Category: 加拉太书

Background

While believers are free from the law of Moses and possesses liberty in the Spirit, but we must fulfill the law of Christ, with the power of the Spirit. Such life involves sacrificial service direct toward sinning Christians, burdened Christians, teachers and all people.

Division

1. v1-10: The Christians life.
2. v11-18: Final warning and benediction

Exposition

• v1: The spiritual mature Christians should care of the spiritual weak Christians, but need to do it careful so that the mature Christians would not fall into temptation.
• v2: law of Christ? Love. Love your neighbor as yourself, love one another (5:14, Rom 13:8).
• v3: Christians are called to care for each others (v1,2) but not to think about oneself is somebody. Our love for each other is all normal Christians should do, thus do not think we are somebody better than other Christians because I have helped someone.
• v4: When a believer boast, he should only boast in the work Christ has done to himself and not what he did to others. Christians are called to love others, but not to boast about it.
• v5: is this a contradiction with v2? of course not. why not? Verse 2’s burden refers to heavy, crushing, loads (baros G922) – more than a man could carry without help. In v5, the burden/load is a different greek word (phortion, G5413). It is used to designate the pack usually carried by a marching soldier. It is the “burden” Jesus assigns to His followers (Matt 11:30). There are certain Christian responsibilities or burdens each believers must bear which cannot be shared with others. Jesus assured His disciples that such burdens were light.
• v6: this verse does not ask to teachers of God’s words to ask for financial support from the Christians who received the teaching. It asked the one who received the teaching to share all good things with the teachers.
• v7-8: we reap what we sow. we either sow with flesh or with Spirit. With flesh, we would reap corruption. Corruption of what? Corruption of our spiritual life. With Spirit, we would reap eternal life. Does this mean we need to sow in order to get eternal life ourselves? Of course not. We gained eternal life by putting our faith in Christ, what is the theme of this epistle. So what is Paul trying to say here? Maybe not eternal for ourselves, but eternal life for others.
• v10: Justification by faith in Christ alone certainly does not mean we do not need to do good. It just mean that doing good does not make sure righteous. So in that case why we do good? Because we love Christ. When we love Christ, we obey His command (1 John).
• v10: We need to especially show our love to other believers. Why? The Lord Jesus taught us in John 13:34-35 we should love one another because He loves us. Second, so that the world would know we are His disciples.
•  v12: The reasons why the Judaizers were persuading the gentiles believers to be circumcise are selfish. First, getting a gentile to be circumcised was a symbol of conversion to Judaism, and would make the Judaizers look good among the Jews, so that they can boast among the Jews (v13). Second, so that they (the Judaizers) would not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. What are the reason the Judaizers would be persecuted for the cross of Christ if gentile believers were not circumcised?
• v14: The Judaizers were afraid of persecution because of the cross of Christ, Paul however boast before the world because of the cross of Christ. What does the cross of Christ means to us? We are afraid of persecution or do we boldly proclaim the cross of Christ?
• v14: [… the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world..]. Separation from the world, by the cross of Christ.
• v17: [From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus]. Paul meant to tell the Judaizers to stop causing trouble to him, and he offers as a final proof to his critics the mars of Jesus on his body. These marks meant signs of ownership such as were branded on slaves and cattle. Paul referred to the scars on his body, which were caused by persecution for Christ’s sake (2 Cor 11:23-28), because they demonstrated he was a slave of Christ and not just a people-pleaser.

Background

After defensed both his authority as an apostle and the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ alone, Paul turned to defend the life of Christian freedom. Since Christians are not under law anymore, will that lead to sinful lifestyle? Of course not. Paul taught that alright Christians are called to be free, but we need serve one another with love (v13). The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Low your neighbor as yourself”. How can we live a lifestyle of loving others? We love by waling with the Spirit (v16). Our flesh naturally lusts for sinful lifestyles as mentioned in v19-21. The only way to have victory over these sinful lifestyle is to live by the Spirit, and to walk with the Spirit (v25).

Division

1. A life apart from law (v1-12)
   1. Turning to law ruins grace (v1-2)
   2. Turning to law makes man a debtor (v3)
   3. Turning to law is to fall away from grace (v4-6)
   4. turning to law hinders the progress of believers (v7-10)
   5. turning to law removes the offense of the cross (v11-12)
2. A life apart from license (v13-15)
3. A life according to the Spirit (v16-26)
   1. The promise of victory over sin (v16-18)
   2. The peril to victory over sin (v19-21)
   3. The power for victory over sin (v22-23)
   4. The provision for victory over sin (v24-26)

Exposition

Background

After Paul defensed the doctrine of justification by faith in chapter 3, Paul gave few illustrations in chapter 4 to strengthen his teaching.

Division

1. A legal illustration (v1-7)
2. A personal plea (v8-20)
   1. An appeal not to turn to legalism (v8-11)
   2. An appeal to remember their relationship (v12-16)
   3. An appeal to consider Paul’s attitude toward them (v17-20)
3. A OT illustration (v21-31)
   1. The historical facts (v21-31)
   2. The allegorical interpretation (v24-27)
   3. The personal application (v28-31)

Exposition

Background

The Judaizers thought believers would have a more complete salvation and a greater sanctification if they would obey the Law, on top of having faith in Christ. In chapter 3 and 4, Paul presented unbreakable arguments to the Galatians churches to defense justification by faith in Christ alone.

Division

1. v1-5: By the experience of the galatians
2. v6-9: By the example of Abraham
3. v10-12: By the effect of the law
4. v13-14: By the work of Christ
5. v15-18: By the promise of God’s covenant
6. v19-25: By the purpose of the law
7. v26-29: By the believer’s present position

Exposition

• v11 The righteous man shall life by faith. This is a quote of Habakuk 2:4. Habakuk emphasized on “the righteous man”, Hebrew emphasized on “shall life”, and Galatians emphasized on “by faith”
• v13-14 Jesus not only redeemed us from the curse of the law, He also blessed us who put our faith in Him.
• v24 The law is our tutor to lead us to Christ.
• v25: The Jews were under the laws, until Jesus Christ came.
• v27 Are you clothed with Christ just because you went into water, or because of your faith in Christ?
• v28 Jews and Greek, slave and freeman, men and women are all one in Christ Jesus. It is wrong to use this verse to support the feminist movement. Paul is talking about all people who put their faith in Christ are equally righteous before God. God does not favor a people because of race, status in society, or gender. All people are one in Christ Jesus when they put their faith on Christ. It does not mean men and women are the same as far as their roles in family, society, and in God’s family, the Church of Christ. Paul taught about the roles of men and women in 1 Corinthians 14, Ephesians 5 and 1 Timothy 2.

Background

Chapter 2 continues Paul’s defense of his apostolic authority and the gospel he preached, he focused not on the source of his message but on its content. Further, whereas in chapter 1 he emphasized his independence from the other apostles, he now demonstrated that there was a basic unity between himself and them.

1. v1-10: Paul’s ministry was accepted by the apostles
2. v11-21: Paul Opposes Peter

Exposition

• v1: There are two views on this trip, was it referring to Paul’s second trip to Jerusalem in Acts 11:27-30, or Paul’s third trip to Jerusalem in Acts 15:1-30.
• v3: Paul brought Titus with him to Jerusalem to test whether the Jerusalem church would force Titus into circumcision.
• v4: Believers have freedom in Christ. The Judaizers wanted to make them slaves, enslaves under law.
• v9: James, Peter and John recognized Paul’s ministry to the gentiles.
• v17: Does justification by faith in Christ alone promote sinful lifestyle since we are not justified by works? Absolutely not!
• v18: Paul is referring to we depends on observing the laws to be justified, we are all lawbreaker, for no one, with our sinner nature can observe all the laws.
• v19-20: This is the parallel message with Romans 6. We are in union with Christ crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection. True believers will live a life for God. Not by his own sinful nature, but by Christ who lives in us. This is Paul answer to the question in verse 17.

Background

In chapter one, Paul condemned (v9) the false teaching of salvation by law. He defended the gospel he taught was a direct revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ (v12).

Paul’s journey in his early years as believers

After Paul experience the vision of Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:4), he some time in Damascus preaching the gospel (Acts 9:19,23). We are not sure exactly how long he stayed in Damascus, maybe few weeks. The Jews did not like what Paul was preaching and wanted to kill him (Acts 9:23), the believers at Damascus helped Paul to escape by lowering Paul in a basket through an opening in the city wall. (Acts 9:25).

Gal 1:17 tells us Paul went into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. The total time of that period in his life was three years. That means after Paul escaped from Damascus initially in Act 9:25, he traveled to Arabia, where he potential spend a lot of time reading the OT to discover Christ in the OT, and Christ revealed Himself through His words to Paul during these precious years. And then Paul return back to Damascus. There is a three years gap between verse 25 and verse 26 in Acts chapter 9.

After the three years in Arabia (and Damascus), Paul went to Jerusalem (Acts 9:26). The believers were afraid of Paul, not believing that he really was a disciple of Christ. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles (Acts 9:27). Paul stayed with Peter for 15 days (Gal 1:18) and met James, the Lord’s brother (Gal 1:19). Paul again preached the gospel in Jerusalem to the Jews, and the Jews hated Paul and wanted to kill Paul. The brothers helped Paul to espace, the took him down to Caesarea in Syria, and sent him off to Tarsus (Acts 9:30), which is a city in Cilicia (Gal 1:21).

Paul potential has spent 13 years in Tarsus (Gal 2:1), until Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Paul, and brought Paul to Antioch in Syria (Act 11:25-26). For a whole year, Barnabas and Paul met with the church and taught great numbers of people, there is when disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. (Acts 11:26).

Paul, together with Barnabas went to Jerusalem the second time (Gal 2:1, Act 11:30), to deliver gifts from the church of Antioch to the elders in Jerusalem to help them during the time of severe famine in Judea.

Exposition

Background

Theme

Justification by faith in Christ alone, liberty in Christ.

Galatia

Galatia is within the modem day Turkey. It was conquered by the Romans in 189 B.C., but allowed them to have some measure of independence until 25 B.C. when Galatia became a Roman province. Before 25 B.C., Galatia was referring to the northern part of the region, mainly occupied by Gauls, migrated from France. After 25 B.C., the southern part is included into the Galatia province as well. Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe were the southern cities of Galatia, all of which Paul visited during all three of his missionary journeys (Acts 13-14, 16, 18).

This is the only time Paul specifically addressed to churches in more than one city.

Author

Paul identified him self as the author of this letter. Paul was born in Tarsus, a city in the province of Cilicia, just east of Galatia. He was raised in Jerusalem, trained by a famous rabbi, Gamaliel (Act 22:3). His father was a Pharisee, He himself was a Pharisee (Acts 23:6).

This epistle provides many information about Paul that are not mentioned anywhere in the bible: Paul’s stay in Arabia (1:17-18); his 15 days visit with Peter (1:18-19); his trip to Jerusalem Council (2:1-10); and his confrontation of Peter (2:11-21).

Purpose of the letter

Paul preached the gospel the Jews and gentiles in Galatia during his first missionary trip, and many enthusiastically accepted Christ. After Paul left, other Jewish teachers came along and taught to these new Christians they need to observe the Jewish law, including circumcision in order to be Christians. Being new in the faith, they accepted these teachings. Paul wrote this letter to explain to them observing the laws has nothing to do with salvation. Man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Paul usually open his letters in greetings and prayer to the saints. However Galatians is the only epistle Paul wrote that does not contain a commendation for its readers.  Paul did not mention anyone by name. He did not request any prayers. These omissions reflect how urgently he felt about confronting the defection and defending the essential doctrine of justification.

Galatians, together with Romans are Martin Luther’s favorite epistles. Galatian has been called “a short Romans”. This epistle plays an important role during the protestant reformation. He even referred to this epistle as “his wife”.

Date

Paul founded these Galatian churches about A.D. 45-48, on his first missionary trip. He revisited them in his second missionary trip, about A.D. 50 (Acts 16:1-6) and then again in the beginning of his third missionary trip, about A.D. 54 (Acts 18:23).

The key to date this letter is whether this letter was written before or after the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15. In Gal 2:1, Paul mentioned his trip to Jerusalem. If that trip was to attend the Jerusalem Council, which was held in A.D. 49. Then Galatians was written after A.D. 49.

Gal 4:13 could implies Paul has been to Galatia at lease twice, if that is the case, Paul could have written this letter at the end of his second or on his third missionary journey.

However some commentators did not think Gal 2:1 was referring to the Jerusalem Council in Act 15. Instead, they think Gal 2:1 was referring to Acts 11:30, where Judea had experienced severe famine, and the church at Antioch for the brothers living Judea. Barnabas and Paul were responsible to carry their gift to the Jerusalem elders. If that is the case, Galatians could have been written before A.D. 49.

Similarities with Romans

Doctrine	Galations	Romans
inability of the law to justify	2:16	3:20
the believer’s deadness to the law	2:19	7:4
the believer’s crucifixion with Christ	2:20	6:6
Abraham’s justification by faith	3:6	4:3
believers are Abraham spiritual children	3:7	4:10-11
believers are blessed because their are spiritual children of Abraham	3:7	4:23-24
the law brings not salvation but God’s wrath	3:10	4:15
the just shall live by faith	3:11	1:17
the universality of sin	3:22	11:32
believers are spiritually baptized into Christ	3:27	6:3
believer’s adoption as God’s spiritual child	4:5-7	8:14-17
love fulfills the law	5:14	13:8-10
the importance of walking in the Spirit	5:16	8:4
the warfare of the flesh against the Spirit	5:17	7:23-25
the importance of believers bearing one another’s burdens	6:2	15:1

Interpretation Challenges

1. v2:1-10. Whether this was Paul’s visit to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 or his earlier visit bring famine relief to the Jerusalem church in Acts 11:27-30
2. v3:27. Those who teach baptism regeneration, the false doctrine that baptism is necessary for salvation, support their view from 3:27.
3. 3:28. Others have used this verse to support their attacks on the biblical roles of men and women, claiming that the spiritual equality taught in this verse in incompatible with the traditional concept of authority and submission.
4. 5:4. Those who reject the doctrine of eternal security argue that the rase “you have fallen from grace” describes believers who lost their salvation.
5. 6:11. Did Paul mean the whole epistle or merely the concluding verses.

Division

1. Personal: The Preacher of Justification (Ch 1-2)
2. Doctrinal: The principles of Justification(Ch 3-4)
3. Practical: The privileges of Justification(Ch 5-6)