DAY 11 - GALATIANS

March 13, 2023

Galatians 3:1-5 (NLT)

Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it? I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.

Thought:

By asking the Galatians a series of questions about the Spirit, Paul hoped to get the Galatians to focus again on Christ as the foundation of their faith. The Holy Spirit is mentioned eighteen times in Galatians and plays an important part in Paul’s defense of the gospel of the grace of God. In their conversion experience, the believers in Galatia had received the Spirit by faith and not by the works of the law. Let’s look at the work of the Spirit in salvation and in Christian living:

The Holy Spirit in Salvation

• The Holy Spirit convicts (John 16:7-11) us and reveals Christ to us.

• When we believe in Christ, we are born of the Spirit (John 3:1-8) and receive new life.

• We are sealed by the Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14) as a guarantee that we spend eternity with Christ.

The Holy Spirit in Christian Living

• We have a responsibility to the Holy Spirit, who lives within the body (1 Cor 6:19-20).

• We should walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16,25) by reading the Word, praying, and obeying God’s will.

• It is possible to grieve the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) if we disobey God.

• The Holy Spirit will never leave us because Jesus has promised that the Spirit abides forever (John 14:16).

• Believers should be filled with the Spirit, which simply means controlled by the Spirit. This is a continuous experience, like drinking water from a fresh stream (John 7:37).

Application:

1. What is the believer’s responsibility to the Holy Spirit? What does that look like in your life?

2. How have you seen the Holy Spirit at work in someone’s life?

WEEK 3 OVERVIEW - GALATIANS

March 13 - March 17, 2023

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Galatians 3 Overview

So far in Galatians 1 and 2, we’ve seen Paul defending his authority and the gospel as he originally taught it to the Galatians. Now, he shifts his focus and begins speaking directly to the Galatians. Paul is not “nice” in Galatians 3:1 when he calls them “foolish.” He can’t be; to turn away from the gospel is not an innocent mistake to laugh off. It’s an abandonment of God (for which we should repent!). That’s the reason for Paul’s strong language. Some Bible scholars say that “the sixty verses that make up Galatians 3 and 4 are some of the strongest writing that Paul ever penned.”

In Galatians 3, Paul uses three different arguments to prove that God saves sinners through faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. He began with the personal argument (3:1-5), in which he asked the Galatians to recall their personal experience with the Spirit when they were saved. Then he moved into the scriptural argument (3:6-14), in which he quotes six Old Testament passages to prove his point. In the logical argument (3:15-29), he reasoned with his readers on the basis of what a covenant is and how a covenant works.

In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God. Galatians 3:6-7

Since the beginning, the real good news has never been about earning entrance into God’s family. To prove this, Paul points back to Abraham as an example, reminding readers that Abraham didn’t earn his right relationship with God. He believed and trusted God’s promise that one day all nations would be blessed through him. God’s plan has always been to have a family of people who relate to Him on the basis of trust, not the Law. The Law, as good as it is, does not provide the power to change—what the Law cannot do, Jesus fully accomplishes.

A valid question about the law arises, though. Paul had just quoted from the Old Testament. If salvation does not involve the law, why was the law given in the first place? Essentially, the law shows us our need for salvation; we should be driven to trust the sufficiency of Christ because we can never keep the law perfectly. The Old Testament still applies today. In it, God reveals His nature and His will for humanity. But we cannot be saved by keeping it.

When reading Galatians, we must admit that we’re a lot like the Galatians. God's Spirit saves us through the work of Christ, and afterward, we slip into rule-following as if we could earn the favor of God. But when we abandon God’s gift of grace for our effort, we should also be called “foolish!” We must realize that we grow spiritually because of God’s work in us by his Spirit, not by our effort.

DAY 10 - GALATIANS

March 10, 2023

Galatians 2:20-21 (NLT)

My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

Thought:

Paul sums up the Christian's life in 2:20. If this is true of you, this is your identity; this is the greatest hope of your life. Let’s look at it a little closer. How has our "old self" been crucified with Christ? Legally, God looks at us as if we had died with Christ (our sins died with Him). We died to our old life and have also been raised with Him (Romans 6:5-11). Relationally, we have become one with Christ. We are no longer alone, but Christ lives in us - He is our power for living and our hope for the future. And since we live by His resurrection power, we do not need the “help” of the law! Verse 21 reminds us that adding law on top of grace makes the death of Jesus Christ meaningless.

Application:

1. Are you resting in Jesus’ power to save you and change you? Or are there ways that you act as if Christ died for nothing?

2. Think about one or two things you learned from Galatians 2. (We covered grace, freedom in Christ, unity, law, hypocrisy, justification by faith, new life in Christ, and more.) Write a prayer or simply pray one in silence, inviting God to work on your mind and heart in those areas.