A Short Study In Galatians

Galatians acts as a separation between Paul’s longer epistles, such as the Corinthian letters and Romans, and his shorter epistles which starts at Galatians and runs through Philemon.  With Galatians, Paul’s letters become more condensed, upfront, and to-the-point.  This length, or lack of, makes these short Pauline epistles an easy and quick read, and therefore the subject of many modern sermons.  Much like the letter of 2 Corinthians to the church of Corinth, Paul wrote Galatians to defend and describe the gospel of Jesus Christ.

            Just like 2 Corinthians addressed the false gospels that were creeping into the church, Galatians was also written to defend the gospel that Paul preached to the church in Galatia.  Paul wastes no time in covering these issues by beginning in 1:6-9.  Asserting that there is only one revelation of Christ, Paul condemns all those that preach a “gospel contrary to the one we preached to you”.  This gospel is later shown in 1:12 to be made known to Paul through a “revelation of Jesus Christ”.  Because Paul received the gospel of Jesus through a revelation from Jesus himself, the Galatian church needed to hold this gospel at a higher level than any other that was being preached.  Paul’s authority of preaching within the Galatian church was being challenged.

            Even though Paul opens the letter of Galatians with a defense of the gospel of Jesus, most of the ink in Galatians is spilt on describing the gospel.  The crux of the gospel—Jesus death on the cross for the world’s sins—is delivered in 1:4.  The majority of the rest of Galatians describes what impact Jesus’ death has for the Christians in Galatia.  Paul writes that justification lies in faith in Jesus Christ “and not by works of the law” in 1:16.  Going a step further, Paul says that “through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God”, 1:19, thus bridging the gap between the Old Testament covenant and the New Testament covenant.  Paul also recognizes that it is impossible to keep the entire law perfectly, and thus the grace of God enters into humanity to help us in our unrighteousness (1:20, 3:13).

            As people of faith in Jesus’ death—not in the law—Christians are adopted “as sons” and “an heir through God”.  As children of God, Christians receive all the rights an adopted son of God would receive.  Just as the oldest son would receive the inheritance of a father Christians also receive the inheritance of life that God offers.  Paul later encourages the Galatians to live as children and not “submit again to the yoke of salvery” but to “stand firm” in the freedom of Christ.  Later, the Galatians are reminded not to take advantage of their freedom and God’s grace by still remaining under the ways of the sinful flesh, but to “serve one another” through love (5:13).  This command is the climax of Paul’s gospel. Paul goes as far to say that the “whole law is fulfilled in one word:  ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (5:14).  Christians are given the grace they need to love one another only by living in the power of the Spirit.  Paul closes out the book of Galatians by talking about living in the Spirit and not the flesh.

            Even though Paul takes some time to defend the gospel he preached in Galatia, he also wrote Galatians to emphasize the definition of the gospel of Jesus.  The pinnacle of the gospel of Jesus lies in loving one another, which can only be done through the power of the Holy Spirit. The church was struggling with remaining pure to that gospel, and Paul used his apostolic authority to keep Galtia accountable to God and themselves.