CHAPTER 1




VERSE 1. Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus
Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead).

St. Paul wrote this epistle because, after his departure from the Galatian
churches, Jewish-Christian fanatics moved in, who perverted Paul's Gospel of
man's free justification by faith in Christ Jesus.

The world bears the Gospel a grudge because the Gospel condemns the religious
wisdom of the world. Jealous for its own religious views, the world in turn
charges the Gospel with being a subversive and licentious doctrine, offensive
to God and man, a doctrine to be persecuted as the worst plague on earth.

As a result we have this paradoxical situation: The Gospel supplies the world
with the salvation of Jesus Christ, peace of conscience, and every blessing.
Just for that the world abhors the Gospel.

These Jewish-Christian fanatics who pushed themselves into the Galatian
churches after Paul's departure, boasted that they were the descendants of
Abraham, true ministers of Christ, having been trained by the apostles
themselves, that they were able to perform miracles.