GALATIANS 1:1

The Bible says in Galatians 1:1, “Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;).” We know for sure who has written this epistle. Paul identifies himself by name right off. He also identifies himself immediately by his position of authority. He is Paul the apostle. There were only twelve apostles. Anyone else who has taught or preached or written has done with much less authority than did the apostles, and especially the apostle Paul. God gave the twelve apostles so that we would know the true doctrine concerning Jesus Christ and His gospel.

If you want to know the truth of the gospel, then you must know what the apostle Paul taught concerning the gospel. Then when someone else comes along and teaches, you can compare what they teach to what Paul taught. If they do not teach the same thing that Paul taught, then you can reject what they are teaching. Because Paul was one of the twelve apostles, there is no question about the origin of His authority. Paul did not get his authority from man. He got it from Jesus Christ and from God the Father. The implication that Paul is making is that some teachers come from man. Their authority comes from their human relationships and their involvement in human religious organizations. Whom do you want to listen to as the authority for the religious teachings that you believe: someone who was sent by God or someone who was sent by man? Hopefully you will choose the one who was sent by God. The Apostle Paul was sent by Jesus Christ and by God the Father. Be careful. There are teachers out there who do not teach the same things that the Apostle Paul taught. Be forewarned. Make sure that you understand clearly the teachings of the Apostle Paul, both for your own edification and so that you will be able to spot a phony when he comes along.

One of the things that the Apostle Paul taught was the true doctrine about the divine nature of Jesus Christ. In this very first verse Jesus is equated with God. Paul said that he was an apostle “by Jesus Christ and by God the Father.” In other words, the person that Jesus sent was also sent by God. The person that God sent was also sent by Jesus. There is a common will and a common action between Jesus and God the Father because they are one. What one does the other does.

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is mentioned in verse 1. Paul is reminding the believers of the central theme of his gospel: the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. There are people who use the name of Jesus, but when you listen to them close enough, you will find out that there are not talking about the same Jesus that Paul talked about. These false teachers may say a lot of things, but they will not talk about the death, burial, and resurrection and what it means; and they will not talk about the deity of Christ or His unity with the Father. That’s one of the things that makes them false. Another thing that makes them false we will see throughout this epistle: their misunderstanding about grace and their false teaching about grace. The salvation that Paul taught was salvation by grace alone. The false teachers corrupted this God-revealed concept of grace. They add law and human works and religious ceremony to salvation. Make sure you understand the doctrine of salvation by grace and grace alone, or you too will fall prey to the false teachings.

In continuing his introduction to the believers in the region of Galatia, which is in modern day Turkey, Paul wrote in Galatians 1:2, “And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia.” Paul was writing this letter, but he included all of the other Christians in his introduction. Paul was a team player. He was not an individualist who excluded others. Paul knew that the work of God in the world was not just his work. It was the work that God had given to each believer. There is strength in numbers. We will be able to do more working together than we will ever be able to do separately and individually. Working on my own, I can preach a few sermons to a few people; but if others help me, I will be able to reach more with the teachings of God’s Word. Some believers have gifts and talents that I do not have. Paul knew this, and so he said graciously that his epistle was from him and from all the believers with him.

Paul said that this epistle that he was writing was to “the churches of Galatia.” He was not writing to just one church: he was writing to many churches. Of course, we continue to recognize the value and the importance of receiving and reading and studying these same writings in our churches today. That’s because there were only a few apostles and they were given a gift and were given the authority by God to record the scriptures for us all. “Holy men of God spake as they were filled with the Holy Ghost.” “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” What happened with this epistle is what happened with all of the books of the Bible: the original writing of it was inspired. Then that writing was circulated among the churches and copied so that it could be circulated even more. All of the writings that were circulated in the first century were finally gathered together into one book that we now call the Bible. God created it and He preserved it. That’s why we still have it today. Jesus said, “Not one jot or one tittle shall pass, till all be fulfilled.” Jesus also said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall not pass away.” God preserved His Word, and that’s why we still have it today without error.

One reason that Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia as a group was because they had all come under the same attack from false teachers. As we shall see a little later in this chapter the attack had to do with the gospel, the gospel of grace. False teachers were twisting the grace of God by bringing in law and human good works and religious ceremony and adding it to the gospel. The false teachers were saying that grace was not enough. They said that you had to have grace plus something else. The very same error of legalism and the corruption of the gospel of grace is very widespread even today. Evidently not enough people have paid attention to the important message of the book of Galatians.

Paul mentions grace for the first time in this epistle in Galatians 1:3 where he says, “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.” Grace is the unmerited favor of God. Grace refers to the generous and giving nature of God. God is a giver, and the most important things that He gives, He gives freely. He gives salvation, and that is free. Faith is a gift. He ascended unto heaven and gave gifts unto men: talents and abilities and callings. All of those gifts are free. He gives opportunities. The challenges and opportunities of life are gifts from God. The fact that these many gifts from God are graced upon us emphasizes the fact that we do not deserve them and we do not earn them; but they are given to us anyway freely.

God is a giver. What you need more than anything else is to come into contact with and receive these free gifts from God. That’s why in his introduction to the Galatians Paul said that he hopes they would have grace from God and from the Lord Jesus Christ. There is saving grace. If you are saved, then it was only by the grace of God. You did not earn it or deserve it in any way. There is also serving grace. If something good has happened in your life to the glory of God or if some service to God has taken place in your life, it’s not because of you that it happened. It’s only by the grace of God. Paul was right. The Christians in Galatia needed grace, and we need grace. Do everything that you can to do the right thing, but always remember this: you are totally and completely dependent upon the grace of God through Christ Jesus.

Grace refers to free gifts from God that we cannot ever earn or deserve. But nothing is totally free. Every gift is purchased by someone. Someone paid for the gift. The recipient paid nothing, but the giver paid. Why is that God has salvation, and forgiveness of sins, and so many other gifts that are free? How were these gifts paid for? They were paid for by the precious blood of Christ. These gifts are free to us, but they came at a terrible price to Jesus.

Grace is an important thing to have in life and so is peace. If you have tasted God’s grace, then you will be able to know His peace also. Peace has a lot to do with what you think about and how you interpret what happens to you. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. If you are going to have true peace, you must get it from the prince. One of the common problems that afflict people all over the world is a lack of peace. People worry, people fear, people are troubled both about the past and the future. That is, they are troubled if they do not find peace. There are so many things that can take away your peace. You might be in an ideal human situation and still have no peace. One of the common reasons that some people do not enjoy life is because they do not have peace in their heart and mind. Paul certainly had a lot of wisdom from God. He did not wish riches or prosperity or success on these people in Galatia He knew better than that. He wished for them grace and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Concerning Jesus Paul wrote in Galatians 1:4, “Who gave Himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.” How good God is to us! How undeserving we are of His many benefits. He looks down upon us, we who have broken His laws and His commandments so easily and so often, and He loves us. More than that, He “gave Himself for our sins.” The most important result of Jesus giving Himself for our sins is the deliverance and the salvation that it affords us. That’s what God is thinking about: the eternal destiny of the souls of every human being. “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Jesus said, “What should it profit a man should he gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?”

Often when people think about their own eternal destiny, they are motivated to give their hearts to Christ. Jesus gave Himself for our sins, and according to Galatians 1:4, He did it “according to the will of God and our Father.” Jesus gave up the glory of heaven and came to die the death of the cross. Just before He went to the cross He prayed, “Not my will, but thine be done.” In order to come to Christ you also must surrender to the will of the Father.

Paul is probably reminding the Galatians at this point of the fact that we are delivered from our sins by Jesus because Paul wants the believers in Galatia to wake up to the fact that they are saved by grace and by grace alone because of what Jesus did for them. If I have been delivered from my sins because of what Jesus did for me, then that means He did it all: there is nothing more for me to do. And it also means that the false teachers are wrong. If Jesus did it all, there is no law, no ceremony, no good works that I can do to help deliver me from my sins.

Jesus did it all because Jesus paid it all on the cross. It’s no wonder that Paul said in Galatians 1:5, “To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” One of the most important things for believers to do now that they are saved is to give glory to Christ. We will be doing that for eternity, and He will deserve every bit of it. You can tell how much someone really understands grace and our total dependency upon the grace of God that is in Christ just be listening to whom they give glory. If they give glory to themselves or to some other human being, then they have forgotten how much Jesus deserves the glory because of the grace that is bestowed upon us through Jesus. Paul said that we should give glory to Him “for ever and ever.”

Now we get into the problem that the Galatians were having. Paul wrote in Galatians 1:6-7, “I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel; Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.” A terrible false doctrine had come into the midst of the believers in Galatia, and Paul expresses his astonishment that they could have fallen for the trap. It should not have happened. For one thing, these were not people who went out and chose a religion. These were people who were “called” by God “into the grace of Christ.” They had already met the Lord personally in their hearts. When they were saved, they were saved by the mercy of God and the grace of God and the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ. They did not get saved based upon how good they were. They received the grace of God.

But after they got saved, something happened. False teachers came into their midst and started perverting the gospel. In other words the false taught something other than grace. They added to grace, and they added to salvation. If you were saved, you were saved entirely by the grace of God. Having begun in the grace of God through Christ, do you think you can continue by relying upon your own works? There were false teachers in the time of Paul, and there are false teachers today. If you have been influenced by a false teacher and somehow you think that your salvation is dependent upon your own good works, turn to Jesus while you have a chance and rely totally upon Him and Him alone. H

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