Luther Galatians

1. Auflage 1998
ISBN: 978-1-4335-1761-7
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band 15, 304 Seiten

Reihe: Crossway Classic Commentaries

For hundreds of years Christendom has been blessed with Bible commentaries written by great men of God who were highly respected for their godly work and their insight into spiritual truth. The Crossway Classic Commentary Series, carefully adapted for maximum understanding and usefulness, presents the very best work on individual Bible books for today's believers. Ever since it was written, the apostle Paul's letter to the believers in Galatia has nurtured trust and assurance in Christ. Its grand themes of the superiority of Scripture over human reason, the sufficiency of Christ's atonement through his death, and the freedom of justification through faith alone continue to energize and enlighten Christians today. This classic commentary from the heart of a courageous apostle will encourage and equip all who desire to understand, live out, and communicate the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German theologian and one of the most influential figures in the Protestant Reformation. Some of Luther's best-known works are the Ninety-Five Theses, 'A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,' and his translation of the Bible into German.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Luther, Martin

Leseproben

Chapter 1
The Occasion
of the Letter

Paul had planted the pure teaching of the Gospel among the Galatians, and with it the righteousness of faith. But after he left, certain false teachers crept in who overthrew all that he had taught. The devil cannot but argue furiously against the true teaching and cannot rest as long as he sees any spark of it remaining. We too, simply because we preach the Gospel, suffer from the world, the devil, and his ministers all the mischief they can work against us on every hand.

The Gospel is a doctrine that teaches a far higher matter than the wisdom, righteousness, and religion of the world; it teaches free forgiveness of sins through Christ. But the world prefers its own things instead of the Creator and tries to get rid of sin, be delivered from death, and earn everlasting life in its own way. The Gospel condemns this. On the other hand, the world cannot abide things being condemned when it values them highly and likes them best; and therefore it claims that the Gospel is a seditious doctrine, full of errors, that it overthrows governments, countries, and empires, and therefore offends against God and the emperor, that it abolishes laws, corrupts good manners, and sets everybody free to do what they want. Therefore, with what appears to be holy and righteous zeal, the world persecutes this doctrine and abhors its teachers and adherents as the greatest plague on earth.

Moreover, preaching true doctrine overthrows the devil, destroys his kingdom, and wrests out of his hand the law, sin, and death (by which he has subjugated all mankind). In short, the devil’s prisoners are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and liberty. Will the devil permit all this? Will the father of lies not use all his force and ingenuity to obscure, corrupt, and utterly root out this doctrine of salvation and eternal life? Indeed, St. Paul complains in this and all his other letters that the devil shows himself skillful at this.

The Gospel is a doctrine that condemns all sorts of human righteousness and preaches the sole righteousness of Christ. To those who accept this, it brings peace of conscience and all good things; yet the world hates and persecutes it bitterly.

I have already said that the reason Paul wrote this letter was that after he left, false teachers among the Galatians destroyed what he had built with much hard work. These false apostles were Pharisees—men of authority, highly esteemed—who boasted that they belonged to the chosen people, that they were Abraham’s descendants (see Romans 9:4-6), that they had the promises and the fathers, and, finally, that they were ministers of Christ and scholars of the apostles, with whom they had been conversant and whose miracles they had seen. Perhaps they had even performed some miracles themselves, for Christ says that the wicked do perform miracles (see Matthew 7:22).

Moreover, these false apostles defaced St. Paul’s authority, saying, “Why do you rate Paul so highly? Why do you have him in such great reverence? He was merely the last of all those who were converted to Christ. But we are the disciples of the apostles; we knew them well. We saw Christ performing miracles and heard him preach. Paul came after us and is inferior to us. It would be impossible for God to allow us to go wrong when we belong to his holy people, are the ministers of Christ, and have received the Holy Spirit. Further, there are many of us, and Paul is on his own and neither knows the apostles nor has seen Christ. Indeed, for a long time he persecuted the church of Christ. Do you think God would allow so many churches to be deceived, just for Paul’s sake?”

When such persuasive men come into a country or city, people soon admire them, and those men deceive not only the simple but also the learned with their apparent godliness. They even deceive people who seem to be pretty well established in the faith. Thus Paul lost his authority among the Galatians, and his doctrine was brought under suspicion.

Against this boasting of the false apostles, Paul firmly asserts his apostolic authority. Although he does not do anything like it elsewhere, he will not give way to anyone, even to the apostles themselves, much less to any of their followers. To stop these men’s pharisaical pride and shameless boldness, he mentions what happened at Antioch, where he withstood Peter himself. He ignores any possible offense and plainly states that he was so bold as to accuse and reprove Peter, the chief of the apostles, who had seen Christ and knew him really well. “I am an apostle,” he says in effect, “and was not afraid to chide the pillar of all the rest.”

So in the first two chapters Paul sets out his calling, his office, and his Gospel, affirming that he had not received it from any human being, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. He also says that if he, or even an angel from heaven, should bring any other Gospel than that which he has preached, he should be condemned (1:8).

The Certainty of the Calling

What does Paul mean by this boasting? The answer is that every minister of God’s Word should be sure of his calling, so that he may preach the Gospel as one who is called and sent. A royal ambassador boasts that he does not come as a private person but as the king’s ambassador, and he is honored because of this dignity. In the same way, the preacher of the Gospel should be certain that his calling is from God, and it is expedient that he should follow Paul’s example and give honor to this calling, so that he may win credit and authority among the people. This is a necessary kind of glorying, because he is glorying not in himself but in the king who sent him, whose authority he wants to be honored.

Similarly, when Paul commends his calling so highly, he is not seeking praise for himself but exalts his ministry with a necessary and holy pride. As he says in Romans 11, “Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry” (verse 13); that is, “I want people to receive me not as Paul of Tarsus but as Paul the apostle or an ambassador of Jesus Christ.” He has to do this in order to maintain his authority, so that the people are more willing to listen to him. In Paul they hear Christ himself, and God the Father also, and they should reverently receive Christ and listen to his messengers.

This is a notable passage, therefore, for Paul is boasting of his calling, thus despising all others. If a person in a worldly way despised everyone else, he would be a fool and give great offense. But this kind of boasting is necessary and refers not to Paul’s glory but to God’s. It is by such boasting that the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving are offered to God, as it tells the world about his name, grace, and mercy.

1. Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man. Right at the beginning, he mentions those false teachers who boasted they were the apostles’ disciples and were sent by them, but who despised Paul as someone who was neither of the apostles’ school nor sent by anyone to preach the Gospel, but came in some other way and thrust himself into that office on his own. Paul defends his calling against these people, saying in effect, “My calling seems base to your preachers, but those who have come to you have either entered by themselves, being not called, or else were called by other people. But my calling is not a human calling but is above any calling that can be made by the apostles, for it is from Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.

From men. Those who call and thrust themselves in when neither God nor man calls or sends them speak on their own.

By man. I understand this to mean those who have a divine calling but one that comes by means of man. God calls people in two ways: with means and without means. He calls them to the ministry of his Word today not directly, but through other, human means. But the apostles were called directly by Christ himself, just as the prophets in the Old Testament were called by God himself. Therefore, when Paul says not from men nor by man, he is beating down the false apostles. This is like saying, “I will not waste time on any of these matters, nor should you. I am called and sent by Jesus Christ himself without any intermediary, and in every way my calling is the same as that of the apostles. I am indeed an apostle.”

Elsewhere, Paul makes a distinction between apostleship and other ranks, as in 1 Corinthians 12:28 and Ephesians 4:11, where he says that God “gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists,” and so on, putting apostles first. People are properly called apostles when they are sent directly by God himself, without any of the usual intermediaries.

Thus Matthias was called only by God (Acts 1:23-26), for when the other apostles had appointed two, they did not dare choose between them, but cast lots and prayed that God would show which of them he wanted. Since the man was going to be an apostle, it was right that he should be called by God. In the same way Paul was called to be the apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). This is why the apostles are also called saints, for they are sure of their calling and doctrine and have continued faithful in their office. None of them became a castaway...