Text: Galatians

• Overview: This letter is pointed, addressing a specific attack on the doctrine of grace.
• Paul identifies himself as the author, noting that he is apostle appointed by Jesus himself (and by God, who raised Jesus from the dead).
• He dives right in, not devoting much content to pleasantries (apart from a brief, gracious greeting), exclaiming his alarm that the Galatians are departing so swiftly from the truth that he had brought them.
  • He tells them that the message that they are now following is not good news at all, and an entirely different Gospel that what he had shared with them.
  • He proclaims that God’s curse is on anyone who would preach an alternative Gospel than the one shared by authentic Christians (this alternative Gospel being anything that deviates from authentic Christianity).
  • Paul acknowledges that this bold statement steps on some toes, but he only seeks to please God.

• Paul explains that his message is not of human origin, but comes directly from Jesus.
  • This is the same Jesus he zealously persecuted earlier in life, when he hunted down Christians and had them imprisoned and put to death.
  • Yet, he declares that before he had been born God had chosen him and called him by grace for this work that he was now doing.
  • He recounted his history of conversion, giving them a historical timeline of his walk of faith and highlighting the pervasiveness of grace he has experienced that has made his ministry possible.
    • He mentions an experience where he had experienced conflict that was similar to what he was addressing now with the Galatians. When it had happened earlier, he sought (and received) agreement from the Jerusalem Apostles because he wanted to be certain that he himself wasn’t the one teaching aberrant doctrine. The Apostles agreed with him, and they were unified that they wanted to preserve the true Gospel and protect it from heretical teachings that attempted to add additional requirements to the grace of God.
    • The Apostles added nothing to Paul’s teaching and recognized that he had been set apart to take the Gospel to the Gentile world, just as Peter had been appointed to the Jewish world — both of whom were serving the same Lord with the same message.
  • Yet, despite this initial agreement (or perhaps more accurately, because of it), Paul later opposed Peter to his face when he witnessed Peter behaving hypocritically when he initially would eat with Gentiles but later would not when he was in the presence of other Jews. This hypocrisy was soon mimicked by other Christians, including Barnabas.
    • Paul made the point to Peter that to return to these old ways and to abandon grace was to rebuild that which has been torn down.
    • He explained that because of grace he had stopped living for the law that could only condemn, which freed him to begin living for God.
    • understated point: to live in Christ means to identify that the old (pre-belief) life has been crucified (put to death) with Jesus when he died on the cross. The new life is realized (experienced) because of and in the power of the resurrected Jesus.
• Focusing on the main point of his letter, he takes them back to the origins of their new faith in Jesus, explaining that it came as a result of the Holy Spirit, and not in following the laws of Moses. Therefore, it was illogical and unreasonable to go back to the law to try to add to the grace God has shown them.
• He then educates them on Abraham, the familiar father of their religion. Paul illuminates that God’s favor shown to Abraham was grace, and his belief in God’s promises was credited to Abraham as righteousness, apart from obedience to the law (which had not yet been given).
• understated point: it is by faith (alone) that a righteous person has life.
  • The promises God gave to Abraham were not undone, cancelled, or surpassed by the law God gave to Moses 430 years later.
  • The law was given, therefore, to show people their sin. As such, the law cannot give life, it can only bring death.
  • The law exists to show the holiness of God and the depravity of man – the vast chasm between them.
  • In this, the law serves as a guardian to people that speaks to the human conscience, until Jesus was revealed as the way from death to life, available to all people everywhere,
  • To further illustrate this truth, he compares people’s relationship to the law as children who are heirs to a wealth who are under a guardian until they are old enough to claim what is theirs. The law is that guardian that controls and directs people. Jesus, though, came and lived to pay the price to free all people who are subject to the law’s enslavement/guardianship.
  • Now, because of Jesus, you are no longer a slave of the law, but you are an adopted child of God.
• Paul appeals to the Galatians to live in their freedom, rather than choosing to return to their enslavement to the law.
  • He tells them that the false teachers who were advocating this old way were people with bad intentions.
• To further illustrate the argument of living under grace, Paul returns to Abraham, but this time illustrates the point by showing them how Isaac was a child of God’s promise, but Ishmael was a child of human effort.
  • God’s promise was long in development, but Abraham always believed God, and increasingly expected it to happen.
  • More specifically, Hagar (the handmaiden) represents Mount Sinai where the law (that brings death) was given, and Sarah (Abraham’s wife) represents Jerusalem, the free city.
  • The Galatians were like now like Isaac, free children of promise, who were now being persecuted by children of Mt. Sinai (a picture of Ishmael’s persecution of Isaac).
  • Just as Hagar and Ishmael were expelled, Paul exhorted the Galatians to expel the heretics now.
  • understated point: determine to stay free! Refuse to be enslaved to the law again.
    • if you choose to be enslaved by even one law (in the case of the Galatians, it was a post-belief requirement to be circumcised), then you are submitting yourself to the requirement of keeping all the law.
    • don’t miss this: what matters (what is important) is faith expressing itself in love.
• Paul reminded the Galatians that they had started well in their belief, but this new teaching was a sin that was poisoning their faith.
• He told them that their freedom in Christ was the new paradigm that gave them life.
  • He warned them not to misuse their freedom to fulfill selfish (sexual) desires.
  • Rather, he told them to love and serve one another.
• He explained that their ability to accomplish this was found in letting the Holy Spirit guide their lives.
  • The human nature continually wars against the Holy Spirit.
  • But because you, Christian, are controlled by/ are free in the Holy Spirit, you are not enslaved to the cravings of your fallen human nature.
  • Human nature-controlled behaviors are predictable, and consistently destructive and divisive. People whose lives are characterized by these behaviors will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
  • Similarly, Spirit-controlled behaviors are predictable and consistently constructive, unifying, and God-glorifying. These behaviors are known as the “Fruit of the Spirit” because these are the expressions or manifestations of God’s Spirit inner-workings in a believer’s life.
  • There is no law against these expressions of the faith life.
  • Paul exclaims, because we live in the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit!
• Paul also encourages the Galatians to help restore fellow believers who stumble in their grace walk (or sin in any general manner).
  • He warns them to be gentle and humble in this gracious work of restoration, and to not fall into the same sins that ensnared those they are restoring.
  • understated point: share one another’s burdens, and in so doing you fulfill the law of Christ (the singular law to love others sacrificially)
  • He also admonishes them not to think they’re too important to help others. Because they aren’t.

• Interestingly, in the shadow of the command to help cary one another’s burden, Paul admonishes them to work hard to live a life free of comparison, because we are each responsible for our own conduct.
• He offers some final directions:
  • Don’t think that God can be mocked, you’ll harvest whatever you plant.
    • If you live for the flesh, you’ll harvest the fruit of human nature.
    • If you life for the Spirit, you’ll harvest the fruit of the Spirit.
  • understated point Never grow weary doing good!
  • What counts is whether or not we’ve been transformed into a new creation.
    • That’s all.
    • Nothing else.
    • In Jesus, you are the new people of God.
    • Don’t bother Paul with this nonsense again.

• Grace to you, Galatians (and gentle readers!)