God’s Word for You

Galatians 1:1-2 The Apostle of Christ

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Sunday, May 19, 2024

1:1 Paul, an apostle—not from men, nor through a man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—2 and all of the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:

Ancient letters began by identifying the writer. Paul identifies himself by name and title. There are some odd stories that have circulated throughout the Christian community about Paul’s name. His name, Saul, was a family name among the people of Benjamin, and it was the name given to him at his circumcision on the eighth day of his life (Philippians 3:5). But Paul was also born a Roman citizen (Acts 22:28), and that means that his father would have given him another, Roman (Latin) name on the ninth day. He chose a famous Roman name similar to the baby’s Hebrew name, and therefore Paul’s second name was Paulus (Παῦλος) or Paul.

He calls himself an apostle. That word means someone sent out on a specific mission with authority. Since Paul’s authority came directly from Christ, he adds, “not from men, nor through a man.” It was no high church official who commissioned Paul and sent him out. It was Jesus himself. Paul will recount the story of his instruction from the risen Jesus later on in this letter; indeed: later in this very chapter.

Paul writes to “the churches of Galatia.” Which are these? They are, to begin with, those congregations that we are told about in the book of Acts that Paul established in his very first mission trip. This began with a large group in Pisidian Antioch. This crossroads was located between two large lakes, today called Adgirdir (to the west) and Beysehir (to the east). Today the site is built up as another town, Sucullu (about a mile north of Yalvaҫ), on the eastern slope of a well-watered ridge. Paul preached a long sermon there (Acts 13:15-43) and again the following Sabbath. Many Gentiles were converted, but the Gospel roused jealousy among the Jews, especially the women of Antioch, who “stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their city” (Acts 13:50).

From there Paul preached in Iconium (modern Konya, about sixty miles to the southeast). He was successful again there, but there was a plot against him both from Jews and pagan Gentiles, and he left for Lystra, about 20 miles to the south. Lystra was located on a high hill east of a bend in the stream today called Kocaҫay Creek. The modern village of Hatunsaray is just a little south of this place. Paul healed a crippled man there (Acts 14:10) and he and Barnabas were mistaken for the pagan gods Zeus and Hermes (Acts 14:12). Opposition to the Gospel was so violent there that Paul was stoned by a crowd and left for dead (Acts 14:19). But after success in the neighboring town of Derbe, Paul was encouraged, and retraced his steps, visiting each of the congregations once again on his way through. To encourage them about his own health and resolve as well as their fears about being followers of Christ, he said to them: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). While there might have been still other churches Paul and Barnabas got going in the region (there were and are many other villages along Paul’s route), these were surely on Paul’s mind and in his heart as he wrote. He wanted to warn them of a threat to their faith but also encourage them to keep up their good faith, all on account of Jesus our Lord.

Paul delights to draw the equal sign between Jesus Christ and God whenever he gets an opportunity. Christ is the Son of God the Father, and therefore Jesus Christ, like the Father, is also truly God. Paul writes the same way in Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, and many other places (even in the third verse of Philemon). In our great Augsburg Confession, we proclaim: “Our churches also teach that God the Son became man, born of the virgin Mary, and that the two natures, divine and human, are so inseparably united in one person that there is one Christ, true God and true man, who was truly born, suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried in order to be a sacrifice not only for original sin but also for all other sins” (Article III:1-4).

Paul does not allow himself to get to the very first period without proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. What’s different about Christianity compared to the religions of the pagans? The Galatian pagans probably worshiped the heavenly deity Sabazios and also the mother-goddess Cybele. Conflicts between the Sabazios (horseman hero-god) worshipers and the older mother-goddess worship in the area is thought to have contributed to Greek mythology in the account of Priam battling the Amazons. But while there were sometimes myths among the pagans about this or that god or goddess returning from the dead, the Christian doctrine of all mankind rising from the dead and living in the physical body forevermore in heaven was new to the Greeks of Asia Minor. It caught their attention right away. When our missionaries proclaim Christ in new places, one of the first things to really catch people’s attention is the same teaching of the resurrection of all. It is not the reincarnation of the Eastern mystery religions, nor is it the Greek concept of the spirit being set free from the corrupt flesh. We must be as willing as Paul to joyfully proclaim the resurrection we have through Jesus, through his righteousness and not our own.

At the very beginning of this letter, Paul stresses his authority as an apostle and therefore the authority behind his message in this letter: it is divine, not human. We will look more deeply into the divinity of Jesus along with verse 3.

The doctrinal matter of this letter, that we are declared not guilty before God by faith, not by our works or the things we say and do, is not the personal opinion of me or Paul of the human minds of the early church, but it is the judgment of God himself. And God’s judgments are both just and true, and they resound throughout all the earth.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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