Gal 1:1–5 — The Magna Carta of Gospel Liberty

Introduction

Paul’s letter to the Galatians is one of his greatest letters. Galatians exudes a fiery energy as the apostle confronts false teachers who were distorting—and, in fact, denying—the gospel by teaching that we are made right with God by our works. Against them, Paul defends the true gospel of grace in Christ. This letter has had an immense influence upon God’s people throughout the history of the church. Alongside Romans, it is one of the apostle’s greatest contributions to the church. Galatians presents the argument of Romans in a briefer, more compact form and with the passionate energy of Paul’s defense of the gospel of grace in Christ.

Paul’s First Missionary Journey

Paul addresses this letter “to the churches of Galatia”—churches in the plural. On his first missionary journey, described in Acts 13–14, Paul and his coworker Barnabas traveled to the region of Asia Minor called Galatia. There they preached the gospel in Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. These four cities, located in the Roman province of Galatia, were home to the first Gentile churches Paul planted on his first missionary journey.

After Paul left, false teachers entered these churches and began to teach these young Christians a contrary understanding of the gospel. These teachers were Jewish Christians from Jerusalem. Acts 15:1 gives us a concise statement of their teaching: “But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’”

They were telling the Galatian Christians, in effect, “Your faith in Christ is not enough. You have done well to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. That is a good beginning, but it is not sufficient. To complete your membership in the people of God, you must be circumcised and take upon yourself the yoke of the Torah.” By “the yoke of the Torah,” they meant submission to all the laws God gave to Israel through Moses.

The Teaching of the Judaizers

These false teachers are called Judaizers because they were trying to persuade the Gentile Christians to Judaize—that is, to live like Jews. This involved not only circumcision but also observing the distinctions between clean and unclean foods and keeping the Jewish festivals. Circumcision, however, was the decisive issue. According to the Judaizers, faith in Jesus was a good beginning, but uncircumcised Gentile believers were not yet full members of the people of God. They remained outsiders—perhaps halfway in, but still unclean Gentiles. Circumcision would make them true members of God’s people, descendants of Abraham who would inherit the promises God gave to him.

An analogy from the early church may help us understand their position. During the first three centuries, many churches made a clear distinction between catechumens and full members of the church. Catechumens attended worship and received Christian instruction, but they had not yet been baptized. They believed the truths taught by the church and were seeking to become Christians, but they were permitted to remain in the service only until the celebration of Communion. At that point they were dismissed, because Communion was reserved for the baptized members of the church.

The catechumens were welcomed and encouraged in their interest in Christianity; they were not treated simply as pagans. Nevertheless, until baptism they were not regarded as full members of the church. Baptism marked the decisive moment when they entered the church fully and took their place within the people of God.

The Judaizers seem to have regarded the Gentile believers in a similar way. In their view, the Galatians were on the right path, but it was as though they stood outside the gates of the kingdom, looking in but not yet admitted. Circumcision was the decisive step that would make them full members of the kingdom of God, true descendants of Abraham, and members of the people separated from the uncleanness of the pagan world. This was what the Judaizers from Jerusalem were teaching the Gentile Christians whom Paul had brought to faith through the preaching of the gospel.

The Judaizers also claimed the authority of the mother church in Jerusalem. By implication, they were saying that the gospel Paul had preached was incomplete. They belittled his authority by pointing out that he was not one of the original disciples. His calling came after Jesus’ death and resurrection, on the road to Damascus. He had not followed Jesus throughout his earthly ministry and did not appear to belong to the leadership of the Jerusalem church. Therefore, they suggested, Paul was merely preaching his own ideas and opinions.

They might have said, “Paul has some good things to say about Jesus as the Messiah, and believing in Jesus is important. But he is not authoritatively teaching the full gospel recognized by the mother church in Jerusalem. We have come to tell you what you truly need to know.” Their argument possessed a certain plausibility. Paul had not been one of the original disciples. Moreover, Scripture plainly commanded circumcision. In Genesis 17, God commanded Abraham to circumcise every male in his household and declared that any uncircumcised male would be cut off from the covenant people.

The Judaizers could therefore appeal to Scripture and divine revelation, which gave their arguments a certain plausibility.

The Danger Facing the Galatians

The arguments of the Judaizers were plausible enough that the Galatian Christians were beginning to accept them. Several statements in the letter reveal the seriousness of the danger. In Galatians 1:6, Paul expresses astonishment that they are so quickly turning to a different gospel. They stood on the verge of submitting to circumcision in order to become, according to the Judaizers’ theology, full members of the people of God.

Paul addresses them sternly in Galatians 3:1: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” They had been persuaded by fine-sounding rhetoric and apparently biblical arguments that they could bring their Christian standing to completion by submitting to circumcision.

Galatians 4:10 shows how far they had already gone: “You observe days and months and seasons and years.” Although they had not yet been circumcised, they had begun to observe elements of the Mosaic Law, including Jewish holy days such as the Sabbath, new moons, and Israel’s festivals. They were seriously considering the final step of circumcision.

Paul warns that if they proceed, they will fall away from Christ. He writes in Galatians 5:2–4:

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.… You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

Paul is deeply concerned that they are on the verge of apostasy. He passionately seeks to reclaim them from the brink: Do not listen to these false teachers. The gospel of Christ is sufficient. Nothing can be added to Christ’s perfect work in order to make us right with God.

The Date of the Letter

There is some debate over the date of Galatians, but it was probably written shortly before the Jerusalem Council. Acts 15:1 records the false teachers’ claim: “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” The next verse explains that Paul and Barnabas had “no small dissension and debate with them” and were appointed, with several others, to go to Jerusalem and consult the apostles and elders about the question. The remainder of Acts 15 describes the Jerusalem Council, the church’s first council, which addressed this dispute between those who taught that circumcision was necessary for salvation and Paul, Barnabas, and others who rejected that claim.

The letter to the Galatians may be understood as part of the debate mentioned in Acts 15:2. If it was written just before the Jerusalem Council, its date would be around AD 48, less than two decades after Christ’s resurrection. This was the first major theological controversy in the church. If this dating is correct, Galatians was Paul’s first letter and his earliest written statement of the gospel, composed as a polemic against those who taught a false gospel.

Paul’s Response: The Magna Carta of Gospel Liberty

The best way to characterize Paul’s main point is to call Galatians the Magna Carta of gospel liberty. It is a charter statement, the apostle’s first clear declaration of the liberty we possess in Christ because of the gospel.

Several verses might serve as the theme of the letter. One could choose Galatians 3:1, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” or Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ.” Yet Galatians 5:1 summarizes the letter particularly well: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

If the Galatians accepted the Judaizers’ demand that circumcision was necessary to become full members of God’s people and to be right with God, they would submit again to a yoke of slavery. Paul therefore exhorts them to stand firm. The Judaizers were not urging circumcision merely because God commanded it in Genesis 17. They treated circumcision as a sign that a person was assuming the entire yoke of the Mosaic Law: not only the moral commands summarized in the Ten Commandments, but also the food laws, ceremonies, festivals, and every other requirement of Torah observance. To receive circumcision on those terms was to commit oneself to an entire way of life under the Mosaic Law.

Freedom from the Law Covenant

Paul proclaims that Christ has set us free from the law, but that statement must be defined carefully. Throughout Galatians, Paul frequently argues against the idea that Christians are obligated to be “under the law.” What does he mean by “the law” in these contexts?

In later theological and confessional usage, including the Heidelberg Catechism, the term law often refers specifically to the moral law summarized in the Ten Commandments: “You shall not murder,” “You shall not commit adultery,” and so forth. When we call Galatians the Magna Carta of Christian liberty and say that believers are free from the law, however, we do not mean that Christians are free from God’s moral will or have no obligation to live lives pleasing to him as defined by the Ten Commandments. Paul is not teaching that.

When Paul proclaims freedom from the law, he ordinarily means the Mosaic Law as a covenant that offers life to the obedient and threatens a curse against the disobedient. Not every occurrence of law in Paul carries this meaning; for example, he also speaks of “the law of Christ.” Nevertheless, when Paul speaks negatively of the law—when he says that we are free from it, redeemed from it, or no longer under it as a yoke of bondage—he is not referring simply to the moral law. He means the Mosaic Law as a whole in its covenantal administration, offering life to the obedient and pronouncing a curse upon the disobedient.

Galatians 3:10–12 makes this clear:

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”

Paul quotes Deuteronomy when he says, “Cursed be everyone,” and Leviticus when he says, “The one who does them shall live by them.” These two texts define the law as a covenant that promises life to the obedient and threatens a curse against the disobedient. Throughout this series, therefore, I will often use the expressions Law Covenant or Mosaic Law to clarify what is meant.

Christ has set us free from the Law Covenant—from its threat that failure to obey perfectly brings a curse. He has freed us through his own work, taking the curse of the law upon himself in our place and delivering us from it. The Judaizers taught that the Galatians could not become full members of God’s people or be completely right with God unless they were circumcised and committed themselves to the entire law as a covenant of life and curse. Paul responds that anyone who receives circumcision on that understanding—seeking life and escape from the curse through the Law Covenant—has fallen away from Christ. The gospel declares that Christ has delivered us from the law through his death and resurrection.

Paul’s response throughout Galatians is one sustained argument unfolding the significance of Christ’s work. Again and again he returns to the cross. Galatians 3:13 declares that Christ became a curse for us. Galatians 1:3–4 says that Christ “gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.” The Law Covenant belongs to that present evil age from which Christ, by offering himself on the cross, has delivered us according to the will of God.

The Outline of Galatians

Paul’s argument flows naturally from one topic to another, always expounding the liberty we possess in Christ. Three main topics appear in a roughly discernible order, although the boundaries between them are fluid.

First, chapters 1–2 concern the Apostle of Gospel Liberty. Paul defends his apostolic authority against the Judaizers, who disparaged him and denied that he was a genuine apostle.

Second, chapters 3–4 concern the Doctrine of Gospel Liberty. This is the theological heart of the letter. Paul addresses why God gave the law and how it relates to the work of Christ.

Third, chapters 5–6 concern the Life of Gospel Liberty. Paul explains how our freedom in Christ from the law as a covenant directs the Christian life. He writes in Galatians 5:13, “You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Gospel liberty does not give us permission to indulge the flesh. It frees us to love, serve one another, bear one another’s burdens, and fulfill the law of Christ.

These topics overlap. Even while defending the Apostle of Gospel Liberty, Paul anticipates the doctrinal section. In Galatians 2:16 he writes, “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” Similarly, he does not wait until chapters 5–6 to describe the Christian life. In Galatians 2:20 he says:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh—that is, in this mortal body before the resurrection—I live by faith in the Son of God.

Thus Paul anticipates the doctrine and life of gospel liberty even while defending his apostolic authority.

Galatians 1:1: “Paul, an Apostle”

The opening verse introduces the first of these major topics. Paul writes, “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.” His apostleship was not of human origin. He was not commissioned by human authority, nor did he receive a man-made message.

The phrases “not from men” and “nor through man” make a further distinction. Someone might acknowledge that an authority ultimately comes from God while also recognizing that God mediates it through human beings. The authority of a minister today, for example, is from God and grounded in his Word, but it is received through human agency.

Paul’s apostleship was distinct even from that form of divinely authorized ministry. His commission was neither from human beings nor mediated through a human being. He received it directly from Jesus Christ: “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.” Later, in Galatians 1:10, Paul describes himself as a servant of Christ.

Two Key Points

The Deity of Christ

First, notice the contrast between the phrases “not … through man” and “through Jesus Christ.” Paul says that he did not receive his apostleship through a human being; he received it through Jesus Christ. This reveals Paul’s understanding of Christ. Jesus Christ is not a mere man. He is the divine Son of God who assumed human nature, entered this world, and lived a truly human life in the flesh. Paul’s conviction that Jesus is divine forms the basis of his authority as an apostle.

It is also significant that Christ’s deity does not appear to have been a disputed issue in this controversy. The question under debate was whether Gentiles had to be circumcised in order to be saved. Paul’s opponents do not seem to have contested his affirmation that Christ is divine. Less than two decades after the resurrection, even the Judaizers appear to have affirmed the deity of Christ. Although the doctrine would become a matter of controversy later in church history, it was not the point at issue here. Jesus was confessed as the divine Son of God, not a mere man.

The Divine Authority of the Gospel

Second, Paul defends his apostolic authority not out of pride or a desire for personal status, but to demonstrate the divine authority of the gospel he preaches. The divine Christ is the author of the gospel. Although the gospel is proclaimed through human instruments such as Paul—and, after the apostolic age, through those called to the ministry—it does not originate with human beings. The gospel Paul proclaims is from God himself.

Because Christ is divine, his gospel carries divine authority. The message of our freedom in Christ from the law as a covenant is not of human origin. Paul did not invent it.

The Judaizers may have charged that Paul had fashioned an easier message to appeal to Gentiles. Circumcision was painful, and adopting the entire Jewish way of life imposed many burdens. They may have portrayed Paul as a shrewd church planter who removed circumcision and the ceremonial requirements of the law to make his message more attractive. According to that accusation, Paul’s gospel of faith in Christ apart from circumcision was a human-centered teaching, soothing to the flesh because it appeared so easy in comparison with the heavy yoke of Torah observance.

Paul emphatically rejects that accusation. He did not devise a convenient way to make the gospel attractive to unbelievers. He received the gospel directly from the divine Christ. It is God’s gospel, proclaimed through Paul as the messenger whom God appointed through Christ to announce the glorious truth of our liberty in him.

This divine authority gives assurance to troubled consciences. We may wonder whether it can really be true that we are forgiven and completely accepted before God even though we remain sinners who struggle with corruption. Can we truly be accepted simply by faith in what Christ has done for us? The message can sound almost too good to be true, as though it were a comforting human invention. Yet it is true, and God’s own authority stands behind it. We are accepted before God not because of anything we do, but solely because of what Christ has done for us.

Christ bore God’s wrath and took the curse we deserved. Through his perfect obedience, he has given us the eternal life we could never attain by our own efforts. This is evident in Galatians 1:4, which speaks of “our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins.” Paul does not say only that Christ died for our sins; he says that Christ gave himself. He voluntarily offered himself as a sacrifice in obedience to God. Thus the language points us to both the active and passive obedience of Christ: he fully obeyed God in our place, and he bore our guilt, judgment, and curse in order to deliver us from the present evil age.

This is the gospel liberty we possess in Christ: he has delivered us. We do not deliver ourselves by striving to become better Christians or by increasingly putting sinful deeds and desires to death, necessary though such growth is in the Christian life. Christ alone delivers us. Because he has delivered us, we respond in gratitude by seeking to put sin to death and to live for him.

This anticipates the third major movement of the letter, the Life of Gospel Liberty. Yet it also brings us back to Paul’s central point: this is not a man-made gospel but the gospel of God himself. Paul received it directly from the risen Christ and proclaimed it with Christ’s authority. He was Christ’s servant, commissioned to proclaim the wonderful liberty we possess in Christ from the bondage of the Law Covenant. What a glorious gospel we have in him.