The Magna Carta Of Christian Liberty Series

I. The Historical Setting of the Letter

First, observe the historical setting of the letter.

For some time after Pentecost the Church was largely still a Jewish institution. After a while, God sent a persecution to Jerusalem, “and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. . . . Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went” (Acts 8:1, 4). In time the gospel penetrated and began to take root in non-Jewish (i.e. Gentile) communities.

After his conversion, described in Acts 9, the apostle Paul eventually found himself preaching and teaching in the town of Antioch (in Syria). In Acts 13 and 14, we learn that it was from there that he and Barnabas set out on the first missionary journey.

Traveling via Cyprus they sailed to Perga (in Pamphylia). From Perga they went on to Antioch (in Pisidia), Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, where Paul preached in each of those towns.

Paul preached that salvation is a free gift given by God to sinners who put their faith in Jesus Christ. This gift of salvation is never achieved by any amount of conformity to rules and regulations, even God-given regulations. Paul’s gospel was well received. These former pagans (4:8) believed Paul’s gospel (3:1), were baptized (3:27), and received the Holy Spirit, who began working miracles among them (3:5). After some time, churches were established, and Paul and Barnabas returned to their home church in Syrian Antioch.

While Paul was in Syrian Antioch, some Jewish believers from Jerusalem traveled to the churches Paul had established. They said that Paul was wrong in his understanding of the gospel and that they had come to give the Galatians the full gospel (1:7). They began teaching that the Gentiles had to conform to the Law of Moses. And they also taught that Gentiles had to be circumcised. Apparently the Galatians believed the false teachers (also known as Judaizers) and were departing from the gospel that Paul had preached to them (1:6).

When Paul learned what was happening in the Galatian churches, he was deeply troubled. The deeply personal letter he wrote to the Galatian churches came from the grieving heart of a godly church planting missionary whose spiritual children were buying into the error and lies of the Judaizers, who were undermining his authority and message.

II. The Recipients of the Letter

Second, let’s note the recipients of the letter.

Paul wrote this letter to the churches in Galatia (1:2). As I said, Paul established churches in Antioch (in Pisidia), Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. Most commentators today believe that these churches were the recipients of Paul’s letter.

The name Galatia is derived from the Gauls, who had invaded Macedonia and later Asia Minor in the third century BC in order to settle there. In popular speech, these Gauls were known as Gallo-Graecians, from which the name Galatians comes. The Galatians’ territory consisted of an area about 250 miles north to south and up to 175 miles east to west in what is known today as central Turkey.