Galatians is the only Pauline letter that doesn't contain a single word of praise.
Even when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, who were having very serious problems-justifying incest, splitting the Church into rival denominations, arrogance about the gift of tongues and proudly placing pagan philosophy above the Christian faith-even when he wrote to a church w'ith all these difficulties, Paul still found something to praise and thank God for in them (l Cor. 1;4-7).
Not so at Galatia. Instead he begins with this sledgehammer paragraph:
"I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking the one who called you by [the] grace of Christ for a different gospel (not that there is another). But there are some who are disturbing you and who wish to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach [to you] a gospel other than the one that we preached to you, let that one be accursed" (1:6-8).
What elicited such Pauline outrage? The mistakes of the Corinthians were mistakes of addition; the mistake of the Galatians was subtraction. The Corinthians had polluted the Gospel; the Galatians had abandoned it for another religion, "a different gospel."
As another way of seeing how crucial the issue is, notice that Paul feels he must begin his letter by "pulling rank" and establishing his authority as an Apostle, equal to the Eleven and Peter (1:11-2:14).
The immediate specific issue masked a more fundamental one.
The immediate issue was whether Christians had to be circumcised.
The more fundamental one was how to be saved.
The immediate specific issue masked a more fundamental one. The immediate issue was whether Christians had to be circumcised. The more fundamental one was how to be saved. The first is a total non-issue today. But the second issue, alas, is still very much alive. It was the issue that split the Church in the Protestant Reforrnation; and a majority of Catholics today not only don't know the basic doctrines of Catholic theology anymore, they don't even know how to get to heaven!
I'm not suggesting, as many Protestant fundamentalists do, that most Catholics aren't saved. But I am suggesting that perhaps most will be saved as good pagans, not as Catholic Christians. For when the time comes to present their entrance ticket for the heavenly plane God has a large angel air force: See Mark 13:27, they won't even mention their Savior, but will rely instead on the same old "other gospel" the Galatians relied on- the law-or more likely, on the updated, "soft" revision of it, good intentions. "I'm a good person," "I try to do good," "I'm sincere" and "I try not to hurt people" are four of the most common counterfeit tickets I see. They all begin with the same fatal word.
What I say about it matters nothing. But let's see what God's Apostle says about this. He says, in effect, that the answer I give at the gate of heaven, whatever it is, had better not hegin with my favorite word, "I,"-but with the word Christ. The Word had better be my favorite word.
There was also a third, intermediate issue between circumcision and salvation: Judaism. Being circumcised meant becoming a Jew; must one become a Jew before becoming a Christian? Those in Galatia who were insisting on circumcision were making Christianity a Jewish sect. According Christianity we are saved not by the Jewish law, the old covenant entered by circumcision; but by Christ and His new covenant, entered by faith.
Paul points out very clearly th no one can be saved by the law. "We know that a person is not justfied [saved] by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ . . because by the works of the law shall no one be justified" (2:16; cf. 3:11). The simple reason why no one can be saved by obeying God law is that no one obeys it! See Isaiah 52:6, 64:6; Philippians 3:9.
If we were saved by obeying the law, we would save ourselves and wouldn't need a Savior. Jesus would then be reduced to a human teacher, prophet, social worker.
The law is like an X-ray. Sin like cancer. Salvation is like a operation. Jesus is like the surgeon. Faith is like consent to the operation. The Galatian heresy is thinking the X-ray will save you.
Salvation enters by faith alone' (though, as we shall see in at last half of Paul's letter, it is completed by good works) because faith is not just some subjective process inside our psyches, but an objective transaction; believing means receiving.
Thus Paul contrasts "law" and "faith"(2:16; 3:11; cf. Eph.2:8-10) as candidates for the answer to the most important question anyone (an ask: "Whet must I do to be saved" (Acts 16:30). The point is so crucial that Paul equates turning away from this doctrine with turning away from Christ (l:6) and calls the Galatians fools under the spell of witchcraft (3:1) for abandoning it.
Paul uses five lines of argument to prove his main point.
First, this gospel "is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human being . . . but . . through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (1:11-12). When Paul submitted this teaching to the Apostles in Jerusalem, they all acknowledged its truth and authority (2:1-10). Paul even rightly corrected Peter when he failed to apply it (2:11-21). On the basis of the doctrine he also accepted, Peter failed to live it out when he submitted to Jewish laws only when he was with dews (2:11- 16).
Second, Paul argues that men were saved by faith, not by ffie law, even in Old Testament times. This is shown in the case of Abraham, who received the promise before Moses received the law. Paul uses the same argument in Galatians 3 as in Romans 4.
Third, the purpose of the law cannot be to save because its purpose is to condemn, to specify sins (3:19-22). It is the diagnosis, not the cure.
Fourth, the law is essentially preparatory. It's like a child's nurse (3:23-26) who takes the child to school but doesn't teach him.
Fifth, the law binds us while the Gospel frees us (4:8-31); thus the two are opposed, not identical. Paul illustrates this by allegorizing Abraham's two rival sons, Isaac [faith) and Ishmael flaw) (4:22-31).
So far, Paul sounds like a Protestant evangelist,'but in Chapters 5 and 6 he sounds like a Catholic moralist. He's both, of course; that is, he is catholic, or universal, and the Gospel transforms morality as well as salvation.
Paul concludes Galatians by talking about virtue and good works because that's part of the Gospel too. If we have no good works, we are not saved, for faith without works is dead faith James 2:14-26. Luther could not see this and dismissed James as an "epistle of straw." That's because he didn't see the living link between faith and works. That link is the very life of Christ in the soul which gives us a second, divine nature.
Galatians is Paul's simplest letter. Once you see its sipgle, central point, you see how everything he says is a spoke in the single wheel that's held together by that hub; and once you know that hub, you know what Christianity essentially is: Christ Himself (Col. 1:27).
Without a firm grasp of that center, heresies are bound to come, whether legalistic or licentious. "He is the true God and eternal life. Children, be on your guard against idols" (l John 5:20-21).
Even when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, who were having very serious problems-justifying incest, splitting the Church into rival denominations, arrogance about the gift of tongues and proudly placing pagan philosophy above the Christian faith-even when he wrote to a church w'ith all these difficulties, Paul still found something to praise and thank God for in them (l Cor. 1;4-7).
Not so at Galatia. Instead he begins with this sledgehammer paragraph:
"I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking the one who called you by [the] grace of Christ for a different gospel (not that there is another). But there are some who are disturbing you and who wish to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach [to you] a gospel other than the one that we preached to you, let that one be accursed" (1:6-8).
What elicited such Pauline outrage? The mistakes of the Corinthians were mistakes of addition; the mistake of the Galatians was subtraction. The Corinthians had polluted the Gospel; the Galatians had abandoned it for another religion, "a different gospel."
As another way of seeing how crucial the issue is, notice that Paul feels he must begin his letter by "pulling rank" and establishing his authority as an Apostle, equal to the Eleven and Peter (1:11-2:14).
The immediate specific issue masked a more fundamental one.
The immediate issue was whether Christians had to be circumcised.
The more fundamental one was how to be saved.
The immediate specific issue masked a more fundamental one. The immediate issue was whether Christians had to be circumcised. The more fundamental one was how to be saved. The first is a total non-issue today. But the second issue, alas, is still very much alive. It was the issue that split the Church in the Protestant Reforrnation; and a majority of Catholics today not only don't know the basic doctrines of Catholic theology anymore, they don't even know how to get to heaven!
I'm not suggesting, as many Protestant fundamentalists do, that most Catholics aren't saved. But I am suggesting that perhaps most will be saved as good pagans, not as Catholic Christians. For when the time comes to present their entrance ticket for the heavenly plane God has a large angel air force: See Mark 13:27, they won't even mention their Savior, but will rely instead on the same old "other gospel" the Galatians relied on- the law-or more likely, on the updated, "soft" revision of it, good intentions. "I'm a good person," "I try to do good," "I'm sincere" and "I try not to hurt people" are four of the most common counterfeit tickets I see. They all begin with the same fatal word.
What I say about it matters nothing. But let's see what God's Apostle says about this. He says, in effect, that the answer I give at the gate of heaven, whatever it is, had better not hegin with my favorite word, "I,"-but with the word Christ. The Word had better be my favorite word.
There was also a third, intermediate issue between circumcision and salvation: Judaism. Being circumcised meant becoming a Jew; must one become a Jew before becoming a Christian? Those in Galatia who were insisting on circumcision were making Christianity a Jewish sect. According Christianity we are saved not by the Jewish law, the old covenant entered by circumcision; but by Christ and His new covenant, entered by faith.
Paul points out very clearly th no one can be saved by the law. "We know that a person is not justfied [saved] by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ . . because by the works of the law shall no one be justified" (2:16; cf. 3:11). The simple reason why no one can be saved by obeying God law is that no one obeys it! See Isaiah 52:6, 64:6; Philippians 3:9.
If we were saved by obeying the law, we would save ourselves and wouldn't need a Savior. Jesus would then be reduced to a human teacher, prophet, social worker.
The law is like an X-ray. Sin like cancer. Salvation is like a operation. Jesus is like the surgeon. Faith is like consent to the operation. The Galatian heresy is thinking the X-ray will save you.
Salvation enters by faith alone' (though, as we shall see in at last half of Paul's letter, it is completed by good works) because faith is not just some subjective process inside our psyches, but an objective transaction; believing means receiving.
Thus Paul contrasts "law" and "faith"(2:16; 3:11; cf. Eph.2:8-10) as candidates for the answer to the most important question anyone (an ask: "Whet must I do to be saved" (Acts 16:30). The point is so crucial that Paul equates turning away from this doctrine with turning away from Christ (l:6) and calls the Galatians fools under the spell of witchcraft (3:1) for abandoning it.
Paul uses five lines of argument to prove his main point.
First, this gospel "is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human being . . . but . . through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (1:11-12). When Paul submitted this teaching to the Apostles in Jerusalem, they all acknowledged its truth and authority (2:1-10). Paul even rightly corrected Peter when he failed to apply it (2:11-21). On the basis of the doctrine he also accepted, Peter failed to live it out when he submitted to Jewish laws only when he was with dews (2:11- 16).
Second, Paul argues that men were saved by faith, not by ffie law, even in Old Testament times. This is shown in the case of Abraham, who received the promise before Moses received the law. Paul uses the same argument in Galatians 3 as in Romans 4.
Third, the purpose of the law cannot be to save because its purpose is to condemn, to specify sins (3:19-22). It is the diagnosis, not the cure.
Fourth, the law is essentially preparatory. It's like a child's nurse (3:23-26) who takes the child to school but doesn't teach him.
Fifth, the law binds us while the Gospel frees us (4:8-31); thus the two are opposed, not identical. Paul illustrates this by allegorizing Abraham's two rival sons, Isaac [faith) and Ishmael flaw) (4:22-31).
So far, Paul sounds like a Protestant evangelist,'but in Chapters 5 and 6 he sounds like a Catholic moralist. He's both, of course; that is, he is catholic, or universal, and the Gospel transforms morality as well as salvation.
Paul concludes Galatians by talking about virtue and good works because that's part of the Gospel too. If we have no good works, we are not saved, for faith without works is dead faith James 2:14-26. Luther could not see this and dismissed James as an "epistle of straw." That's because he didn't see the living link between faith and works. That link is the very life of Christ in the soul which gives us a second, divine nature.
Galatians is Paul's simplest letter. Once you see its sipgle, central point, you see how everything he says is a spoke in the single wheel that's held together by that hub; and once you know that hub, you know what Christianity essentially is: Christ Himself (Col. 1:27).
Without a firm grasp of that center, heresies are bound to come, whether legalistic or licentious. "He is the true God and eternal life. Children, be on your guard against idols" (l John 5:20-21).
Peter Kreeft is the author of many books including "Making Choices'' (Servant Books) and Back to Virtue (Ignatius).
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