DAY 21 - GALATIANS

March 27, 2023

Galatians 5:1-6 NLT)

So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

Thought:

Throughout the letter, Paul is emphasizing freedom in the gospel of Christ. But we must understand that believers can be saved and not free. The freedom Paul is explaining here is freedom from the law and the power of sin but also freedom from a guilty conscience. Hebrews 9:14 (NIV) tells us: “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.” Paul’s emphasis is the same—we do not have to go back under the slavery of the law, performing works to ease our troubled minds from the frustration of trying to earn God’s favor. We can take our troubled minds to Jesus and experience his cleansing effect (through the Spirit), a cleansing far more thorough than we could ever achieve by obedience to the law.

Then, when believers have a right understanding of their freedom, their faith will express itself in love. They will daily allow the Holy Spirit working within to pour out of their lives through love toward others. Paul said it in Galatians 5:6 - “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

Application:

1. Are you truly free? Or do you have a guilty conscience before God? Take any guilt and shame you feel to Jesus, and ask the Spirit to help you live in true freedom.

2. Galatians 5:6 is a true test of whether our faith pleases God. Read it again. How is God asking you to express your faith today?

WEEK 5 OVERVIEW - GALATIANS

March 27 - March 31, 2023

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Galatians 5 Overview

Galatians 3 and 4 focused on theology. Galatians 5 and 6 now focus on how Christ-followers should live in response to those truths. In short:

• We can do all this by the power of the Holy Spirit controlling our life from within

  • We resist being dragged away from the freedom we have in Christ

  • We resist wasting our freedom on serving our sinful desires

  • We instead have the desire to love and serve others

  • We see how wonderful this life of liberty is, so we want to glorify God

Paul writes this part of his letter because people misunderstood his teaching about grace. The Judaizers (and many people in churches today) are afraid to depend on God’s grace; they think the Christian who lives by faith (and not rules) will become a rebel. But Paul is arguing just the opposite ‒ that the person who lives by faith is going to experience the inner discipline of God that is far better than the outer discipline of man-made rules! He’s saying that no man could become a rebel who depends on God’s grace, yields to God’s Spirit, lives for others, and seeks to glorify God. On the other hand, the legalist is the one who eventually rebels, because he is living in bondage, depending on the flesh, living for himself, and seeking the praise of men and not the glory of God.

This is Paul’s big message: The Christian who depends on the power of the Spirit is not denying the law of God or rebelling against it. Rather, the law is being fulfilled in him through the Spirit (Romans 8:1-4). In fact, Paul sums up the law in one thing: love for others.

For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:13-14

So how can we overcome our sinful desires and focus on serving others? We can only do it by the power of God's Spirit, given to us when we trusted in Christ’s finished work on the cross for our salvation. Through the Spirit, we have been freed from sin's power as well as its penalty.

Paul then offers a list of sinful lifestyles that happen when we shut down the Spirit and go our own way. And then he offers a second list. This one reveals what happens when we let the Spirit lead ‒ powerful, positive characteristics show up in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Contrary to what we often believe, it is this right understanding of salvation by grace that produces the proper kind of obedience to the law. Faith works itself out through love. The Spirit given to us in our redemption creates a heart that longs to obey God out of love for him and others.

DAY 20 - GALATIANS

March 24, 2023

Galatians 4:21-31 (NLT)

Tell me, you who want to live under the law, do you know what the law actually says? The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave wife and one from his freeborn wife. The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his promise. These two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where people received the law that enslaved them. And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery to the law. But the other woman, Sarah, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. She is the free woman, and she is our mother. As Isaiah said, “Rejoice, O childless woman, you who have never given birth! Break into a joyful shout, you who have never been in labor! For the desolate woman now has more children than the woman who lives with her husband!” And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac. But you are now being persecuted by those who want you to keep the law, just as Ishmael, the child born by human effort, persecuted Isaac, the child born by the power of the Spirit. But what do the Scriptures say about that? “Get rid of the slave and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” So, dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman; we are children of the free woman.

Thought:

Paul is still highlighting the lack of logic in selecting the law over Christ. This passage is difficult to understand because Paul is using allegory. He’s looking back into the Old Testament and finding hidden meaning in this story. Hagar was an Egyptian slave of Abraham. Sarah was the rightfully married wife of Abraham. There is a stark contrast between the two sons they bear. Hagar’s son, Ishmael, is a slave and was born “according to the flesh,” and Sarah’s son, Isaac, is free and born “through the promise.”

The truth is, we are all either an Ishmael or an Isaac. We are either a child of slavery or a child of freedom. How we relate to God’s word determines which we are. If we, like Paul, hold to the gospel message as God himself first proclaimed it in the person of Jesus Christ, we are Isaac. But if we, like the false teachers, believe the gospel needs our works to gain full righteousness before God, we are Ishmael.

Note: The Judaizers saw themselves as descendants of Abraham; his free wife, Sarah; and their promised son Isaac. But they were acting like descendants of Abraham’s slave woman, Hagar.

Application:

1. Why would the Galatians want to be the son of slavery when they could be the son of freedom? Look at your life (and your thought life). Are you choosing slavery or freedom in Christ?

2. Is there a difference between obeying God’s rules (laws) under the control of the Spirit and under the control of legalism? Explain. Why do you obey God’s rules? Pray for heart change.