Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
Written by Paul to people of Galatia, A
D. 56 or 57, to strengthen their faith in the divinity of his mission, unfold his doctrine of justification by faith, and urge persistency in Christian work.
Concise Bible Dictionary:
The date when this Epistle was written has been disputed more than that of any of the others, some placing it early, and others later. The events seem best to agree thus: on Paul’s second missionary journey he went throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia (Acts 16:66Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, (Acts 16:6)). We learn from Galatians 4:13-1513Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. 14And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. 15Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. (Galatians 4:13‑15) that he had preached the gospel to them, and that they had received him as an angel and would have plucked out their eyes for him. This visit would have been about A.D. 51. Then about A.D. 54 Paul again visited them; all we read as to this journey is that he went over all the country of Galatia, strengthening, or confirming, all the disciples (Acts 18:2323And after he had spent some time there, he departed, and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples. (Acts 18:23)). They may, alas, have as readily received the Judaizing teachers, and when this came to the ears of Paul, he wrote this Epistle to them. He grieved that they were so soon diverted to another gospel which was not another. In 1 Corinthians 16:11Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. (1 Corinthians 16:1) we read that Paul had instructed the churches in Galatia as to the collection for the poor. This was written to Corinth about A.D. 55. The collection is not mentioned in his Epistle to the Galatians, and as far as we know he did not visit them again. This has caused some to suppose that Paul wrote the Epistle to them after his first visit; and that he gave them the directions as to the collection on his second visit; but they may have been given by another letter or by a private messenger.
Galatians 1. After a brief opening, in which the intent of the Lord’s giving Himself for our sins is set forth, namely, to deliver us from this present age according to the will of God, the apostle proceeds directly to the point and marvels at the rapid departure of the Galatian converts from the gospel. In the strongest terms he denounces the efforts made to pervert them from the grace of Christ to other ground. Paul would have them know that his apostleship was not by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father; that the gospel he preached was by the revelation of Jesus Christ. The Jews’ religion, by which they were so attracted, had led him to be a bitter persecutor, but it had pleased God to reveal His Son in him that he might preach Him among the Gentiles. His commission and authority had come direct from on high, and had no connection with Jerusalem as a source. The saints in Judaea did but glorify God in him.
Galatians 2. Fourteen years after [his conversion] he went up to Jerusalem and communicated to those there the gospel he preached to the Gentiles. He utterly refused to submit to pressure from Judaizing brethren in the case of the Gentile convert Titus, and in result received the full fellowship of the three pillars—James, Cephas, and John—in regard to his ministry among the heathen. Subsequently, at Antioch, Paul had actually withstood Peter to the face as to the truth of the gospel, which Peter was fatally compromising from fear of the Jews. Peter’s conduct was wholly inconsistent. Peter and Paul had themselves left the law for justification, to find it alone on the principle of faith in Christ. Had Christ become the minister of sin in their doing this? If not, in going back to the law they built anew what they had destroyed, and were confessedly transgressors; for if right in leaving it for Christ, they were wrong in returning to it. For Paul, however, it was true that through law he had died to law, in order to live to God. With Christ he was crucified (was judicially dead); yet he lived, but no longer himself, for Christ lived in him, and his life as still in this world was by faith—the faith of the Son of God, a living object whose love filled his soul. Christ had died in vain if righteousness came by the law.
Galatians 3. The Galatians were as though bewitched. Had they received the Spirit on the principle of law or of faith? To this there could be but one answer. Having begun in the Spirit, were they now to be made perfect by the flesh? Faith was the principle on which Abraham, the head of promise and blessing, was reckoned righteous, and on which the Gentiles would, with believing Abraham, receive blessing, according to God’s promise to him. Those under law were under the curse; and on that ground none could be justified. Christ had borne the curse that Abraham’s blessing might come on the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, and that through faith they might receive the promise of the Spirit. The law, given four hundred and thirty years after the promise, could not set the latter aside, which was made not only to Abraham, but to his Seed, even to Christ. The law came in by the way till the Seed should come: it proved transgressions; it had been useful as a guard: it had been for those under it a tutor up to Christ. Now faith had come, such were no longer under a tutor; the Gentile believers were now God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus. In Christ distinctions between Jew and Gentile disappeared: all were one, and the Gentile believers being of Christ were Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.
Galatians 4. Though heirs, the Jews were, under law, in the condition of children under age, held in bondage under the elements of the world, with which indeed the law had to do. But now God had sent forth His Son, to redeem those under law, that believers might receive sonship. He had sent the Spirit of His Son into their hearts, giving the cry of relationship, “Abba, Father.” They were therefore no longer bondmen, but sons; and if sons, then heirs through God. Were the Gentile believers (formerly in heathen darkness, but now knowing God) going to turn back to the principles of law, which the apostle does not hesitate to call weak and beggarly elements? They observed days, and months, and times, and years, as though Christianity were a system for man in the flesh. But he reminds them of their former affection for him, and how they had received him as an angel of God. Was he now their enemy because he told them the truth? These Judaizing teachers had sown this discord in order that they might supplant the apostle in their affections. Spiritually he again travailed in birth with them till Christ should be formed in them. He knew not what to make of them. Let those who wanted to be under law listen to it. He then submits to them the allegory of Sarah and Hagar, in which the principles of law and faith in God’s promise are seen in conflict. The promise is secured in Isaac, that is, in Christ. Believers, as Isaac was, are children of promise, they are not children of the maidservant but of the free woman.
Galatians 5. He exhorts the Galatians to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ made free. If circumcised they were debtors to do the whole law, and were deprived of all profit from the Christ. They had in such case fallen from grace. Christians awaited the hope of righteousness, by the Spirit, on the principle of faith. For those in Christ faith wrought through love. The Galatians had run well, but who had now hindered them? The guilt of this mischief should be borne by the troubler, whoever he was. The scandal of the cross was done away if circumcision was preached, for it was rehabilitating the flesh. But love was the fulfillment of the law. The flesh and Spirit were in fact utterly opposed, but if led by the Spirit they were not under law. The works of the flesh are set forth in contrast to the fruit of the Spirit. Those that were of Christ had crucified the flesh with its lusts, the Spirit being the only power for christian walk.
Galatians 6. Some closing exhortations follow. The spiritual were to restore those taken in a fault, remembering what they were in themselves. They were to care for one another—to think nothing of themselves—to care for those who ministered to them in the word. He warns them of the consequences of sowing to the flesh, but in sowing to the Spirit they should reap eternal life. Let them do good then to all, but especially to the household of faith. He tells them he had written this letter with his own hand as evidence of his deep concern as to them. He once again refers to the mischief-makers in scathing terms. But the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ was his only boast, through whom the world was crucified unto him, and he to it. In Christ Jesus nothing availed but a new creation; and upon those who walked according to this rule peace and mercy are invoked. This Epistle, in which the grief of the apostle is mingled with indignation, is concluded by an affecting allusion to the sufferings he had endured in the maintenance of the truth which they were so lightly turning from: he bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. There are none of the customary salutations.
The epistle is an example of the energy and rapidity of the apostle’s style, and of the spiritual power of his argument. We see him deeply moved by the baneful influence of the Judaisers in Galatia and at their success. Alas! it is what has extended everywhere throughout Christendom.
Bible Handbook:
It will be observed that Galatia embraces a large province in the center of Asia Minor, and therefore the churches of that district are addressed in this epistle.
From the stern way in which Paul here addresses those who were turning to the law (contrasted with the gentle way in which the Jews who were clinging to Judaism are spoken to in the Epistle to the Hebrews), it would appear that the Galatian churches were composed mostly, if not entirely, of Gentile converts (see also ch. 4:8).
The time when this epistle was written is disputed more than that of any other of the epistles, some placing it early, and others quite late. If it was written soon after Paul’s second visit, named above, it would be about A.D. 55.
It is instructive to notice the surprise and grief of Paul at how soon the saints in Galatia had been diverted from the grace of Christ to a different gospel (ch. 1:6); the epistle manifests how successful the enemy had been.
In few words the epistle may be said to contrast the law with (1) promise; (2) grace; and (3) the Holy Spirit. The apostle insists that it is impossible to combine the law and the gospel, although the latter fully confirms the authority of the former as given of God. He also repudiates the theory of apostolic succession. Paul boasts of his ministry not being derived from Peter and the other apostles: it came directly from Christ Himself, and from God by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Chapter 1
Paul at once asserts that he was an apostle and that his apostleship was from God, and not of or through man.
It was the common faith he insisted on: therefore he added “all the brethren ... with me.”
God had revealed His Son in Paul, and the gospel he preached came from God. He had not received it from Jerusalem, nor through man: but by the revelation of Jesus Christ Himself.
He had seen only Peter and James the Lord’s brother on his first visit to Jerusalem, and had stayed there only fifteen days.
Chapter 2
Verses 1-10. Paul mentions his second visit to Jerusalem to attend the conference related in Acts 15. He had received his commission direct from God, and those at Jerusalem who seemed to be somewhat added nothing to him. The right hand of fellowship had been given to him by the apostles James, Peter, and John, to go to the heathen.
Verses 11-17. Paul rehearses the dissimulation of Peter: he had not acted as before God, but changed his behaviour before men. It was not an upright (straight) walk. Peter himself did not keep the law: why impose it upon Gentiles?
We are not justified on the principle of law, but on the principle of faith: could it be that in seeking to be justified in Christ, and eating with the Gentiles, they were found to be sinners? If so, would not Christ Himself have been a minister of sin? for it was He who sent Paul to the Gentiles. This could not be.
Verses 18-21. For if I build again what I once destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor (either in having pulled it down, or in building it up again).
The law condemns a guilty man. True, but by the death of Christ under the law, I am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. Yea, more, I am crucified with Christ, yet I live, though no longer I, but Christ liveth in me.
Christ has died in vain if righteousness could be by law (whether by a man keeping it himself, or by Christ keeping it for him vicariously).
Chapter 3
Christ had not died in vain. His crucifixion had been set forth among them.
Verses 2-5. On what principle had they received the Spirit? By the hearing of faith and not by works of the law. After beginning in the Spirit, were they vainly trying to be perfected by the flesh? (For putting themselves under law amounted to this.)
Verses 6-18. Abraham was justified by faith; and on the same principle all nations were to be blessed with him.
On the other hand, the law and the curse go together, for none could keep the law: the just shall live by faith.
Christ, by being made a curse, has redeemed Jewish believers from the curse of the law which they could not keep, and they receive the Holy Spirit through faith. By faith also the blessing of Abraham comes on the Gentiles in Jesus Christ. The promise was to Abraham and to his seed: which is Christ. (See Gen. 12:2-3; 22:18:2And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:2‑3) not Gen 15, which refers to Israel.)
The blessing of Abraham by an unconditional promise could not be affected by the law which was added hundreds of years after. It was confirmed by God. (The words ‘to Christ’ are omitted by most Editors.)
Verses 19-29. Wherefore the law? It was added that transgressions might become manifest. It was Israel’s schoolmaster until Christ, that they might be justified by faith in Christ.
Another principle is now introduced. The law was ordained through angels (see Psa. 68:1717The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. (Psalm 68:17)), and in the hand of a mediator (Moses). But a mediator supposes two, as in the law there was the law-giver, and the people to whom it was given. But God is one, and as such He can make an unconditional promise, as He did to Abraham: there is no room for a mediator.
The law is not against the promise, but is on a different principle: had it been possible, righteousness would have been by law; but mercifully all were shut up under sin, that by faith all might be blessed.
There is also relationship: sons of God by faith; and a profession by putting on Christ by baptism. All are one in Christ Jesus; and are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise, not by law-keeping.
Chapter 4
Verses 1-5 speak of the Jews being as children under age, like servants in bondage, until God sent His Son to redeem them from the law that they might receive sonship. Christ came of a woman (for the world), and under the law (for the Jews).
Verses 6-12. The Galatians (Gentile believers) were also sons, therefore God had given them the Spirit of His Son, whereby they cried, “Abba, Father.” The sons are also heirs of God through Christ.
Why then, having been delivered from the bondage of heathen idolatry, did they turn again to beggarly rudiments and put themselves in bondage anew by observing Jewish feasts?
Paul besought them to be as he was; for he was, as they really were, free from the law: they had not wronged him by saying he was not a strict Jew.
Verses 13-20. He bears them record that they had received him, though unattractive bodily (perhaps through the thorn in the flesh) as an angel or even as Jesus Christ. Was he now their enemy because he told them the truth?
Of the false teachers, Paul says, “They are not rightly zealous after you” (verse 17 JND). They wished to withdraw the Galatians from the influence of Paul, that they might control them.
Paul stood in doubt of them: he must change his voice according to their condition, and he needed to travail in birth of them again till Christ be formed in them.
Verses 21-31. Paul would instruct them by an allegory. Abraham had two sons: one born of Hagar, the bondwoman, and one of Sarah, the freewoman. The former typified the first covenant of Sinai, and answers to Jerusalem, which is in bondage with her children: the latter was a figure of the new covenant and Jerusalem above, which is free, and is our mother. (The words ‘of all’ are omitted by most Editors.)
Jerusalem, which is now barren, shall, when God in the millennium turns again to bless Israel under the new covenant, have reckoned to her as her own children the saints gathered now, during the days of her barrenness and desolation; and they shall be found more numerous than the children she had before the Lord repudiated her (see Hos. 2).
As Ishmael persecuted Isaac, so now those born after the flesh persecute those born after the Spirit. The two cannot dwell together: the exhortation is to cast out the bondwoman and her son; for we are of the freewoman.
Chapter 5
Verses 1-15. Christ had made them free, why put themselves again in bondage? If they were circumcised, Christ would profit them nothing.
The Galatians could not rest in Christ and yet be under the law: the one denied the other. They deprived themselves of all profit in Christ; if they were justified by law they had fallen from grace.
But those led of the Spirit wait by faith for the hope of righteousness, which is the glory.
Though Paul wrote as he did, he was able to add that he had confidence in the Lord as to them, that they would be of the same mind, and that he who troubled them should bear the judgment.
Paul was persecuted because he did not preach circumcision: this setting aside man in the flesh was the offence of the cross. They might fulfil the law without being under it; for it was comprised in one word — love.
Verses 16-18. The flesh and the Spirit desire one against the other; but if we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the desires of the flesh. The Spirit is given that we should not do the things that the flesh desires. (The word ‘cannot’ in verse 17 in the A. V. is a mistranslation.)
Verses 19-26. A list is given of some of the works of the flesh, and also of the fruit of the Spirit.
Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit: we are not under law, but under grace (the law is not needed for a holy walk any more than for justification).
Chapter 6
Verses 1-14. Special exhortations are added. Restoration of a failing one was to be sought by the spiritual (not legal: the law can but condemn the failing one).
If they wanted a law, let them fulfil the law of Christ and bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfil the law of love. But let not one cast his burden on another: each should bear his own.
Let the taught communicate in all good things to the teacher.
Each must reap what he sows: if the sowing be to the flesh, it will result in corruption; if it be to the Spirit, it will be life everlasting.
Be not weary in well-doing: the harvest is sure — doing good to all, especially to the saints.
The state of the Galatians still presses upon Paul’s spirit. The false teachers desired to make a show of their followers and to glory in their flesh as men, and to avoid the offence of the cross. Paul desired to glory in nothing except the cross of Christ: adding, “by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world”: which is true of all Christians.
Verses 15-18. In Christ Jesus nothing but a new creation was accounted anything.
Paul wished for peace and mercy on all (Gentile believers) who walked according to the rule he had given (namely, new creation), and upon the Israel of God (Jewish believers).
Let none trouble him; for in his body he bore the brands of the Lord Jesus.
He gave the benediction of grace; but added no friendly greetings to any nor from any: his great love made him stern when they were departing from the faith.
Contrary to his usual practice, Paul had written this epistle with his own hand.
A solemn but needed epistle, showing the basis of the Gentiles’ relationship with God; but one deplorably disregarded in Christendom.
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