Galatians.
Galatians.
§ 260. Galatians was written in the twenty-sixth year after his conversion, in AD 59. This was the occasion for its writing: The apostle had learned that the Galatians had allowed themselves to be misled by false apostles who were corrupting the pure teaching of the Gospel that the Galatians had received from Paul regarding justification by faith (or gratuitous justification through faith alone in Christ) by mixing in the righteousness of works. The false apostles were teaching that man is not justified by faith alone in Christ but that to attain righteousness before God and hence eternal life there is an additional need for the observance of the Law and, in fact, not only of the moral but also of the ceremonial law. With great strength, the apostolic spirit in this Epistle sets itself against their corrupting influences.
It consists of six chapters, and it is completed in three parts. In the first part the apostle asserts the authority of his apostleship against the detractions of the false apostles who were attacking the person, office, and calling of Paul in order to make suspect the apostle’s teaching about gratuitous justification by faith. In the second part he deals with the principal question by confirming the righteousness of faith and, on the other hand, by refuting the righteousness of works. In the third, he encourages them to pursue holiness because true faith reveals itself through good works.