J. Vernon McGee has an interesting way of looking at the Bible. He seems to take
a standpoint on Galations that is very refreshing. I have never heard a biblical
scalar use the word cool before. I just really enjoyed reading his commentary.
He divides the book into five parts, the first being the introduction. He talks
about how in the first five verses Paul tells that he is an apostle by God not
by man. In verse two he describes that Paul is writing to the churches of
Galatia and not the church body that is composed of all that are saved. In verse
four he gives a very inspiring view of how Jesus gave himself. As well as
talking about how God will deliver us from present evil. From verse five he
talks about how wonderful God is and how we need to praise his name. McGee then
goes on to talk about Paul’s subject in Galations. Paul is writing this letter
to warn about Judaizers. After Paul had gone threw an area these Judaizers would
come right behind him and add to what Paul said. They would tell them that they
had to obey the Mosaic Law as well as have faith. The main idea for verses
1:6-10 holds the same main idea. God has provided us with the one and only true
gospel and this is what Paul was preaching. If anyone should ever come up to and
tell you that your belief is right up to a point we should tell them to leave us
alone. In the next part he talks about Paul’s experiences in Arabia. In verses
eleven and twelve Paul states one again about how the gospel he preaches came
from no man but from God. In verses 18-24 we read about Paul going to meet with
the other apostles and their reaction to him. The church as well as the apostles
in Jerusalem was slightly reluctant to accept Paul when he first arrived. In
fact McGee says “without the help of Barnabas, Paul would probably have waited
for a long time before the church in Jerusalem would have received him”. Paul
never did meet up with all the apostles. He only met two the brothers of Jesus,
James and Peter. Now we come to chapter two of Galations. This is the point were
things really start to get interesting. This is when Paul comes back to
Jerusalem with Titus. It was a very powerful message that Paul stated by
bringing one who was uncircumcised to the church of Jerusalem. The real meat of
verses 2:1-10 is when Paul meets with the apostles. In this meeting they both
presented their version of the gospel and came to find out that they had nothing
to add to Paul’s version. They had come to the agreement that both gospels
were true and accurate. Now we move to Paul’s experiences in Antioch with
Peter. It was well know that Jews did not feel that they should eat meat. Well
at the church in Antioch there was a mixture of both Jews and Gentiles. They
also had a great meal called a love feast in this church. Well this lead to some
problems having Jews that didn’t eat meat and Gentiles that did. The solution
was to have two separate tables, one with meat and one without. When Paul came
he saw no problem in eating meat so he went to sit at the gentiles table. When
Simon Peter arrived he saw Paul sitting at the table and sat at the Jews table
anyway. Later after the meal Peter ask Paul about eating meat and Paul explained
to Peter that eating meat cannot separate you from God if you are saved by
grace. Peter then ate meat the next morning and enjoyed it. That evening when
friends from the church in Jerusalem came Peter went from the Gentile table back
to the kosher table. “By his actions he was saying that the gentile table was
wrong and the kosher table was right. Now we come to chapter three in Galatians
were Paul now goes back to the experiences of the Galatians. McGee says that he
believes in experience. He says that you have to be very careful when dealing
with experience. “What experience dose is corroborate the gospel”. There are
many people today that reason from experience to truth. McGee believes that the
Word of God reasons from truth to experience. If we try to make scriptural truth
out of our experiences we can do nothing but falsify the Word of God. Paul ask
the Galatians six questions about there experience. These questions were asked
for one simple purpose and that is to make sure that the Galatians knew good and
well of their salvation and that they should not back step once they had been
saved. Now we come to what McGee calls the high water mark, the illustration of
Abraham. Paul uses Abraham because he is just a great example of justification
by faith. Paul uses Abraham as an example in both Roman and Galatians. It can
not be said that Abraham was justified by the law because the Mosaic Law
didn’t appear till another 400 years later.