J Philip Bible Readings

Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

Another consideration in this debate is the fact that Barnabas is referred to in 2:1 as if he were known to the Galatians; and Barnabas was with Paul on his first missionary journey, when he visited the south of Galatia, but not on his second, when he visited the north. Then there is the question of Paul's visits to Jerusalem. The Acts of the Apostles record three visits, Acts 9:26; 11:30 and Acts 15, while Galatians mentions only two, Galatians 1:18ff and 2:1ff. It is generally agreed that Acts 9:26 and Galatians 1:18ff refer to the same event. Ramsay suggests that Acts 11:30 corresponds to Galatians 2:1ff, and that the third visit - Acts 15 - had not taken place when Galatians was written, and therefore Paul could not refer to it. It certainly seems inconceivable that the apostolic decree could have been in existence at the time Galatians was written, without Paul making any reference to it. This should surely incline us to believe that the recipients of the letter were the south Galatian people, in Lystra, Derbe, Iconium and Antioch. The appropriate section of Acts - chs 13 and 14 - should therefore be studied to provide the background to what Paul has to say to them in this epistle, for it is there that we are able to ascertain the nature and content of the message that Paul preached to them.

It will be noticed in 6ff that Paul, in addressing himself to the Galatians, expresses surprise and dismay that they had been drawn away so quickly from the message he had preached to them. What was that message? We learn its content in Acts 13/14. Paul preached to them the life, death and resurrection of Christ, and forgiveness through His Name. He proclaimed the cross of Christ as the hope of the believer and the pattern of his life, and the anointing of the Spirit making that cross a life-transforming reality in experience. This twofold emphasis on the cross and the Spirit is in one real sense also the theme of the Galatian epistle: the cross as the object of the believer's hope ('The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me'), the principle of the believer's life ('I have been crucified with Christ'), and the Holy Spirit as the life and power of the believer ('Walk in the Spirit' and 'The fruit of the Spirit...'). Now, when the devil seeks to do a work in Christians' hearts to hinder or even destroy their faith, this is the twofold attack he makes: against the word of the cross on the one hand, and against the grace of the Holy Spirit on the other. In their defection from the truth of the gospel the Galatians had been beguiled into doing two things: they were disputing the Apostle's message, and they were challenging his authority as an apostle. The false teachers had insinuated into their minds that there was a distinction between Paul's message and that of the other apostles, and suggesting by implication that his authority was therefore inferior to that of the other apostles. It is this that serves to explain the tremendous thrust of Paul's opening words in 1.