In this study, we're going to introduce this idea of the formal and material principle. The formal principle deals with who has the right to speak the truth, while the material principle deals with the content of the issue. There was a debate in the church 500 years ago, that spoke about how a man is saved. This is the material principle, but the formal principle – who has the right to say – was also important.
Those two recoveries are sometimes called the formal principle of the Reformation (the supreme authority of Scripture) and the material principle of the Reformation (the truth of justification by grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Christ alone). The reason Paul’s letter to the Galatians was so crucial in the recovery of these truths is that these two principles are exactly what this book deals with. Chapters 1 and 2 deal mainly with the formal principle — Paul’s apostolic authority. Chapters 3 and 4 deal mainly with the material principle — the truth of justification by faith apart from works of the law. Chapters 5 and 6 deal mainly with what that looks like in life.” (John Piper, “No Other Gospel”)
(A) Whose servant is Paul? The formal principle shapes Paul’s identity as an apostolic servant. (Gal 1:10)
In Gal 1:10, Paul asks about whose approval he is seeking. This comes after Gal 1:9, which was quite dramatic. He basically cursed anyone who preached a gospel contrary to the one they received. In Gal 1:10, he draws up an either/or scenario here. Is pleasing God and pleasing man entirely mutually exclusive? What we learn is that the servant takes the line of the master and in the areas when the master is clear, he stands with the master. Paul speaks so stridently here because God has spoken so clearly. Paul is an apostolic servant and he knows it. Do you? He knows what God has said and he lives by that. Is this the same for you today? Do you? This is a great place for us to start. There are only 2 kinds of people in this world – people who are trying to please man and people who are trying to please God. Are you quick to obey God, or do you go where God has not gone? On the things that God has spoken, we dare not change His word, and we do not want to please man. Where God has not gone, we do not dare go. but where He has spoken, that is where we live by and die on.
(B) Whose revelation? The formal principle shapes Paul’s beliefs about grace and conversion. (Gal 1:11-24)
In this section, Paul's chief concern is put forth in a negative and positive manner. Paul declares that he did not receive or inherited the gospel from man, but it was received as revelation. What does it mean to reveal something? Revelation means “to draw back” and is different from inspiration. Revelation means that something that was previously unknown is now given to you and comes to light.
Paul here speaks of a revelation of Jesus Christ, referring to a revelation about Jesus, but also through Jesus. This is why Paul is an apostle, because Jesus came to Him. Who this revelation comes from makes all the difference! Everything in the New Testament needs some form of credibility and what makes it all the word of God is that there is some apostolic credibility. This is important because Paul lays it out here as the basis of his very life and ministry! Paul was careful not to appeal to the credibility and friendship of the other apostles and instead appeals solely to the encounter with and revelation of Jesus to him on the Damascus Road.
In Gal 1:13-23, Paul briefly recaps his testimony and his life can be divided into various stages.
Why did Paul go into this detail about his conversion, and what he did thereafter? From this account, we realise that Paul skipped the central structures of orthodoxy after his conversion. This wasn't Paul being proud or too good for the apostles, but remember his argument -- Paul was not trying to please man but please God (Gal 1:10). Paul's confidence in the gospel was because he knew that he was saved only by God's grace, and this God that saved him gave him this gospel. Paul’s beliefs are grace-saturated because he knows that he did not receive it from Peter, James and the other apostles, but wholly from God.
He writes elsewhere in 1 Cor 2:12-14, reminding the Corinthians (and us) that in our natural state we cannot understand and we do not want God. The things that are spiritual require the Spirit. This means that our understanding of His Word is not because we are capable of understanding, but that the Spirit has worked to give us understanding, to make a supernatural man out of a natural man. This key understanding of his conversion, has also permeated his life and ministry such that every single thing that Paul speaks of, defends and does now is from grace. He is also very certain that this ministry is “by the mercy of God” (c.f. 2 Cor 4:1-3). This is God’s book, God’s message and ministers like Paul cannot mess it up. This work is also not done with an underhanded and disgraceful way.
The testimony is there to undermine every argument that is natural. Paul wasn’t taught formally, and he didn’t hang out with the apostles because he was in the desert. It was all of grace, and all of God. This is why Paul could declare in Gal 1:24, that "they glorified God because of me". He reminds us that glory proceeds from grace. God gets the glory when He does all the work.
(C) Whose gospel? The formal principle shapes Paul’s passionate toil for the material principle (Gal 2:1-10)
Paul is not done, and his story takes another turn in chapter 2. After 14 years, he goes up to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus after receiving a revelation (Gal 2:1-2). In Jerusalem, he "set before them ... the gospel that (he) proclaim among the Gentiles" (Gal 2:2a). Titus did not need to be circumcised, and Paul was also proven right, that Jesus’ death is enough and they did not need to add to the gospel.
When the apostles met Paul on this visit, they “perceived the grace that was given to (him)”(Gal 1:9a) and extended the “right hand of fellowship” (Gal 1:9b). The disciples recognised the grace of Paul’s apostleship and they welcomed him. They also affirmed his mission to take the gospel to the uncircumcised (Gal 1:9c) and reminded him to remember the poor (Gal 1:10a), a reminder that gives the gospel credibility, because this is not a religion for the insiders, but also for the outsiders, the marginalised.
This whole section seems to be only Paul's testimony. What is his point in recapping this long and lengthy story for the Galatian church? Paul is trying to establish the fact that this gospel that he cares so much for, is not one that he received from man. His convictions were not because he learnt the right things from the right people, or that he associate with influential apostles in the church. Paul received the gospel through Jesus Christ and having proven it over and over again, it also feeds his confidence in staying the course. This is why Paul is able to write from prison to the Philippians, to encourage them to stand firm and fight for the faith of the gospel and live a life worthy of the gospel (Phil 1:27-30). This is why Paul is also able to rejoice in his sufferings and persist in proclaiming Christ in order to "present everyone mature in Christ", doing so not by his own effort, but "struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me" (Col 1:24-29).
Sometimes we read these passages and wonder how Paul has such convictions that he's willing to die for. We read it and assume that it's not for us. Paul shows us here that these convictions come from knowing who the gospel is about and from.
You don’t have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, perhaps just one, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. (John Piper)
What do you know today? What are you willing to die for? Galatians reminds us that we may be insignificant in the eyes of the world, or, we may even be a high-achiever like Paul was. But these things don't matter in light of God's Word and grace. If the gospel that we have is true, wonderful, joy-giving as it is, then if we keep at it despite the affliction, your life will count.