“The One Who Calls in Grace”: Paul’s Rhetorical and Theological Identification with the Galatians

Abstract

Abstract This article explores an important link Paul makes between himself and the Galatians in Galatians 1: the connection between God’s calling the Galatians “in grace” (1:6) and the calling of Paul “through grace” (1:15). By describing his calling in the same language as the Galatians’, Paul presents himself, together with the Galatians, as one who has received grace in Christ: calling here designates foremost an act of divine creation in the Christ-event and only secondly a commissioning to a particular vocation. Paul’s and the Galatians’ stories thus become intertwined and mutually explicable as instantiations of the gospel Paul received. Accordingly, this rhetorical and theological identification with the Galatians more fully establishes how chapters 1-2 relate to 3-6: Paul’s autobiographical testimony of an unworthy Apostle who now preaches the gospel of God’s grace in Christ to his unworthy churches cannot be disentangled from his exposition and exegetical defense of that gospel.