Phil. 2:12-13).

Moreover, bear this in mind: NT faith produces works. Faith which does not produce good works is not NT faith; it may be faith (only in the sense of assent), but it is not NT faith. Mere knowledge and more assent are not enough to constitute NT faith. James warns us that even "the demons also believe...but shudder" (James. 2:19). This is confirmed by the fact that at the end of each of his letters, Paul focuses on the ethical responses (works) we should be making if we are responding in faith.

The above has been the traditional approach most Protestants have taken towards interpreting Galatians. While there is much truth in this approach, it fails to address adequately the ultimate situation in the Galatian churches. This we shall look at in the historical context in which Galatians was written.

Historical Introduction

When we read Galatians, we see that Paul is extremely furious with both the Galatians and his opponents. With the Galatians he is upset because he is afraid that they are going to commit spiritual suicide. Now any good parent can sympathize with Paul. Can you imagine yourselves as parents on the opposite side of the room watch your child about to stick a coat hanger into an outlet and say sweetly, "Now, sweetheart, we don’t want to hurt your feelings; however, you really shouldn’t do that"? "Hon, that could really hurt." No. Like good parents, we would shout out, "Stop!" It might scare the child. The child might even think that we hate him or her; however, it is for their own good. The same is operating here. Paul loves the Galatians desperately and is concerned about their spiritual welfare. For this reason he is upset with them.

On the other hand, Paul is angry with his opponents. When we get to Galatians 5, we shall see Paul utter one of the harshest statements uttered in the NT against his opponents. Their works are so deadly and malicious that Paul pulls out all the stops in his attacks against them.

Today we’ve been indoctrinated with the idea that we should not be intolerant of other faiths. We’ve been taught that sincerity is the most important thing, that being sincere about what we believe is all that matters. That’s simply ludicrous. Mike Harwood owns several planes. If he were to ask me to service one of his planes, he would be headed for disaster. I might be sincere in the way I serviced the plane; however, sincere I was though, I know nothing about what I was doing. My sincerity will not keep that plane from crashing.

Just what is the situation Paul is facing in the Galatians churches? Around 40 AD the church at Antioch, Syria sent Paul and Barnabas out on their first missionary journey. They first evangelized the island of Cyprus and then the central and eastern sections of modern-day Turkey which was called Galatia in Roman times. They then backtracked and returned to Antioch. While at Antioch some Jews who claimed to be Christians infiltrated the churches in Antioch and began to claim that faith in Christ was not sufficient for salvation. In addition to believing in Christ, a person basically also had to become a Jews by submitting to the rite of circumcision and observing feast days, etc. Paul and Barnabas engaged the Judaizers in a titanic struggle in the first church conference at Jerusalem (Acts 15). After the debates had been waged, the mother church at Jerusalem confirmed that Paul and Barnabas’ interpretation of the gospel was correct. The battle should have been over at this point.

(And why would this not be the burning issue in Paul's day? For over 1400 years God had been working uniquely through the Jewish people. Now, all of a sudden, Paul seems to be claiming that Jewishness mattered little. In fact, in one of the most quoted verses in Galatians, Paul claims that in Christ Jesus, there is "neither Jew nor Greek" (Gal. 3:28). Paul will begin to address this issue in Galatians; however, his fullest treatment is found in Romans. (For the best study of Romans, read James Dunn's commentary on Romans in The Word Biblical Commentary (Waco, TX: Word Publishers). Dunn et al have revolutionized Pauline studies. They have taken us back to the time before Luther to help us understand more fully what Paul was saying.)

Although Paul and Barnabas won the day at the great church conference in Jerusalem, the Judaizers were not going to give up easily. They began to infiltrate the churches in Turkey which Paul and Barnabas had established on their first missionary journey. Their approach was something like this:

"While it is true that a person must believe in Jesus Christ for salvation, this belief alone is not enough. You must remember that God not only spoke through Jesus Christ but that He also spoke through Moses and chose the Jewish people. Now one of the major necessary characteristics of the Jewish race, one of the major elements of the Mosaic Law is circumcision. In addition to believing in Christ, a person must also submit to the rite of circumcision in order to be saved. This alone completes a person’s salvation."

The Galatians may have replied:

"But that is not what Paul taught us. While he was with us, he taught us that a person was saved solely by God’s grace through faith. As an apostle, he must know what he’s talking about."

The Judaizers may have then said:

"Well, now that you mentioned Paul’s apostleship, we’ll address that too. Although it is true that Paul is an apostle in some form or manner, you need to understand that he is not an apostle like Peter, James, and John. The 12 major apostles walked with Jesus for 3 years while He was on earth. Not only that, Jesus appeared to all of them for 40 days after His resurrection and before His ascension. During all this time, Paul was not even a Christian! Moreover, since he never met Jesus personally, he received all his information about Jesus second-hand from the real apostles. He has either misunderstood the information, or else he’s perverted it. In any case, he is a Johnny-come-lately or a second-hand Rose. Finally, he’s nothing more than a people-pleaser. He knows that if he strips away circumcision from being a requirement then he and his gospel will become popular."

As a result of this, Paul will counter his opponents on 2 fronts. First, he will counter them with a defense of his claim to be an apostle. This matter is crucial because the apostles were official spokespersons for Jesus Christ. If he is truly an apostle, then his gospel is authoritative. If he is not a genuine apostle, then his gospel is nothing more than human speculation. Second, he will counter them with a defense of the gospel itself. He will show them from the Scriptures and from their own personal experiences that salvation comes only by grace through faith.

Just a side note here. Many well-meaning conservative evangelicals will try to use this against Roman Catholics and their sacramental view of salvation. They will pit the sacraments against faith. Well, there are 2 problems with this. First of all, the first Protestant actually was sacramental--Martin Luther. He would have been surprised if someone tried to use Romans against the sacraments. (It is also interesting that recently a major conclave of Lutherans have finally admitted that RC's actually believe in salvation by grace through faith: see JOINT DECLARATION ON THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION. This does NOT mean that there are no differences between Catholics and Protestants; there are. This is just not one of them as many wrongfully believed for approximately 500 years.) Second, Catholics believe that grace is received through faith. Unlike conservative evangelicals, they believe that grace is found in the sacraments. This grace though must be received through faith.

GREETINGS (1:1-5)

Paul begins Galatians by using the style of letter writing common during the first century. First he will state his name, then the name of the recipients of the letter, and finally a brief word of greeting. Paul though cannot get by with just a simple hello. One wise lady once told me that whenever I speak, I give a lot more information than what people are wanting. That’s true! It’s even more true about Paul. In these 5 verses which make up his greeting, he basically outlines the contents of Galatians.

Paul attacks the issue of his apostleship head on: "Paul. An apostle!" "Make no bones about it. I am just as much an apostle as the 12 in Jerusalem. Moreover, I did not receive my apostleship secondhand. A committee of men did not get together and decide that I needed to be an apostle ("not sent from men"). Neither did God send some people to inform me of His decision that I should be an apostle ("nor through the agency of man"). Instead I received it directly from Jesus Christ Himself and from God the Father. If Jesus and the Father are the ones who informed me of the decision that I was to be an apostle, then you can be sure that they are the ones who decided I should be an apostle in the first place because they take orders from no man!"

Paul then describes God the Father as being the One who raised Jesus from the dead. The Galatians claimed that Paul was disqualified from being one of the major apostles because he had not encountered the resurrected Jesus during the 40 days before His ascension. Paul argues though that Jesus remains alive and that because He is alive, He can appear to people just like He appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus. He has encountered the resurrected Christ and has thus fulfilled one of the major requirements of being an apostle.

Next, Paul sends greetings to the Galatians from the brethren who are with him (Gal. 1:2). Paul is not alone in the defense of his apostleship and gospel. God has confirmed his apostleship and his gospel by actually bringing other people to Him through Paul’s ministry. If Paul were alone in defending his apostleship and gospel, he would be in dire straits because he is not the only one in whom dwells the Holy Spirit, the ultimate author of inspired Scripture. The fact that the Holy Spirit has confirmed it through others attests to the genuineness of his apostleship and of his gospel. (Be careful about promoting a strictly individualistic faith. God gives us other Christians to give us wise counsel whenever we are straying from divine truth.)

Paul then sends the customary greetings he sends to all the churches: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal. 1:3). This greeting is especially appropriate in this situation because the Galatians are on the verge of falling away from that very grace (5:1-5). If ever they needed the grace that comes from God through Christ, it is right now!

In v. 4 Paul summarizes the gospel itself and one of its major effects: "[Jesus Christ] who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us out of this present evil age." When Christ died, He was so sinless that He did not have to die for His sins; rather He could die for our sins so that we would not have to pay the penalty of eternal death. One result of His death was that we were delivered out of this present evil age. Whatever else the gospel is, it is a rescue mission. A lot of us watched with abated breath as the workers searched for survivors from the WTC towers. Every now and then they would find somebody still alive. If they heard somebody calling out, they would work feverishly to rescue them. The workers at the site and the entire nation rejoiced whenever they saved somebody. The rescue operation at the WTC though pales in comparison to the rescue operation Jesus Christ is involved in. He delivers us from the spiritual wreckage that Satan heaps upon mankind. Part of the wreckage Jesus delivers us from is the wreckage of trying to live by works of trying to become a Jew first and not by grace. Living by these works characterizes this present evil age; living by grace characterizes the new age of Jesus Christ.

THE SITUATION AND THE SERIOUS NATURE OF THE SITUATION (1:6-10)

Normally at this point in his letters, Paul would express thanks for the progress that the readers of the letter are making in their walk with Christ. Not this time though. Paul finds nothing about the Galatians to thank God for. Instead Paul launches immediately into his counterattack against his opponents. He says, "I am amazed. I can’t believe this. It’s not been that long since I preached the gospel to you and you are already deserting God for another gospel." Note that the choice facing the Galatians is not between 2 varieties of the gospel, Paul's "inferior" gospel and the "superior" gospel of Paul's opponents. The choice is between God and the false gospel Paul’s opponents are preaching. Rejecting the gospel Paul preaches is tantamount to rejecting God because the gospel is precisely about God. It describes an event which occurred between the Father and His Son Jesus which benefits you and me.

What was the event that occurred within the Godhead? God looked down upon mankind and saw the terrible situation it was in. In order to save man from his lost situation, God sent His Son to die the terrible death on the cross. There God poured out all the wrath on Him which was reserved for you and me so that we would never have to taste that wrath. Whenever a person rejects that gospel, he rejects the awesome sacrifice Christ and His Father made on our behalf. If I had sacrificed my son for somebody who in turned rejected that sacrifice, I would justifiably be upset. How much more so God. The gospel describes an event which was very personal for God the Father and His Son Jesus.

Paul next informs the Galatians that the gospel his opponents preach is not really a gospel at all. Paul uses play on words in verses 6 and 7. The KJV translates the words exactly the same, "other" and "other"; however, in the Greek the meaning is precisely "another of a different kind" and "another of the same kind." They claimed they were preaching just a different variety of the gospel Paul was preaching; they said it was the same gospel though with a twist. They claimed they were improving his gospel. For sure they used a lot of the same terminology Paul used, such as, Jesus is God’s Son, Jesus died to save us from our sins, etc.; however, once they added the necessity of becoming a Jew first to the equation (by focusing on circumcision), it quit being a gospel of good news at all. It became a message of death and slavery to sin and the works of becoming a Jew. It was not just a gospel with a few little added touches; it was no gospel at all!

In verses 8-9 Paul demonstrates how serious this situation really is. He says, "Let’s just suppose that one day I feel that I’ve been mistaken about salvation by grace alone and that becoming a Jew first (by submitting to circumcision) is really necessary for salvation, and then I start preaching that kind of gospel. If that day ever occurs, then let me be accursed. The same applies to the angels of heaven. Even if they, the mighty angels of heaven, preach a gospel different from the one which I preached to you—which is highly unlikely, then let those angels be accursed!"

The word "accursed" is important for understanding Paul’s meaning. If you look back at Deuteronomy, you will see the idea of the curse developed fully. In Deuteronomy Moses declared that if the Israelites attacked a pagan city in the holy land, they were to place it under the ban or under the curse (the same word used here in Galatians when it is translated into Greek, "anathema"). When they attacked the city under the curse, they were to kill every man, woman, and child who lived there. Moreover, they were to kill all the animals in that city. The city was considered so wicked that God was glorified by its utter annihilation. That is the same idea operating here. According to Paul, if he preaches a gospel contrary to the one he preached earlier, then God is glorified by his utter annihilation and damnation.

Verse 8 was a hypothetical statement. Verse 9 as expressed in the Greek shows the real situation operating in the Galatian churches. There actually are people who are preaching a gospel contrary to the one Paul is preaching. Paul declares, "Let that person be accursed. God is glorified by their utter annihilation." Paul is not endorsing killing these people; however, he does declare that God would be glorified if they were utterly wiped out because of what they were doing to the gospel.

At this point, Paul counters the criticism against him that he has tailored his gospel in order to please people. He says, "Now after what you heard me say in verses 8 and 9, do I sound like a people pleaser? I’ve just called down God’s wrath upon my opponents. Does that make me sound like a people-pleaser to you?" Then Paul goes on to show the contradiction between being a people-pleaser and a Christ-pleaser. You can’t be both. You will either be one or the other but never both.

DEFENSE OF PAUL’S APOSTLESHIP (1:11-2:21)

From this point until the end of chapter 2, Paul defends his apostleship. Paul is not defending himself because he is petty or because he does not like the personal attack against him; rather, he is defending his apostleship because his gospel is linked integrally to that apostleship. If Paul is not an apostle, then his gospel most likely is not valid. On the other hand, if he is an apostle, then his gospel is valid.

This claim startles a lot of Protestants. They basically view the Bible as being a book God simply dropped down from heaven. The Bible in Protestantism has a kind of ethereal quality about it. A closer look at the Bible though informs us that just as in the incarnation, God the Son infiltrated humanity and became God-Man, so in the production of the Bible God against infiltrated humanity, specifically the chosen apostles in order to produce the Bible. Just as Jesus was God AND MAN, so the Bible is divine AND HUMAN. Do not neglect the significance of the apostles in their role as the authoritative spokesmen for Christ. Christ Himself says of the 12 apostles: "Truly I say to you, in the regeneration when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel" (Matt. 19:28; see also Eph. 2:20).

Before giving evidence he is an apostle, Paul states categorically that the gospel he preached is not a man-kind of gospel. By this Paul means that the gospel he preaches is not the kind of gospel men would concoct. When man makes up a way for salvation, he makes sure that he gets the credit for it by becoming a Jew and getting circumcised in order to attain it. After doing all these good works of becoming a Jew, he thinks that God should be so glad to have him enter His heaven. It’s as if man wants God to say, "We are just so fortunate and blessed to have you with us. Heaven’s going to be such a better place because you’re here!"

Another kind of gospel man concocts basically says that God doesn’t care what we do because He is going to allow everybody to enter heaven regardless of their works. That way man does not have to change. He can remain just as he is. Once more the focus is on man and not on God. The gospel Paul preaches though gives all the glory to God. In Paul’s gospel man is only the recipient of God’s grace, not its earner.

Paul next states that he neither received this gospel from another man nor did another man teach it to him. Rather he received it directly as a revelation of Jesus Christ. On the road to Damascus, Jesus revealed Himself to Paul in such a way that at that moment Paul was not only saved but was also called out to be an apostle for Jesus to the Gentile world. This came as a result only of Jesus’ direct intervention and not as a result of the apostles’ workings.

Pre-Conversion Experience Shows He had no Contact with the Jerusalem Apostles (1:13-14)

In order to show that he had not received his gospel secondhand from the Jerusalem apostles, he tells about his life before becoming a Christian in order to show that he had had no relations with them before his conversion. Instead of being a pupil of the Jerusalem apostles before his conversion, he had actually persecuted and tried to destroy the very church the apostles were establishing. Acts 9:1 states that before he became a Christian, Paul was breathing murder against the Christian church. Moreover, instead of being one of their pupils, he had been a pupil of Judaism. Paul claims that in his younger years he was a bright rising star in the Jewish religion. The Greek word translated "advancing" is used to describe trailblazers. He was cutting new paths in the Jewish religion. If Christ had not transformed him, he probably would have been the greatest rabbi of the Jewish religion instead of the greatest theologian Christianity has ever produced.

The appearance of Jesus to Paul on the road to Damascus changed Paul completely. First, that appearance taught him that salvation is purely an act of grace, that no works are involved. When Paul was on his way to Damascus, he was not doing good works. He was trying to kill Christians--and yet Christ still saved him! That is surely the greatest proof that salvation is based on grace and not only works. If God had based salvation on works and not on faith, Paul would have gone to hell because he was actually fighting against God. God saved Paul simply because He is a God of grace.

His Conversion Experience and its Immediate Aftermath Show He had no Contact with the Jerusalem Apostles (1:15-17)

When Paul became a Christian, the Jerusalem apostles were nowhere to be found. What saved Paul was not the excellent instruction of the Jerusalem apostles but the intervention of God Himself. Now Paul’s conversion and commission to be an apostle were not an afterthought in the mind of God. Even from the time of his conception God had chosen Paul to be His apostle to the Gentiles. Paul performs a unique role in the history of Christianity. It is he God chose to bring the Gentiles into the church. If it had been left up to Peter, James, and John, Gentiles would have been a part but only a small part of the church.

Even after his conversion, Paul did not go to be instructed by the Jerusalem apostles. Instead the first thing he did was to go to Arabia to process what had just happened to him. Paul as a Pharisee had been instructed heavily in the OT. He knew it frontward and backwards. The only problem was that he had misunderstood it. As a result, God drew him away from the noise of life, took him to a secluded place, and helped him to understand rightly both what had happened to him on the Damascus road and what the OT really was all about. In many of his books, Paul spends much of the time giving a Christian interpretation of the OT. After this withdrawal into Arabia (which extended from the Sinai peninsula to modern-day Saudi Arabia), Paul returned to Damascus and not to Jerusalem where the apostles were located.

Paul’s Brief Encounter with the Jerusalem Apostles (1:18-24)

Up to this point Paul has had no contact at all with the Jerusalem apostles, the ones who supposedly taught him his gospel, thereby making him a second-class apostle at best! Paul claims that it was actually 3 years after his conversion before he had any dealings with the Jerusalem apostles and then for only a limited amount of time. When he finally went to Jerusalem, Paul spent a total of 2 weeks visiting Peter. The only other apostle he saw during those 2 weeks was James, the half-brother of Jesus. Two weeks. That’s all.

For all Paul's bravado in Gal. 2:1-10, it must be admitted that he still sought out Peter. Even in chapter 2 he reveals to us the high esteem the early church had for Peter/Cephas, James (Jesus' half-brother), and John. Paul seems to chafe at the idea of Peter being the leader of the apostolic band; however, his writings indicate that that was just the position Peter held in the early church. Notice also that Paul calls him "Cephas," the literal Aramaic name Jesus gave Peter and not the Greek equivalent of "Peter." That is extremely important in interpreting Matt. 16.

"Ah," you may say, "Paul did converse with them!" Yes, but for only 15 days. That is not enough time for Paul to receive the kind of intensive training and instruction the Judaizers were accusing him of having at the feet of the apostles. How many of you who have attended SS for the past 52 weeks can claim that you now have a handle on the Bible? Not many, I bet. That’s 52 weeks, while Paul had only 15 days. I’ve been intensively studying the Bible weekly for the past 36 years; 9 of those years included study at the Masters and Ph.D. level. That includes studying the Bible in both Hebrew and Greek. Even then it’s been only in the last few years that I have felt like I’ve gotten a decent handle on the Bible, and even then I know probably less than I think I know. That’s after 36 years—not 15 days! The charges against Paul that he was a mere lackey of the Jerusalem apostles were completely ludicrous. Paul spent so little time in the area where the apostles lived that if most of the Jewish Christians living in Judea passed by him on the street they would not have even recognized him by face. They did know though that God had changed Paul. They knew that only God could have made the kind of change Paul had experienced because the very one who had tried to kill them was now actually preaching the gospel he tried to destroy.