Galatians Introduction

Whether Galatians was written in AD 49 or AD 58, we are dealing with one of the New Testament’s earliest writings. This is crucial in demonstrating that Jesus’s followers started with a high Christology, or view of Jesus Christ. Such a viewpoint was not something added later. Paul and the early church saw Jesus as “Lord” (Gl 1:3), as the post-resurrection revealer (1:12), as the preexistent one sent forth by the Father (4:4), and as the changer of the world structure (6:14; see 2:20-21).

Galatians is also apologetically significant in systematically persuading believers to continue in the true gospel and reject all non-gospels. Paul was emphatic in his confirmation of a single true gospel, with its universal nature open to all peoples through faith (chaps. 1–2). He went on to show that only this true gospel places believers from all peoples in the true people of God and gives them God’s identity marker of the Holy Spirit through their faith in Christ (chaps. 3–4). Finally, Paul proclaimed that only the true gospel provides deliverance from sin’s power through the giving of the Holy Spirit (chaps. 5–6).