Galatians 1:1-5 – a verse-by-verse devotional commentary

Main Reading: Galatians 1:1-5

“Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

There’s no room to doubt who wrote this letter—“Paul” is the first word on the page. What do you know about Paul? There’s a lot to learn about him in the New Testament, across his 13 letters and the book of Acts. Paul was known for many things. He was a Jew (Phi. 3:5), a tentmaker (Acts 18:3), a convict (Acts 16:24), a traveler, a student (Acts 22:3), an author, a Roman citizen (Acts 22:8), a single man (1 Cor. 7:7-8), and even a Pharisee (Phi. 3:5)—who, at one time, persecuted the Christian church! But, when Paul writes this letter, how does he introduce himself? An apostle.

If you remember his letters to the Philippians and Thessalonians—some of his happier epistles—Paul calls himself, his friends, and the congregations: “coworkers in the gospel” But not here…Not in this letter…Not to this congregation…Instead, in verse 1, Paul is set on asserting his position in the Church. He’s “pulling rank” because there’s a deadly issue going on that he’s about to address. And like an FBI agent catching a suspect red-handed, Paul shows his badge.

He introduces himself as “an apostle.” The word, apostle, refers to a legal representative, derived from the Jewish concept of a Shaliach. We see this concept play out in Genesis 24, when Abraham sent his servant, Eliezer, to find a wife for Isaac. Whichever woman Eliezer picked out for his master’s son, it would be as if Abraham had selected her himself. In the same way, God appointed certain men to go out and lead the charge in gathering the Church—a bride for Christ.

Paul was legit. He was not the kind of apostle who just decided one day, after being a pastor for several years at a handful of churches, to start calling himself, “Bishop Reverend Dr. Apostle Paul”… Paul isn’t boasting to make money or get attention. By claiming to be an apostle, he’s reassuring people that his words come from God.

Paul was an apostle—not through man, it wasn’t his own idea, a church’s idea, or even the other apostles’ idea (like the stunt they pulled in Acts 1:26, appointing an apostle by casting lots after the Spirit had told them to wait). However, in the eyes of his opponents, Paul was sent by men or—at best—if God sent him, it wasn’t a direct call. But, in reality, Paul was appointed to be an apostle directly by Jesus Christ Himself! If you need a refresher on this, I suggest you pause and read Acts 9:1-15.

In that story, we learn something interesting. “This man…has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name” (Acts 9:13-14). At one time, Paul’s authority did come from men; the chief priests. But not any more! Paul was hand-selected by Jesus. And, of course, to be selected by Jesus is also to be appointed by God the Father, because the Son and the Father are always working together (Jn. 5:17-19). Exhibit A—the perfect example—of this is the resurrection, which Paul mentions next! “Who made me an apostle?” he says. “Jesus Christ, and God who raised Him from the dead!”

If you read your New Testament carefully, you’ll soon discover that the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection is credited to God the Father (here in Gal. 1), Jesus (John 10:17-18), and the Spirit (Romans 8:11)! Paul is making a big claim—and it’s true—“the same God who brought Jesus back to life appointed me to be an apostle!”

Paul mentions the resurrection, not just to clarify which God he represents, but because the death & resurrection of Christ—and what that event accomplished—is going to be the big emphasis of his letter.

Paul is going to defend what He knows about the gospel and everything it means for us. Because, as you’ll see, the popular idea in these churches was something along the lines of: “Yeah, Jesus is a good start, but there’s something more, you need more.” But Paul is going to demonstrate that Jesus did everything and there is nothing else that needs to be done.

Thankfully, Paul is not alone in his belief. He has several brothers with him. I’m sure some of them names you know, like Barnabas, Mark, and others. And he’s writing to the churches in Galatia.

Now, we should probably talk about where Galatia is, because most of us don’t immediately know. We all know that Rome is in Italy and we’ve heard about the Roman Empire, but Galatia isn’t as familiar…Well, to make a long story short, the region of Galatia is now Turkey. It’s located just north of the land of Israel and east of Rome. The towns within Galatia might be more familiar to you; Antioch, Lystra, & Iconium to name a few. Paul and his companions visited these towns and preached there in Acts 13-14. And based on records of his travels in the Book of Acts, and details within Galatians itself, we have good reason to believe that out of Paul’s 13 letters, this one came first (as early as 47 AD)!

But did you catch that this letter is written to churches plural? This letter was sent to several congregations throughout at least one region. This makes it even more obvious that Paul wanted everyone—all Christians—to read and know what He’s written within.

v. 3-5 — “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

This is Paul’s typical greeting, but it packs an extra punch here. God’s grace—not man’s goodness—is the backbone to everything Paul argues for in this letter, and peace is the result of that gift of grace. Of course, the greatest moment of grace there has ever been was when Jesus Christ “gave Himself for our sins.”

Just dwell on that language for a second. Paul doesn’t say: “Jesus received our works as an acceptable offering” but “Jesus gave Himself!” Jesus gave Himself for us—the self-donation of God in order to save sinners!

Consider, for a moment, that Paul is writing to churches who are falling for lies and falling apart…He will have several harsh rebukes for them over the course of this letter, but that does not stop Paul from saying “Jesus gave Himself for our sins”—Christ died even for the gospel-twisting Galatians! Take comfort in that. If anyone—whether it’s you, a friend, an enemy, or the Devil himself—ever accuses you of being a sinner, be encouraged…because sinners are exactly the kind of people Jesus died for!

And He died to deliver us from the “present evil age”—which goes to show that just like our world is evil, today, the 1st century wasn’t very good either…But I want to expand your understanding of what makes this world so evil…It’s not necessarily that there’s so many bad people out there…the problem is that so many people think they can add on to what Jesus has done or find something better than the true gospel altogether.

But I want you to know that when Jesus died, although it looked like a defeat, it was a cosmic victory that we cannot begin to imagine. He actually beat sin, death, & the Devil and then donated the victory to you!

Now, that’s Paul's introduction, but doesn’t it feel like it’s missing something? Yes, something is off here…Normally—in fact, always—Paul addresses a church by thanking God for them and offering encouragements to the congregation. But you won’t find Paul saying: “I thank God for you” or “I was glad to hear that you were walking in the truth” in this letter…He doesn’t say those things to the Galatians. Why is that?

Well, even if there are people in your church, like the Corinthians, who were taking each other to court, getting drunk during the church service, and sleeping with their father’s wife, those problems pail in comparison to believing a false gospel like the Galatians were. Rampant sin in a church can do severe damage to the ones sinning and their victims, but a false gospel robs people of Christ and leads people to Hell!

That’s why Paul will come across so fierce. And I think we ought to share Paul’s priority list. People, today, are outraged when a pastor has an affair or a money scandal or buys a private jet, but no one bats an eye when, Sunday after Sunday, instead of preaching about Jesus, these pastors talk about themselves, their audience, and everything other than the Gospel! And it’s right to be mad when sin happens in the Church, but here’s the thing: We don’t have to wait until someone commits a crime to avoid them…If they compromise on the gospel, it’s only a matter of time before things implode.

But Paul wants these Galatians—and those of us reading this letter today—to know that he will not compromise on the Gospel. When others are willing to give up the gospel in favor of anything else, Paul is willing to die on this hill. He’s willing to say that the gospel isn’t about what people can or should do but Jesus Christ has already done.