Today we start a new book of the Bible, Galatians. This book was written somewhere in the early 50’s, less than 20 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. It was written by Paul, to the churches that he started while on his first missionary Journey. It begins with the standard epistle format: From (Paul), To (the churches of Galatia), and a greeting (grace to you and peace…)
Yet there are a couple of things that stands out in the beginning of this letter. First is Paul’s call as an apostle (literally “sent one”) that came through Jesus Christ and the Father. This apostleship was not something that any person gave to him (not something he even desired), but was the calling of God himself. While the Galatians would have known that from when he was there, he reasserts his apostleship as being from God.
The second part is in the greeting. Paul describes in verse 4 what Jesus has done – giving himself for our sins. This proclamation of Christ is important, especially as we start looking more in depth at this book. The focus of this book, as shown in this short introduction, Is Christ’s sacrifice for our sins.