The main design of Paul in this chapter, is to show that he had received his call to the apostleship, not from man, but from God. It had been alleged (see the introduction to Galatians) that the apostles at Jerusalem possessed the most elevated rank, and the highest authority in the Christian church; that they were to be regarded as the fountains and the judges of the truth; that Paul was inferior to them as an apostle; and that they who inculcated the necessity of circumcision, and the observance of the rites of Moses, were sustained by the authority and the examples of the apostles at Jerusalem.
To meet this statement was the design of this first chapter. Paul’s grand object was to show that he was not appointed by human beings; that he had not been commissioned by human beings; that he had not derived his instructions from human beings; that he had not even consulted with them; but that he had been commissioned and taught expressly by Jesus Christ, and that when the apostles at Jerusalem had become acquainted with him, and with his views and plans of labor, long after he had begun to preach, they had fully concurred with him. This argument comprises the following parts:
I. The solemn declaration, that he was not commissioned by human beings, and that he was not, in any sense, an apostle of man, together with the general salutation to the churches in Galatia; Galatians 1:1-5.
II. The expression of his astonishment that the Galatians had so soon forsaken his instruction, and embraced another gospel; and a solemn declaration that whoever preached another gospel was to he held accursed; Galatians 1:6-10. Twice he anathematizes those who attempt to declare any other way of justification than that which consisted in faith in Christ, and says that it was no gospel at all. It was to he held as a great and fixed principle, that there was but one way of salvation; and no matter who attempted to preach any other, he was to be held accursed.
III. To show, therefore, that he was not appointed by human beings, and that he had not received his instructions from human beings, but that he had preached the truth directly revealed to him by God, and that which was, therefore, immutable and eternal, he goes into a statement of the manner in which he was called into the ministry, and made acquainted with the gospel; Galatians 1:11-24.
(a) He affirms, that he was not taught it by man, but by the express revelation of Jesus Christ; Galatians 1:11-12.
(b) He refers to his former well-known life, and his zeal in the Jewish religion; showing how much he had been formerly opposed to the gospel; Galatians 1:13-14.
(c) He says that he had been separated, by the divine purpose, from his mother’s womb, to be a preacher of the gospel, and that when he was called to the ministry, he had no conference with any human being, as to what he was to preach; he did not go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were older apostles, but he retired far from them into Arabia, and thence, again returned to Damascus; Galatians 1:15-17.
(d) After three years, he says, he did indeed go to Jerusalem; but he remained there only fifteen days, and saw none of the apostles but Peter and James; Galatians 1:18-19. His views of the gospel were formed before that; and that he did not submit implicitly to Peter, and learn of him, he shows in Galatians 2, where he says, he “withstood him to the face.”
(e) After that, he says, he departed into the regions of Cilicia, in Asia Minor, and had no opportunity of conference with the churches which were in Judea. Yet they heard that he who had been formerly a persecutor, had become a preacher, and they glorified God for it; Galatians 1:20-24. Of course, he had had no opportunity of deriving his views of religion from them; he had been in no sense dependent on them; but so far as they were acquainted with his views, they concurred in them. The sum of the argument, therefore, in this chapter is, that when Paul went into Cilicia and the adjacent regions, he had never seen but two of the apostles, and that for only a short time; he had never seen the apostles together; and he had never received any instructions from them. His views of the gospel, which he had imparted to the Galatians, he had derived directly from God.