Letter to the Galatians (Part Ten)

Part Ten of the New Testament Survey Series

Khen Lim



Image source: trikeri-galatia.gr

Paul begins his letter to the Galatians in defence of his credibility as a God-sent apostle (1:1-5). He cites the acceptance of his Gospel teaching by the apostles in Jerusalem but this is only a preamble to something more fiery.

In the letter, Paul confronted and challenged Peter to teach the true Gospel. This was the result of Peter having walked away from fellowshipping with the Gentiles; something he rebuked him for.

This incident centres us on some of the more tenacious debates around their time that Paul documents in this letter such as issues of Christ as opposed to the standing Jewish law, works of the law against works by faith and that sinners who are justified in Christ are to have died to the law and hence to live “by faith in the Son of God” (2:17-21).

From verse 2:15 to 3:29, Paul then brings up the subject of the patriarch Abraham’s belief in God and how he was, as a result, righteous and just and that his offspring became heirs to God’s promise. He uses this parallel to explain all who are baptised into Christ.

All of this are of great concern to Paul. To him, the Galatians, though freshly minted as Christians, could end up no better than pagans if they were to revert to Jewish law and because of that, he took to task to caution them never to accept circumcision but instead to make constructive use of their freedom in Christ to love one another (3:30-4:15) and to adhere to the Gospel of Christ (4:16-6:18). He also encourages the Galatians to walk by the Spirit, to shoulder their fellow Christian’s burden and to do good to everyone.

From the very first verse (1:1), Paul’s authorship is beyond argument. He wrote it to a number of Early Christian communities in the southern regions of Galatia, which was then a province in the Roman Empire in central Asia Minor. They include the cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe.

Yet we do still face discontent from modern biblical scholars as to who these Galatians actually were. If Paul had referred to them as ethnic Galatians, would that presumably cover those living in the northerly end of the province?

Image source: holyblasphemy.net

As it stands, there is no certainty as to whether the readers of the letter were the northern or the southern Galatians and before we think this is a moot excuse for a needless argument, there is arguable importance as to its distinction. Without any conclusive arguments either way, we are all left to leave things aside although it is fair to say that some consensus has placed more weight on the southern Galatians, citing Acts 13-14 and 16:2,6 as good and fair indication.

What is probably more important is that while this letter was written expressly for these communities, Paul’s instructions were obviously more than good enough for all Christians in that he wrote to counter the Judaisers’ claims that Christians must continue to comply with Mosaic Laws (circumcision being only one of them) in order to be considered saved.

Said to be written between 48AD and 55AD, the actual date could be dependent on where Paul sat down and wrote the letter and in which missionary journey he helped to establish the churches in that “area of concern.” That “area of concern” could, as we now know, might either be the northern or southern parts of Galatia.

There is also the view that the date would depend on whether Paul had written it before or after the Jerusalem Council, which occurred in 48AD (Acts 15). For that, not all but many concur that because Paul’s letter made no mention of the verdict handed down by the Council, it would likely have been written before the event.

Paul’s letter to the Galatians was not a historical treatise but a strong effort to safeguard against the rife corruption of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words the apostle was protesting because of the threat in which the Galatians had found themselves under. The emergence of the Judaisers had posed a threat to Paul’s concept of justification by faith.

In its place, radical Jews insisted that the works of the law must be retained by new believers in Christ, citing that as a precondition for perfection before God. Once Paul understood the seriousness of such a threat, he proceeded to remonstrate in his letter to the Galatians (2:16-17, 3:8, 11, 24).

In his letter, Paul identified two broad types of faux teachings, namely, Libertinism and Legalism. In the case of both, he was resolutely against.

Libertinism, as Paul explains, is the abuse of the original Christian concept of liberty. This is done in order to justify sin and as such, it is intended to undermine and pervert the Gospel (5:13). Wikipedia elaborates that a libertine is a person void of most moral standards for these are considered needless or unwanted.

He is a person who has a total disregard for anything approach moral forms of behaviour as widely recognised by the society at large. They place a great deal of emphasis on physical pleasures not unlike what the Corinthian society’s preoccupation with the body and mind was about.

Legalism, on the other hand, uses the rigidity of law to thwart the Christian interpretation of liberty. It seeks to justify the inclusiveness or retention of the Laws of Moses and by doing so, seeks to contradict and defy the Gospel. Acts 13-14 records that “some Jewish Christians” had arrived at the scene the moment Paul and Barnabas had departed South Galatia. Their arrival marked the beginning of the deviation of the earlier teachings as they compelled the new Christians into submission to the Jewish laws such as (but not limited to) circumcision (5:2-6, 6:12).

Paul’s letter to the Galatians has proven to be invaluable in its coverage of noteworthy issues, one of which is faith as opposed to works. Herein is the apostle’s explanation as to why justification must come through faith in Christ and not via human works.

While he touches on the history of salvation, it is not intended to be a history lesson but more importantly, he does so by levelling on our understanding of Abraham’s role in bringing together the message of the whole Bible as one.

Secondly Paul touches on atonement in which Christ had come to redeem enslaved sinners at the appointed time to become a curse for all of us (3:13). Thirdly he talks about freedom and that its very true and precious definition is the one in which Christ has set us free (5:1).

Finally he espouses a desire for a life that is centred on the cross. More so in this letter than others that he had written, Paul drives home the message that our focus in life must be unerringly centred on the cross on which Christ died for our sins for the ramifications of salvation to occur.

Part Eleven (Letter to the Ephesians) will be available on February 17 2016