Galatians

Overview

Galatians is the angriest letter Paul wrote and the one with the most at stake. Teachers had followed him into Galatia saying that faith in Christ was a fine beginning but circumcision and the law were needed to finish the job. Paul calls that another gospel, which is to say no gospel at all.

He defends his apostleship, recounts confronting Peter to his face, argues from Abraham that the promise came before the law, and then shows that freedom is not license: the Spirit produces in a free man what law never could.

Background

Paul and Barnabas had preached through Galatia and seen churches planted quickly. The question of what Gentile believers must keep was so pressing that it went to a council at Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 15.

If this letter was written just before that council, it is the earliest book in the New Testament — written while the argument was still raw. Luther called it his epistle, and it fired the Reformation.

Key themes

• There is only one gospel, and adding to it destroys it.
• Justification is by faith in Christ, not by works of the law.
• The law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ; the heir is no longer under it.
• Christian freedom is for serving one another, never for indulging the flesh.
• The Spirit bears fruit where the law could only command.

Outline

1. Paul’s gospel and authorityChapters 1–2

   Received not from men but by revelation — and Peter rebuked at Antioch.

2. Faith, not lawChapter 3

   Abraham believed God; the law cannot give what the promise gave.

3. Sons, not servantsChapter 4

   Adopted, with the Spirit crying Abba, Father — and two covenants pictured.

4. Freedom and the SpiritChapter 5

   Stand fast in liberty, walk in the Spirit, and the fruit it bears.

5. Bearing burdensChapter 6

   Restore the fallen, sow to the Spirit, and glory only in the cross.

Key passages

• Galatians 1:8-9 Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel — let him be accursed.
• Galatians 2:11-14 Paul withstands Peter to the face over eating with Gentiles.
• Galatians 2:16 A man is not justified by the works of the law.
• Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.
• Galatians 3:28 Ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
• Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.
• Galatians 5:22-23 The fruit of the Spirit.
• Galatians 6:14 God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross.

Christ in Galatians

Christ gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil world, was made a curse for us by hanging on a tree, and now lives in the believer — the life Paul says he lives by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him. Add anything to that and, Paul says, Christ profits you nothing.

Reading it

• Read Acts 13–15 alongside it for the events behind the argument.
• Notice there is no thanksgiving at the start — the only letter of Paul’s without one.
• Compare it with Romans afterward: the same doctrine, one hot and one measured.