After the greeting, as he begins the Epistle itself, Saint Paul indicates what compels him to write it. He also defines the subject he will prove in it.
He is moved to write by the change in the Galatians’ thinking about the manner of salvation. This manner had been handed down to them by the Apostle himself; see 1:6-7.
The subject of the Epistle will be the immutability of the Gospel he preached. Wishing to return them to their former manner of believing, he undertakes to prove that no one can change the teaching he handed down to them.
Whoever attempts this will fall under a fearful anathema, whoever he may be, from earth or from heaven; see 1:8-10.
I marvel means: I am astonished and cannot understand. This unexpected thing amazes me, namely, your change and your falling away from faith.
People usually marvel at what happens beyond expectation and cannot at once understand how it happened. This could not have been expected, because they received the faith with such fervor and had already experienced its saving fruits.
Saint Chrysostom writes: When he says, I marvel, he not only reproaches them. After such great and abundant gifts, such forgiveness of sins, and such love of God for mankind, they voluntarily handed themselves over to the yoke of bondage.
At the same time he shows what opinion he has of them, namely a high and excellent one. If he had regarded them as weak and easily deceived, he would not have marveled at what happened.
But since, he says, you were among those who sincerely believed and labored much, therefore I marvel. This was enough for their conversion and restoration to their former state.
He expressed hope for this in the middle of the Epistle when he said, Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? cf. 3:4.
Ambrosiaster says: He marvels that they rushed from the freedom they had received into slavery. It rarely happens that someone runs from what gives joy to what causes sorrow.
The Apostle marvels that, being in a state of contentment and safety, they handed themselves over to anxious and empty bondage. It is as if a foolish sailor, safe in harbor, set out into the open sea during a storm.
He would be going toward obvious dangers.
Thus Saint Paul addresses the Galatians directly with a word of reproach. In other Epistles he first praises those to whom he writes for receiving the faith and advancing in it, even though they were defective in other matters.
But what place is there for praise when people fall away from faith? Other Churches, though imperfect, held firmly to the faith. These, by changing the faith, destroyed every goodness in themselves.
Even if there was something good in them, it lost its value, since it was no longer from faith. The Apostle therefore gives them no praise.
Perhaps he omitted it also because, immediately after receiving this unpleasant news, he took up the pen and hastened to lead them out of error. There was no time for customary formalities. He had to get to the matter quickly.
His whole attention was occupied with their change. He speaks directly about it. You have changed, he says, in what cannot be changed. Then he proves this.
So quickly. This may mean so soon after conversion, for that too had happened not long before, perhaps three or four years earlier.
Or it may mean after Saint Paul’s second stay with them, from which perhaps not even a year had passed.
It is as though he says to them: Was it long ago that I was with you and saw that you stood on the good path? You ran well; 5:7. How, then, were the steps of your feet so quickly disturbed?
Or quickly may be counted from the appearance of the false teachers among them. That is: no sooner had the false teachers appeared among you than you ran after them.
In Saint Chrysostom the first thought is glimpsed, but the second is more evident. He says: The Apostle lays two charges on them, apostasy and such swift apostasy.
Of course they would have deserved accusation even if they had fallen away after much time. But here the matter concerns deception and fraud.
If the man who falls away not at once, but after a long time, is worthy of accusation, then what of one who falls at the enemy’s first assault?
When he falls from arrows shot from afar, he shows in himself an example of extreme weakness. The Apostle reproaches the Galatians for this, as if saying: What does this mean?
Those who deceive you no longer even need time. A single first attack is enough for them to overthrow and capture all of you.
Saint John of Damascus says likewise: This awakens great amazement in me, says the Apostle. They were so instructed in the mystery of faith that they could have been teachers of others, yet they so easily believe false teachers.
Blessed Jerome sets forth both thoughts: Paul marvels first that they passed from evangelical freedom into the slavery of works of the law. Then he marvels that they passed so quickly.
For it is not the same fault to pass from someone slowly and quickly. Among martyrs, one who immediately yields to denial without resistance or torture is not accused in the same way as another.
The latter is forced by unbearable torments to deny what he believed. The preaching of the Gospel was still new among them.
Little time had passed since Paul led the Galatians from idolatry to Christ. Therefore he marvels that they so quickly departed from Him in whose name they had recently begun to be called Christians.
You are being moved away. They had inclined toward false teaching and had been shaken in their fidelity to the Gospel. They intended to pass under the yoke of the law, but had not yet passed.
The matter was underway, but not yet completed. This is what makes him hasten to them with a word of admonition.
For it always happens that it is easier to restrain one falling away from faith, or falling into sin, than to return one who has fallen away and raise one who has fallen.
Saint Chrysostom writes: He did not say, you have been moved away, but, you are being moved away. That is, I do not yet believe or think that this deception has had full success.
By this he again shows hope of converting them. He expressed this hope still more clearly later, saying, I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will think nothing else; cf. 5:10.
From Him who called you. Who is the one who called? The first person who presents himself is the Apostle Paul. He called them to faith by his preaching of the Gospel.
So also the Thessalonians were called; see 2 Thess 2:14. He planted faith in them, as also in the Corinthians; see 1 Cor 3:6.
He and all the Apostles were the nearest instruments of the calling of the nations to the grace of Christ. For it was said to them, Go and teach all nations; cf. Mt 28:19.
It would not be inappropriate to understand it this way here. The Apostle’s first purpose will be to prove that they should not fall away from the faith precisely because he converted and taught them.
His teaching is not from men, but from above. The following words also fit this understanding more directly: by the grace of Christ.
Everywhere Saint Paul says that by the grace of Christ he is what he is: an Apostle sent by the Lord Himself far away among the nations, to bear His most glorious name.
Yet neither Saint Paul nor the other Apostles usually stop at themselves as instruments when explaining the calling to faith. They always raise the mind to Him who, acting through them, established Christ’s Kingdom on earth.
Therefore here also it is better to understand the same Actor. Who is He? Some say, Jesus Christ.
The Greek text allows this place to be translated thus: you are being moved away from Christ, who called you by His grace. Blessed Jerome also finds this possible.
He says: It may also be taken thus: I marvel that you are so quickly being moved away from Jesus Christ, who called you into grace.
As He says of Himself in the Gospel: I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance; Mk 2:17. Of course, He thereby indicates that He came in every way to call.
Yet neither the Apostle Paul nor the other Apostles usually speak this way. They all refer calling to God the Father, raising everything to the single source of all blessings.
Everyone can verify this by examining the passages of Scripture that speak of calling. Such are 1 Pet 1:15; 2:9; 5:10; 2 Pet 1:3; Rom 8:30; 9:24.
Also 1 Cor 1:9; 7:15, 17; 1 Thess 2:12; 5:24; 2 Thess 2:14; 2 Tim 1:9.
The Apostle’s aim in the Epistle also required him to raise the calling of the Galatians, as accomplished through him, to God the Father.
They feared offending God the Father if they refused the law. Here the Apostle makes them understand that they offend God not by refusing submission to the law, but by turning away from the Gospel.
Thus Saint Chrysostom says: Since, by keeping the law, they thought they were pleasing the Father, as the Jews also thought when persecuting Christ, he first shows that by acting so they offend not only Christ, but the Father.
For in doing this, he says, you depart not only from Christ, but also from the Father. Just as the Old Testament is not from the Father only, but also from the Son, so grace is not the gift of the Son only, but also of the Father.
All things are common to Them: All that the Father has is Mine; Jn 16:15.
By the grace of Christ. In Russian it is translated, into the grace of Christ. The Greek text permits both translations.
Anyone who has examined the cited passages has certainly seen that calling is surrounded by luminous ideas. We are called by God the Father to salvation; 2 Thess 2:13.
We are called into the communion of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; cf. 1 Cor 1:9. We are called into peace; 1 Cor 7:15; see Col 3:15.
We are called into His marvelous light; 1 Pet 2:9. We are called into His Kingdom and glory; 1 Thess 2:12, and into His eternal glory; 1 Pet 5:10.
All these expressions have the same meaning as into the grace of Christ. They define at length what the grace of Christ is.
But there are other expressions that have the same meaning as by the grace of Christ. Thus Saint Paul confesses himself to have been called by the grace of God; cf. 1:15.
He says of all that God called them with a holy calling according to His good pleasure and grace, given to us in Christ Jesus before eternal ages; cf. 2 Tim 1:9.
From this we may conclude that it is necessary to distinguish where it is better to say by grace and where into grace. Yet in essence the two are inseparable.
Without the grace of Christ there would have been no calling. Once the calling began, where else could it be directed except into the grace of Christ?
If we attend to the expression in which God the Father is presented as having called us by the grace of Christ, the thought will be this. Through the fall we angered God and lost His good pleasure.
The Lord Jesus Christ reconciled us to God by His death and restored His good pleasure to us. This is properly the grace of Christ.
For its sake all other mercies from God flowed upon us, of which the first is calling. Thus Saint Chrysostom says: The calling is the work of the Father, but the cause of the calling is the Son.
He reconciled us and gave the gift of grace. For we did not receive salvation from righteous works.
Saint Chrysostom also expresses another thought. Saint Paul said by the grace of Christ, while referring to God the Father, because everything is common to the Father and the Son.
Or better, he says, what belongs to the Son belongs also to the Father. What belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son. For He says, Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; cf. Jn 17:10.
Oecumenius rises here from the unity of action of the Father and the Son to the unity of action of all the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity.
He says: The Son grants remission of sins and reconciliation by His blood. The Father calls. The Holy Spirit works. This is the common benefaction toward us of the holy and blessed Trinity.
If we dwell on the expression into the grace of Christ, then by grace we will understand the whole ordering of our salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord.
THEOSIS