Galatians 1:15 - Printer Friendly

ESV: But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,

NIV: But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased

NASB: But when He who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace was pleased

CSB: But when God, who from my mother's womb set me apart and called me by his grace, was pleased

NLT: But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him

KJV: But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,

NKJV: But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace,

In order to show his Galatian readers that what he taught them about Christ came directly from Christ, Paul is reminding them of his own story. He has described his years in Judaism, when he was a Pharisee. He was so opposed to Jesus of Nazareth that he arrested, imprisoned, and approved of the killing of Christians. He was so zealous for the traditions that he advance beyond his peers in Jewish leadership.

Then everything changed. Paul's story is that God appeared to him and turned him around (Acts 9:1–22). Looking back, Paul says he now understands that God set him apart for this role of apostle before he was even born. In other words, Paul didn't simply rethink his life and change course. God intervened to put Paul in the role God had destined him to fill.

Secondly, Paul writes that God called him by His grace. Paul understood that just as nobody "earns" status before God, he had not "earned" the role of apostle. Paul only represented Christ to the Galatians, and to everyone else, by the grace of God. God did this to him; he did not choose it. He simply received it.

Galatians 1:11–24 begins with Paul's statement that he did not receive the gospel which he taught to the Galatians from any man-made religion, nor training from other people. He received it from Christ Himself. God revealed His Son Jesus to Paul, by His grace, even after Paul spent years as a Pharisee trying to destroy the Christian church. After Christ commissioned Paul to preach the good news to the Gentiles, he went off by himself for a few years and came to know the gospel through Christ directly.

Paul begins his letter to the Galatian churches abruptly, compared to his other writings. He has heard they are deserting the gospel which he preached and they believed: the good news that Jesus died to fully pay for all our sins on the cross. The Judaizers taught that these Gentiles must also follow the law of Moses to be saved and openly questioned Paul's authority. Paul makes the case that he has been made an apostle by Christ, who appeared to him and revealed the truth to him apart from the other apostles.

Galatians 1 begins one of the most-loved books about God's grace in all of Scripture. This and the following chapter detail Paul's biography, as he makes the case that he has been made an apostle by Christ and therefore his message is trustworthy. Chapters 3 and 4 go into depth about exactly what the gospel of God's grace is and why it is true. In chapters 5 and 6, Paul teaches about how Christians should live in the world as people who have received the grace of God through faith in Christ.

Galatians is sometimes called “a short Romans” for its similar themes of justification and sanctification through faith. A group of Christians known as “Judaizers” were preaching a gospel of legalism, rather than grace. Paul’s main purpose in writing the letter to the Galatians was to reiterate the true nature of the gospel: we are justified (made righteous) and sanctified (made more Christlike) through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. This letter was probably written shortly before the church elders in Jerusalem issued their official refutation of the Judaizers, commonly called the Jerusalem Council.

Accessed 5/6/2024 12:01:51 PM