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Yes, you can access Galatians by Timothy George in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Theology & Religion & Biblical Commentary. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
(2) The Radical Change: From Slavery to Sonship (4:1–7)
Our Past Condition (4:1–3)
The Coming of Christ (4:4–5)
The Spirit Within (4:6–7)
(3) The Danger of Turning Back (4:8–11)
6. Paul's Personal Appeal (4:12–20)
(1) His Labors among Them (4:12–16)
(2) His Love for Them (4:17–20)
7. The Analogy of Hagar and Sarah (4:21–31)
(1) The Historical Background (4:21–23)
The Two Sons of Abraham
The Status of the Two Mothers
The Circumstances of the Two Births
(2) The Figurative Meaning (4:24–27)
(3) The Personal Application (4:28–31)
II. THEOLOGY: JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH (3:1–4:31)
Having established the historical authenticity and integrity of his apostolic calling and mission, Paul had already made the transition to theology proper that began with his response to Peter (2:16) but led into his direct address to the Galatians (3:1). As we have seen, these verses contain in some of the most compressed language found anywhere in Paul's writings what the eighteenth-century Pietist commentator J. Bengel once described as “the sum and marrow of Christianity.”1 In these verses Paul stated what he now had to prove: that the only way for anyone, Jew or Gentile, to be declared righteous before God is through personal faith in Jesus Christ. In order to accomplish this task, Paul would set forth a series of arguments or proofs drawn primarily from Scripture and intended to show that the message of salvation he had proclaimed to the Galatians was no novel doctrine but one based firmly on the holy oracles and divine promises of God himself.
But why was it necessary for Paul to take this approach in his appeal to the Galatians? One scholar has commented that Paul could well have closed his epistle at the end of chap. 2, having refuted the false charges brought against him and produced such a masterful statement of the doctrine of justification.2 Others have noted the unevenness and complexity of Paul's argumentation in this probatio section of the letter. One scholar characterized it as “a maze of laboured exegesis, puzzling illustration, and cryptic theological shorthand.”3
We should be wary, however, lest such a verdict lead us to an attitude of despair in studying the text before us. We will be helped immensely if we remember three basic principles. First, Paul along with all other New Testament writers regarded the Old Testament Scriptures as the divinely inspired, error-free Word of God. Moreover, they saw this Word not as a static document from the past but rather as a living, dynamic reality in the present (cf. Heb 4:12). Thus when Paul quoted Old Testament texts and examples, drawing on the best traditions of rabbinic exegesis in which he was trained, he fully expected that such proclamation, whether verbal or written, would have a spiritually transforming effect on his hearers and readers. In Gal 3 and 4 Paul did not merely provide footnotes to a theological discourse; he declared “thus saith the Lord” with power, conviction, and expectancy. Second, we must remember that Paul was not doing theology in abstraction but was writing to a particular context and setting of which we have only partial awareness. No doubt, Paul developed some of his arguments in direct response to the message of the Galatian agitators. We are overhearing, as it were, one-half of a conversation, and that largely directed against the position of a third party. Various phrases and turns of argument which may be ambiguous to us were doubtless perfectly clear to the Galatians. They, after all, had heard Paul preach, perhaps on these same themes, and could easily compare his response to the message of his opponents. Third, it is important for us to remember that the Holy Spirit has inspired every single word of Scripture, including the more obscure and difficult passages, for our benefit. For this reason we must study the Scriptures with both diligence and reverence ever seeking to handle correctly the Word of truth (2 Tim 2:15).
1. The Argument from Conversion (3:1–5)
(1) A Bewitched Congregation (3:1)
1You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
3:1 At two points in the theological section of the letter Paul stepped back from his tight-knit argument and appealed directly to the Galatians. In both passages (3:1–5; 4:12–20) Paul sounded exasperated and perplexed: “You foolish Galatians!”; “What has happened? … Have I now become your enemy? … I am perplexed about you.” On two other occasions in his writings Paul used the vocative case to appeal directly to his readers (2 Cor 6:11; Phil 4:15), but only here in Galatians did he add the prefixed “Oh” (Gk.,
; cf. Moffatt; Williams), an emotive particle that reinforces the apostle's mood of indignation and concern.
Paul not only addressed his readers by name; he also characterized them in a very unflattering way as foolish, stupid, senseless, silly. Or, as J. B. Phillips puts it, “Oh you dear idiots of Galatia … surely you cannot be so idiotic?” The bluntness of Paul's language should not blind us to the fact that he had earlier referred to the Galatians as “brothers” (1:11) and that he would later call them his children (4:19). Paul's language here does not contradict his principle of restoring with gentleness those believers who have lapsed into error and sin (6:1). Paul loved the Galatians and wanted them to be restored to spiritual and theological soundness. To accomplish this, however, something more stern than mushy sentimentality was required. Paul's harsh rebuke is an example of tough love. He confronted the Galatians with their folly so that by this means he might win them back to the truth they were in danger of forsaking.
In calling the Galatians foolish or stupid, Paul was not casting aspersions on their intelligence. No one can read the Letter to the Galatians without realizing that Paul presupposed a high level of intellectual ability on the part of his readers.4 The Galatians were not lacking in IQ but in spiritual discernment. They were like the disciples on the road to Emmaus whom the risen Christ characterized as “foolish … and … slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25).
As these opening verses of chap. 3 indicate, the Galatians were obviously enthralled by the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit in their midst. At the same time, their grasp on the fundamental truths of the gospel was woefully inadequate. One of the most dangerous dichotomies in the Christian life is for the spiritual to be divorced from the doctrinal, experience from theology. In the most explicitly charismatic passage in the New Testament, Paul insisted that we should sing and pray not only in the spirit but also with our minds (1 Cor 14:15–19). Paul did not say that the Galatians had had less than a fully genuine experience of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, he argued from precisely the opposite premise: since they had certainly received the Holy Spirit and witnessed his mighty works, why were they now retrogressing back from the Spirit to the flesh, that is, from faith back to works and from grace back to law? The answer is implied in Paul's critical word of address: somehow the balance between sound doctrine and Spirit-filled living had gotten out of kilter among the churches of Galatia. Not being firmly grounded in the faith, they had been led astray by undisciplined thinking and careless theology to the point where they were now on the verge of embracing dangerous doctrines.
But how had this happened? Paul was not content to explain the situation solely in human terms. “Who has bewitched you?” he asked, implying that the Galatians had become the objects of a sinister, supernatural ploy. The word for “bewitched” is a hapax legomenon, a word found nowhere else in the New Testament.5 Literally the word means “to give someone the evil eye, to cast a spell over, to fascinate in the original sense of holding someone spellbound by an irresistible power.”6
Someone had misled the Galatians, leaving them deficient in understanding and judgment and vulnerable to the evil forces at work in their midst. On one level the answer to Paul's rhetorical question was very simple. The false teachers, those heretical interlopers, had sown confusion and doubt among the believers of Galatia, leading them to their present state of spiritual disarray. However, the “who” in Paul's question is singular, suggesting that behind the work of the Galatian agitators was the devil himself, the father of lies who walks about as a roaring lion seeking someone to seize upon and devour (1 Pet 5:8). Later Paul would warn the Corinthians of this very danger: “Just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Cor 11:3). This verse is a solemn warning to every congregation that gathers for worship and every preacher who stands behind a sacred desk to proclaim God's Word. However large or small the congregation, however powerful or ineffective the preacher, a contest of eternal moment is being waged, with the souls of men and women in the balance. With so much at stake, the content of our preaching must be nothing less than Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2).7
Had Paul continued his autobiographical narrative into chap. 3, at this point he would have been ready to describe his bringing of the gospel to the Galatians. We may be surprised that Paul did not in fact continue the sequence of events he had begun: his conversion, calling, early ministry, the missionary summit at Jerusalem, the incident at Antioch, the first missionary journey that brought him and Barnabas to the cities of South Galatia. As we have seen before, however, Paul had no interest in writing “A History of my Life and Labors.” In Galatians he wanted to provide the churches he founded with the theological weapons they needed to withstand the seductive influences that would shipwreck their souls. However, before launching into his theological exposition proper, Paul gave a brief backwards glance to his evangelization of the Galatians. Doubtless referring to the message he and Barnabas had proclaimed when they first brought the gospel to the Galatians, he reminded them of how, right before their very eyes, Jesus Christ was graphically set forth as crucified.
Everything else Paul said in Galatians 3 and 4 was predicated on the message he first preached to the Galatians, which he summarized in this familiar formula. Each of the three elements in this sermon summary are worthy of close attention. First, Paul preached Jesus Christ. It has been well said that “the universe of Paul's thought revolved around the Son of God, Jesus Christ.”8 Before his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, Paul had regarded Jesus as a failed messiah, a foolish rabbi who deceived himself and others. All of this was changed when “God was pleased to reveal his Son in me” (1:16). The prominent Christological titles Paul attributed to Jesus—Christ, Lord, Son of God, Savior—reflect his belief that Jesus was fully divine and thus a proper object of worship and prayer. In Rom 9:5 Paul could speak of “Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!”9 Paul's doctrine of justification makes no sense apart from ...
