Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Galatians - Introduction

Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians - Introduction


Above image from preceptaustin.org

Basic Outline:

  • Chapters 1 and 2, Paul defends his apostleship and his gospel.
  • Chapters 3 and 4, Paul contrasts bondage to the law with the freedom of grace.
  • Chapters 5 and 6, Paul describes the characteristics of the life of a believer justified by grace.

OUTLINE (NIV Study Bible):

  • Introduction (1:1-10)
    • Greetings (1:1-5)
    • Denunciation (1:6-10)
  • Personal: Authentication of the Apostle of Liberty and Faith (1:11-2:21)
    • Paul’s Gospel Was Received by Special Revelation (1:11-12)
    • Paul’s Gospel Was Independent of the Jerusalem Apostles and the Judean Churches (1:13-2:21)
      • Evidenced by his early activities as a Christian (1:13-17)
      • Evidenced by his first post-Christian visit to Jerusalem (1:18-24)
      • Evidenced by his second post-Christian visit to Jerusalem (2:1-10)
      • Evidenced by his rebuke of Peter at Antioch (2:11-21)
  • Doctrinal: Justification of the Doctrine of Liberty and Faith (chapters 3-4)
    • The Galatians’ Experience of the Gospel (3:1-5)
    • The Experience of Abraham (3:6-9)
    • The Curse of the Law (3:10-14)
    • The Priority of the Promise (3:15-18)
    • The Purpose of the Law (3:19-25)
    • Sons, Not Slaves (3:26-4:7)
    • The Danger of Turning Back (4:8-11)
    • Appeal to Embrace the Freedom of God’s Children (4:12-20)
    • God’s Children Are Children of the Free Woman (4:21-31)
  • Practical: Practice of the Life of Liberty and Faith (5:1-6:10)
    • Exhortation to Freedom (5:1-12)
    • Life by the Spirit, Not by the Flesh (5:13-26)
    • Call for Mutual Help (6:1-10)
  • Conclusion and Benediction (6:11-18)

Ray Pritchard: “Galatians is spiritual dynamite. This is a dangerous book! Read it at your own risk. Martin Luther read it and an explosion went off in his heart that led to the Protestant Reformation. John Wesley heard a sermon based on Luther’s commentary on Galatians and was profoundly converted. From Luther to Calvin to Wesley to the Puritans to Spurgeon to Billy Graham, there is a direct line from this ancient epistle to who we are and what we believe today.”

Merrill Tenney: “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.”

KEY VERSES:

  • Galatians 1:6-7, 9: I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. … I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.
  • Galatians 2:14, 16: When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? … Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
  • Galatians 2:19-21: For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law - I stopped trying to meet all its requirements - so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die
  • Galatians 3:1-2: Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.
  • Galatians 3:26, 28: For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. … There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
  • Galatians 4:6: And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”
  • Galatians 4:21-26: Tell me, you who want to live under the law, do you know what the law actually says? The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave wife and one from his freeborn wife. The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his promise. These two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where people received the law that enslaved them. And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery to the law. But the other woman, Sarah, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. She is the free woman, and she is our mother.
  • Galatians 5:1: So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.
  • Galatians 5:4: For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.
  • Galatians 5:6: For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.
  • Galatians 5:12-13: I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves. For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.
  • Galatians 5:17: The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
  • Galatians 5:22-25: But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.
  • Galatians 6:7-10: Don’t be misled - you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone - especially to those in the family of faith.
  • Galatians 6:11: NOTICE WHAT LARGE LETTERS I USE AS I WRITE THESE CLOSING WORDS IN MY OWN HANDWRITING.
  • Galatians 6:14: As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.

Related verses in Acts chapter 15 regarding Gentiles and the Law:

    Acts 15:1, 5, 10-11, 19-21, 23-29: While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers: “Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.” … But then some of the believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and insisted, “The Gentile converts must be circumcised and required to follow the law of Moses.” … Peter … So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.” … James … “And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood. For these laws of Moses have been preached in Jewish synagogues in every city on every Sabbath for many generations.” … This is the letter they took with them: “This letter is from the apostles and elders, your brothers in Jerusalem. It is written to the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Greetings! “We understand that some men from here have troubled you and upset you with their teaching, but we did not send them! So we decided, having come to complete agreement, to send you official representatives, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are sending Judas and Silas to confirm what we have decided concerning your question. “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements: You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. Farewell.”

KEY WORDS:

  • Law: 29 times
  • Gospel: 15 times.
  • Spirit: 10 times.
  • Liberty (freedom): 11 times.
  • Grace: 7 times.

As we often do in our studies of a book in the Bible, we start with the Who, What, When and Where as any good reporter / investigator would do:

WHO:

  • Written by Paul to the Galatian Gentile believers against the Judaizers (1:7 - those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ; 5:12 - those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision).
  • James A. Fowler: “…the original recipients of Paul’s letter to the Galatians were citizens of such cities as Lystra, Iconium and Derbe where Paul had established churches on his first missionary journey. Paul had obviously planted these churches (1:8,11; 4:19,20) and the Christians in the churches had a great fondness and appreciation for Paul as their founding father (4:14,15).”
  • Galatia derived its name from its inhabitants, who were Gauls that had invaded and settled in Asia Minor at various periods during the third century B.C. The Gauls were Celts from the modern-day area of France.

WHAT:

  • Theme: Justification by Faith and not by Works of the Law.
  • Dr. Bob Utley: “This doctrinally oriented letter, possibly Paul’s first, was a precursor to Romans and its development of the doctrine of justification by grace through faith apart from Judaism’s emphasis on a works righteousness by obedience to the Mosaic Law and traditions of the elders (i.e., Oral Traditions).
    1. Salvation cannot be found in both human performance and grace.
    2. Salvation must be found in either human performance or grace.
    3. Christlikeness will follow a true conversion.
    4. Theologically there is a distinction between Judaism’s legalism which brought salvation and Christian legalism, which attempts to judge and restrict Christian freedom. Paul denounces Judaism’s performance based model as worthy of damnation, but is willing to work with Christian legalism (i.e., weak faith, cf. Romans 14:1-15:15; 1 Corinthians 8-10). It is the free gospel of salvation by grace through faith that Paul defends, yet he still recognizes the legalistic tendencies in some believers.”
  • Dr. Bob Utley: “Galatians focuses on the differences between the Old Covenant (OT) in Moses and the New Covenant (NT) in Christ. The first was understood by the rabbis (Paul does not react against the Mosaic covenant, but its misinterpretation and application by Jewish tradition) to base God’s acceptance on human performance, but the second was based on a new heart and a new spirit (cf. Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:22-38). Both were based on God’s grace; both desire a righteous people. The difference between them is how that righteousness is accomplished. This is developed in the NT book of Hebrews.”
  • Scofield: “The Galatian error had two forms, both of which are refuted. The first is the teaching that obedience to the law is mingled with faith as the ground of the sinner’s justification; the second, that the justified believer is made perfect by keeping the law. Paul meets the first form of the error by a demonstration that justification is through the Abrahamic Covenant ( Genesis 15:18 ), and that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after the confirmation of that covenant, and the true purpose of which was condemnation, not justification, cannot disannul a salvation which rests upon the earlier covenant. Paul meets the second and more subtle form by vindicating the office of the Holy Spirit as Sanctifier.”
  • John Stanko: “Paul begins with disbelief that the Galatians were allowing themselves to be influenced to mix law and grace, both doctrinally and practically, and were willingly putting themselves under the law. The Galatians were being told that Gentiles needed circumcision and had to come under the Law of Moses to be saved and to live a life pleasing to the Lord.”
  • Wil Pounds: “Galatians is a powerful polemic against the Judaizers who were trying to draw the churches of Galatia away from salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. This letter was ‘the battle cry of the Reformation’ under Martin Luther. … It has been called the ‘Magna Carta of Christian Liberty.’”
  • Adam Clarke Commentary: “The purpose of the epistle was to root out the errors of doctrine introduced by the Judaizers and to hold the Galatians to their earlier faith. To do this it was necessary to establish his apostolic authority and the divine origin of his gospel. He also desired to show the practical value or application of his teaching. He especially shows the value of Christian freedom and at the same time shows that it is not license. In fulfilling these purposes he gave us an inspired classic upon the fundamental doctrine of justification by faith and forever settled the disturbing question of the relation of Christians to the Jewish law.”
  • Ray Stedman: “You who have read this little letter carefully will have noticed that it is very closely related to the epistles to the Romans and to the Hebrews. These three letters of the New Testament form what might be regarded as an inspired commentary on a single verse from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk. It was to that Old Testament prophet that God gave the great truth, ‘the righteous shall live by his faith,’ (Habakkuk 2:4 RSV). All three of these letters quote this verse, ‘The just [or the righteous] shall live by faith.’ … in Galatians, the emphasis is upon the words ‘shall live’ -- what it means to live as a righteous person, justified in Christ. This is the letter about liberty which is the fullest expression of life.”
  • Ray Stedman: “Galatians comes to grips with the question of what real Christian life is like. The answer can be characterized by one word, ‘liberty.’ The Christian is called to liberty in Jesus Christ.”
  • D. Kenneth L. Boles: “When the early Judaizers tried to bind men to the old commandments from Sinai, Galatians set them free. When the apostate church of the Dark Ages tried to bind men to a papal system of salvation by penance and works, Galatians set them free. When modern legalists try to bind us to a joyless religion of superior ‘tightness,’ Galatians sets us free.”
  • Dr. Constable: “ Galatians upset Paul exceedingly, because whenever we add anything to faith for salvation, inevitably we neglect faith.… Galatians is not only a proclamation of liberty, it is also a protest against legalism. … legalism is the conviction that we can make ourselves acceptable to God by keeping rules. Often the rules in view are those imposed by man, not those required by God. However, misapplying biblical laws is also a form of legalism. As a practice, legalism is the keeping of rules with a view to gaining merit with God. In a larger sense, legalism is the belief that we can make ourselves acceptable to God by our good works. Of course, the only thing that makes us acceptable to God is our trust in Christ’s good works. He satisfied God’s demands for us. We are saved by good works, but it is Christ’s good works, not ours. … To add to faith is to trust ceremony, which is to deny Christ, which is to be cut off from Christ, which is to fall from grace… I would summarize the message of the book as follows: ‘Salvation is by God’s grace through faith plus nothing.’"
  • John MacArthur: “The central theme of Galatians (like that of Romans) is justification by faith. Paul defends that doctrine (which is the heart of the gospel) both in its theological (chapters. 3, 4) and practical (chapters 5, 6) ramifications. He also defends his position as an apostle (chapters 1, 2) since, as in Corinth, false teachers had attempted to gain a hearing for their heretical teaching by undermining Paul’s credibility. The main theological themes of Galatians are strikingly similar to those of Romans, e.g., the inability of the law to justify (2:16; cf. Rom. 3:20); the believer’s deadness to the law (2:19; cf. Rom. 7:4); the believer’s crucifixion with Christ (2:20; cf. Rom. 6:6); Abraham’s justification by faith (3:6; cf. Rom. 4:3); that believers are Abraham’s spiritual children (3:7; cf. Rom. 4:10, 11) and therefore blessed (3:9; cf. Rom. 4:23, 24); that the law brings not salvation but God’s wrath (3:10; cf. Rom. 4:15); that the just shall live by faith (3:11; cf. Rom. 1:17); the universality of sin (3:22; cf. Rom. 11:32); that believers are spiritually baptized into Christ (3:27; cf. Rom. 6:3); believers’ adoption as God’s spiritual children (4:5-7; cf. Rom. 8:14-17); that love fulfills the law (5:14; cf. Rom. 13:8-10); the importance of walking in the Spirit (5:16; cf. Rom. 8:4); the warfare of the flesh against the Spirit (5.:17; cf. Rom. 7:23, 25); and the importance of believers bearing one another’s’ burdens (6:2; cf. Rom. 15:1).”
  • James A. Fowler: “An underlying sub-theme of the epistle might be entitled, ‘The Gospel versus Religion.”
  • Marshall Beeber: “Galatians was written by a champion of freedom who saw that neither Gentiles nor Jews could be delivered from their sins by self-effort in keeping a set of ethical principles.”
  • Charles Welch: “According to the teaching of the rabbis, there were 248 commands and 365 prohibitions of the Mosaic law, which formed part of the ‘Hedge of the law.’”
  • Charles R. Swindoll: “In advance of the Jerusalem Council, Paul’s letter speaks wisdom and clarity into the first real controversy that plagued the church in its early years - the relationship between Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles.”
  • Hebrews 8:13: When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.

WHEN:

  • Paul visited Galatia during his first, second & third missionary journeys.
  • Paul probably wrote Galatians in the fall of 49 A.D. from Antioch, defending the true gospel of grace and his apostleship.
  • Coffman: “It is believed by some that Galatians was written circa A.D. 50, shortly after the Jerusalem Council.”
  • Charles R. Swindoll: “Paul wrote the book a few months before his attendance at the Jerusalem Council in AD 49, a meeting where the apostles would take up this very topic (Acts 15:1-30).”

WHERE:


Above image from www.bible-history.com/new-testament/pauls-first-missionary-journey.html

  • Ray Stedman: “They were churches begun by Paul when he was on his very first missionary journey, traveling with Barnabas into the cities of Antioch, Iconium, Derbe and Lystra. In Lystra, on one occasion, he was stoned and dragged outside the city and left for dead after having first been welcomed and treated as a god. In all these cities he experienced persecution. These were the cities of Galatia. The name of the province comes from the same root as the word Gaul. … Gaul is the ancient name for France. About 300 years before Christ some Gauls from what is now France had invaded the Roman Empire and sacked the city of Rome. Then they crossed into northern Greece and continued across the Dardanelles straits into Asia Minor.”
  • Lorraine O. Schultz: “Paul’s letter was probably addressed to the four southern churches, the ones he visited on his first missionary journey. … Iconium was an important city, mentioned six times in the New Testament. … Lystra was the hometown of Timothy. … Derbe was a secluded town, some 60 miles southeast of Lystra. Derbe was the only town of the four cities that Paul and Barnabas visited in Galatia in which they were not persecuted.”
  • Acts 13:14: But Paul and Barnabas traveled inland to Antioch of Pisidia. On the Sabbath they went to the synagogue for the services.
  • Acts 14:1-3, 8, 10-12, 19-21: The same thing happened in Iconium. Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. Some of the Jews, however, spurned God’s message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas. But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord. And the Lord proved their message was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders. … While they were at Lystra, Paul and Barnabas came upon a man with crippled feet. … Paul called to him in a loud voice, “Stand up!” And the man jumped to his feet and started walking. When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in their local dialect, “These men are gods in human form!” They decided that Barnabas was the Greek god Zeus and that Paul was Hermes, since he was the chief speaker.… Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowds to their side. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead. But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe. After preaching the Good News in Derbe and making many disciples, Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia,
  • Acts 16:1-6: Paul went first to Derbe and then to Lystra, where there was a young disciple named Timothy. His mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek. Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium, so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. … Then they went from town to town, instructing the believers to follow the decisions made by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in their faith and grew larger every day. Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time.
  • Acts 18:23: After spending some time in Antioch, Paul went back through Galatia and Phrygia, visiting and strengthening all the believers.
  • 2 Timothy 4:10: … Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus has gone to Dalmatia.
  • 1 Peter 1:1: This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

WHY:

  • Wil Pounds: “Word had reached Paul that the Galatian Christians were falling away from the true Gospel of grace which he had preached, and were turning to a legalistic system of merit salvation (1:6-9). He wrote to correct this error which was introduced by false teachers. … Paul wrote to correct two errors: Do you have to become a Jew before you can be saved? The second error was, ‘If Christ has set us free, then we can live as we please!’ (cf. 5:1, 13). He demonstrates clearly the only way sinful man can stand before a holy God is by God’s grace made available through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, and we are also sanctified by grace through faith (3:3). The Judaizers taught that works was necessary for salvation and sanctification. It was a religion based on legalism. Someone said, ‘Judaism was the cradle of Christianity and very nearly its grave.’Galatians answers clearly the question posed in Acts 16:31, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ Are we saved by believing or achieving? Paul declared, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’ Because Christ has done it all, there remains nothing for us to do except believe in His finished work, and receive the free gift of eternal life. He gives evidences to that declaration in Galatians. We are free of the law. Not only is the Christian saved by grace through faith, but the saved sinner lives by grace through faith. ‘Grace is the way to life and the way of life.’”
  • Arno Clemens Gaebelein: “Circumcision was especially emphasized by them. They had been to Antioch and taught "except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses ye cannot be saved" (Acts 15:1). … they tried to undermine the apostleship of Paul and they attacked his authority.”
  • Marshall Beeber: “The book is the earliest of Paul’s extant writings. It summarizes the heart of ‘the gospel which [he preached] among both Jews and Gentiles’ (Galatians 2:2). In it he showed that man’s chief problem is obtaining a right standing with God. Since humanity is incapable of establishing this himself because ‘a man is not justified by the works of the law’ (2:16), it must be provided for him by another. Messiah Yeshua has given this standing, for He ‘gave himself for your sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil world’ (1:4). His provision is available to those who put their full trust in Him, for ‘the promise by faith in Messiah [is] given to them that believe’ (3:22). This standing is not simply a legal fiction, applied only externally or ceremonially, but it becomes part of the inner life through union with Yeshua. ‘I have been crucified with Messiah; and it is no longer I that live, but Messiah liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me’ (2:20). Salvation is thus not only the application of a new life, but is also its impartation.”
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