Commentary on Galatians (Commentary on the New Testament Book #9)

Robert H. Gundry

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781441237668
• eBook ISBN: 9781441237668
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

Delve Deeper into God's Word

In this verse-by-verse commentary, Robert Gundry offers a fresh, literal translation and a reliable exposition of Scripture for today's readers.

Gundry explains that Paul wrote this epistle to advocate that Jews and Gentiles alike gain salvation by faith apart from keeping the Mosaic law, though not at the expense of virtuous conduct.

Pastors, Sunday school teachers, small group leaders, and laypeople will welcome Gundry's nontechnical explanations and clarifications. And Bible students at all levels will appreciate his sparkling interpretations.

This selection is from Gundry's Commentary on the New Testament.

Galatians

Some Jewish Christians advocated that for salvation, Gentile Christians had to keep the law of Moses (beginning with submission to circumcision if they were males) in addition to believing in Christ. Here Paul refutes that view by advocating to the contrary that Jews and Gentiles alike gain salvation by faith apart from keeping the Mosaic law, though not at the expense of virtuous conduct.

ADDRESS AND GREETING
Galatians 1:1–5

1:1–2: Paul, an apostle [sent] not from [mere] human beings nor through [the agency of] a [mere] human being—rather, [sent] through [the direct action of] Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from among the dead—2plus all the brothers [= fellow Christians] [who are] with me, to the churches of Galatia [in central Asia Minor (modern Turkey)]: . . . . As was customary for first-century letter writers, Paul starts by identifying himself as the author. Then he calls himself “an apostle,” which means somebody who has been sent. “Not from [mere] human beings” denies that he has been sent by a church such as the one in Antioch, Syria, for example (see Acts 13:3, especially the translation “they let go [of them]” as opposed to “they sent [them]”). “Nor through [the agency of] a [mere] human being” denies even the involvement of a human intermediary in the sending of Paul (contrast “the coming of some from James” [2:12]). He makes these denials to establish a foil against which his being sent “through [the direct action of] Jesus Christ and God the Father” stands out in full flower. Since “apostle” connotes a sending with authority to act on behalf of the sender, Paul stresses the direct derivation of his apostleship from Jesus Christ and God the Father to impress on the letter’s addressees (from now on “the Galatians”) that what he has to say in the balance of the letter should bring them to their knees in submission rather than putting them in high dudgeon. For the balance of the letter contains some stinging rebukes.

Paul puts “Jesus Christ” ahead of “God the Father” because he has in mind Jesus Christ’s commissioning him to apostleship in connection with his appearance to Paul as Paul was traveling on the road to Damascus (see 1:12; 1 Corinthians 9:1; 15:8; Acts 9:1–6, 15; 21:40–22:15; and especially 26:12–20). “Who raised him [Jesus Christ] from among the dead” describes God in view of the circumstance that unlike the twelve apostles, Paul’s apostolic commissioning occurred after rather than before Jesus’ resurrection. Since “God . . . was pleased to reveal his Son in [Paul] in order that [Paul] might proclaim the gospel among the Gentiles” (1:16), Paul includes “God the Father” with “Jesus Christ” as the source of his apostleship and thus doubles his apostolic authority. Because of the collocation of God and his Son in 1:15–16, here in 1:1 “God the Father” probably refers to God as the Father of the just-mentioned “Jesus Christ,” though Paul will shortly widen God’s fatherhood to include Christian believers (1:4; 4:6). The pairing of Jesus Christ with God the Father, the designation of him as God’s Son, and the further designation of him as “our Lord” in 1:3 imply the deity of Jesus Christ. Yet he’s also human—hence the two explanatory insertions of “mere” to distinguish him from other human beings.

Paul includes “all the brothers” who are with him at the time of writing as co-senders (though not co-authors) of the letter to let the Galatians know that he has his companions’ support in what he’ll proceed to say. So the Galatians had better not dismiss the letter as the rantings of an eccentric. “Plus all the brothers” sharpens this point. The brothers remain anonymous, and their and Paul’s whereabouts remain unidentified. For what counts above all in this context is the apostolic authority of Paul. “To the churches of Galatia” implies a circular letter, one that’s meant to make the rounds of local assemblies of Christians and be read aloud to them in those assemblies. Paul’s omitting to describe the Galatians as “saints,” “God’s beloved ones,” “believers,” or “faithful” portends coming expressions of disgust with them, or at least of puzzlement about them (1:6; 3:1, 3; 4:9–11; 5:7). Similar omissions occur in the addresses of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, but there Paul quickly follows up with compliments, as he does not do here.

1:3–5: Grace and peace to you from God, the Father, and the Lord, Jesus Christ, 4who gave himself for our sins so that he might deliver us out of this present evil age in accordance with the will of God, even our Father, 5to whom [belongs] the glory forever and ever. Amen. For the greetings “grace” and “peace” see the comments on 1 Peter 1:2; 2 John 3. The issue in the rest of Galatians concerning salvation by grace apart from salvation by Law-keeping (1:6; 2:9, 21; 5:4) and the warning in 5:15 against internal strife give special pertinence to these greetings. Since grace and peace connote salvation, the greetings stem from God and Jesus Christ, not from Paul. As an apostle he can relay divine greetings to the Galatians, and so he does. “The Father” probably still describes God in relation to Jesus Christ. “The Lord” describes Jesus Christ with a term that in association with “God” connotes deity and distinguishes Jesus Christ as the deity worshiped by Christians from the so-called deities worshiped by pagans (see 1 Corinthians 8:5–6). Paul’s reversion to the normal order, God and then Jesus Christ (contrast 1:1), enables him to add more about Jesus Christ. “Who gave himself for our sins” defines his and God’s grace, which means ill-deserved favor, in terms of Jesus Christ’s voluntary self-sacrifice by way of suffering for our sins the punishment that we deserved (compare 2:20–21; 3:13; 1 Corinthians 15:3). “So that he might deliver us out of this present evil age” defines the peace of God and of Jesus Christ in terms of the flourishing that will characterize eternal life in the age to come, free as that age will be of the evil that besets mortal life in the present age. Since we’re living in the present evil age, deliverance “out of” it looks to the future (but see 2:20 for a present anticipation of the deliverance in that the crucified and resurrected Christ now lives in the believer). “In accordance with the will of God” means that just as a son should do, Jesus Christ obeyed God his Father in giving himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age. God’s willing him to do so leads Paul to designate God as “our Father,” for a father looks out for the welfare of his children (compare 4:4–7). And this beneficent fatherhood of God leads Paul to declare that eternal glory, which means eternal honor, belongs to God. “Forever and ever” heightens eternality to the nth degree, and “Amen,” meaning “So be it!” adds an emphatic affirmation of the whole greeting.

PAUL’S REASON FOR WRITING
Galatians 1:6–10

1:6–7: I’m astonished that you’re defecting in this way—[that is,] quickly—from the one who called you in the grace of Christ into a different gospel, 7which isn’t another [gospel]—except there are some who are stirring you up [to defect] and wanting to distort the gospel about the Christ. Shockingly, Paul replaces the usual thanksgiving for his readers (see an example in 1 Corinthians 1:4–9) with an expression of astonishment which carries a note of rebuke, explains his omitting to call the Galatians “saints,” “God’s beloved ones,” “believers,” or “faithful” back in 1:2, and tells why he’s writing this letter and why he started it with a heavy stress on his apostleship as having come directly from Jesus Christ and God the Father. The Galatians’ defection is the reason. “You’re . . . defecting” indicates a defection in progress, which the letter is designed to halt. “In this way—[that is,] quickly” describes the defection, but we don’t know whether this description means soon after conversion or soon after the proclamation of “a different gospel” to the Galatians. There may be other possibilities of meaning. In any case, “quickly” makes the defection especially astonishing to Paul. He assumes that the Galatians will understand “God, even our Father” (1:4) to be “the one who called [them] in the grace of Christ” (see 1:15–16 for God as a caller). As used by Paul, the call of God refers to his summons, powerful and effective as it is—here to salvation “in the grace of Christ,” which refers to his ill-deserved favor in having given himself for our sins “so that he might deliver us out of this present evil age” (1:4). “In the grace of Christ” makes his grace the sphere in which God’s call took place, for Christ’s giving himself for our sins made it possible for God to summon people to salvation without violating his right and just standard that sins must be punished.

“Into a different gospel” stands in opposition to “in the grace of Christ.” That is to say, the different gospel subverts Christ’s grace. Since this grace makes the gospel what it is—namely, “good news”—the subversion of Christ’s grace produces “a different gospel,” even a nongospel (“which isn’t another [gospel]”). Given our sins, the subversion of his grace makes for bad news, not good news. “Except there are some who are stirring you up [to defect]” implies that the defection is a kind of rebellion, a transfer of allegiance from the one who called the Galatians to the different gospel that’s not really a gospel at all (compare 5:4). Because of the preceding emphasis on his apostleship, we might have expected Paul to portray the defection as a defection from him. But because both his apostleship and the grace and peace of salvation stem ultimately from God, Paul portrays the defection as a defection from God. And the description of God as “the one who called [the Galatians] in the grace of Christ” makes the defection not only unwarranted but also ungrateful. By writing “except there are some who are stirring you up,” however, Paul takes exception to his own expression of astonishment at the Galatians’ ungrateful defection. For the blame shifts now from them to “some who are stirring you up and wanting to distort the gospel about the Christ.” This shift softens Paul’s tone so as to make the Galatians amenable to his upcoming defense of Christ’s grace and his critique of the nongospel. “Wanting to distort the gospel about the Christ” attributes purpose to the distorters (see 4:17; 6:12–13 for their selfish motives). They know they’re changing the gospel that Paul proclaimed to the Galatians. “To distort the gospel about the Christ” represents Paul’s judgment against their changing it. They haven’t corrected it. They’ve distorted it. “About the Christ” lends an official overtone to Paul’s gospel. The grace in its content is the grace of no less a personage than the one anointed by God to give himself for our sins, for “the Christ” means “the Anointed One.”

1:8–9: Even if we or an angel [coming] out of heaven were to be proclaiming a gospel overreaching the gospel that we proclaimed to you, however, he’s to be anathema [= a curse, a strong way of saying “accursed”]. 9As we’ve said before [in the immediately preceding statement], I’m also saying again—right now: if anyone is proclaiming to you a gospel overreaching what you received, he’s to be anathema. Stressing the lack of any exceptions to the accursedness of anyone who distorts the gospel of Christ’s grace are (1) “Even if”; (2) the inclusion of Paul and company (“we” [compare 1:2]); (3) the additional inclusion of “an angel [coming] out of heaven”; and (4) “however,” which sets Paul’s “we” and “an angel” over against the distorters of the gospel in that “we” and “an angel” proclaim a different gospel only hypothetically (“Even if we or an angel . . . were to be proclaiming . . .”) whereas the distorters actually are proclaiming a different gospel. Paul describes the different gospel as “overreaching” what he has just called “the gospel of the Christ.” “Overreaching” has the sense of going beyond the grace of Christ—by requiring more than belief in him, it will turn out. “He’s to be anathema” is a command, not a wish, much less a permission, as the usual translation, “let him be accursed,” might be understood. Paul gives the command with the apostolic authority he ascribed to himself in 1:1. The repetition of the command redoubles the foregoing emphasis, and the introduction of this repetition with “As we’ve said before, I’m also saying again—right now” shows that the redoubling is downright deliberate. Far from pointing back to a curse leveled prior to the writing of this letter, “right now” sets the repetition (“I’m also saying again”) emphatically alongside the foregoing curse in the present text (“As we’ve said before”). The shift from “we’ve said before” to “I’m saying again” concentrates attention on the curse as uttered by Paul, an apostle no less. The shift from “the gospel that we did proclaim to you” to “what you received” designates the undistorted gospel of Christ’s grace as a traditional message that goes back to the Christ himself, so that overreaching it constitutes a distortive novelty.

1:10: For am I right now trying to win human beings, or [am I trying to win] God? Or am I seeking to please human beings? If I were trying to please human beings, moreover, I wouldn’t be Christ’s slave! “Am I . . . trying to win human beings?” equates with “Am I trying to please human beings?” The two maledictory commands in 1:8–9 make clear a negative answer to these questions. Curses don’t make friends. “Or [am I trying to win] God?” presents an alternative to trying to win human beings and equates with “be[ing] Christ’s slave.” For God wants slaves for his Son. A slave tries to please his master; so “moreover” adds that “trying to please human beings” would disqualify Paul from being Christ’s slave. The initial “For” makes the whole of 1:10 an elucidation of what the maledictions in 1:8–9 imply regarding Paul’s motive. He wants to be winsome to God and pleasing to Christ by defending the gospel from distortion even at the cost of displeasing human beings.

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ARGUMENT FOR THE GOSPEL OF SHEER GRACE
Galatians 1:11–2:21

This major section of Galatians subdivides into Jesus’ direct revelation to Paul of the gospel of sheer grace (1:11–12); the impossibility of this gospel’s having originated from Paul’s very Judaistic past (1:13–14); the impossibility of his having learned it from merely human sources (1:15–24); the later acknowledgment of this gospel by the church leaders in Jerusalem (2:1–10); and Paul’s rebuke of Peter for his behavioral compromise of it in Antioch, Syria (2:11–21).

JESUS’ DIRECT REVELATION TO PAUL OF THE GOSPEL OF GOD’S SHEER GRACE
Galatians 1:11–12

1:11–12: But I’m making known to you, brothers, the gospel which was proclaimed as gospel [= as good news] by me, that it isn’t in accordance with a human being. 12For I did not at all receive it from a human being, nor was I taught [it by a human being]; rather, [I received it] through a revelation of Jesus Christ [compare 1:1]. Paul’s having taken exception to his own expression of astonishment (1:6–7) now shades into the affectionate address, “brothers,” which expands the brotherhood of 1:2 and softens his tone yet further to make the Galatians amenable to his upcoming defense of God’s sheer grace and critique of the nongospel. “But I’m making known to you” means, “Despite not trying to please human beings, such as you are (1:10), I’m making known to you . . . the gospel.”[1] As to its content, Paul made known the gospel to the Galatians when he evangelized them. Now in this letter he’s making it known to them as regards his own reception of it. “For I did not at all...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Galatians
• Notes
• Back Cover