Galatians 1 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Galatians 1:1-5

A. Find Out:

1. Who was Paul NOT sent by? v.1a
   • Paul, an apostle – sent not from men nor by a man
2. Who had sent him? v.1b
   • but by Jesus Christ and God the Father
3. How is God described? v.1c
   • he Father, who raised him from the dead
4. Why did Jesus give himself? v.4a
   • who gave himself for our sins
5. From what did he rescue us? v.4b
   • to rescue us from the present evil age
6. Why was He doing that? v.4c
   • according to the will of our God and Father

B. Think:

1. What is Paul emphasizing about himself?
2. What is he emphasizing about God here?
3. What does he emphasize about Jesus Christ?

C. Comment:

When Paul starts writing this letter he has clearly in his mind, even before he says a single word, the things he is going to have to sort out with these Galatians. Therefore even his opening words are slanted in line with what is coming.

Note first, Paul speaks about his OWN CALLING. For large parts of chapters 1 and 2 of this letter he speaks about his own calling, going to some length to emphasize that he is what he is because of God’s calling on his life. The message that he has flows out of his calling and from the One who called him.

Second, note his referral to God as Father, for it seems almost from the word go, he wants to emphasize this relationship with God as our Father. Christianity is all about a relationship with God and not about keeping rules, and that is at the heart of this letter.

Third, see his references to Jesus: He was raised from the dead, He died for our sins, He died to rescue us from the evil days in which we live, and He did it in accordance with His Father’s will. The emphasis here is that JESUS did EVERYTHING necessary for our salvation, we cannot add to it, and that is the major problem these Galatians have which Paul is addressing, and it is the problem each and every one of us has to address again and again in our lives.

D. Application?

1. I am called by Jesus for His purposes.
2. Jesus has done EVERYTHING! I cannot add to it; I just accept it.

Passage: Galatians 1:6-9

A. Find Out:

1. Who was deserting whom? v.6a
   •  I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ
2. To what were they turning? v.6b
   • turning to a different gospel
3. What in fact was it? v.7a
   • which is really no gospel at all.
4. What 2 things were some people doing? v.7b
   • some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
5. What should happen to anyone who preaches a false Gospel? v.8,9
   • let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

B. Think:

1. What was the main charge that Paul was bringing against the Galatians?
2. How was this obviously happening?
3. How does Satan try to get us to do this today?

C. Comment:

First, we should note from these few verses that Paul is quite clear in his mind about what the Gospel is. He had come to the Galatians and preached it with the obvious result that a number of them had turned to God through Christ.

Second, we see that, having received the Gospel, these Galatians had then allowed themselves to be led away from it. When you are led away from something it is always because you are being led to something else, and these Galatians were now believing something other than that which was first preached to them.

Third, says Paul, what you have been led to is no Gospel at all, it is not good news at all, and the people who preached it to you deserve eternal condemnation. Now that is strong stuff, but that is what Paul feels about it. If you preach a wrong Gospel that leads people away from a relationship with God through Christ you deserve eternal condemnation!

Finally note that last point in more detail: it is being led away from God! That is what is happening, they are turning away from God, deserting Him, leaving the relationship of grace they had for something else, a religion of works and self-striving!

D. Application?

1. If the Gospel I believe in is something more than Christ dying for my sins, and requires me to work for my salvation, it is not THE good news!
2. Thank Him today for the free gift of salvation.

Passage: Galatians 1:10-17

A. Find Out:    

1. What does Paul first say he is NOT doing? v.10
   • Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
2. What ISN’T the Gospel? v.11
   •  I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin
3. Where did it come from? v.12
   • I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
4. What had Paul been like previously? v.13,14
   •  For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
5. What had changed that? v.15
   • But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace,
6. What DIDN’T he then do? v.16,17
   • my immediate response was not to consult any human being.  I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia.

B. Think:

1. What main point is Paul now making?
2. Why, in the light of what we have said in the previous two studies, do you think he is doing this?
3. Why is it sometimes right, therefore, to defend what we say?

C. Comment:

Paul has been starting to scold these Galatians for deserting the Gospel he has preached to them. As he does that he is aware of what they might be thinking as a response to him: well, who is to say you are right about the gospel you brought to us? To counter this, Paul starts off a lengthy discourse about his own background, the purpose of which is to totally disclaim any claim to the origins of the gospel. It is not his!   In doing this he emphasizes that he is doing this not to please or satisfy them for his sake, but he is doing it for the Lord.

Look, he says, you know my background, how I was against the gospel (by implication – I wouldn’t have dreamt this gospel up!). I didn’t dream it up, God revealed Christ to me; that’s the only reason I preach this Gospel because He told me to, directly. I didn’t get this from any Christian leader, I went straight off and didn’t see any of them. The gospel I preach I received directly from Christ; that is its origin, from God not from man, so believe it!

D. Application?

1. Thank the Lord that the Gospel does NOT have a man made   origin, it came directly from Him!
2. We can trust the Gospel, it is different from any other “world belief”!

Passage: Galatians 1:17-24

A. Find Out:

1. Where did Paul go first? v.17
   • I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.
2. How long was it before he went to Jerusalem? v.18a
   • Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem
3. What was his purpose in going? v.18b
   • to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days.
4. Who else did he meet there? v.19
   • I saw none of the other apostles – only James, the Lord’s brother.
5. Then where did he go? v.21
   • Then I went to Syria and Cilicia.
6. What did the Judean church hear? v.22,23
   • I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report: ‘The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.’

B. Think:

1. What main point is Paul continuing to make?
2. Read Acts 9:19-31 Check an atlas. Why into Arabia ?
3. Why did Paul go to Jerusalem ?

C. Comment:

In what appears to be a rather factual, uneventful passage Paul reveals some facts about his Christian life that Luke had not included in Acts. In Acts Luke’s order of events seems to be salvation – Damascus – Jerusalem . Here Paul seems to be saying it was salvation – Arabia – Damascus – Jerusalem . The synthesis of the two is probably the whole picture. Paul encounters Jesus, arrives in Damascus and is commissioned (Acts 9:17 -19), but after a short while goes across the border into Arabia (for a prayer retreat not likely to be mentioned by Luke?), and returns to Damascus where he continues to preach, finally going to Jerusalem .

Paul is going to some lengths to expound the same point: the Gospel he has preached to these Galatians did NOT have human origins, it did not even come from the apostles in Jerusalem (Paul had gone to them merely to get acquainted with them, he had already been preaching the Gospel for three years!) These verses ARE important in that they add to our historical understanding of both Paul and the Gospel.

Some theologians talk about “Paul’s Gospel” as if it is something inferior, but Paul claims the opposite, it is exactly the same as that preached anywhere else, because its origin is the same – Jesus!

D. Application?

1. May our knowledge of the Gospel not be second hand.
2. Ask Him to make it live for you today.