Galatians, an Example of Determining a Bible Author’s Purpose

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In the book of Galatians, Paul doesn’t directly state the purpose. We have to discover his implied purpose by looking at what he said, the problem he addressed, and the outcome he intended to achieve.

Creating an outline is a good way to see how the purpose statement is fleshed out in the book’s details. Check out my brief outline of  Galatians.[i] The main points and sub-points show you Paul’s primary and supporting thoughts. You don’t necessarily need to outline a passage to uncover its purpose. All you need to do is browse through the book and show how each major part aligns with the purpose statement you have written. However, outlining is an easy way to do so.

As discussed above, knowing the relationship between the author and the audience helps in determining the author’s purpose. Paul was an apostle called by God to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.[ii] He had planted the Galatian churches and had the spiritual authority to speak into them.

Paul’s emotional tone is one of urgency, anger, rebuke, and one of a caring teacher towards the end. Because of his authority and relationship with the Galatians, he uses some tough language. After the greeting, he immediately says,

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed (Gal 1:6-9)

A little later, he says, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” Those are some tough words grounded in Paul’s relationship with them.

From the main points Paul makes, it’s easy to tell that the problem he was addressing was the teaching and influence of Judaizers over the Galatian church. The Judaizers were Jewish Christians who believed and taught that the Gentiles had first to become Jewish (be circumcised and follow other Jewish laws) before becoming Christian. They persecuted those like Paul, who didn’t accept this view. In Galatians 2, Paul talks about how he even had to confront Peter, the apostle, because he was afraid of the Judaizers and withdrew from fellowship with the uncircumcised Gentiles.

It’s evident from the letter that the Galatian churches were already succumbing to the pressures of the Judaizers. As their founder, Paul’s purpose in writing was to rebuke, correct, and reteach the Galatians the gospel of grace, a gospel he had personally taught them and which they had believed and put their faith in Christ, but the Judaizers were now deceiving them to abandon.

Paul’s letter is persuasive, expositional, and designed to forcefully defend the gospel of grace that Paul preached to them. Every other “gospel” is no gospel at all. Paul wrote to defend the gospel of grace that was under attack by the Judaizers. To do this, he 1) Defends his apostleship, which was being challenged by the Judaizers, 2) Presents the source of his gospel—which was a divine revelation and not taught by any human teacher, and 3) Reveals that the Jerusalem leaders had affirmed his teaching, 4) Provides a doctrinal defense of the gospel of grace through faith alone, 5) Exposes the false teachings of the Judaizers,  and 6) Urges the Galatians to live in the freedom that the gospel of grace provides them.

[i] Note that if you consult ten outlines on the book of Galatians done by experts, they won’t all be the same. Your outline should make sense and look similar to those done by authors more trained than you, however, they don’t need to be exactly the same.

Outline of Galatians

I. Introduction (1:1-5)

II. Defense of the Gospel of Grace by Appealing to Witnesses (1:6-2:21)

1. Paul argues that there is no other gospel apart from the gospel of grace (1:6-10)
2. The source of the gospel of grace was a divine revelation, not from man (1:11-24)
3. The gospel of grace was affirmed by the Jerusalem leaders (2:1-10)
4. Paul opposes Cephas to defend the gospel of grace (2:11-21)

III. Doctrinal Defense of the Gospel of Grace (3:1-4:31)

1. Justification is through Faith, not Law (3:1-9)

1. 1. The Galatians received salvation by faith, not the law (3:1-5)
   2. Abraham is an example of salvation by faith (3:6-9)
   3. The righteous shall live by faith as Abraham did (3:10-14)
   4. Salvation came through an unchanging promise to Abraham’s seed (Christ), not the law (3:15-18)

1. The purpose of the law was to lead us to justification by faith (3:19-4:7)
2. Paul is concerned for the Galatians (4:8-20)
3. Sarah and Hagar represent the covenants of grace and law (4:21-31)

VI. Practical Application of the Gospel of Grace (5:1-6:10)

1. Walk in the freedom that comes from the Gospel of Grace through Christ (5:1-15)
2. Walk by the Spirit so that you won’t satisfy the flesh (5:16-26)
3. Bear one another’s burdens and love (6:1-6:10)

V. Conclusion (6:11-18)

[ii] There is some debate among academics about whether the audience for the book of Galatians was primarily Gentiles, Jews, or Mixed. For our purposes here, this distinction is not important. In either case, Paul was writing to a group of churches he had planted.