Galatians
Liberty in Christ: justified by faith and kept by grace, not by the works of the Law.
Galatians is Paul’s most urgent letter. Soon after he evangelized the churches of Galatia, Jewish teachers arrived insisting that Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses to be accepted by God. The Galatians were turning to “another gospel,” and Paul pronounced a curse on anyone, even an angel from heaven, who preached any other gospel (1:8–9).
The letter has three parts. In chapters 1–2 Paul defends his apostleship and gospel as received directly from Jesus Christ, not from men, recounting how the Jerusalem apostles recognized his ministry to the Gentiles and how he withstood Peter at Antioch. In chapters 3–4 he argues that righteousness comes by faith, as with Abraham; the Law, given 430 years later, cannot annul the promise and was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The allegory of Hagar and Sarah contrasts bondage and freedom.
Chapters 5–6 show that liberty is not license. Believers are called to liberty but must not use it as an occasion to the flesh. Walking in the Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit, and the Law of Christ is fulfilled by bearing one another’s burdens. Paul signs the letter in large letters with his own hand and glories only in the cross.
Writer: Paul
Written: Disputed, AD 49–58; Ussher places it about AD 58, near Romans.
Name: Addressed to the churches of Galatia, a region rather than a single city.
Title and authorship
The epistle to the churches of Galatia (1:2), a Roman province in central Asia Minor. The Galatians were descended in part from Celtic Gauls who settled there in the third century BC. Its churches included Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.
Paul wrote the letter (1:1; 5:2), and considered it so important that he wrote at least its conclusion with his own hand in large letters (6:11).
Historical background
The date is disputed, from about AD 49 (before the Jerusalem council) to AD 57–58 (Ussher places it about AD 58). Paul had visited the Galatians at least once and perhaps twice (4:13).
Churches of Galatia, largely Gentile, troubled by Judaizing teachers.
North or south Galatia
Some think Galatia refers to the ethnic region in the north around Ancyra; others to the Roman province including the southern cities Paul evangelized on his first journey (Acts 13–14). The southern view fits Paul’s known travels and the presence of Barnabas’ name, familiar to the readers (2:1, 13).
The Judaizers
Judaizers were Jewish professing believers who taught that Gentiles must be circumcised and keep the Law to be saved (Acts 15:1). The Jerusalem council rejected their demand (Acts 15:10–11, 19), and Paul refused to let Titus be circumcised (2:3–5).
Paul’s early years
After his conversion Paul went into Arabia, returned to Damascus, and three years later went up to Jerusalem to see Peter for fifteen days (1:17–18). Fourteen years later he went up again with Barnabas and Titus (2:1). These details show his gospel did not come from the Jerusalem apostles.
Key passages
Galatians 2:16
A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
Galatians 2:20
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
Galatians 5:1
Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Galatians 2:20–21
Life is lived through Christ, and righteousness is not obtained through the law.
Outline
1–2 · The gospel received from God
Paul defends his calling and the gospel against human additions.
3–4 · Promise, law, and sonship
The promise to Abraham and the believer’s adoption expose the limits of legal bondage.
5–6 · Freedom lived by the Spirit
Love, spiritual fruit, restoration, and burden-bearing replace both legalism and self-indulgence.
Original language
εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion, G2098) — “gospel”
Good news. There is only one gospel; a different gospel “which is not another” perverts it (1:6–7). Paul’s gospel came by revelation of Jesus Christ (1:12).
παιδαγωγός (paidagogos, G3807) — “schoolmaster”
A household slave who supervised a child and brought him to school. The Law was that guardian “to bring us unto Christ”; now that faith has come we are no longer under it.
ἐλευθερία (eleutheria, G1657) — “liberty”
Freedom. Christ has made us free from the Law as a means of righteousness; the liberty is not to serve the flesh but to serve one another by love (5:13).
καρπός (karpos, G2590) — “fruit”
Singular: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace...” (5:22). The works of the flesh are many; the fruit of the Spirit is one cluster produced by one life.
Ἀββᾶ (Abba, G5) — “Abba”
The Aramaic word for father, used intimately. The Spirit of God’s Son in our hearts cries, “Abba, Father” (4:6), the same words Christ prayed in Gethsemane (Mark 14:36).
Doctrinal study
The promise before the Law
God’s covenant with Abraham, confirmed in Christ, could not be annulled by the Law given 430 years later (3:17). The inheritance is by promise, not by law. The Law was added because of transgressions until the Seed—Christ—should come.
Redeemed from the curse
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (3:13). Everyone under the Law is under a curse, because no one continues in all things written in it; Christ bore that curse.
Walking in the Spirit
The Spirit and the flesh are contrary to each other (5:17). The answer to the flesh is not the Law but walking in the Spirit: “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (5:16). Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.
Commentary notes
Paul’s threefold defense
Chapters 1–2 are a personal defense: grace and the gospel. Chapters 3–4 are a doctrinal defense: grace and the Law. Chapters 5–6 are a practical defense: grace and the Christian life.
Contrasts in Galatians
Law and grace, works and faith, curse and blessing, condemnation and justification, servants in bondage and sons in freedom, the old covenant (Hagar) and the new (Sarah), the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, glorying in the flesh and glorying in the cross.
The good works of the flesh
The flesh can do religious and moral things—legalism, human works, religion, knowledge, and emotional experiences—to maintain control. Disciplined flesh is not spirituality. Victory comes only by reckoning the flesh crucified and yielding to the Spirit.
Christ in the book
- The Seed of Abraham to whom the promise was made (3:16)
- The Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem (4:4–5)
- The one made a curse for us (3:13)
- The one who lives in the believer (2:20)
Applications
Historical
- Paul writes to the churches of Galatia about a gospel of human works that had been brought in, and straightens them out with the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
- The controversy concerns the pressure to add circumcision and legal observance to the gospel received through Paul’s ministry.
Doctrinal
- As we are saved by grace through faith, we are also kept by that same grace. Like the Pergamos period of church history, the enemy still tries to marry faith to works and Spirit to flesh.
- Justification and continuance in grace depend on Christ, excluding reliance on works as a basis of acceptance with God.
- The fruit of the Spirit is the expression of life yielded to God; religious activity performed in self-reliance is not the same as spiritual maturity.
Devotional
- Galatians answers every system that mixes Christianity with works for salvation. There is a daily battle within each believer between the flesh and the Spirit; our fruit reveals which is winning, and it is always best to submit to the Spirit through the word.
- Religious effort requires examination of its motives as well as its outward results. Activities that appear commendable can still arise from pride and self-reliance.
- Use freedom to bear burdens, restore the fallen meekly, and serve others in love.
Answering the critics
Critics accept Paul’s authorship; debate centers on the date and destination of the letter.
No sound argument against the epistle has been presented. Whether it was written early or late, its truths are timeless, and its message has sparked revival whenever the church drifted into legalism, as in the Reformation.