Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the brothers and sisters with me,
To the churches in Galatia:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.
Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie.
Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they praised God because of me.

• Galatians 1:1-24

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Galatians 1:1-2 ‘Who are the churches of Galatia?’: ”Unlike the letters Paul wrote to individual churches, such as his letters to Corinth and Ephesus, this letter is addressed to a number of churches in a wide region. …
“The Galatian churches, described in Acts 13 and 14, were established by Paul on his first missionary journey, when he traveled with Barnabas into the cities of Antioch, Iconium, Derbe, and Lystra. In Lystra, he was first welcomed and honored as a god, then later stoned and dragged outside the city and left for dead. In fact, he experienced persecution in every one of the cities in the region of Galatia.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Galatians 1:1 ‘Paul’: “… apostle. In general terms, it means ‘one who is sent with a commission.’ The apostles of Jesus Christ—the Twelve and Paul—were special ambassadors or messengers chosen and trained by Christ to lay the foundation of the early church and to be the channels of God’s completed revelation (see … Rom. 1:1; cf. Acts 1:2; 2:42; Eph. 2:20). Not from men … but through Iesus Christ. To defend his apostleship against the false teachers’ attack, Paul emphasized that Christ Himself appointed him as an apostle before he met the other apostles (cf. vv. 17, 18; Acts 9:3-9). raised Him from the dead. See … Romans 1:4. Paul included this important fact to show that the risen and ascended Christ Himself appointed him (see … Acts 9:1 -3, 15), thus Paul was a qualified witness of His resurrection (cf. Acts 1:22).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Galatians 1:3-4 ‘deliverance from this evil age’: “God’s great objective with regard to his people is to deliver them from this present evil age. We are living in this present evil age; and, as Paul called it by that name, we need not alter the phrase, for we cannot help knowing that it is still an evil age. And in it are God’s redeemed and chosen people, by nature part and parcel of that age, equally fallen, equally estranged from God, equally set on mischief, equally certain to go down into the pit of destruction if left to themselves. The objective of Christ is to carve out a people from this great brook of stone; it is his purpose to find his own people who were given to him before the earth was and to deliver them from the bondage and the slavery in which they are found in this Egypt, of which they seem to form a part, though to the eyes of Christ they are always as separate and distinct as the Israelites were when they dwelt in the land of Goshen.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Galatians 1:4 ‘Eschatology of the Cross’: “The love of God is demonstrated by the fact that the Lord sent His Son to die for sinners (John 3:16), but Christ also ‘gave Himself for our sins’ (Galatians 1:4). He voluntarily became a substitute for the sinner under the wrath of God. Isaiah prophesied that as a sacrificial lamb, the Messiah would be ‘pierced through for our transgressions’ (Isaiah 53:5) and that the Lord would cause ‘the iniquity of us all to fall on Him’ (verse 6).
“By becoming a sacrifice, Christ would ‘deliver’ (Greek, exaireo, ‘pluck out, pull out, set apart’) us out of ‘this present evil age’ (Galatians 1:4). ‘Out of this present age of evil,’ in the Greek text, is ‘out of the age the present evil.’ Ponéros is the Greek word used to describe a most filthy and malicious generation in the moral sense. It carries the connotation of the grossest of sexual evil. Christ died in order to remove His own from such an environment.
“The first stage of deliverance is spiritual in that the believer no longer is part of this world culture, but rather, is a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20). Until the rapture or death, the child of God lives ‘in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation’ (2:15). A believer’s removal from earth is the second stage of deliverance, for in heaven, ‘there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away’ (Revelation 21:4).
“This deliverance comes about ‘according to the will of our God and Father’ (Galatians 1:4). Martin Luther wrote, ‘This knowledge maketh the heart cheerful, so that it steadfastly believeth that God is not angry, but that he so loveth us poor and wretched sinners, that he gave his only begotten Son for us … and that by the good will of the Father’ (Commentary on Galatians, p. 56).”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Galatians 1:4 ‘He came to give His life as ransom’: “Christ came to earth for one reason; to give his life as a ransom for you, for me, for all of us. He sacrificed himself to give us a second chance. He would have gone to any lengths to do so. And he did. He went to the Cross, where man’s utter despair collided with God’s unbending grace. And in that moment when God’s great gift was complete, the compassionate Christ showed the world the cost of his gift …
“He who was perfect gave that perfect record to us, and our imperfect record was given to him … As a result, God’s holiness is honored, and his children are forgiven.“

• Max Lucado, The Applause of Heaven

Galatians 1:6 ‘turning away’: “This is better translated ‘deserting.’ The Greek word was used of military desertion, which was punishable by death. The form of this Greek verb indicates that the Galatian believers were voluntarily deserting grace to pursue the legalism taught by the false teachers (see … 5:4). so soon. This Greek word can mean either ‘easily’ or ‘quickly’ and sometimes both. No doubt both senses characterized the Galatians’ response to the false teachers’ heretical doctrines. called you. This could be translated, ‘who called you once and for all’ (cf. 2 Thess. 2:13, 14; 2 Tim. 1:8, 9; 1 Pet. 1:15), and refers to God’s effectual call to salvation (see … Rom. 1:7). grace of Christ. God’s free and sovereign act of mercy in granting salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ, totally apart from any human work or merit (see … Rom. 3:24). different gospel. Cf. 2 Corinthians 11:4. The Judaizers’ perversion of the true gospel. They added the requirements, ceremonies, and standards of the Old Covenant as necessary prerequisites to salvation. See … 3:3; 4:9; 5:7; Philippians 3:2.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Galatians 1:7 ‘trouble’: “The Greek word could be translated ‘disturb’ and means ‘to shake back and forth,’ such as to agitate or stir up. Here, it refers to the deep emotional disturbance the Galatian believers experienced. pervert. To turn something into its opposite. By adding law to the gospel of Christ, the false teachers were effectively destroying grace, turning the message of God’s undeserved favor toward sinners into a message of earned and merited favor. the gospel of Christ. The good news of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone (see notes on Rom. 1:1; 1 Cor. 15:1-4).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Galatians 1:8 ‘Paul Angered by the Judaizers’: ”What about Jesus Christ and His completed work upon the cross? Well, the Judaizers hadn’t set Jesus aside totally. Instead, they maintained an outer shell of Christianity, but the heart of their false gospel was not grace and faith; it was works. The Lord Jesus Christ was given a secondary place in the gospel. Keeping the rules and rituals of the law of Moses was paramount.
“Moreover, the Judaizers undermined the apostolic authority of Paul. They challenged him for being (in their view) independent, undependable, and overly enthusiastic. They even claimed he had graduated from the wrong seminary! They were trying to get the Galatians to reject his authority as an apostle.
“Paul was greatly disturbed by this news, and his anger comes through loud and clear …”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Galatians 1:9 ‘rejecting the grace of Jesus Christ leads to condemnation’: ”To put it bluntly, Paul says that anyone who preaches a gospel different from the one he preached should be damned to hell. That should leave no doubt about the strength of the apostle’s feelings on this matter. He repeats the same curse.
“When we hear such words as damned, we think of curses and insults. But Paul is not being profane. He is simply stating the fact that anyone who comes with a different gospel is already condemned. Such people reject the truth of the grace of Jesus Christ.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Galatians 1:10 ‘still pleased men’: “Paul’s previous motivation when he used to persecute Christians on behalf of his fellow Jews. A bondservant of Christ. See … Romans 1:1. Paul had become a willing slave of Christ, which cost him a great deal of suffering from others (6:17). Such personal sacrifice is exactly opposite the goal of pleasing men (6:12).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Galatians 1:11-12 ‘Paul’s Gospel is the Same as the Gospel of the other Apostles’: ”Chapters 1 through 4 of this epistle deal with justification by faith. Christ died for our sins—that’s the basic declaration of the gospel, the good news that Christ has borne our sins. So Paul spends Galatians 1 defending this good news.
“First he shows that the gospel was revealed to him by Jesus Christ directly and that he didn’t receive it from anyone, not even from the apostles. Christ Himself appeared and told him this good news.
“Second, the other apostles acknowledged that Paul’s gospel was the same gospel they had received. Some people have claimed that Paul preached a different gospel than Peter, James, John, and the others—that Paul’s gospel is superior to theirs. But Paul himself in this letter says that fourteen years after his conversion, he went up to Jerusalem and had an opportunity to compare notes with the other apostles.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Galatians 1:13 ‘Judaism’: “The Jewish religious system of works righteousness, based not primarily on the OT text, but on rabbinic interpretations and traditions. In fact, Paul will argue that a proper understanding of the OT can lead only to Christ and His gospel of grace through faith (3:6-29). persecuted. The tense of this Greek verb emphasizes Paul’s persistent and continual effort to hurt and ultimately exterminate Christians. See … Acts 8:1-3; 9:1; 1 Timothy 1:12-14.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Galatians 1:15-16 ‘Paul set apart in the womb’: “Paul’s conversion is generally considered so remarkable for its suddenness and distinctness, and truly it is. Yet, at the same time, it is no exception to the general rule of conversions but is rather a type, or model, or pattern of the way God shows patience to them who are led to believe in him. It appears from the text, however, that there is another part of Paul’s history which deserves our attention as much as the suddenness of his conversion, namely the fact that although he was suddenly converted, yet God had had thoughts of mercy toward him from his birth. God did not begin to work with him when he was on the road to Damascus. That was not the first occasion on which eyes of love had darted upon this chief of sinners, but Paul declares that God had separated him and set him apart, even from his mother’s womb, that he might by and by be called by grace, and have Jesus Christ revealed in him.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Galatians 1:15-16 ‘Called to be Saints’: “However deep the mystery, however many the paradoxes involved, it is still true that men become saints not at their own whim but by sovereign calling. Has not God by such words as these taken out of our hands the ultimate choice?
“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing. … No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him. … No man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. … Thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. … It pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me. (John 6:63, 44, 65; 17:2; Galatians 1:15-16)
“God has made us in His likeness, and one mark of that likeness is our free will. We hear God say, ‘Whosoever will, let him come.’ We know by bitter experience the woe of an unsurrendered will and the blessedness or terror which may hang upon our human choice. But back of all this and preceding it is the sovereign right of God to call saints and determine human destinies. The master choice is His, the secondary choice is ours. Salvation is from our side a choice, from the divine side it is a seizing upon, an apprehending, a conquest of the Most High God. Our ‘accepting’ and ‘willing’ are reactions rather than actions. The right of determination must always remain with God.
“God has indeed lent to every man the power to lock his heart and stalk away darkly into his self-chosen night, as He has lent to every man the ability to respond to His overtures of grace, but while the ‘no’ choice may be ours, the ‘yes’ choice is always God‘s. He is the Author of our faith as He must be its Finisher. Only by grace can we continue to believe; we can persist in willing God’s will only as we are seized upon by a benign power that will overcome our natural bent to unbelief.”

• A. W. Tozer, God’s Pursuit of Man

Galatians 1:18 ‘three years’: “The approximate time from Paul’s conversion to his first journey to Jerusalem. During those years he made a visit to Damascus and resided in Arabia, under the instruction of the Lord. This visit is discussed in Acts 9:26-30 (see … Acts 9:23). up to Jerusalem. Travelers in Israel always speak of going ‘up’ to Jerusalem because of its higher elevation (see … Acts 18:22). see. Better translated, ‘to become acquainted with.’ Peter. … The apostle who was the personal companion of the Lord and the most powerful spokesman in the early years of the Jerusalem church (Acts 1-12).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Galatians 1:21 ‘Syria and Cilicia’: “See … Acts 15:23; cf. Acts 9:30. This area included Paul’s hometown of Tarsus. He was preaching in that region for several years. When word of revival in that area reached Jerusalem, they sent Barnabas (see Acts 11:20-26). Paul stayed on in that region as a pastor in the church at Antioch. With Barnabas, they went from there on the first missionary journey (Acts 13: 1-3), and afterward returned to Antioch (Acts 14:26) from where they were sent to the Jerusalem Council (Acts 14:26-15:4).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

My Thoughts

Before we can talk about the insights of Paul, revealed in his letter to the Galatians, we need to understand what Galatia was.  Galatia in Roman times was a region of what is now Turkey.  It was a land-locked region with Bithynia to the north, Cappadocia to the east, Asia to the west and Pamphylia to the south.  All these regions are mentioned in the New Testament.  Cilicia, where Paul was from, is south of Cappadocia, and Syria was south of Cilicia.  In most maps Galatia is an odd-shaped region.  Pisidia, which contained the city of Antioch, is shown on various maps as being in Asia, Pamphylia, and Galatia, but most maps have a hook shape in the southwest corner of Galatia to include the cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe in Galatia.  But this is just the southern third of Galatia.  The capitol at the time for the region was in what is now known as Ankara, in the northern third of the region.

In saying all this, the important thing to remember, he is writing to the churches he established on his first mission journey, the journey where Barnabas accompanied him, and the place, Lystra, where he was stoned and left for dead, healing from the stoning and preaching in Derbe.  He went through that area to check on the churches on his second missionary journey, picking up Timothy along the way.  Paul had a very strong connection to these churches.

Paul starts this letter by identifying himself as an apostle.  He is not saying that he is among the Twelve.  He is identifying himself as being one sent from God to preach the gospel of Christ.  We should be careful with the term “apostle.”  In some studies, apostle is a fruit of the Spirit, but that means interpreting the Scriptures and applying it to the needs of the people.  If someone claims to be an apostle, I would be wary.  Some churches have a distinction, even an office for apostle, but these people would only claim they interpret the revelation already given us in the Bible.  But with the New Apostolic Reformation, the “apostles” are claiming new revelation which is heresy.  So, we have the Twelve Apostles, which is the original Twelve disciples, minus Judas Iscariot and plus Matthias.  We have Paul as the Apostle to the Gentiles.  And we have a fruit of the spirit, apostle, which is a person, especially blessed by God, and usually by a lot of reading and studying the Bible, who can interpret the Scriptures.  And most people that have that fruit of the Spirit, would be humble enough to deny it.  They’ll say they merely read the Bible a lot and see how the present times fit what they are reading.  Beyond that, I would be very distrusting.

In his introduction of himself, Paul identifies God the Father as being the one who raised Jesus from the dead.  Then after greeting them with Grace and Peace, Paul says that God provided His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins and rescue us from this evil age.  I agree with Spurgeon above, where he says to his congregation that any age is the evil age until Christ returns and sets everything aright.  Paul also mentions that he is not alone.  Obviously in that someone became the courier to deliver this letter.

But in defining God the Father as the One who raised Jesus from the dead and that Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins and our rescuer from evil in general, we see the foundational beliefs necessary to be a Christian.  And Paul weaved those bits into his introduction to his letter.  Paul must have known that people’s attention spans are short.

After the “Amen” of his greeting, Paul immediately admonishes them.  Someone has followed Paul with false teaching.  He says “gospel,” but then immediately follows with denying that what they has been taught is not the gospel at all.

Paul goes on to say that if a man or an angel ever preaches a different gospel than the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they should be cursed.

Paul then denies that any man revealed the Gospel to Paul.  Paul received the Gospel from Jesus Christ.  Acts 9 does not say a lot about what Jesus said on the road to Damascus.  But Paul was blind for three days.  He was placed in a room, alone.  There was plenty of time for Paul to take what he’d been taught by his teacher and Jesus (or the Holy Spirit) to guide Paul through that intellectual knowledge to teach Paul how the Old Testament Scriptures (for Paul, simply the Scriptures) point to Christ.

So it is with us, whether we have a road to Damascus experience or a gradual understanding that Jesus is my all in all, the Holy Spirit, who indwells us when Jesus comes into our heart, will teach us from God’s Word.  That is one reason to never stop reading the Bible.  After twenty, fifty or more times reading the Bible, we can still be instructed by the Holy Spirit who only gives us what we need and what we can handle.  But I think with Paul, this was even more palpable to prepare him as an apostle.

And I have been using the name Paul.  On the road to Damascus and until he goes on his first missionary journey, he is referred to in the book of Acts as Saul.  Then suddenly as he claims that the Jews have rejected his message and he will take the Gospel to the Gentiles, he is called Paul.  Many of the people in the New Testament had a double name.  Paul was probably Saul Paulus.  The Saul was to identify himself as a Jew.  The Paulus, or Paul for short, was to identify himself as a Roman citizen.  Even many non-Roman citizens had Roman names for business purposes.

Then Paul went through an interesting testimony.  He details how he was so much into Judaism that he persecuted the Jews who had become Christians.  But then, God revealed Jesus Christ within him.  Notice that distinction.  It was God’s work within him.  Paul does not use the modern terms of “accepting Christ” because Paul wanted to make it clear to the Galatians that it was by nothing that Paul had done to be saved or to gain this knowledge of the Gospel.  Paul also says that God had set him apart while still in his mother’s womb.  Jeremiah mentions “before” that.

Both Rev. MacArthur and Rev. Stedman mention Judaizers as being the “heresy” that had guided the Galatians away from the Gospel.  If that is the issue here, Paul is saying that the Jews among the new believers introduced the need to have the men circumcised.  If a Gentile became a Jew, they had to be circumcised.  Thus, while calling upon Jesus, these Jews still felt that the religion was a sect of Judaism.  Many non-believers in the Roman empire felt this way.  So, Paul identified himself as a Jews’ Jew and a persecutor of the Christians, not to just identify his sinful side, but to establish himself as an authority of Judaism.  What Paul is saying is that to accept Jesus requires no works at all, thus why circumcise anyone?  Paul’s argument in various letters all revolve around this one thing, salvation by faith alone, in Jesus alone, by Grace alone, and no works can accomplish that.  By its definition, Grace cannot be earned.

Then Paul mentions that he leaves Damascus, goes into Arabia, and then returns to Damascus before going up to Jerusalem.  Not all these details are mentioned in the book of Acts, and since Paul left twice from Damascus, which time did Paul get rescued by his followers by being lowered in a basket?

These differences in itinerary do not contradict anything.  I took a trip to Arkansas to teach a course, but the boss asked if I could go to Alabama to investigate an explosion and help them rewrite their procedures to prevent a recurrence.  If I returned and told people I went to Arkansas to teach a course, that is neither a lie nor contradicting my reasons for being in Alabama.  In fact, the trip to Alabama was in a gap between multiple sessions of the course in Arkansas.  So, I went from Pennsylvania to Arkansas.  I returned from Arkansas to Pennsylvania.  The trip to Alabama was only about 600 miles roundtrip, on my “day off.”

But the key to mentioning his travels is that Paul arrived in Jerusalem and spent fifteen days with Cephas (Peter).  The only other important member of the church that Paul met on that occasion was James, the brother of Jesus, to distinguish between that James and James, the brother of John, the James who was killed by the sword (Acts 12:2) about the same time that Paul and Barnabas first made their journey to the churches of Galatia.

Then Paul concludes this testimony to tell them that none of this is a lie.  Then he adds that he spent time in Syria and Cilicia.  This is to account for the years between when Paul went back to his hometown of Tarsus, in Cilicia, and when Barnabas came to seek out Paul so that Paul could join him in strengthening the church in Syrian Antioch.  So, here a former persecutor of the Jews is a slave for Jesus.  And when they learned that this persecutor was now preaching the faith, they praised God.

In time, they praised God, but some did not trust Paul, thus his need to go to Tarsus of Cilicia to mature his faith.

All of this was a set up to show that Paul was telling the truth (ver. 20).

Some Serendipitous Reflections

Galatians 1:1-10 No Other Gospel 1. What ‘distorted gospel’ upsets you? Why? How can Galatians help you to refute it?
Galatians 1:11-24 Paul Called by God 1. If you had to argue for the reality of the gospel by giving one example of how faith in Christ has changed you, what would you share? In what way is your experience of Christ an important part of your witness to others?
“2. Whom do you know who was once very hostile to Christ, but is now his follower? What brought about that change?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Galatians 1 is divided into two sets of questions.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.