Galatians
Author: Paul
Paul writes in urgency to the churches of Galatia, which are turning to a different gospel that adds the law to Christ.
Outline
No other gospel (1–2)
Paul’s gospel came by revelation, and he withstood Peter at Antioch when table fellowship was compromised.
Abraham and the law (3–4)
The promise came before Sinai, and the law was a guardian until Christ, not a second way to be justified.
Freedom and the Spirit (5–6)
Liberty is not an occasion for the flesh, and the fruit of the Spirit is the life of those led by him.
Key verses
Galatians 1:6–7
Paul marvels that the churches are so quickly removed to another gospel, which is not another.
Galatians 2:16
A person is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
Galatians 5:1
Christ has made them free, and they are told to stand fast and not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
Galatians is Paul’s sharpest letter. He usually begins with thanksgiving. Here he begins with astonishment. He marvels that the churches of Galatia are so soon removed from him who called them into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. Some are troubling them and would pervert the gospel of Christ. If he himself, or an angel from heaven, preaches any other gospel than the one they received, let him be accursed. He says it twice. The issue is not a preference about ceremonies. It is whether the message that saved them is still the message they are willing to live by. Teachers have told Gentile believers that faith in Christ is not enough unless they also take on circumcision and the works of the law. Paul treats that addition as a different gospel.
He defends the origin of his message before he defends its content. The gospel he preached is not after man. He did not receive it from man, nor was he taught it. It came by the revelation of Jesus Christ. He reminds them that he persecuted the church and was called by grace to preach Christ among the Gentiles. When he laid that gospel before the leaders in Jerusalem, Titus was not compelled to be circumcised, and James, Cephas, and John gave him the right hand of fellowship. The agreement did not hold in practice at Antioch. Peter ate with Gentiles until certain men came from James, and then he withdrew. Other Jews, and even Barnabas, dissembled with him. Paul withstood him to the face. If you, being a Jew, live after the manner of Gentiles, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews? A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. To rebuild what he had destroyed would make him a transgressor. He is crucified with Christ. The life he now lives, he lives by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him and gave himself for him. He does not frustrate the grace of God. If righteousness comes by the law, Christ is dead in vain.
The argument from Abraham is the heart of the letter. Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Those who are of faith are his children. The scripture preached the gospel beforehand, saying that in him all nations would be blessed. The law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ. The law was added because of transgressions, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made. It was a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. Once faith has come, they are no longer under a schoolmaster. They are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. There is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, for they are all one in Christ Jesus. He compares Hagar and Sarah, Sinai and the Jerusalem above. The churches are being asked to choose which mother they belong to.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. If they are circumcised as a requirement of righteousness, Christ profits them nothing, and they are debtors to do the whole law. They have fallen from grace if they seek to be justified that way. The sentence is not a license. They were called to liberty, only they must not use liberty as an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. The whole law is fulfilled in one word: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The works of the flesh are listed, and so is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. He will glory only in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to him and he to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creature. Galatians is the letter that refuses to let an addition look like seriousness. The gospel that justified them is the gospel that keeps them, and the Spirit’s fruit is what that freedom looks like in a church.