1 Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers and sisters[a] with me,
To the churches in Galatia:
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. – Galatians 1:1-5
The academic world , even the biggest skeptics, does not question the authorship of the book of Galatians. Some call Galatians the “Declaration of Independence of Christian liberty.” Martin Luther , the father of the great reformation, especially loved this letter. He even likened the letter to his wife because he jokingly was “married” to the book of Galatians. Leon Morris, an Australian New Testament Scholar wrote, “Galatians is a passionate letter, the outpouring of the soul of a preacher on fire for his Lord and deeply committed to bringing his hearers to an understanding of what saving faith is.”
Galatians was written in the late 40’s or the early 50’s.The context of the book seems to point that Paul wrote this letter before the Jerusalem Council which is mentioned in Acts 15. The Jerusalem Council of Acts 15 addresses very similar questioned addressed by Paul in this letter. It would seem strange if the Council had already happened and Paul did not mention it. This puts Paul Christian age around the age of 15 years old. In other words, by the time Paul wrote this letter he had been following Christ’s example for 15 years.
The confusion surrounding the early church was vast. A particularly important confusion was that of apostleship. Some in the church of Galatia did not accept Paul’s apostleship. Paul had strong words for these Galatians, and they had to understand that he wrote with authority; indeed, apostolic authority. Paul understood that without authority these letters would not be received with the spiritual urgency that was necessary to correct some of the early church teachings that began circulating.
Importantly, this book wasn’t written to a single church in a single city. For example, 1 Thessalonians is addressed to the church of the Thessalonians. But this was addressed to the churches of Galatia, because Galatia was a region, not a city and there were several churches among the cities of Galatia. During the third century before Christ some Celtic peoples migrated to this area and settled in northern Asia. Eventually the Romans conquered this area as they did most the world. Galatia was divided into a northern and southern region. This work was intended for the entire region.
This region was experiencing a war. This war was not physical, it was spiritual. This is why Paul’s opening includes “ to rescue us from the present evil age.” This explains why Jesus gave Himself for our sins. In many ways, the Galatians battled with and sometimes lost against “this present evil age.” They needed to know that Jesus had ALREADY saved them. They were tired, afraid, and confused.
As we begin our study through the book of Galatians, I challenge you to put yourself in the shoes of a Galatian. It shouldn’t be too hard as we too fight against the powers of evil ourselves in the form of addictions, atheistic teaching, hedonism, and the like. Remember though, God is not coming to save you. This may be shocking to hear. That is because God has ALREADY saved you. As Paul was reaffirming the Galatians commitment to Jesus, he was simultaneously affirming their victory in Jesus. Our world is scary, but come journey with us at First Christian Church as we find hope in Christian liberty as we are reminded that we are ALREADY saved by the grace of Jesus.