April 3 - April 7, 2023
Galatians 6 Overview
In Galatians 5, Paul called us personally to crucify the flesh and walk by the Spirit. Now, he’s helping us see how this personal reality with God creates communal reality with God – how gospel doctrine creates a gospel community. What God offers us in gospel doctrine is His never-ending love for the undeserving. What He offers us in gospel community is the continuing experience of that love embodied in a family of believers.
Galatians 6 begins describing how Spirit-led Christians serve one another by bearing each other's burdens. When the load one of us is hauling becomes too heavy, others step in to help. In other words, life in Christ by the power of God's Spirit is not meant to be lived alone but in a family of believers. The body of Christ – the church – functions only when the members work together for the common good. We are to do good to all people, especially to the family of believers...
So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith. Galatians 6:9-10
Paul encouraged the Galatians and he encourages us today to not give up doing good. Don't get tired of it, he writes. The harvest is coming! It’s a natural law – a man reaps what he sows. All that we do is either an investment in the flesh or an investment in the Spirit.
Paul now sums up his timeless message by writing in big letters that circumcision (legalism) does not matter, only being made a new creation by faith in Christ matters. Galatians 6:15 says “...What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation." While few believers today struggle with the issue of circumcision, we constantly battle other legalistic pressures. There is always the temptation to fall back into thinking we must follow certain rules to gain God’s approval. To this Paul says, “No! The spiritual life that pleases God (and satisfies our own souls) is being made new by the work of Christ on the cross.” We can boast only in that.
Warren Wiersbe said it this way: "What God the Father planned for you, and God the son purchased for you on the cross, God the Spirit personalizes for you and applies to your life as you yield to Him." In summary, Christ’s death on the cross freed us to become the people our Creator designed us to be. God intends for us to be vessels of His love as we live by the Spirit in gospel community. Together, He has called us to be ambassadors of His truth, justice, forgiveness, and hope. And get this: He gives us everything we need to do it!
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