Scripture Reading: Gal. 1:1-7; 3:1, 3; 4:17, 21; 5:2, 4; 6:12, 15
The books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians form a cluster of Epistles which make up the heart of the divine revelation in the New Testament. Therefore, these books are very important. Ephesians covers the church as the Body of Christ, whereas Colossians deals with Christ as the Head of the Body. Galatians is concerned with Christ, and Philippians, with the experience of Christ. In Colossians and Ephesians we receive a clear view of the Head and the Body. In Galatians and Philippians we see Christ and the experience of Christ.
Just as there are four seasons in the year, so there are seasons in our Christian experience. This means that in our experience with the Lord we pass through winter as well as summer. The winter experiences are helpful, for they prepare us for a new beginning, which comes in the spring. During the winter season the various kinds of life are reduced. Through the reduction that takes place in winter, life is prepared to grow again. Because in our spiritual experience there is the need for us to be reduced, we must be ready for winter at the appointed time. We may say that Galatians is a winter book, a book that reduces us and eliminates everything that should not be permanent. However, this reduction serves a very positive purpose: it prepares us for further growth in life.
We all need to be reduced. We need to be reduced not only in things that are natural or worldly, but even in the various aspects of our spiritual experience. For the sake of further growth in the Lord, we need to be reduced. Certain things in our Christian life may be very good, scriptural, and spiritual. But as long as these things are not Christ Himself directly, they should not be given a place with us very long. Only Christ Himself should have a permanent place in our Christian life. All other things, even the most spiritual experiences, must be reduced. In order for this reduction to take place, God ordains winter. We should never expect to have an endless summer in the Christian life. On the contrary, we should expect the recurring cycle of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Whenever we come to a winter in our experience with the Lord, we should be encouraged that spring and summer will follow in due time. Therefore, we should be encouraged to be reduced in order to have another new beginning. It is my hope that these messages on Galatians will serve this purpose.
In order to study the book of Galatians properly, it is important to know the background and the subject of this book. All the books in the New Testament have a particular background. We thank the Lord for these backgrounds, even though, for the most part, they were not very positive. The Lord uses the negative background as a basis for the release of the divine revelation. The more negative a certain background is, the greater is the opportunity for the Lord to release His revelation. The worse the background, the greater is the need for God’s revelation. If we see this, we shall thank the Lord for all the negative backgrounds that made it necessary for the books in the New Testament to be written.
The Gospel of John is a good example of a New Testament book written against a negative background. This Gospel was written during the last decade of the first century. At that time there was a tendency, even among Christians, to deny the deity of Christ. Some were doubting Christ’s deity, and others were even denying this truth. With such a trend as the background, this Gospel was written by the Apostle John. Without this Gospel, we could not have an adequate understanding of Christ’s deity and His eternal existence. Neither could we realize how Christ could become our life. But through the Gospel of John we clearly see that Christ’s deity is eternal and absolute. In this Gospel we also have the clear view of eternal life and of how Christ can be life to us. If there had not been such a dark background at the end of the first century, this wonderful Gospel probably would not have been written.
The Epistles of Paul were also written according to certain backgrounds. First Corinthians, for example, was written because of the confusion and divisiveness in the church at Corinth. If we did not have the book of 1 Corinthians, we would not know how Christ could be our enjoyment in all kinds of situations. This book describes the enjoyment of Christ in a way not found elsewhere in the New Testament. We should thank the Lord for the confusion in Corinth that gave rise to this Epistle.
The book of Colossians was also written according to a particular background, the background of the culture that had invaded the church at Colosse. With this cultural invasion as the background, the marvelous book of Colossians was written. Without that background, we would not have this book today.
In the same principle, the recovery of justification by faith at the time of the Reformation came forth out of a negative situation and a dark background. Apart from such a situation and background, the truth of justification by faith would not be as clear as it is today. This truth can no longer be blurred because the dark background causes it to stand out so definitely.
Now we come to the background of the book of Galatians. Written before A.D. 60, Galatians is earlier than either Ephesians or Colossians. Galatians was written in the earlier part of Paul’s ministry, before he was imprisoned.
In order to have the proper experience of the church as the Body of Christ, we need the book of Galatians. We need both an adequate experience and understanding of all that is conveyed to us in this Epistle. If we intend to practice the church life today, we need to know the Christ revealed in Galatians.
Galatians reveals that Christ is versus religion with its law. The law given by God through Moses was the foundation of the Jewish religion. Judaism was built on the law. The book of Galatians reveals that the very Christ whom we need for the church life is versus law and religion.
In verse 2 Paul speaks of “the churches of Galatia,” a province of the ancient Roman Empire. Through Paul’s preaching ministry, churches were established in a number of cities in that province. Hence, “churches,” not “church,” is used when the apostle refers to them.
The churches in Galatia had been bewitched by the Judaizers (3:1). They had been distracted from Christ to Judaism. A good number of the New Testament believers in the churches of Galatia had turned back to the old Jewish religion and were endeavoring to keep the law with the ordinance of circumcision. This was the background that gave Paul the opportunity to write this wonderful book.
In writing to the Galatians, Paul was very frank and straightforward; he was not in the least political. For example, he called those Judaizers who were troubling the Galatians “false brothers” (2:4). The Galatian believers had been bewitched by these false brothers.
In 1:6 and 7 Paul says, “I marvel that you are so quickly removing from Him Who has called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another; only there are some who trouble you and desire to pervert the gospel of Christ.” Here Paul comes to his subject. Because the churches in Galatia were deserting the grace of Christ and backsliding to the observance of the law, Paul was burdened to write this Epistle. The “different gospel” mentioned in verse 6 denotes the Judaistic observance of the law. The grace of Christ is versus the law of Moses (John 1:17). The Judaizers troubled the churches by perverting the gospel of Christ, or distorting it, thus misleading the believers, taking them back to the law of Moses. However, the observance of the law could never be a gospel that sets free the sinners under its bondage and brings them into the enjoyment of God. It could only keep them as slaves under its bondage.
Because they were distracted from Christ to law, the Galatians were being brought to nought from Christ (5:4). To be brought to nought is to be brought to nothing. In His salvation God has brought us into Christ and has made Christ to be profitable to us in every way. In His redemption God has placed us into His Son who is now everything to us. But the Judaizers had caused the Galatian believers to be distracted from Christ to the law. By turning from Christ to the law, the Galatians were being brought to nothing from Christ. According to the King James Version, Paul said to the Galatians, “Christ is become of no effect unto you.” The Galatians were in a situation where the profitable Christ was of no effect to them. They were being deprived of all the profit that is in Christ and were separated from Him as a result. As the American Standard Version says, they were “severed from Christ.”
In 5:4 Paul also told the Galatians that they had “fallen from grace.” To be brought to nought from Christ is to fall from grace. This implies that Christ Himself is the very grace, and that we, the believers, are in Him as grace. The profitable Christ is grace to us. To be severed from Him is to be fallen from grace.
In 5:4 Paul also points out that the Galatians were seeking to be justified by law. Although they had been justified in Christ, they had gone back to keeping the law and were trying to be justified by the works of the law. What a devilish subtlety! Fallen man cannot be justified before God by keeping the law. The only way to be justified is by faith in Christ, by believing in the Lord Jesus. Nevertheless, the Galatian believers had been bewitched and therefore were trying to keep the law. They were endeavoring to be justified and to please God by their own works.
The Judaizers were also constraining the Galatians to practice circumcision (6:12, 15). In Genesis 17 God commanded Abraham and his male descendants to be circumcised. Any male who refused to be circumcised was to be cut off from God’s people. Circumcision, however, was simply a type of the crucifixion of Christ. The true circumcision that cuts off the flesh is not the circumcision practiced in the Old Testament; it is the crucifixion of Christ. Our flesh can be dealt with only by the cross of Christ. Christ’s crucifixion was the fulfillment of the type of circumcision. Since we have the reality of circumcision, there is no longer the need for the shadow. Nevertheless, the Judaizers turned the Galatian believers from the reality back to the shadow. How foolish!
Furthermore, the Galatians were trying to be perfected by the flesh (3:3). This means that the Galatians were trying to perfect themselves through their own effort, through the works of the flesh, in which there is nothing good. How foolish the Galatians were!
The subject of the book of Galatians is related to its background. The subject is the rescue of the distracted believers out of the evil religious age. In 1:4 Paul says that Christ “gave Himself for our sins, that He might rescue us out of the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” An age is a part of the world as the satanic system. An age refers to a section, an aspect, the present or modern appearance, of the system of Satan, which is used by him to usurp and occupy people and keep them away from God and His purpose. We may regard each decade as a distinct age or section of Satan’s world system.
The various ages of the satanic system are expressed in the fashions of clothing that prevail during a certain period of time. For example, in the 1950s men’s neckties were narrow, but in the late 1960s and throughout most of the 1970s, they were broad. Now, according to the latest change of style, they have become somewhat narrow again.
When I was young, I worked in a factory where hair nets were manufactured for export to the West. At first, the hair nets were large, designed to fit over hair styled in the shape of a tower. Then, to my surprise, we began to receive orders for small hair nets. The reason for the change was that women in the West were now wearing their hair very short, in a bobbed style, and therefore wanted small hair nets. By these illustrations of neckties and hair nets we can see that the world system of Satan has different ages, different sections.
The present evil age in 1:4, according to the context of this book, refers to the religious world, the religious course of the world, the Jewish religion. This is confirmed by 6:14-15, where circumcision is considered a part of the world — the religious world which to the Apostle Paul is crucified. Here the apostle emphasizes that the purpose of Christ’s giving Himself for our sins was to rescue us, to pluck us out, from the Jewish religion, the present evil age. This is to release God’s chosen people from the custody of the law (3:23), to bring them out of the sheepfold (John 10:1, 3), according to the will of God. Thus, in his opening word, Paul indicates what he is about to deal with. He desires to rescue the churches which were distracted by Judaism with its law and to bring them back to the grace of the gospel.
For years I was fond of 1:4 and used this verse in messages. However, I did not realize that the present evil age in this verse refers to the Jewish religion. At the time of Paul, Judaism was very prevailing. His intention in writing to the Galatians was to rescue the distracted believers from the tyranny of the present evil religious age.
In 1:4 Paul points out that in order to rescue us from the present evil religious age Christ gave Himself for our sins. This indicates that Christ died in order to rescue us from Judaism. In John 10 we see that Christ as the good Shepherd entered into the fold in order to bring His sheep out of the fold and into the pasture. The fold in John 10 signifies the law or Judaism as the religion of the law, in which God’s chosen people were kept and guarded in custody or ward until Christ came. Before the coming of Christ, God used Judaism as a fold to keep His sheep. But Christ has come as the Shepherd to bring the sheep out of that fold to the pasture where they may feed on His riches. Although Christ came to release the sheep from the fold, the Judaizers crucified this good Shepherd. He died on the cross not only for the sins of the sheep, but also to bring them out of the fold.
According to the New Testament, the death of Christ on the cross accomplished many things. In Ephesians 2 we see that He gave Himself in order to abolish the ordinances for the creation of the one new man. In Galatians 1 we see that Christ gave Himself for our sins for the purpose of rescuing us out of religion, out of the present evil age.
We should apply 1:4 not only to the Galatian believers, but also to today’s believers in Christ. Most Christians are held in some kind of religious fold. Although in the New Testament the term fold is not positive (according to the Greek, the second occurrence of “fold” in KJV of John 10:16 should be “flock”), certain Christian hymns speak of being brought back to the fold in some kind of positive sense. We have pointed out that in John 10 the fold denotes Judaism. In principle, Catholicism and all the denominations are folds. Only the church is God’s flock. Christ has brought us back to the flock, not to the fold. Many of us can testify that we have been rescued out of the fold and brought back to God’s flock.
At the time of John 10, God’s people, His sheep, were in the fold of Judaism. But as this chapter makes clear, Christ came to bring His sheep out of the fold and to form them with the Gentile believers into one flock, the church (10:16). Hence, the fold is religion, whereas the flock is the church. Today Catholicism and the denominations are folds that keep Christ’s sheep. But Christ is seeking to rescue His sheep out of the various religious folds and to bring them together as the one flock.
Christ’s death on the cross to deliver us from the present evil age was according to the will of God, the Father. To rescue the sheep from the fold is thus according to the will of God. Because Catholicism and the denominations damage the flock of God, they are opposed to the will of God. By building up their folds, they spoil the church life.
Today the Lord is still endeavoring to bring His sheep out of the fold. For this reason, a warfare is raging between religion and the Lord’s recovery. The Lord Jesus came not to steal the sheep, but to lead the sheep out of the fold. The Judaizers, however, regarded Him as a sheep-stealer. In like manner, we in the Lord’s recovery are accused of proselytizing, of stealing sheep. Although we do not proselytize, we do desire that the Lord’s sheep may be led out of the fold and into the flock.
The Lord Jesus came into the fold, opened the door, and led the sheep out of the fold. The Judaizers crucified Him. But through His death on the cross, the Lord gave Himself for our sins in order to rescue us from the religious fold. The principle is the same both with the believers in Paul’s time and with us today.
In 1:1 Paul speaks of his apostleship: “Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, Who raised Him from among the dead.” Paul’s apostleship had much to do with the gospel he preached. The purpose of the book of Galatians is to let those who receive it know that the gospel preached by the Apostle Paul was not from man’s teaching (1:11), but from God’s revelation. Hence, at the very opening of this book, Paul emphasized the fact that he became an apostle not from men nor through man, but through Christ and God.
In verse 1, as in the entire book, Paul is careful in his use of words. Firstly he says that he did not become an apostle “from men”; he goes on to say that his apostleship was not “through man.” He was made an apostle directly through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Christ from among the dead. The law dealt with man as the old creation, whereas the gospel makes man the new creation in resurrection. God made Paul an apostle not according to his natural man in the old creation by the law, but according to his regenerated man in the new creation through the resurrection of Christ. Hence, Paul does not say here, “God the Father who gave the law through Moses”; he says, “God the Father who raised Christ from among the dead.” God’s New Testament economy is not with man in the old creation, but with man in the new creation through the resurrection of Christ. Paul’s apostleship belonged altogether to the new creation, which transpires in our spirit through regeneration by the Spirit of God.
In verse 2 Paul goes on to speak of all the brothers who are with him. This indicates that he takes the brothers with him as co-writers to be a testimony and a confirmation of what he writes in this Epistle.
In verse 3 Paul says, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Grace is God as our enjoyment (John 1:17; 1 Cor. 15:10), and peace is the condition, the issue, which results from grace. Peace is the result of the enjoyment of God our Father. How good it is that grace and peace come to the churches from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ!
