Chapter 16

As we digest Paul’s ministry and look at the background to his letters we are given a greater understanding of the Christian church birth. Barnabas and Paul were commissioned by the apostles to start their ministry with specific outreach toward the Gentile community. They soon realized the effectiveness of the gospel toward people with no previous exposure to Judaism. This was probably because they had no legalistic barriers to understand the salvation of Jesus Christ.
At the beginning of their ministry there is an atmosphere of urgency to abolish devotion toward the Torah and explain faith only as the reliance on Jesus. This revolution needed to happen quickly and in as many people as possible.
This urgency to proclaim the gospel was counteracted by an urgency of the Jerusalem church to renounce Paul’s teachings. This rebuttal was based on the idea that to follow in the sovereignty of Jesus (as Paul taught) was turning away from God and was therefore blasphemous. We see that they were placing great emphasis on the Torah, however they unfortunately did not place enough emphasis on the prophecy brought forth in the Torah and therefore were not sensitive to recognizing when the Messiah had come. The influence of the Judaizers caused great confusion as the Galatians had no previous knowledge or understanding of the Old Testament and how it fit in with their faith in God (because Paul had intentionally explained faith with Jesus as the center-point). Paul needing to then rebut the claims made by the Judiazers, wrote a letter.
The format in this first letter is substantially consistent with the rest of his letters (and all ancient letters from this time) giving us important information on how to interpret the NT scriptures. The general letter format is as follows:
1. Begin with author and then to the party being written to
2. Greeting in the form of one or two words- Peace. Grace.
3. Note of thanks to others as well as God
4. Body= Doctrinal Teaching, Advice on Christian living
5. Church/Personal News
6. Genuine exhortation or blessing
7. Prayer for the reader
We note though, that in the Galatian letter, there is no praise or thanksgiving for the reader’s condition as Paul was probably disappointed and frustrated that they quickly disregarded his teaching. Paul begins by establishing that his authority to preach Christian teachings came from his encounter with Christ and therefore doesn’t require an authority commission by the Jewish church. Paul explained that the Galatians were God’s children because of receiving the Holy Spirit and believing in Jesus supported by evidence from the Old Testament. Paul explains that the Law was set in place to give God’s people understanding about sin and the defiance of his will; it was a temporary system until Jesus would come. Since the Galatians had accepted Jesus, they were now filled with the Holy Spirit which would give them discernment and direction regarding morality and God’s will.
God is in the business here of revolutionizing the way he interacts with his people. There are tremendous changes moving from the Jewish Law to the Holy Spirit as the main vehicle for discernment and truth. We can see that for much of the Jewish community the Holy Spirit was (and still is) a difficult change to make and because of the perspective they insisted upon having, they deemed Jesus as blasphemous. The Galatians, not by their own choice, are stuck in the one of the biggest “God-people” revolutions in the history of the world! Their hearts were open to hearing and accepting the salvation of Jesus but their legs were quickly knocked beneath them as they had minimal theological roots to ground themselves in. They were the one of the first peoples without Jewish knowledge/background or fundamental teachings who God challenged to trust them by the Holy Spirit alone. They had NO Old Testament to even learn about the great faith stories of men like Moses, Abraham, Nehemiah or David. They had no Psalms or Proverbs to read for daily encouragement or growth. They had no New Testament because it was being written! They had no written gospels either for the same reason! Paul may have been frustrated with them but I think we should give the Galatians a break and realize the extent of what God was challenging them to do.