Outline of Galatians

“But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.” Galatians 3:11

It is interesting how the apostle Paul begins his epistles to different assemblies or individuals by using the words grace and peace. The source of true grace and peace is God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He is writing to believers in Christ – those who know the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. However, Galatians takes a different character in that it addresses doctrinal matters, even serious doctrinal errors among the people. This doctrinal error is in relation to the Gospel that Paul preached, where Jews were telling the Galatians that they had to adhere to the Jewish system as well as the gospel message. Paul corrects this in this epistle.

Galatians was written by the apostle Paul and interestingly commences the book by confirming that his apostleship was not from man, but from Jesus Christ. We will see why he had to mention this later. The province of Galatia was in Asia Minor in the times of the Bible, which is now modern day Turkey. However, it has been commented that the Galatian people themselves were celts like the Gauls (the native inhabitants of the country we know today as France). Paul had been in Galatia on his missionary journeys in Acts 16 and there preached the gospel, and as a result many were converted and several assemblies were formed. This epistle is addressed to “the assemblies of Galatia” and not just to one local assembly. There is a significance in this. The other interesting matter is that Paul only writes 5 verses as an introduction, and does not commend the Galatians for their love, or faith, or any other matter, but he immediately seeks to correct the doctrinal issue that they are in danger, or have already been enticed by another gospel other than what he had preached to them. Sources have stated that the epistle was perhaps written while Paul was in Ephesus during his three-year stay there, so the time of writing could have been during his third missionary journey. Again, dates of writing are not all agreed on, but the subject and doctrinal matter that Paul addresses is the important thing to examine in this epistle.

The epistle that Paul wrote under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to the Galatians is the most solemn, sharp, and combative epistle that ever came from his pen. It does not contain a single word of praise or thanksgiving like the other epistles but begins immediately after the greetings: “I wonder … and ends before the final greeting with the words: “From now on let no one trouble me…” (Gal 1:6; 6:17). (taken from Arend Remmers outline of Galatians).

The object of this epistle is the defence of the Gospel which Paul preached and he had to correct those “Judaizers” who were spreading false messages about the Gospel. A Judaizer is someone who teaches gentile believers that they have to abide by the Jewish traditions in order to be saved, for example, they had to be circumcised (Gal 2:2-9) and so Paul had to refute that. Paul also had to correct them of the danger of putting themselves under the law again (Gal 3:10-25; Gal 4:21-28). These also apply to us today and it is a warning for us in attempting to do additional things to our salvation, or to attempt to put ourselves under the law, we will find ourselves very disappointed and miserable because no-one can be justified by the law (Gal 3:11; Rom 3:20).

The activities of the Judaizers succeeded somewhat. There were those in the assemblies in Galatia that had begun to keep the law and were thinking about being circumcised, while others had stood up against it and this caused divisions among themselves. When the enemy is given the chance to plant bad seeds, there will be strife and contentions among the believers. This happened in Galatians (see Gal 5:15). Therefore, Paul had to write at length about the relationship of the Christian person to the law that was given to Moses at Sinai.

There are some great portions in this epistle that are well known and that we often quote as favourite verses. Galatians 2:19-20 is one of them, where Paul stresses the fact that we through the law are dead to the law, and then quotes the famous verse “I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” One other very notable section is in Galatians 5:16-26 where this portion is about the differences between the Spirit and the flesh in us. The fruit of the Spirit is very well known, we all like to hear about these, and not about the works of the flesh.

I will aim to provide a division of the epistle to the Galatians. It must be noted that Paul’s epistles were actually letters that were read out in the assemblies in one sitting, and there was not a division of any of the epistles. However, having a division can help us to separate the different ideas or subjects in that book, but we must not simply just take these out of context.

Galatians can be divided into three parts:

1. Historical part – Gal 1:1 to 2:21 explaining the origin of the gospel that Paul preached, his calling as an apostle not by men, but by Christ, and also his relationship with the saints in Jerusalem, most notably Peter.
2. Doctrinal part – Gal 3:1 to 4:31 explaining the differences between righteousness by faith and by law. There is a great deal of teaching regarding the difference between faith and the law, and the relationship of the believer today and the law that was given to Moses. Also the meaning and the purpose of the law is brought out in this section.
3. Practical or admonition part – Gal 5:1 to the end deals with issues in the believer’s practical life and the results of the new life, and the effect it should have on every believer.

This outline is adapted from Arend Remmers outline of Galatians, found at http://www.biblecentre.org. However, it is not intended to be a direct copy from the author, but to put in simple terms and in a simple way, the matters addressed in this epistle.