Yet for all of Paul’s hard words, Galatians is fundamentally a letter of grace. It is a bitter and often painful grace, but it is grace, nonetheless. Even though the Galatians are in very real danger of committing apostasy, from the very beginning the apostle is declaring that the well of God’s grace has not run dry. This is why the apostle extends his usual greeting into giving the Galatians a brief reminder of what exactly the gospel of Jesus Christ is.
Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the brothers who are with me,
To the churches of Galatia:
Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for our sins
to deliver us from the present evil age,
according to the will of our God and Father,
to whom be the glory forever and ever.
Amen.Galatians 1:1-5 ESV
When preparing for a new series through a book of the Bible, I always give a great deal of thought to what I am titling the series because I want the title to act as a concise snapshot of what the main theme of the book is. Paul’s epistle to the Galatians proved surprisingly difficult in this matter, since nailing down the overall theme can be a challenge. Of course, there is no shortage of ideas. If Galatians is primarily a polemic against legalism, then we could call the series “Not by Works of the Law,” “Captive Under the Law,” or even “The Curse of the Law.” But if Galatians is foremost a defense of justification by faith alone, then we could call it “Justified by Faith” or simply “Through Faith Alone.” But maybe Paul’s broader goal is to defend the true gospel, which would make the title “No Other Gospel” quite fitting.
Yet the most pervasive theme from the first verse to the last is Jesus Christ. Indeed, it is in the person of Christ that each of the other prominent themes of Galatians are rooted. We are set free from the curse of the law only through Christ becoming a curse in our place. The beauty of our being justified in God’s sight through faith alone is made possible only in Christ. And this good news is rightly called the gospel of Christ. Indeed, the great concern of Paul throughout this letter, which explains his intense and often harsh tone, is that the Galatians were in danger of being severed from Christ (5:4). thus, I propose a simple title for capturing the heartbeat of Paul’s letter to the Galatians: “Christ Alone.”
From Paul to the Galatians: Verses 1–2
As is typically the case with ancient letters, this one begins by identifying the author: Paul. This is, of course, the Apostle Paul, who was formerly called Saul and who actively persecuted the church until Christ called him to Himself. Although we do not know for certain when this letter was written, most scholars argue that it is the earliest of Paul’s letters, likely penned before the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. R. C. Sproul remarks that his mentor John Gerstner described Paul’s personality and character with an acrostic of his name:
P stood for “polluted” because Paul understood that he was the chief of sinners, and the A referred to his “office” as an Apostle. But the most striking significance to me was that Dr. Gerstner said the U in Paul’s name stood for “uncompromising” and the L stood for “loving.” (Galatians, 2)
It is here in Galatians that we find those final two characteristics meeting together. Paul’s deep love for the Galatians leads him to an uncompromising stance on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul then immediately refers to himself as an apostle. Although the word apostle simply means one who is sent, he uses it here to refer to an ecclesiastical office that belonged only to those who received a direct revelation of Jesus Christ. Since it is probable that Paul’s authority as an apostle was being called into question by the influencers, he follows his claim to apostleship with the statement: “not from men nor through man but through Jesus Christ…”
By saying “not from men,” Paul is emphasizing that the source of his apostleship did not come from any human authority but directly from God. “Nor through man” is to say that there was no intermediary. Christ Himself set Paul apart to be an apostle. Again, this is what distinguished the apostles from ministers today. The only authoritative offices, elders and deacons, are both appointed and affirmed by the church and can also be removed from office by the church.
Paul’s apostolic authority came instead “through Jesus Christ and God the Father.” Obviously, it was Jesus Himself who appeared to Paul, but just as Jesus said that whoever has seen Him has seen the Father, the apostle rightly understood his call through Christ to also be a call from the Father. Furthermore, in answer to those who would deny the divinity of Christ, notice the intimate union in Paul’s mind between Christ and the Father, as well as the distance he places between Christ and ordinary men. Of course, we joyfully affirm that Jesus became truly man, but crucially, He was not merely a man. He is the God-man, truly human but also truly divine.
“who raised him from the dead” John Brown gives a wonderful answer for why Paul included this phrase:
This was a truth ever present to the apostle’s mind in its pre-eminent importance; and consequently he was always ready to give it utterance. It is not unlikely that, in mentioning it here, he meant to suggest the idea,–that as an apostle called by the Savior raised from the dead by the power of the Father, he was certainly not inferior to those who had been called by him in his suffering state. For it does not seem to have been one of the circumstances of which the false teachers in different churches availed themselves, in endeavouring to lessen Paul’s authority, that he had not, like the other apostles, been the companion of Jesus Christ while on earth. (Galatians, 22)
Although verse 1 is more than enough to establish the authority of Paul as an apostle of the risen Christ, he also adds “and all the brothers with me.” This probably refers to those ministering alongside Paul, although it could also be the general believers of which city Paul was writing from. Either way, since this is only letter where Paul cites another group of believers as giving their explicit affirmation of Paul’s words, we can assume that Paul was doing so very intentionally. Indeed, this seems to be simply one more authentication of Paul’s authority. Perhaps the implication to the Galatians is: if the testimony of the Father and the about me is not sufficient, then just know that all the brothers who are with me agree with everything I am about to write. In other words, “Paul is no lone ranger, a renegade working in isolation from the rest of the early church. The gospel he preaches and the gospel the Galatians first believed is the same gospel preached by Paul’s cohorts and many others” (Wilson, Galatians, 21-22).
“to the churches of Galatia” Here we learn the recipients of this letter. Unlike most of Paul’s epistles, this one was not directed to a particular city but to a region. There are two possibilities about which Galatians Paul was writing to. If he was speaking of Galatia in an ethnic sense, then he would have been writing to the Celtic people in northern part of the providence of Galatia. If he was speaking of Galatia in a geographic or political sense, then it is likely that he was addressing area of Antioch, Lystra, Derbe, and Iconium, which are cities where he preached the gospel in Acts 13-14. The absence of personal names often seems to indicate familiarity in Paul’s writings, so I would assume the latter to be the more likely option.
Regarding the word churches, DeSilva gives us this caution:
The translation “congregations” is preferred here to “churches” given the connotations of the latter in English as established places for worship. The Greek ἐκκλεσία refers to an assembly of people without reference to a building or place, which is more in keeping with early Christian identity and practice. (3)