Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

What does Galatians Chapter 1 mean?

Galatians begins more abruptly than most of Paul’s other letters in the New Testament. Rather than giving an extended prologue, Paul launches immediately into his reasons for writing. This letter is directed to believers in the region of Galatia, also known as Asia Minor.

Paul identifies himself and makes a quick defense of the fact that he is, in fact, an apostle because Jesus Christ and God the Father made him one. He’s not a man-made or self-made apostle (Galatians 1:1–3).

Apparently, Paul’s credentials were under attack in Galatia. A group known as the Judaizers were trying to persuade those who believed in Christ, after hearing the gospel from Paul, that they were not truly saved. The Judaizers said they must also follow the Law of Moses. Their message was, in essence, to add a component of “works” to the requirements for salvation.

Paul was furious when he heard some of the Galatian Christians were actually starting to believe this. They had so joyfully received the good news that Jesus died to pay the full price for their sin that Paul is astounded by how quickly they are deserting Christ to follow this “other gospel.”

Paul quickly clarifies: There is no “other gospel,” only a distortion of the true gospel. With all of his authority as an apostle, Paul declares that anyone who teaches any other gospel other than what Paul taught them is “accursed” or eternally condemned. That stands even if Paul himself or an angel from heaven would try to teach them a different gospel. Paul stands on the truth that salvation comes by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ’s payment for our sin on the cross (Galatians 1:4–9).

To defend the true gospel, Paul must also defend the fact that he is truly an apostle. In New Testament terms, an apostle was someone who spent time with Christ and was officially sent by Christ to be His representative in the world. The Judaizers apparently were saying that Paul didn’t qualify; he wasn’t one of the original 12 disciples. In fact, they said he was merely taught by those other apostles, giving him no authority to speak for Christ on his own. Paul answered their charges by showing, from the story of his life before and after his conversion, that none of the other apostles trained him. Instead, Christ was revealed to him, as was the truth of the gospel of the grace of God.

Paul emphasizes that he knows just as much about Judaism as any of his accusers. After all, he persecuted and tried to destroy Christianity as a zealous young Pharisee. But then God showed His Son to Paul, and everything changed. Paul understood that he had been selected even before his birth to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. After his conversion, he didn’t go to the apostles, he went off by himself for three years, coming to know the truth of the gospel through special revelations from God. Even after that, he preached in Syria and Cilicia for a time. Though he had met with Peter and Jesus’ brother James at one point, he was unknown in the region around Jerusalem and Judea. All that was known about him was the radical change from Jesus-persecutor to Jesus-preacher (Galatians 1:10–24).

Paul stands on the fact that he is indeed an apostle in every sense of the word. The Galatian Christians can trust his message.

Chapter Context
Galatians 1 begins one of the most-loved books about God’s grace in all of Scripture. This and the following chapter detail Paul’s biography, as he makes the case that he has been made an apostle by Christ and therefore his message is trustworthy. Chapters 3 and 4 go into depth about exactly what the gospel of God’s grace is and why it is true. In chapters 5 and 6, Paul teaches about how Christians should live in the world as people who have received the grace of God through faith in Christ.

Verse by Verse

Verse 1. Paul, an apostle — not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead —

Galatians is one of Paul’s earliest letters, also known as “epistles.” It was the custom of the times to begin a letter by identifying oneself. Paul always follows that pattern, but he does so here much more abruptly. He immediately describes himself as an apostle. In Greek, the word apostle means someone who is sent to accomplish a specific purpose. In the New Testament, the word is mostly used of the 12 men Jesus called and trained during His ministry on earth and then commissioned to represent Him in the world.

Paul was called by Jesus to be an apostle after the resurrection (Acts 9:3–9). In Galatians 1, he describes in some detail how and when Christ trained and sent him out to preach the gospel of Jesus.

Paul is writing Galatians to confront the lies being told to Christians about the truth of Jesus’ gospel. In order to attack the true message of Jesus—the one Paul has been preaching and people have been believing—those men have been attacking Paul’s credentials. He’s not one of the 12, after all. Is he really an apostle or is he just teaching his own version of Christ’s message?

So Paul begins his letter by stating outright that he is, in fact, a genuine apostle. He wasn’t given the title by any human person. His position comes straight from Jesus Christ and God the Father, “who raised [Jesus] from the dead.” Paul will insist that he was trained and sent out by the resurrected Son of God, giving him all the authority he needs to declare what it means to be saved by grace through faith in Christ.

Context Summary
Galatians 1:1–5 begins Paul’s letter to the Christians in Galatia with a brief greeting. Paul immediately defends the fact that he has been made an apostle of Jesus Christ by the same God that raised Christ from the dead. He is not a ”man- made” apostle, as his accusers are saying. His authority is genuine. Next, Paul gives a quick, beautiful explanation of the trustworthy gospel that he preaches: Jesus gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from this age of evil according to God’s will.

Verse 2. and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia

Scholars believe Paul wrote this letter from Antioch, in Syria, sometime after his first missionary journey. During that journey (Acts 13—14), Paul carried the “good news” of the gospel of Jesus to cities in the southern region of the Roman province of Galatia, in Asia Minor. He helped set up churches of brand new Christians, in cities that included Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and another city called Antioch of Pisidia.

Paul is writing his letter to those churches in Galatia. The intent of a “circular” letter like this one is that it will be passed around the region to be read aloud in each of the churches there. Many of those receiving the letter would know Paul personally from the time he spent with them when they believed in the message of Jesus and joined the Christian community; this community is what is meant by “the church.”

Paul emphasizes that those who are with him as he is writing this letter stand with him, as well. This may include all of those listed in Acts 13:1: prophets, teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, and a man named Manaen. Paul likely mentions that his letter comes from these other men in Antioch in Syria to demonstrate that they, too, stand for the gospel as Paul preaches it and stand with Paul as a genuine apostle.

Verse 3. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

Paul finally arrives at his official greeting. He has already staked out part of the purpose for this letter: to defend his authority as a genuine apostle of Jesus Christ and, therefore, to defend the truthfulness of his message.

“Grace and peace to you” was a standard greeting for many people writing letters during this era. Paul includes the words in all of his New Testament epistles. Paul’s letters, however, almost always include the true source of both grace and peace. In this case, he states outright that grace and peace come from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the following verse, Paul will use that standard greeting to quickly describe exactly what the simple gospel message, or “good news,” of Jesus Christ is.

Verse 4. who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

Paul understood his life to a have a singular purpose. He had been commissioned by Christ to take the message of salvation through Christ to the world. It is not surprising, then, that he includes the simple facts of what he will call “the gospel” at the very beginning of his letter.

Paul has already described Jesus Christ as the person who God the Father raised from the dead. Now he adds to that, building on the greeting from the previous verse. He has wished his readers “grace and peace” from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now Paul describes exactly who Jesus Christ is by describing what the Lord did and why He did it.

First, Jesus gave Himself. Paul uses this language about Christ’s death on the cross repeatedly in his letters (1 Timothy 2:6; Ephesians 5:25; Titus 2:14). Nobody took Jesus’ life from Him against His will. He gave it freely (John 10:17–18). It’s true that the Jewish religious leaders called for His death and that the Romans executed Him, but they could not have done so without Jesus’ willingness to be sacrificed.

Why was He sacrificed? “For our sins.” Jesus gave Himself to the death penalty we earn with our sin (Romans 6:23). He became our substitute on the cross, paying what we owed.

Why did He pay it? In part, He did it “to deliver us from the present evil age.” Humanity was trapped in a world built from our own sinful choices. Jesus paid the only exit fee, the ransom, to make it possible for us to escape into a deathless life.

He also gave Himself “according to the will of our God and Father.” Jesus’ death on the cross was an act of submission to the plan and purpose of God.

Verse 5. to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

In a collection of simple phrases, Paul has begun his letter to the Christians in Galatia with the facts of “the gospel,” the good news about Jesus.

Jesus gave His life to pay for our sins. He did it so that we can be delivered from the world system built on human sinfulness. He also did it in obedience to God’s will. Jesus’ willingness to die on the cross fulfilled God’s plan, and Jesus’ God-given purpose (Galatians 1:4). After this, God the Father raised Christ from the dead (Galatians 1:1).

Paul concludes this compact gospel message in this verse with the declaration that God will receive the glory forever and ever. This fits with what Jesus said in John 17:1, “Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.” The ultimate result of Jesus’ death on the cross, His resurrection from the dead, and our salvation through faith in Him is that God will be glorified forever.

The word “glory” shows up repeatedly in the New Testament. It involves the idea that what is truly significant will be shown to be so and given the appropriate amount of recognition, attention, and praise. It will be seen for the worth it truly carries and appreciated for it. In that sense, God’s act of grace through “the gospel” will result in His glory being revealed and praised for eternity.

Verse 6. 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 —

Paul began his letter with a brief, beautiful explanation of what the gospel message—the “good news”—about Jesus truly is. Jesus gave His life to pay for human sin before being returned to life by God the Father. Scholars call this “substitutionary atonement,” meaning Jesus took our place and paid the full penalty for our sin. Without that, we would be trapped and doomed to death instead of delivered from “this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4).

Now Paul turns fully to the reason for this letter. He speaks directly to people who believed the gospel of Jesus when Paul told them about it on his first missionary journey to their region. They heard the simple truth that through faith in Christ, they could be saved from their sin. No extra works were required to assure their place in God’s family. Jesus had paid in full with His life.

As will become clear, Paul is frustrated with his readers, if not angry. He is, in fact, “astonished” that they are so quickly turning away from the simple truth. More specifically, Paul writes that they are deserting or abandoning Christ Himself by believing a different idea, a different “gospel,” than the one he showed them.

What’s going on? As the following verses will make clear, a group of religious people had moved in among the Galatian Christians after Paul left, distorting what Paul had taught. They said, in short, specific works or actions were necessary to truly be saved. Simple faith in Christ alone was not enough. Paul writes here that to reject his faith-alone gospel was to reject Christ Himself.

Context Summary
Galatians 1:6–10 is unusual; Paul’s letters usually open with some kind of praise or thanksgiving for his readers. Not Galatians. He immediately expresses how baffled he is that these people who received the good news about salvation by God’s grace and through faith in Christ have so quickly deserted Christ. Anyone who teaches any other gospel than the one Paul taught to them is cursed and/or will be eternally condemned. Paul points to that harsh statement as evidence that he is not trying to please any men. He serves and lives for the approval of God.

Verse 7. not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Most of Paul’s letters begin with some form of praise for his readers or, at the very least, thanks and praise to God for his readers. He skips right over that in Galatians. Instead, he has launched into the reason for his letter. He has said that he is astonished at how quickly his readers are deserting Jesus by turning to another gospel.

Now he quickly clarifies what he meant by using the phrase “a different gospel.” In short, there is no other gospel! There is no other version of the truth that salvation comes through faith alone in Christ alone by God’s grace alone. That’s the only way sinners can be forgiven and become right with God. To change that message in any way is to “distort the gospel of Christ.” Paul leaves no room here for the idea that some may believe one thing about salvation, while others believe differently, and yet all find their way to God.

Where did this other, distorted gospel come from? The Galatians had believed the truth when Paul and Barnabas were with them (Acts 13:43; 13:48-49). Paul points to “some who trouble you.” These were called the Judaizers. They opposed Paul’s teaching that Gentiles—those who were not Jewish—could be saved by grace, and so the Judaizers undermined his teaching. These men told new Gentile Christians that they were required to follow the law of Moses in order to be truly saved. Paul will have strong words for them in the book of Galatians.

Verse 8. 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 has expressed his great astonishment that the Galatian Christians, who had so profoundly come to Christ with great rejoicing when he brought the gospel message to them, were now abandoning Christ to believe a distorted “gospel.”

The distortion was this: A group of religious Jews were going to places where non-Jews—referred to as Gentiles—had believed Paul’s preaching and received salvation from their sin by trusting in Christ’s death for that sin on the cross. These Judaizers could not stand the idea that these Gentiles believed themselves right with God without following the law of Moses. So they came teaching that true salvation required both faith in Christ and obedience to the Law.

Astoundingly to Paul, some of these Galatian Christians believed them! Paul now curses anyone who would teach a version of the gospel of Jesus other than the one they heard from him. He writes that this includes himself or even an angel from heaven. If “the gospel” is modified, adjusted, or changed by anyone for any reason, it is no longer the gospel. It is not the truth.

Verse 9. 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.

This verse repeats Paul’s words in the previous verse with even greater emphasis. Repetition in the New Testament is often used to emphasize a point. Here, Paul seems to want to make doubly sure his readers understand exactly how serious this is.

Paul, writing under the full weight of his authority as an apostle of Jesus Christ, says once more that anyone who preaches a distorted gospel to them—a message that is different in any way from the one they received from him when he was with them in person—that person stands “accursed.” Specifically, Paul is referring to those who insist on adding obedience to Old Testament laws to their requirements for salvation. More generally, however, this applies to anyone who warps the message of salvation in any way.

The curse levelled by Paul involves eternal damnation. His implication is that false teachers cannot show you the way to salvation because they do not have it themselves. They are condemned. Paul’s letter will clarify exactly why it is so essential not to believe anyone who wants them to believe an altered version of the simple, powerful gospel message of Jesus that Paul has shown to them.

Verse 10. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul began his letter to the Galatian Christians by telling them again the simple gospel message: Jesus died to pay for our sins and to deliver us (Galatians 1:4). Period. As he expressed it in Ephesians 2:8–9, we are saved by faith through grace, not by any works we do. As he will say later in this letter, to suggest that we must do more to be truly saved is to make Jesus’ death on the cross meaningless (Galatians 2:21).

A group known as the Judaizers had moved in after Paul left. They had begun to convince the Galatian Christians that more was required. To be truly saved, you must also follow the law of Moses. This raises a question: how did they convince these Gentile (non-Jewish) believers Paul was wrong?

For one, they apparently questioned whether Paul was a “real apostle,” something Paul will answer in the following verses. In addition, they seem to have suggested that Paul did not require these Gentiles to follow the law of Moses because he was trying to make everyone happy. They suggested Paul was just a people-pleaser, willing to alter the truth in order to be liked.

Paul now answers that charge: If he were really trying to please men instead of God, would he have just pronounced as cursed anyone who taught a gospel message other than the one he taught them? Look at the evidence, he says. I am not trying to please any man; I am serving Christ and seeking God’s approval. Otherwise, Paul implies, he would simply go along with the Judaizers. He clearly is not doing that.

Verse 11. For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man ‘s gospel.

Paul is writing to the Christians in Galatia to stop them from following the false teaching of a group known as the Judaizers. This group came in after the Galatians believed in the true gospel message of free grace through faith in Christ and after Paul left. They were teaching that these new Gentile Christians must follow the law of Moses to truly be saved.

One of their arguments was that Paul was not a “real” apostle. He was not one of the 12 originally chosen by Jesus during His time on earth. Given that, they seem to ask, how could his teaching be trusted?

Paul understood that people had to be able to trust his authority as a genuine apostle, one actually sent out by Christ Himself, if they were to believe the truth that he taught them. So he begins a defense of his authority as an apostle in this verse.

The first argument he makes is that what he preached to them is not something dreamed up by some human being. It’s not “man’s gospel.” In other words, Paul is not just passing along some religious teaching he picked up from other people. In the following verses, he will make the case that what he teaches was given to him directly from Christ.

Context Summary
Galatians 1:11–24 begins with Paul’s statement that he did not receive the gospel which he taught to the Galatians from any man-made religion, nor training from other people. He received it from Christ Himself. God revealed His Son Jesus to Paul, by His grace, even after Paul spent years as a Pharisee trying to destroy the Christian church. After Christ commissioned Paul to preach the good news to the Gentiles, he went off by himself for a few years and came to know the gospel through Christ directly.

Verse 12. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul’s authority was under attack. Paul is writing to Galatian Gentiles who initially received the gospel as he taught it to them. Afterwards, a group called the Judaizers came along to claim Paul was wrong. According to these false teachers, it wasn’t enough to just receive God’s grace through faith in Christ; you had to follow the law of Moses to truly be saved.

The Judaizers apparently argued that Paul was not one of the original 12 apostles trained by Jesus during his time on earth. Paul is defending himself, insisting that he received the truth of the gospel in a direct revelation from Jesus as well.

In the previous verse, he said that what he taught the Galatians about Jesus was not a man-invented religion. Now he goes on: I didn’t hear it from another person. I wasn’t taught about it by someone else, as the Galatians were taught about it by him. Paul did not back down: He received this gospel truth that he taught to them straight from Jesus Himself through special revelation.

Verse 13. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

Paul has stated that anyone who attempts to preach a different gospel is, in fact, preaching something entirely false and is worthy of being cursed (Galatian 1:8–9). And yet, a group known as the Judaizers has been attempting to persuade Christians in Galatia that Paul was not trustworthy. Paul has stated unequivocally that he learned what he taught to them directly from Jesus Himself.

To make that case, Paul now begins to remind his readers of his own personal story. After all, he was once one of the most prominent persecutors of Christians. His goal was nothing less than to destroy the “church of God” by any means necessary, including violence. According to Acts 26:9, he “was convinced that [he] ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth.” This included imprisoning believers, casting his vote to have them executed, and chasing them down even to cities outside of Israel.

Most famously, Paul’s first appearance in the Bible is at the stoning of Stephen (Acts 8:1–3).

Verse 14. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

Paul is sharing his personal story to make the case that he received the gospel as he taught it to the Galatians directly from Jesus Christ. He reminded them of his great fury and violence against Christians when he was still following Judaism. He had been motivated to do whatever it took to oppose the name of Jesus (Acts 26:9).

Now he reminds them of his great success as a Pharisee (Acts 23:6). He was so enthusiastic, so zealous for the traditions of his fathers, that he was advancing beyond other Pharisees his own age. Paul thrived in Judaism.

What is his point in telling them this? When it came to comparing their “Jewish credentials,” these Judaizers trying to discredit Paul had nothing on him. He had studied and mastered all the same texts they had. He, too, started out in Jerusalem, though he didn’t learn about the gospel there. He knew everything they knew and more. Next, he will show why he turned his back on all of his advancement to follow the One he had been persecuting.

Verse 15. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,

In order to show his Galatian readers that what he taught them about Christ came directly from Christ, Paul is reminding them of his own story. He has described his years in Judaism, when he was a Pharisee. He was so opposed to Jesus of Nazareth that he arrested, imprisoned, and approved of the killing of Christians. He was so zealous for the traditions that he advance beyond his peers in Jewish leadership.

Then everything changed. Paul’s story is that God appeared to him and turned him around (Acts 9:1–22). Looking back, Paul says he now understands that God set him apart for this role of apostle before he was even born. In other words, Paul didn’t simply rethink his life and change course. God intervened to put Paul in the role God had destined him to fill.

Secondly, Paul writes that God called him by His grace. Paul understood that just as nobody “earns” status before God, he had not “earned” the role of apostle. Paul only represented Christ to the Galatians, and to everyone else, by the grace of God. God did this to him; he did not choose it. He simply received it.

Verse 16. was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;

Paul is telling his personal story of coming to Christ in order to convince the Galatian believers that he did not invent what he taught them. He received it from Jesus directly. After a zealous career as a Pharisee, God intervened in Paul’s life. Paul understood now that God had set him apart to fill this role of being an apostle before he was even born. God was the one who called him. Paul knew he did not earn or deserve this job; it was grace.

Specifically, Paul now describes what God called him to do when He revealed to Paul His Son, Jesus (Acts 9:1–22). Paul’s mission was to preach about Jesus to the Gentiles. That’s what he was born to do. It’s what God commissioned him to do.

Paul now comes to an important point in his argument that the gospel he taught them did not come from other human beings. When, by God’s grace, Paul believed in Jesus and understood his calling, he did not immediately go find some person to start training him in the things of Christ. As the following verses will show, he went off by himself, instead. The significance of this is that the gospel Paul now preaches isn’t something he is simply regurgitating from his teachers. It came to him directly from the Lord.

Verse 17. nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

Paul is making the case that the Judaizers are wrong about him. In the following chapters, he will show they are wrong about the truth of the gospel, as well. They are wrong about him, he insists, for suggesting that a) he did not have the authority to teach the Galatians about Jesus and b) he was simply retelling someone else’s version of Jesus’ message.

Paul has already referred to his dramatic conversion: from Jesus-persecutor to Jesus-follower (Acts 9:1–22). He now relates that after that moment on the Damascus road, he did not go to Jerusalem to receive training about the things of Christ from the 12 disciples, “those who were apostles before me.”

Instead of consulting with a human authority, Paul went off by himself to Arabia and then to Damascus for three years (Galatians 1:18). He seems to be saying that it was during this time, after seeing and being commissioned by Christ, that he came to understand the truth of the gospel as he presented it to the Galatians. Since he had not been trained by anyone but Christ Himself, Paul was qualified to fill the role of apostle and his message was trustworthy.

Verse 18. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.

Was Paul really qualified to be called an apostle of Jesus Christ? Wasn’t he just a convert to Jesus who had been trained by the other apostles? Is his teaching trustworthy? These are the questions a particular group of false teachers were asking the Galatian Christians about Paul. Called “Judaizers,” they taught that Gentiles must still follow the law of Moses to be saved. The Galatian Christians were being influenced by these deceivers.

To defend the truth of the gospel of salvation by grace alone, Paul has been defending himself. He has described how, after God revealed Christ to him and called him to preach to the Gentiles (Acts 9:1–22), he did not receive training from the other apostles. Instead, he went off by himself for three years. This time, apparently, is when he came to understand the gospel of Jesus that he preached in Galatia.

Now he reveals that he did interact with Peter, using the untranslated Aramaic form of his nickname: Cephas. Even at that time, Peter was considered to be the chief of the apostles. Paul spent fifteen days with Peter in Jerusalem before having to run for his life for preaching about Jesus (Act 9:29). His point is that those fifteen days with Peter were not spent in training or commissioning by Peter. Paul had already received that from the Lord.

Verse 19. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord ‘s brother.

Paul is describing what happened at his conversion to Christianity and in the years that followed. This is being delivered to the Galatian Christians to counter the lies of the Judaizers who were trying to discredit him. For this reason, Paul has emphasized that God chose him before he was even born to be an apostle and called him to preach to the Gentiles—to the non-Jewish people. God revealed Christ to Paul and commissioned him.

In fact, Paul’s point is that he is an apostle in full standing, just as the twelve are, because he learned from and was sent out by Jesus directly. He received no doctrinal or theological training from the apostles. They did not convert him, or send him. His message was as trustworthy as theirs, and authoritative as theirs, because it came straight from Jesus.

Paul, in the previous verse, acknowledged that he did spend about two weeks with Peter in Jerusalem three years after his conversion. That time, he pointed out, was long after his conversion and not a time of study. In addition, he now mentions meeting with James, Jesus’ brother.

James at this time was serving as a leader of the church of Christians in Jerusalem. He very likely wrote the book of James in the Bible. Oddly, some skeptics try to discredit the Bible by suggesting that the book of James, with its emphasis on the works that follow faith, somehow contradicts Paul’s teaching on salvation by grace alone in Galatians and Romans. Instead, these books actually complement each other beautifully.

Verse 20. (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)

Paul interrupts the story of the years after his conversion to Christianity to make a urgent statement to the Galatian believers who have spent time with him. He says, in essence, “As God is my witness, I am not lying!”

Apparently, the Judaizers have been accusing Paul of doing exactly that. It seems they were suggesting that Paul got all his information and training from the apostles and was, therefore, not qualified to be an apostle himself. Paul’s story has shown just the opposite. He spent the first years after his conversion—after seeing the Lord and being commissioned as an apostle—off on his own learning about Christ.

He urgently wants the Galatians to understand that he speaks with the authority of one sent out by Jesus and that his teaching to them can be trusted.

Verse 21. Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

Writing to Christians in Galatia, Paul continues to show, using his personal story, why the group known as Judaizers are wrong about him. This sect had been saying Paul was not qualified to call himself an apostle. The role of apostle was a significant one reserved for those who had seen Jesus and who had been sent out by Him. The Judaizers seem to have been saying that Paul was merely trained by other apostles and was therefore lying about his status and authority.

Paul has gone to lengths to show that he only had brief contact with Peter and Jesus’ brother James, and only some three years after his conversion. The apostles did not train him. Paul, in fact, saw Jesus Himself and was sent out to preach to the Gentiles by Jesus. He was truly an apostle and his message was trustworthy.

In fact, Paul says, after meeting with Peter and James, he went to preach in Syria and Cilicia, far from where the apostles were in Jerusalem. In the next verse, he will make the point that they didn’t even know him personally until after that. They were not his teachers; Christ was.

Verse 22. And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.

The Judaizers were questioning Paul’s legitimacy as an apostle, apparently suggesting he had merely been trained by the other apostles. If that were the case, Paul could not rightly call himself an apostle. An apostle, in New Testament terms, mostly referred to someone who had spent time in Jesus’ company and who had been sent by Christ to do a specific work.

Paul has shared his story of coming to Christ. God had revealed His Son to Paul. The Lord had, indeed, sent Paul to preach to the Gentiles. After his conversion, Paul had spent three years off on his own followed by one brief stint in Jerusalem with Peter and Jesus’ brother James. He had then gone to Syria and Cilicia, nowhere near Jerusalem and Judea.

That’s why he says in this verse that he was an “unknown person” in that region. His point is that he learned all he knew about the gospel of Jesus while he was away from the other apostles. Those great truths were revealed to him by Christ.

Verse 23. They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”

Paul is making the case for why the Judaizers are wrong that he learned about Christ from the apostles. He has shown he wasn’t really even around the apostles for the first several years of his ministry.

In fact, he was gone from Jerusalem and Judea for so long that the Christians in that region only knew him by his two wildly different reputations: Paul—then called Saul—was originally a Pharisee who vehemently persecuted and tried to destroy the church back when he was in Jerusalem. Those who knew of his exploits would have been shocked to hear that the same man was reported to be out in Syria and Cilicia preaching that people could be saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ!

In fact, Paul learned about the gospel of God’s grace through Jesus from Jesus Himself. He was, truthfully, an apostle, and he wanted his Galatian readers to know they could trust his message about Jesus.

Verse 24. And they glorified God because of me.

Paul has just described how he had been known by the Christians in Jerusalem and Judea more by reputation than in person. The church in that region heard the stories of his radical transformation. Back when he was a Pharisee in Jerusalem, he had led the effort to destroy the church of God by chasing down and arresting Christians and even advocating for their execution. Every believer who knew of Paul—then called Saul—likely feared him for that reason.

Then suddenly, this persecutor was gone from the scene. As Paul has described, after God revealed to him the Son (Acts 9:1–22), and had commissioned him to preach to the Gentiles, Paul had gone off by himself for three years and then off to Syria and Cilicia to preach the gospel. Eventually, the Judean Christians heard about this Paul, as well. He now told people how to have their sins forgiven by God’s grace through faith in Christ.

How did the Christians in and around Jerusalem respond to the reported change? Paul reports that they praised or glorified God because of him. As his letters often express, bringing praise and glory to God is one of the ultimate goals of his life.

End of Chapter 1.

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