We have come to the end of this letter from Paul to the Galatians. Up to this point Paul has been dictating to his secretary, but now he takes the pen himself to add a P.S. On this occasion, he writes several final sentences in his own handwriting. Most commentators consider that he used large letters deliberately, ether because he was treating his readers like children, rebuking their spiritual immaturity by using baby writing or simply for emphasis; Lightfoot has written, “To arrest the eye and rivet the mind.”
What is it that Paul emphasizes? He emphasizes the principal themes of the Christian gospel. Once again he contrasts himself with the Judaizers, and so the two religious systems they represent. Reading his words, we are lifted out of the controversy between Paul and the Judaizers in the first century AD and are brought right into the twentieth century. We even catch a glimpse of the course on church history down the ages, in which these issues have been continuously debated.
Here are two questions about the essence of the Christian religion: Is the essence of the Christian religion outward or inward? And secondly, is the essence of the religion is human or divine? In other words, is the gospel fundamentally a matter of what we do for God or what He has done for us?
