Ep. 10 | Saul/Paul and His Defense
Speaker: Jesse Turkington
Summary: The letter to the Galatians begins with an urgent undertone. The author works to right the ship of faulty theology and defend himself from harmful accusations.
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Music created by Chad Hoffman
Artwork created by Anthony Kuenzi
Jesse’s Personal Notes:
Galatians 1:1-9
Introduction
Hey guys, welcome to Pickled Parables. My name’s Jesse.
We’re gonna be in a series that revolves around the book of Galatians. Last week we had like an introduction by following the events of what happened after Jesus died. We followed those events all the way up to the conversion of Saul, who happens to be the writer of Galatians.
So today we’re gonna be in the first few verses of this book. And we’re going to look into the opening part of this epistle to try to figure out a little more about who Saul is and why he’s writing this letter.
So, let’s look to Galatians chapter one.
Preparing to Enter the Text
The book of Galatians is more of a letter than a book. But because it’s referred to as a book of the Bible it’s just known as a book.
So, as we enter this text there’s a couple things that we need be aware of:
This is a letter and it’s written like how an ancient letter would be written.
So, what that means is that we have a formal introduction, where the writer introduces themselves and anyone with them and then offers a greeting to the recipients. Usually, a thanksgiving is thrown in there too
The body of the letter is where the purpose and theme is revealed
And specifically, for Pauline letters, which is what this type of letter is, the first section of the letter is usually a teaching or it’s presenting theology or combating an argument and then the second part is taking that previously established theology and addressing the recipients of the letter specifically.
Then we have the farewell portion where it’s like “tell so and so about how much I miss them” and “so and so here says hi to you there.” Then there’s some final instruction and a benediction.
This is a simplified format of course but you get the idea. This is a letter written by a person to a specific audience.
The other thing we should be aware of is that this is one side of the conversation. It’s kind of like hearing your buddy talk on the phone. You can hear what their saying and based on what their saying you can kind of figure out what the conversation is about.
And so, with epistles in general, we have to do a little detective work in order to understand the broader conversation.
So those are two things that we should be aware of in regard to this kind of biblical literature.
In regards to Galatians itself, historical context is helpful. That’s why last week we followed the historical events of Jesus’ resurrection, His ascension, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the conversion of Saul.
All of these things help color-in the backdrop to this letter because without them we really wouldn’t know who the author is and a lot of the content of this letter would be like water under a bridge that we never crossed.
So, with that in mind, I want to share just a little bit more about Saul’s story before we enter into Galatians because you’ll notice once we enter that the first word of this letter is a name and it’s not Saul, it’s Paul.
So, let’s talk about why Saul is introducing himself as Paul.
After Saul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and then later with a disciple named Ananias, Saul became a dedicated follower of Jesus.
The term Christianity wasn’t really used then, that word came later. They just called it the Way. They were known as Followers of the Way. It was a reference to one of Jesus’ teachings.
So, Saul became a follower of the Way and he started to become pretty well known to people because he was this great persecutor of the church who converted and became a member of it. That was a really exciting thing for people to talk about.
Now, after a few years, Saul became a leading figure in a church in a town called Antioch. (We’re skipping a lot but this all gets brought up later in the letter, so we’ll come back to it.)
But while Saul was in the church at Antioch, the church leaders were having a prayer meeting and they came to a realization.
Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon…, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 13:1-3 ESV)
Now during the in between time when Saul had met Jesus on his way to Damascus and when Ananias came to him to help him see again, we find out that God had something specific in mind for Saul.
This is what God told Ananias about Saul:
But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. (Acts 9:15 ESV)
Now if we were reading this chronologically then this is something we’re supposed to have in mind when we hear that Saul has been set apart for the Lord’s work while he was in Antioch.
Now to help those who don’t know, Gentiles is a designation for people who are not Jewish. So, that’s a lot people and it’s also a lot of different cultures. But something that all the Mediterranean world shared was a universal language.
This is where we get the name change. Saul becomes known as Paul.
Saul is a Hebrew name but Paul is the Greek version of that name. And so, in the book of Acts (where all of this is being recorded), the author, Luke, is using this name change as a literary device to signal a change of direction.
Because from this point onward, Saul is referred to and known by others as Paul. He doesn’t necessarily change his name; he just refers to his name from the perspective of another language (which is Greek. Specifically, koine Greek, which was the universal language of the time.)
This change was meant to emphasize Saul’s mission. He was set aside by the Lord, to reach the Gentiles of the world with the good news of Jesus Christ.
So, that brings us to the letter of Galatians. Paul, as he’s now referred to, in one of his missionary journeys that’s recorded in the book of Acts, he established churches in a region called Galatia. And so from that, we can know that he’s writing this letter to people that he has met and interacted with.
That’s actually kind of useful to know because sometimes we don’t find things out like that until the middle of the letter.
The book of Acts is crucial in understanding who Paul is because without it we wouldn’t have any idea about his encounter with the risen Jesus or his calling and appointment to reach out to the Gentiles.
So with this fresh context from Acts, let’s look at the introduction of this letter.
Galatians 1:1-5
It starts off introducing who it’s from. So, the first word of the letter is:
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, (Galatians 1:1-2a ESV)
So the introduction says that this letter is from Paul and all the brothers who are with him.
Theologically speaking, the church is often referred to as a family of brothers and sisters because we have been adopted through Jesus’ sacrificial payment that satisfies God’s righteous wrath towards sin and are now adopted in the family of God.
So, when Paul or any of the other church fathers refer to people as brothers and sisters it’s most likely that they’re not talking about biological relation but rather a spiritual relationship made possible through Jesus Christ.
And to go a step further, brothers and sisters are frequently being addressed or referred to when they simply say “brothers.”
So this letter is from Paul, who we know has been set aside for the Lord’s work and it’s from the fellow Christians that are with him.
Now there’s something interesting happening in Paul’s description of himself.
Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead – (Galatians 1:1 ESV)
Paul calls himself an apostle and then he defines his appointment to apostleship. Like, how he attained this title and position.
He says that he was not appointed by men nor through the will of men.
So, the twelve disciples who followed Jesus, they’re referred to as apostles and Paul’s saying, “These guys didn’t make me an apostle. It was through Jesus and God the Father that I became an apostle.”
Now, apostleship was a high position of authority that the universal church recognized as a central source of direction and correction. Remember the early church didn’t have the full Bible that we have today. It was still being completed by these apostles and others.
So, Paul is establishing, in the first sentence of this letter, his authority of giving direction and offering correction as if it’s a specific ordinance of God.
With this understanding, we begin to sense an urgent undertone behind this writing. It’s almost as if Paul’s defending himself and setting up a defense for the message that he had previously given to them.
Let’s look at verse three.
To the churches of Galatia:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (Galatians 1:2b-5 ESV)
Remember, we’re still in the introduction of this letter, so this is who is being addressed: the churches of Galatia.
So, it would probably arrive at one of the churches and be read aloud to everyone who was in it and then it would get passed on to the other churches until everyone had a chance to hear it.
But notice the greeting that Paul offers these brothers and sisters.
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. (Galatians 1:3-5 ESV)
It’s almost like a continuous thought. It just keeps going.
I mean, he could have just said, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
It could have stopped there, that’s a sufficient greeting. But Paul goes on purposefully and reminds the Galatians what Jesus did on the cross and what that means for people, and why Jesus died on the cross, and who ultimately should receive the glory for Jesus’ act of sacrifice.
This is called a chiasmus – the way that it’s formatted.
Paul is establishing the basis for his defense of the Gospel by reminding the Galatians of the crucial truth that Jesus is the only way to God.
Galatians 1:6-10
Let’s look at verse six. This is where we exit the introduction and the typical pleasantries and we enter into the meat of the letter.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9 ESV)
Now the sense of urgency is understood. Paul is preparing to argue against competitive ideas and defend the Gospel from any sort of distortion.
It appears that there were some people in the Galatian churches who were minimizing Paul’s authority and distorting the Gospel that Paul had shared with them.
Because Paul’s call to action for the Galatians is to remember the Gospel that was first shared with them and to turn away from the things that were now being promoted.
Let’s look at this paragraph sentence by sentence and check out what Paul’s saying. It’s kind of hard to separate these sentences because there’s a lot of run-on sentences and fragments, so we’ll go thought by thought.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel…
So the specific amount of time that’s mentioned here isn’t really specific. We don’t know if it’s talking about a recentness to their conversion, a recent visit from Paul or even the arrival of the people who are now leading them astray. But whatever it is, it’s something that caught Paul off guard.
Now, the pronouns in this sentence are “I” (“I am astonished,” so that’s Paul), “you” so that’s the Galatians and “him.”
“You’re deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ.” So, this is someone else, it’s not the Galatians and it’s not Paul.
You are “deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.”
This is talking about God. Because God has a proven desire that all the people of the world should come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And Paul is rebuking the Galatians for receiving this knowledge and walking away from it.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel…
We can tell that this desertion is not yet complete. It’s something that’s still happening. They are in the process of deserting God.
But the way in which Paul rebukes the Galatians with this statement also presents the correction that they need. The Galatians were deserting God who had called them through the grace of Christ and they were turning to something else. But it’s only through the grace of Christ that someone could be reconciled to God. That’s the message of the gospel, and that’s something Paul notes in verse seven.
… not that there is another (gospel), but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
So, Paul makes a distinction between the Gospel of Christ and this gospel of distortion. He doesn’t allow room for two gospels, just one, and anything else is a distorted form of the original.
He also mentions how the Galatians were deserting God. They were being led away by “some who trouble you.” So this doesn’t mean they were forced to do something because of threats but they were probably being coerced by at least a couple people (because “there are some who trouble you”). So they were be coerced by at least a couple people to adopt something in particular into their religious practice and belief.
Even though people were leading them away from God’s Gospel with some incompatible teaching, the Galatians were still at fault because they, ultimately, were the ones walking away from God.
So, Paul continues his rebuke by warning them of accepting anything that adds or changes the original Gospel of Christ.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
Paul invokes a curse against anyone who might distort the Gospel, himself included.
“Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we (already) preached to you, let him be accursed.”
Paul seems to be taking inspiration from the covenantal Law in the Old Testament. There would be a curse for those who accepted the Law and failed to keep it and similarly here, Paul declares a curse on those who fail to keep the original Gospel by changing it.
As we go farther, we’ll soon learn that the particular distortion that the Galatians were dealing with involved keeping the Old Testament Law (or aspects of it). So Paul’s being a little cheeky here by calling out something that they’re probably afraid of.
As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
So from this introduction and this rebuke, we have a pretty good idea as to what this letter is about. Paul is
defending the authority that God gave him and he’s defending the message that he gave to the Galatians.
As we move through this letter, we’ll find out a lot about more Paul and the specific passion that he has for the Gospel – along with several important clarifications for living out the Christian faith.
Conclusion
I’m excited for this study in Galatians.
Next week we’re going to hop into the rest of chapter 1 and look at Paul’s continued argument for his appointed apostleship. That’s really important for us because he authored a lot of content in the New Testament and if he didn’t have a divine authority then a large chunk of the Bible would be in question.
Now I would encourage you, if you have the time, to read through Galatians in preparation for our study. It only takes about half an hour, maybe forty minutes if you wanna go slow, but it would great for these studies if you have the full context of this letter in mind.
Now I just wanna take a minute and say just how much I appreciate you and I just wanna thank you for your continued prayers. This ministry would be a shell of itself if it wasn’t for the power of prayer. So, thank you for partnering with us in praying for this ministry and supporting us in that way.
Until next week, I’ll catch you later.