The epistle to the Galatians is rather short--six brief chapters, averaging not quite 25 verses each--but how much of teaching, and power is packed away in its small compass! How revolutionary it is, how contrary to man's natural thinking; how contradictory to the notions of many of even professing Christians who think themselves sound and enlightened in doctrine. It will be well for us all to approach this epistle with open, teachable minds and to give God a clean page, as it were, to write on. If we come with foregone conclusions--if we assume to begin with that we already know, in the main at least, what the apostle means to teach; or (worse still) if our mind is filled with prejudice and the blinding desire to uphold some pre-adopted creed or theory--we shall learn nothing. But if we come as little children to learn God's mind, looking unto him as we read and seek to understand, Paul's Epistle to the Galatians will very likely revolutionize some of our views, and if so, let us hope, our lives also.

      In the case of this epistle it is necessary to know something of the background and the occasion of it--why it was written; and also its source and authority, and that it is indeed the word of God that we are studying.

      As to the reason for the writing of this epistle, that we must learn from two sources: (1) from the book of Acts, and (2) from the epistle itself. The question of its authority involves the apostleship of Paul, his authority as the inspired messenger and spokesman of Christ, which he here claims more emphatically than in any of his other epistles. For after all, the whole value of this writing hangs by that. If in this epistle we have only a man's views and reasoning--let him be ever so wise and able--it might indeed interest us, and we could probably gain some benefit from the study of it, but we could never accept its teaching as final truth; we would have to take it as we do all other writings of men, for what to us it might seem to be worth; what faith we had in it would be based "in the wisdom of men," rather than on the truth of God. And as Paul thanked God that the Thessalonians received his message as the word of God (1 Thess. 2:13), so Paul would surely thank God on our behalf also if we receive the message of this epistle "not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also worketh in you that believe."

      In the course of this epistle we are sure to meet with some things which do not accord with thoughts we have hitherto held; yes, we may even find some things that quite upset us. Then if [1] it is only the teaching of Paul, the man, we would feel free to disagree with him; but if here we have the utterance of the Spirit of God, speaking and teaching through His servant Paul, we must subject our mind and judgment to the divine light and truth. Only by such light from above can we ever come to know anything, for "it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." So those of us who are entering upon this study are ready to receive the word of this message as the word of God; and thus shall we be enlightened and confirmed in that "most holy faith" which God's word creates in our hearts (Rom. 10:17).

      For the background of this epistle we must first go back to the book of Acts, especially to chapter eleven (latter half) and chapter fifteen. A wonderful work had begun in the great Gentile city of Antioch. Up to this time the itinerant preachers of the gospel, members of the church at Jerusalem, who had been scattered abroad in the persecution that arose after the stoning of Stephen and who had gone "everywhere preaching the word," had preached to Jews only. But a few bold men, knowing that they were acting in line with God's will in this matter, broke over and preached the gospel to Greeks also. It was a brave step. Little do we realize the fearful barriers that separated Jews from Gentiles, and the storm of criticism and condemnation such a venture was sure to provoke. But "the hand of the Lord was with them," and great numbers from among the Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord. Thus a great church, composed chiefly of Gentiles, was born in the heathen city of Antioch. The brethren in Jerusalem heard of it and wondered. So they sent one of their number, Barnabas, a great and trusted man, to go to Antioch to see what was going on. He came and saw and was convinced that this new work was indeed the work of the Lord. When he "had seen the grace of God," he "was glad, and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord." Then Barnabas sought the help of Saul of Tarsus (our "apostle Paul") and brought him to Antioch. The work of God flourished mightily through the labors of these men. Antioch became the new center from which subsequently Paul was sent forth on his missionary journeys into the Gentile world (Acts 13).

      It was when Paul and Barnabas had returned to Antioch from that first missionary tour that they found that certain men from Judaea had been telling the Gentile Christians that except they were circumcised after the custom of Moses, they could not be saved (Acts 15:1). The result of this teaching was consternation and dismay. Paul and Barnabas took a strict stand against those "Judaizing" teachers. But the seeds of doubt had been sown, and the question would not down. Did this teaching come from the apostles at Jerusalem? These agitators may have claimed as much. Paul and Barnabas could have settled this question; but the circumstances made it imperative that this matter be taken to Jerusalem, [2] for Jerusalem was the great center of Jewish Christianity. There, and there only, could a final answer to this question be given. And to Jerusalem went Paul and Barnabas, therefore, to confer with apostles and the elders about this question, not for information, but for confirmation. There they rehearsed before those brethren all the work which God had done with them among the Gentiles. "But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees who believed, saying, it is needful to circumcise them, and to charge them to keep the law of Moses" (Acts 15:5).¹

      Thus the issue was squarely joined. What did the Jerusalem brethren say to this? We can only summarize the proceedings of that day. Notable is the fact that though inspired apostles were present not one of them offered to settle the question by an authoritative dictum. Simon Peter was there; but though to him the Lord Jesus Christ had given authority to bind and loose on earth, he did not decide the matter by an utterance of authority, but his speech was an argument, an appeal to their reason and judgment. John was there, whose apostolic authority was no less than Peter's, but no word from him is in the record. Paul was there; but he did not attempt to settle the matter by a dictum of his apostolic authority: he and Barnabas merely told what God had done with them among the Gentiles. There was first a general free discussion; then a speech by Peter; then Barnabas and Paul rehearsed the work among the Gentiles. Finally James (not the apostle, the "son of Alphaeus," Acts 1:13, but the Lord's brother, and elder in the church at Jerusalem) summed it all up; and the outcome was that all having come to one accord under the direction of the Holy Spirit, they repudiated the teachers who had tried to bind circumcision and law-observance on the Gentile Christians at Antioch.

      That should have ended the matter forever. But for years after stubborn Jewish legalists did not cease to teach their subversive doctrines. They dogged the steps of Paul into Gentile regions, and tried to undermine Paul's claim to apostleship, and to bring his converts under the yoke of Judaism. Among the churches of Galatia their nefarious work had met with surprising favor. And that was what called forth Paul's epistle to the Galatians.

      Paul had been in Galatia at least twice before: the first time detained there by illness--an "infirmity of the flesh" he calls it--which, in Paul's case would mean that he simply could not go any further. And that "infirmity," whatever it was, was such as might have made him an object of abhorrence, stranger as he was, poor and helpless in their midst. But those Galatians received him "as an, angel of God, even as Christ Jesus," and if it had been possible (he says) they would have plucked out their own eyes and given them to Paul. But now all seemed to be changed. Evil workers, very zealous, as such men often are, had gone about among Paul's friends and converts, had told them that Paul was not a real apostle [3] at all, that he had never been one of Christ's Twelve, that his teaching was very deficient and insufficient, that he had suppressed vital truths (notably the necessity of circumcision, and of the observance of the Law, God's own ancient revelation, which Christ had not come to destroy but to fulfil), that Paul himself was a time-server, who could play to the Jews and the Gentiles as it suited his purpose--and such like slanderous charges. Thus with much plausible argument and persuasion they managed to turn away the hearts of the Galatian Christians, not from Paul only, but from the gospel, and from the grace of God in which they had been called, and from Christ crucified, and from all true hope of salvation.

      There are always some who wonder why Paul took the error of the Galatians so seriously and the why of all the severity and vehemence of the Apostle in writing to his beloved Galatians. Some readers of the epistle may even wonder what it was all about; which betrays an ignorance, all too common, of the real nature of the gospel, which this epistle was designed to correct.

      And could the "Judaizers" make plausible arguments for their contention? Oh, yes, both then and now, arguments that seem so strong and clear and plausible, as to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. And many fall into the trap. Of course anyone can see that if this were true there could be no assurance of salvation and no real hope. No man could ever know that he is in a saved state, and that the law would not condemn him. And not only that--but Christ and the Law cannot both reign in one heart together. To accept the Law as the ground of salvation is to abandon Christ (Gal. 5:4). For:

      It is not meant that those who have believed in Christ unto salvation may henceforth live lawless lives. As Paul said elsewhere, "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law hut under grace? God forbid" (Rom. 6:14, 15). The grace of God itself teaches us that "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world, looking for the blessed hope, and the appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ . . ." (Titus 2:12-14). The gospel provides for a new life in the Spirit, as in the same epistle to the Galatians Paul shows (Gal. 5:16-24). The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, supersedes, and makes its free from the law of sin and death. But what it means to bring Christians back under the curse and blight and bondage of the Law, will be seen abundantly in our future studies in the epistle. [4]

[PLG 1-4]