I remember when I was at University, I used to love looking forward to getting letters from my parents and my grandma. Similarly, when my mum and dad were first in China, mum was a phenomenal correspondent and each week she’d write to tell me about her adventures. The art of letter writing has died out somewhat, first we moved to emails but now its much easier just to post news on Facebook for everyone to find.
Letters of course didn’t always bring good news. I remember once that we received a long letter from someone who had visited us. It seemed that somehow, unintentionally we had managed to cause them great offence when they stayed. Whatever, the rights and wrongs of the situation we were able to write back and seek to put things right.
The Apostle Paul’s main way of communicating with the churches he was connected to was through visits and letter writing. Each letter came in the hands of one of Paul’s co-workers who no doubt would also have been able to spend time with the Christians following up on what Paul had raised. Often a letter contained a mixture of encouragement, correction, doctrinal teaching and pastoral advice.
A look at the text (read Galatians 1:1-5)
(v1) How Paul introduces himself is significant for the letter “apostle, not from men nor through man” this was a big emphasis in the first few chapters is on where Paul gets the Gospel from, that he isn’t dependent on the instruction of others but has received it direct from Jesus. He is an apostle, claiming equal standing with the twelve as one commissioned to take the Gospel out as a founding member of the Church. Therefore, it is crucial for him to show, that like the other apostles, he is sharing what he has received directly from Jesus, rather than through other people.
When he says, “not from men nor through man”, he begins with the general point that his Gospel isn’t a human tradition (men plural) but he moves to the particular, he has not received his message from any specific man.[1] He has received it directly from Jesus. Note that this implies something about Jesus’ identity too, that he is not any mere mortal. So, when talking about Jesus, Paul pairs him with God the Father, indicating their unity. Notice too that the Father’s relationship to the Son specifically focuses on the resurrection. The Father is the one who raised Jesus from the dead. In Romans 1, Paul will indicate that whilst Christ is the eternal son, it was this powerful act where Christ “was declared to be the Son of God in power.”[2]
(v2) The greetings come both from Paul and from his co-workers. As Keener observes “though he was not commissioned by other mortals, many others stand with him.”[3] Paul was not a lone wolf. The greeting is to the churches in Galatia. Note, the plural, this would have gone to a number of congregations in the region. Observe too, the terseness of the greeting. Paul would often say something about the character of the Christians, later in the introduction he might identify some positives about them, things to give thanks to God for. There is none of that here. He will get straight down to business.[4] Here, he doesn’t even add the descriptor “saints”. Of course they were saints, set apart but some commentators suspect that the very bare introduction reflects Paul’s sense of urgency and even an element of rebuke.
(v3) “Grace and peace” form the classic opening to Paul’s letters. A traditional Greco-Roman letter would begin with “greetings” and the word “grace” sounds very similar but obviously imports specific Christian/Gospel content into the letter and is of particular relevance to what is coming up in Paul’s letter. Paul combines this with the Jewish greeting wishing peace and wholeness.
(v4-5) Jesus is the one who died in our place, he gave himself in order to deliver us from sins and “from this evil age”. Salvation reflects both our own culpability, we are sinners, we have rebelled against God and our weakness, that we are enslaved, imprisoned by Satan and this world as it stands in opposition to God. Jesus as the one who has saved us is worthy of worship and glory.
Digging Deeper
We are already learning something about what is going to come up in the rest of the letter here in the greetings. One thing that Paul is keen to do, right from the off is to emphasise the authenticity and authority of his message. There are particular distinctive elements here, even in comparison to his other letters.
It’s important to remember that his purpose for doing this is not to demonstrate his leadership credentials for the purpose of personal leadership authority but because his personal authority is attached to the authenticity, uniqueness and authority of the Gospel. As a foundational, apostle, when Paul emphasises that his message is no human derivation but comes from God, he is reminding us that The Gospel, that Scripture comes with that authority. Elsewhere he will declare that all of the Bible is “God breathed” and he intentionally includes his own writing in this.
A look at ourselves
The question then for us is not about how we will respond to particular preachers, pastors and leaders in our churches. Rather, it is about how we will respond to the authority of God’s Word. Do we treat it as inspired by the Holy Spirit or do we treat it as human opinion and advice. Are we ready to let God’s Word disagree with us, to challenge and correct us?
[1] Moo, Galatians, 68.
[2] Romans 1:4 (ESV).
[3] Keener, Galatians, 51.
[4] Moo, Galatians, 70.
Faithroots 