150 Songs

Preface to Commentary on Galatians

Galatians is largely a polemical writing of the apostle Paul. Having established the church in the province of Galatia (now southern Turkey) on his first missionary journey (Acts 13,14), Paul was soon thereafter under attack from the Judaizers who taught a new type of legalism to these new Galatian believers. These legalistic teachings significantly affected the Galatians, steering them away from the true gospel that Paul had taught them when establishing the church.

The Judaizers stated that the Gentile believers were not true Christians unless they kept the Mosaic Law and were circumcised. Paul certainly supported the Mosaic moral law – exemplified by the Ten Commandments – and he did not deny the importance of circumcision to the Jews, but neither one had anything whatsoever to do with salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, the basic, underlying issue was faith versus works as the basis for salvation. Paul taught grace and faith; the Judaizers taught law and works. What was at stake was the very validity of the gospel itself, including the significance of Christ’s death on the cross, a fact of which Paul was well aware. The same problem exists today when we consider the works-righteousness way to salvation taught by the Roman Catholic Church.

The book of Romans, which was written approximately ten years after the book of Galatians, in many ways has a close theological affinity to Galatians, as it relates to how the Lord God justifies the sinner. The two books cover a lot of the same material.

Consider the Following

  1. Discussion of the Mosaic Law is prominent in both books.
  2. “Righteousness” language is prominent in both books.
  3. Both books give an important place to Abraham in salvation history.
  4. Only these two books develop the concept of sonship.
  5. Only these two books contain the imagery of being “crucified with Christ.”
  6. Only these two books claim that the law is “fulfilled” by the love command.
  7. Only these two books develop the nature of the Holy Spirit’s relationship as basic to Christian existence.