Galatians 1:1,2 – An Emergency Response

The “EPA responds to oil spills, chemical, biological, radiological releases, and large-scale national emergencies.” And we might say that a chemical spill had occurred among the churches Paul planted in Galatia. False teachers had spread a false gospel that constituted an emergency to which Paul had to respond.

1 Paul, an apostle, not from men, nor through a man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, 2 and all the brothers and sisters with me, to the churches of Galatia. (Galatians 1:1,2)

The Galatian believers had fallen for this false teaching, and part of the reason for this was they had bought the teachers’ lie that Paul was not a real teacher from God. Paul is going to give evidence that he is, but here, in his identification as the author of this letter, he makes it clear that he is an apostle. An apostle is “A delegate entrusted with a mission, carrying the authority of the sender.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

It would seem from Ac 1:21-26 that two major prerequisites for being an apostle were: (1) to have been an eyewitness of Christ’s ministry from the time of the baptism by John up to and including the resurrection, and (2) to have been chosen for the office by the risen Lord. At first the number of those so commissioned was twelve (Matthias was chosen to replace Judas), but there is no indication either in Acts or elsewhere that the number was always so limited. Paul obviously claimed to have fulfilled the conditions as the result of his Damascus experience; and Luke, who clearly endorses Paul’s claim, also speaks of Barnabas as having this office (cf. also James, the Lord’s brother, implied in 1Co 15:7; Silas and Timothy in 1Th 2:7, cf. 1:1). [Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition): New Testament]

Paul further makes explicit that he was not an apostle sent from men, or made an apostle by a human, but was sent by Jesus Christ and by God the Father, neither of whom are mere human authorities. Jesus is a human, but he is also God, and as the one resurrected by the Father, he has appeared to Paul and commissioned him as an apostle.

I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. (Acts 26:15,16)

Paul often identified someone else who was with him in addressing the readers of his letters (in 1 Corinthians it was Sosthenes, in 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon it was Timothy, it was Timothy and Silas in 1&2 Thessalonians), but here it is the unspecified believers from wherever he is writing (probably Antioch). They have all heard of the emergency in Galatia and are concerned to set the record straight as to who Paul is, and more importantly, what the gospel is.

These believers are the ones who sent Paul and Barnabas to Galatia, where the duo preached the gospel in the Galatian cities of Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts 13&14). This letter will circulate to all of them. It is time to clean up this “spill.”

 

Galatians’ Purpose:  to rescue the Galatians from the perversion of the gospel promoted by the Judaizers.

Galatians’ Theme (big idea):  The true gospel which you must embrace in order to be saved is the one attested by the authenticated apostle, the one which worked the results of salvation in you, and the one which is evidenced in the Old Testament promise.