Commentary - Galatians 1:1-5

Bird's-eye view

The opening of Paul’s letter to the Galatians is no gentle clearing of the throat. It is the opening volley in a spiritual war. From the very first word, Paul is on the offensive, establishing the divine authority of his message by establishing the divine authority of his apostleship. The Judaizers who were troubling the Galatian churches were undermining the gospel of grace by attacking its messenger, suggesting he was a second-hand apostle with a derivative message. Paul meets this challenge head-on, declaring that his commission comes straight from the top, from Jesus Christ and God the Father. This divinely sourced apostleship is the bedrock for the divinely sourced gospel he preaches. That gospel, in a nutshell, is that Christ gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, all according to the Father's will, and all for the Father's eternal glory. This is not just about individual salvation; it is about a cosmic shift in the ages, a rescue operation from a corrupt and dying world order. The entire argument of the book is contained in seed form right here in this explosive salutation.

In these five verses, Paul lays down the doctrinal runway for the rest of the epistle. The authority is from God, not man. The agent is Jesus Christ, validated by the resurrection. The recipients are the churches of Galatia, who are in mortal danger. The blessing is grace and peace, the twin pillars of the Christian life. The basis of it all is Christ’s substitutionary death for our sins. The purpose is our deliverance from this present evil age. The plan was authored by God the Father. And the ultimate goal is the glory of God forever. Every clause is load-bearing, and every word is a weapon in defense of the gospel of liberty.

Outline

Context In Galatians

Galatians is arguably Paul’s most fiery epistle, written in the heat of a foundational battle for the soul of the gospel. False teachers, commonly called Judaizers, had infiltrated the churches Paul had planted in the Roman province of Galatia. They were insisting that Gentile converts must be circumcised and obey the Mosaic law in order to be truly saved. This was not a minor disagreement over secondary matters; it was a direct assault on the doctrine of justification by faith alone. By adding works of the law as a requirement for salvation, they were preaching, as Paul will say in a few verses, "another gospel." The entire letter is a passionate, logical, and scripturally-saturated defense of Christian freedom against the shackles of legalism. This opening salutation, therefore, is not mere formality. It is the beginning of his argument. His defense of his apostleship is a defense of his gospel. If his authority is from God, then his message is from God, and the message of the Judaizers is, consequently, from another place entirely.

Key Issues

The Gospel's Divine APB

An All-Points Bulletin, or APB, is a broadcast sent from one police station to all others, indicating that they are on the lookout for a dangerous fugitive. In the opening of Galatians, the apostle Paul is issuing a sort of divine APB. He is putting the churches on notice. A dangerous lie is on the loose, a fugitive from the truth, and it is threatening their very souls. But before he describes the fugitive, he flashes his badge. He establishes his credentials. He is not just some concerned citizen; he is an apostle, a sent one, with the full authority of the government of heaven behind him. He is broadcasting on a divine frequency, and the message is one of life and death. The authority is absolute because its source is absolute: "through Jesus Christ and God the Father." This is the central issue. If the Galatians get this wrong, they will get everything else wrong. If they listen to a different authority, they will receive a different gospel, which is no gospel at all.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Paul, an apostle, not sent from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead,

Paul begins by identifying himself, and he does so with a title that is under attack: apostle. And he immediately defines what he means by it. His apostleship is not a human invention. He says it is "not from men," meaning its ultimate source is not human. And it is not "through man," meaning the agency of his commissioning was not human either. The Judaizers were likely arguing that the real apostles were in Jerusalem, and Paul was, at best, a second-stringer who got his information from them. Paul demolishes this in his first breath. His commission came directly "through Jesus Christ and God the Father." He had a Damascus Road commission. The living Christ called him, and the Father who validated Christ's entire ministry by raising Him from the dead was the one who sent him. The resurrection is the ultimate credential, not just for Christ, but for His chosen messengers. Paul is putting his authority on the same level as the original twelve, and he bases it on the bedrock of the resurrection.

2 and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:

Though Paul is the sole author and his apostolic authority is unique, he is not a lone ranger. He includes "all the brothers who are with me" in the salutation. He is writing with the support and affirmation of his ministry team. This shows that while his authority is not derived from men, it is exercised in the context of the church. He is not a freelancer. He then addresses his letter "to the churches of Galatia." This is a circular letter, meant for a number of congregations in a specific region. This is important because it shows the problem was not isolated to one rogue church; the cancer of legalism was spreading throughout the entire region, requiring a robust and wide-ranging response.

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

This is Paul's standard greeting, but here it is anything but standard. Grace and peace are not just a pleasant "how-do-you-do." They are the sum and substance of the gospel he is defending. Grace (charis) is God's unmerited, unearned, free favor toward sinners. Peace (eirene) is the result of that grace, the wholeness and reconciliation with God that was purchased for us. And where do these blessings come from? Not from observing the law, not from circumcision, but "from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." The source is divine, not ceremonial. By placing this greeting here, before he even gets to the problem, Paul is reminding the Galatians of the very blessings they are in danger of forfeiting by turning to another gospel.

4 who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

Here we have the gospel in miniature. Paul defines the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. First, the action: He "gave Himself." This was a voluntary, sacrificial act. Second, the reason: "for our sins." This is substitutionary atonement. He died in our place, for our offenses. Third, the purpose: "so that He might rescue us from this present evil age." This is crucial. The goal of the cross was not just to forgive our past sins so we could try harder to be good. It was a rescue mission. It was to pull us out of a doomed system, a corrupt world order. This "present evil age" refers to the old covenant world, which was characterized by sin and death and which was in the process of passing away, a process that would culminate in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Christ's death inaugurated the age to come. Finally, Paul grounds this entire plan in the eternal decree of God: it was all "according to the will of our God and Father." Our salvation is not an accident; it is the outworking of a sovereign, eternal plan.

5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

The only proper response to such a glorious gospel is doxology. All the glory, for all time, belongs to God the Father. This is not an afterthought; it is the ultimate point of everything. Salvation is from God, through God, and therefore must be to God. A gospel of works, like the one the Judaizers were pushing, ultimately gives glory to man. It allows a man to boast in his circumcision, his law-keeping, his effort. But the gospel of grace strips us of all boasting and lays all the honor, all the credit, and all the glory at the feet of God. By concluding his introduction this way, Paul is throwing down a gauntlet. The gospel he preaches glorifies God. The gospel they are tempted to embrace glorifies man. Choose you this day.

Application

The battle for Galatia is the battle for the church in every generation. The temptation to add to the finished work of Christ is perennial. We are always tempted to believe that our salvation depends on Christ's work plus something we bring to the table. Christ plus our quiet times. Christ plus our political activism. Christ plus our doctrinal purity. Christ plus our moral effort. But the moment we add a "plus," we have subtracted the gospel and created a counterfeit.

This passage calls us to examine the foundation of our faith. Is our authority the Word of God delivered by His apostles, or is it the shifting opinions of men? Is our hope in the free grace of God, or are we secretly trying to establish our own righteousness? Do we understand that salvation is a radical rescue from a corrupt world, or do we think it is just a bit of moral renovation in it? And finally, where does the glory go? Does our understanding of salvation cause us to boast in ourselves, our church, our tradition? Or does it leave us with nothing to say but, "to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen"? The health of our Christian life, and the health of our churches, depends entirely on how we answer these questions. We must, with the apostle Paul, contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, a faith that is all of grace, for the glory of God alone.