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.
