GALATIANS

GALATIANS
3rd Edition – August 2008
Page
Lesson 1 An outline of the book 1
Lesson 2 The story of Paul’s Gospel 4
Lesson 3 The heart of the Christian message – Part 1 7
Justified by faith!
Lesson 4 The heart of the Christian message – Part 2 10
The life of Jesus in us
Lesson 5 Law and Faith in the Old Testament 13
Lesson 6 The end of Law and Slavery 16
The beginning of Faith and Freedom
Lesson 7 Freedom 19
Lesson 8 Conclusion 24
Author:
Jack Krayenhoff, M.D.
Copyright © 1998 All Africa Bible College
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Africa Bible College is acknowledged as the original source of the material.
SBCI, P.O. Box 324, Hillcrest 3650, South Africa
E-mail: sbci@absamail.co.za Tel. 031-7660284 Fax. 031-7660449
www.sbci.co.za
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An outline of the book – Galatians 1:1-10
Lesson 1
A. Introduction
1. The one great message of Galatians is that we cannot EARN the riches of Heaven.
They are ours completely and exclusively by God's grace, and are received by faith.
2. GRACE is what motivates God to give us everything we need, not because we
deserve it, but because He loves us.
Illustration: A mother will never let her child starve, even if he misbehaves. Her
mother-love is so strong that she will feed him even though he has not deserved her
kindness.
3. FAITH is the confidence we have in God that He will give us what we need, not
because we deserve it, but because He loves us and has promised to do it. Faith
enables us to receive God's blessings even before we actually see them.
Illustration: A boy needs a bicycle to get to school, which is far away. His father says
he will buy him one next week. The boy is delighted, and thanks his father. He knows
his father always does what he promises; therefore, as far as the boy is concerned, the
bicycle is already his. (If the boy was not sure his father was so reliable, he would
have waited to thank him when he actually saw the bicycle.)
4. The devil wants to spoil our trust in God's father-love for us. Just as he did in the
Garden of Eden, he whispers in our ear that God is not entirely trustworthy. Genesis
3:1-5.
5. His favourite strategy is to tell us that God's grace has limits, and that we are such
sinners that we no longer deserve God's blessings. He says we have to behave better,
or do something to earn God's blessing again.
6. This idea, which is a lie, is called LEGALISM. It teaches that God's grace is not
enough to save us, but that we have to do things to earn His favour. This idea was
being taught in the church Paul had founded in Galatia (a region in what is now called
Turkey). Because this teaching was so dangerous (and it is just as dangerous today!),
Paul wrote this letter to warn the Galatian believers against it.
B. Sender and address – Galatians 1:1-3
1. Paul reminds his readers that he is an apostle – he has been delegated by none other
than Jesus Christ Himself to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles.
2. Therefore, what he is saying has divine authority behind it. It would be very foolish to
disagree with it, or ignore it.
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C. The Gospel in a nutshell – Galatians 1:4
1. Jesus gave Himself for our sins.
a) God is just, so He could not let sin go unpunished. Romans 3:25.
b) The punishment for sin is death. Romans 6:23.
c) But God loved us so much that He could not bear to see us die.
d) So, in the person of Jesus, He undertook to be punished in our place. Romans
8:32.
(Note: This sacrifice completely eliminated the guilt of our sin, and the need to punish
us. We cannot possibly add anything to it, to be more deserving of God's grace. If
anyone tried to do that anyway, for instance by submitting to circumcision, it would
show that he did not trust Jesus for having taken his sins away. This is very serious,
for if we lack faith, God's grace can no longer reach us. All this will be explained in
chapter 5.)
2. To deliver us from this present evil age.
a) The age we live in is evil, corrupted by sin. Its king is Satan, the ruler of this
world. John 12:31.
b) This present evil age (and its ruler) will be judged, and replaced by "the age to
come" (Matthew 12:32; 13:40-43). That age, or world, will be free from sin,
sickness and death (Romans 8:20-22). It is also known as the Kingdom of God,
or the Kingdom of Heaven.
c) Because Jesus has already paid the price for our sin, we are no longer
condemned to live with its consequences. He has delivered us from the power
of Satan.
d) By faith, we can already now escape from this evil age and its ruler, by
accepting instead the rule of Jesus, the King in the Kingdom of Heaven.
D. Accursed! – Galatians 1:6-9
1. There is only one Gospel message – the one briefly outlined in Galatians 1:4.
2. This is the heart of the Christian faith. It must not be changed in any way.
3. If anyone does try to alter it, add to it or take away from it, he will be judged very
severely: he is accursed!
E. Man-pleaser or God-pleaser? – Galatians 1:10-11
1. Some preachers preach what their audiences want to hear. This will bring them
success: quite likely the church will grow!
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2. But when we are true servants of Christ, we dare not preach anything but the true
Gospel - whether this will make us popular with the people or not.
3. On the stage of our lives, to which audience do we play: man or God? Whose approval
are we working for? If our first concern is to please people, we cannot please God.
Memory verse
Galatians 1:10b, "If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ”.
Teachers Notes
1. “Apostle”.
The Greek word "apostolos" means a person who has been delegated to act on behalf
of someone else. He has a job to do for someone else, and he has been authorized to do
it by that person. This is clearly seen in Matt.10:1-5, where Jesus sends out His twelve
DISCIPLES on a mission, and gives them power and authority for the job. That made
them APOSTLES.
"The twelve" were not the only apostles, however. In Rom.16:7 Andronicus and Junias
are mentioned as apostles, and of course Paul himself was delegated and empowered
as an apostle to the Gentiles. There is no reason why the Lord could not send out
apostles today.
2. “The present evil age”. What follows, is a helpful illustration of the Fall; the present
evil age; and the final redemption of believers and defeat of Satan when Christ returns,
when the Kingdom of God will be fully revealed. It also shows the first coming of
Christ and His death, whereby He cancelled the effects of sin, and enabled men to
become citizens of the Kingdom of God now, even though the full redemption of their
bodies has to wait for Christ's return.
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The Story of Paul's Gospel – Galatians 1:11 - 2:14
Lesson 2
A. An unlikely prospect becomes a gospel preacher – Galatians 1:11-16
1. Paul was, at one time, violently opposed to the church of Christ.
2. But God had other ideas. He is sovereign – He carries out His plans no matter how
unlikely these may seem to man.
3. In His grace, He caused Paul to have an encounter with the living, risen Jesus (also see
Acts 22:6-10), who called Paul to take His message to the Gentiles.
4. Man can only see what is humanly probable and possible.
5. But God is the God of the improbable and the impossible. He is the great unknown
factor in human affairs, and greater than the factors man can discern and reckon with.
6. What is more: God's actions are always motivated by love and grace.
Illustration: A recently hatched little bird fell out of its nest onto the ground. A man
who loved animals picked it up. Naturally the parent-birds were frantic and tried to
attack the man, being unable to recognize his good intentions, and seeing him as a
threat. But the man went home with the young bird, carefully nursed and fed it, and
when it was old enough to fly, he set it free.
In the same way, God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). In His
wisdom and love, He often carries out His plans for us in ways that we cannot
understand at the time.
7. When we are in a situation that seems altogether bad and humanly hopeless, we can
remember that God is still greater than the circumstances; that He loves us; and that
we can trust Him to bring good out of them – even though we cannot see how He
could do it. He is sovereign and He loves us – that is enough.
B. Paul's message: directly from the Lord – Galatians 1:16-24
1. After his conversion, Paul did not speak to the church leaders in Jerusalem, but instead
spent time in Arabia (verses 16-17). (It seems likely that he used that time to search
the Scriptures to understand how the Gospel of grace fitted in with the Old Testament.
This is explained in chapters 3 and 4.)
2. Only three years later did he have some contact with Peter and James, but not with the
rest of the Jerusalem Church headquarters (verses 18-20).
3. He then preached the Gospel in Gentile territory and, although he had not been taught
by the church leaders, the churches in Judea were delighted by what he did (verses
5
20-24).
4. All this shows that Paul's version of the Gospel, having come directly from Jesus, and
approved by Peter and James, was the true Gospel and the only Gospel.
C. The Jerusalem Conference – Galatians 2:1-10
For a fuller description of this event, read Acts15:1-21.
1. The reason Paul went to Jerusalem was to settle the question of circumcision. Acts
15:1-2.
2. The believers in Jerusalem were Jews who all their lives had tried to obey the Law of
Moses. Though they had now received Jesus as their Messiah, they understood Him to
be Lord and Saviour of the JEWS. Therefore, if a Gentile wanted to be saved, he had
to become a Jew first.
3. Just as today a Christian confirms his faith by submitting to baptism, and is thereby
made part of the church (1 Corinthians 12:13), so in those days a man sealed his
decision to become a Jew by submitting to circumcision, and was thereby received
into the Jewish community.
4. Once a man became a Jew, he was expected to be subject to the Law of Moses.
5. Jewish "missionaries" therefore travelled to Antioch (Acts15:1), where Paul's church
was, to tell the Gentile believers that they needed to be circumcised (and submit to the
Law of Moses).
6. But Paul saw that grace and faith were all that was needed to be right with God, and
that Christians were therefore freed from the need to keep the law in order to find
salvation.
7. To submit to circumcision was to submit to the law and thereby to bondage again.
8. Therefore Paul, absolutely without compromise, resisted the pressure on the Gentile
believers to be circumcised. He and Barnabas were delegated to go to Jerusalem to
settle this point with the church leadership (Acts15:2).
9. At the conference he was supported by Peter, who recalled his experience with
Cornelius (Acts15:7-11, Acts10), and concluded that salvation was indeed by grace
alone, and not by keeping the law.
10. The outcome of the conference was that Paul was judged right, and he was
commissioned to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles without insisting on circumcision.
11. This was an extremely important decision. If Paul had given in to the pressures placed
on him, the Gospel as we now know it would not have spread all over the world. You
and I would still be in darkness.
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12. If Paul had compromised he would have saved himself a great deal of trouble because
it was always the Jews, in any place where he preached the Gospel, who started
trouble for him (Acts13:45, 50; Acts14:19).
13. But Paul was a devoted servant of Christ. He had received his orders, and he was
willing to take any risks in carrying them out.
14. Because of his courage and devotion to his Master, when he came to the end of his
life, he was sure of his reward! (2 Timothy 4:6-8). What an incentive to obey and to
persevere!
Teachers' Notes
Though the Jerusalem conference agreed that Paul did not have to make the Gentiles submit to
circumcision, it was still a compromise solution which left a little legalism intact: new believers
were to stay away from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. Even this little
requirement strengthened the position of the law-party or "Judaizers" to such an extent that even
Peter was later afraid of them (see lesson 3). This illustrates how extremely careful we must be
to stay away from every suggestion of legalism.
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The heart of the Christian message – Part
1. Justified by Faith! – Galatians 2:11-16
Lesson 3
A. An Historic Controversy – Galatians 2:11-13
1. The Law of Moses contained many regulations about food (see Leviticus 11).
Disregarding them would make a Jew unclean.
2. Gentiles did not have these restrictions, and therefore Jews felt they would become
unclean if they ate at the same table with Gentiles (Leviticus 20:26).
3. Peter had been shown in a vision, and then in his experience with Cornelius, that God
had set this separation aside, and considers everyone clean who has faith in Christ.
Acts 10:28.
4. In fact, as we saw in lesson 2, Peter had supported Paul at the Jerusalem conference.
5. But in spite of that, an influential group of believers in Jerusalem still believed one
first had to become a Jew in order to receive Jesus as Messiah and Lord.
6. In Antioch, Peter had been eating with Gentile believers, as God had shown him he
should.
7. But when a group of Jerusalem believers arrived in Antioch, he was so afraid of losing
their approval that he stopped eating with the Gentile believers.
8. Paul challenged Peter about this to his face, in public.
9. Consider this sad picture: Peter, the foremost of the original twelve disciples, the
earthly founder of the Church, gloriously baptized in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and
then courageously defying the powerful Jewish leaders (Acts 4:19), has now, just a
few years later, slipped away from God's grace, and fears men more than God – just as
he did when he denied Jesus three times.
10. If this can happen to a great man of faith like Peter, how careful we must be to please
God first, and not men. How we must depend on His Spirit to keep us in the fear of
God from day to day and from moment to moment!
B. Justified through faith – Galatians 2:15-18
1. Every man will be judged by God, according to his deeds (Romans 2:6), and even
according to his secret intentions (1 Corinthians 4:5).
2. No human being has a perfect record. We all fall short of God's standard
(Romans3:23). Even if we sinned only once in our life, the verdict would still be
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"guilty" (of that sin).
Illustration: Let us compare God's standard of moral perfection with a treasure, and
the Bible as the book of directions on how to find it. If we followed every instruction
and clue faithfully, we would arrive at perfection. However, if we missed only one, we
would also miss the treasure. It would be unimportant how many clues we missed: in
all cases, we would not find the treasure.
3. That "guilty" verdict cannot be removed, no matter how many other things we do that
are good.
4. Justice requires that sin is punished. God would not be just if He did nothing about sin.
5. The punishment for sin is death. Romans 6:23.
6. This death has two aspects:
a) Physical: In this present evil age death comes to all of us.
b) Spiritual: Knowing the peace, the joy and the love of God is real living; being
cut off from God means futility, chaos and loneliness. That is spiritual death.
7. But God loved us so much that He could not bear the separation that sin had created
between Himself and us. He wanted us back in His embrace of love.
8. To achieve this, He first had to satisfy divine justice. This He did by identifying
Himself, in the person of Jesus, with sinful mankind. Jesus gathered all of mankind up
into Himself. He became, so to speak, sinful humanity.
9. That way, acting as our representative, He made Himself responsible for the sin of all
mankind, and offered Himself up to be punished for it.
10. So, on the Cross, He died in our place. He died physically, and also spiritually, when
He cried out: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Mark 15:34.
11. That way, justice was done. Both the guilt and the penalty of sin were dealt with. The
accusations against us were wiped out. We are now declared "NOT GUILTY" of sin.
We are JUSTIFIED.
12. All that remains is for us to accept this offer of forgiveness, and return to God's arms
of love like the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-24).
13. This confidence in the effectiveness of Jesus' sacrifice, and the acceptance of God's
offer of reconciliation, is called FAITH. We are now "justified by faith".
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Memory verse
Galatians 2:16, "…know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus
Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in
Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be
justified".
Teachers’ Notes
This passage could be seen as the foundation of the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther
being a monk was greatly distressed because he found himself full of sinful impulses. He
could not get rid of them, no matter how he tried, even though he punished and humbled
himself to atone for them. This caused him great anguish, because he realized that his sinful
nature was absolutely unacceptable to God.
Then he read Galatians, and he saw that his standing before God did not depend on the
goodness of his actions or thoughts, but on the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. He needed only to
accept it in faith. When that realization dawned on him, a great light went on in his soul, as
he was set free from the condemnation of always failing to live up to God's standard. He
published his discovery, and the Reformation was started.
This is also the central teaching of Galatians, and Paul defends it with all his might. If a
Christian leader teaches that anything besides faith is required to be acceptable to God, he is
saying that Jesus' sacrifice was insufficient. This is to cut out the heart of the Christian faith.
A man who teaches that is accursed ("anathema" in Greek).
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The heart of the Christian message – Part
2. The Life of Jesus in us – Galatians 2:17-21
Lesson 4
A. Dead to the Law, alive to God – Galatians 2:19
1. The law had condemned Paul as a sinner, and the sentence was death. It was Jesus
who had undergone the sentence in Paul's place. Therefore Paul accepted Jesus' death
as being, in fact, his own.
2. The man crucified on that cross was the Paul who had tried so hard to please God by
keeping the law, and who had persecuted the church.
3. Now this sinful Paul was executed, and the law had no further claims on him. The law
was finished with Paul, and Paul was finished with the law.
4. He was finished with the law which had always condemned him, even while he was
trying so hard to obey it.
5. But now that his sin, condemnation, and penalty were out of the way, the road to God
was open and a new life began for him: a life of full enjoyment of the love of God.
Illustration: A girl had two young men that wanted to marry her. One was a bad man,
and the other good. Nevertheless, the bad man managed to charm her and she started
to go out with him. By and by his evil character began to show, and she became very
unhappy. However, she was unable to break with him, because he had acquired power
over her.
Then the other suitor came back into her life, as he still loved her. He offered to
forgive and forget her affair with the bad man, and to marry her. This set her free to
cut off the old relationship, and from then on the bad suitor no longer had power over
her. As far as her affections were concerned he was dead, and she was dead to his
efforts to win her back. Instead, she was alive to her new fiancé; his love drew all her
affections toward him.
B. Christ lives in me – Galatians 2:20
1. What enabled Jesus to go to the cross was His love for us, which was so strong that He
totally identified with us, and took on the suffering that should have been ours.
Illustration: We identify with persons we love or trust very much. What happens to
one happens to the other, so to speak. If a parent sees a vicious dog attacking his child,
he considers it an attack on himself, and throws himself on the dog even if he gets
injured while doing it. The process of losing one's identity into that of another is also
seen in dangerous situations, when we put our lives into the hands of a trusted guide or
leader. In such a case, the life of the follower is totally bound up with the one that
leads. Taking on the identity of another is especially symbolized in marriage, when
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the woman takes on the name of the man who loves her. It says that now she is his;
that they are one.
In fact, in Ephesians 5:31-32 Paul uses marriage as an illustration of the oneness of
Christ and the Church.
2. Paul had recognized that it was Jesus' love for him that had motivated his Master to
give up His life. He had accepted this act of love, and in response, given his life to
Jesus. They were united for all eternity.
3. Loving Jesus meant opening his life fully to Him, allowing Jesus to be Master, to take
possession. Jesus now lived in him.
4. To make room for Him, Paul had to let go of his old life. As far as he was concerned,
that old life was crucified, dead and buried.
C. I live by faith in the Son of God – Galatians 2:20
1. We have seen that Paul's first discovery was that God had declared him "not guilty"
(justified him), not on the basis of his own efforts, but on the basis of Jesus' sacrifice.
Paul's acceptance of that reality was FAITH.
2. Paul's faith made Jesus' sacrifice effective for him, because it reconciled him to God.
3. Now Paul goes further: not only does he accept Jesus' death as his own; he also takes
Jesus' LIFE as his own. He says: "Jesus is forever linked with me. His life, His vision,
His resources I have taken as my own. In my house He is the master". Paul's
acceptance of this reality is also FAITH.
4. That faith makes the presence of Jesus' life in his own an effective reality. It enables
the Spirit of Jesus to do a mighty work through Paul. (More about this in lesson 5).
D. Who loved me and gave Himself for me – Galatians 2:20
1. Perhaps Paul's faith in the presence and power of the life of Jesus in him wavered
occasionally, as it does with most Christians.
2. Then he could reassure himself with this thought: his Master's love for him was so
incredibly strong, that He had sacrificed His life for Paul.
3. Such a love would never leave him or forsake him. Such a love would be his strength
and resource in the worst of circumstances: in persecution, in jail, and even in death.
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Memory verse
Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself
for me”.
Teachers’ Notes
1. Note that it is faith that makes justification effective for us, but also faith that makes
the life of Christ in us a reality. We exercised faith for the first time when we trusted
Jesus as our Saviour, to save us from hell, but we are also to exercise faith day by day
in the reality of Jesus' life in us.
2. While faith makes spiritual blessings EFFECTIVE for us, it does not cause them.
Some people think of faith as a creative power within us. This is a great mistake. The
power is always God's. All faith can do is receive them. Therefore, when we lack faith,
we must not try to somehow pump it up or make it stronger ourselves. Our faith is in
God, not in faith. What we must do instead is to focus on the power of God, and His
promise that we can use it in Jesus' name. As the Spirit impresses this on us, our faith
increases.
3. "Christ lives in me". This was explained in the above by saying that Christ identifies
with us. This is true, but it must be stressed that this is not just an idea, but an
experienced reality. The Holy Spirit makes the presence of Christ in the believer a
living fact: Christ acts in and through the believer to heal, to prophecy, and to produce
in the believer the fruit of the Spirit.
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Law and Faith in the Old Testament –
Galatians 3
Lesson 5
A. Spirit and Faith – Galatians 3:1-5
1. When the Galatians believed the Gospel, they received the Holy Spirit.
2. It was a tremendous experience for them. Miracles happened. They could not possibly
have forgotten it.
3. The Holy Spirit came because they believed, not because they had earned Him by
keeping the law.
B. Faith in the case of Abraham – Galatians 3:6-9
1. The Jewish nation began with Abraham. Did God bless Abraham because he kept the
law? If that were the case, it would be hard to understand why God would change His
plans and now start blessing people because of their faith.
2. But, in fact, God did bless Abraham because of his faith. God counted his faith as
righteousness. Genesis 15:6.
3. This blessing, this grace, was also pronounced over Abraham's descendants. Because
it was based on faith, it would rest on Abraham's SPIRITUAL descendants; that is,
people of faith – not necessarily on his physical descendants, the Jews.
C. The Law is a curse – Galatians 3:10-14
1. The Old Testament itself says we cannot expect life from the law, because it places a
curse on all who do not keep it perfectly. Deuteronomy 27:26.
2. But Jesus, in our place, took upon Himself this curse of the law and so freed us from
it.
3. So, as we put our faith in Him, Jesus becomes the channel through which God's
blessings on Abraham's descendants reach us.
D. Grace and promise were before the Law – Galatians 3:15-18
1. God's promise to Abraham was like a will or testament.
2. This testament could not be changed.
3. Therefore, it could not be changed by the law, which came 430 years later.
E. The purpose of the Law – Galatians 3:19-29
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1. The law cannot make man righteous (morally perfect). In fact, it was not intended for
that.
2. Its purpose was not to free man from his sin, but to point it out to him. It was not to
save him, but to show him his need of salvation (verses 21-22).
3. The law was like a guardian: someone in control over us, but not our real father; the
owner of great wealth.
4. God, our real Father, wanted us to receive His wealth, but not via this guardian (the
law) but via Jesus, as our representative.
5. In other words: God's design was that we should receive what He had promised, not by
keeping the law, but by faith.
6. The guardian, the law, was in control until Jesus came. Jesus revealed that faith was
the way to God and His promise: grace, blessing, justification and righteousness
(verses 23-24).
7. Once we belong to Christ by faith we are all children of God, with full access to His
blessings.
8. Then, as Christians, it no longer makes any difference if we are Jew or Gentile,
because the law has no power to save. Jews are no longer privileged over Greeks and
other Gentiles.
9. Among Christians, other group distinctions likewise disappear: free men do not count
for more than slaves; men are not superior to women
Memory verse
Galatians 3:6 "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness”.
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Teachers’ Notes
1. To understand the believer's link with Jesus, it helps to look at 1 Corinthians
15:45-50, where Jesus is called "the last Adam".
We can understand what it means for us to "be in Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:22).
Adam passed on his genes to his children, and so on, until they reached us.
Adam's sin had contaminated his genes, so we are sinful like Adam. What
happened to Adam in Eden, happened to us. He was cut off from God and, with
him, we were cut off from God. He died – we die.
But now, as we receive Christ, we receive a new forefather. Through the Spirit, we
are born again (the Greek word can also be translated: "begotten again"). We have
a new set of genes that is sin-free. Christ has eternal life – we have eternal life.
Christ has a resurrection body – so we will have a resurrection body. What Christ
is, we are (or will be).
2. "In Christ there is neither male nor female". Nowadays, this is sometimes used to
teach that there should be no difference in the way men and women function in the
church.
The context of this verse (Galatians 3:27-29) is that, as far as our STANDING
before God is concerned, Jews have no advantage over Greeks, and neither have
men over women. But this is not the same as to say that men and women have the
same FUNCTION. That their functions differ in marriage, for instance, is clear
from Ephesians 5:21-33: the husband is the head of the wife. This could influence
their functioning in church.
That value and function are not the same, is illustrated by the Godhead. Jesus is
fully God, wholly worthy of our worship and adoration, but this does not change
the fact that Jesus obeys the Father.
The End of Law and Slavery
16
The Beginning of Faith and Freedom –
Galatians 4
Lesson 6
A. Sons, not slaves! – Galatians 4:1-11
1. Before their conversion, the Galatians were engaged in spirit-worship. These spirits,
worshipped in the form of stars and other celestial bodies and their movements, could
not save or free their souls (verses 3, 8, 9). Their worship was therefore spiritual
bondage (verse 8).
2. This bondage, like the bondage of the law (Lesson 5, E3) kept them from receiving the
freedom which God wants His children to have.
3. Jesus was sent to give them their freedom from slavery, and instead make them sons
of God (verse 4-5).
4. When we are God's sons, we know it in our heart, because the Spirit of Jesus now lives
there, and cries out to God as Father. The Galatians themselves had experienced that!
(verse 6).
5. And now they wanted to start observing Jewish feasts, based on the movements of
celestial bodies, just as in their own former religion. It was going back into slavery!
6. Today it is also easy to make Christians feel that their standing with God depends on
how faithfully they carry out the expectations that the church places on them, like
attending services, bringing Bibles along to church, women wearing head covering,
etc. Even witnessing and tithing and other good things can be presented in a legalistic
way. All these things have their value, but God's love and grace towards us does not
depend on them.
B. Remember when you first became Christians? – Galatians 4:12-20
1. Paul reminds the Galatians how he brought them the Gospel, and with how much love
they responded to him (verses 14-15).
2. They accepted and loved him even though he had a disagreeable health problem that
made it impossible for him to travel (verse 13).
3. But now they seemed to have forgotten all that, and treated him like an enemy (verse
16).
4. The false teachers had won them over with flattery; not for their good, but because
they, the teachers themselves, wanted the flattery of getting followers (verse 17).
5. Paul is deeply hurt by this. All his work, the whole wonderful experience of their
conversion, seems to be lost.
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6. But he cannot forget them, he loves them still: they are his spiritual children. So he
labours over them in prayer, as a woman has to go through labour to have a child
(verse 19).
7. The stupidity and ingratitude of those Galatians! Nothing would have been more
natural for Paul than to give up on them. He had done all he could, God had blessed
them abundantly – if they chose to forget all that, what more could anyone do?
But he could not cast them off. He was their spiritual father. He loved them in spite
of the way they were treating him. He could not help but still agonize for them in
prayer! If Paul felt that way about his straying children, how much more will our
Saviour remain faithful to us when we get ourselves into trouble!
C. Isaac and Ishmael – Galatians 4:21-31
Paul now uses the story of Abraham's two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, as an allegory.
1. a) Isaac was born on the basis of God's promise, which Abraham had received in
the faith that God would fulfil it.
b) Isaac was born of Sarah, a free woman. She represents the Covenant of grace
and faith.
c) Christians, being free from the law and being children of faith, are the spiritual
descendants of Isaac.
d) We are the Church, the heavenly Jerusalem.
2. a) Ishmael was born of the flesh: at Sarah's urging, Abraham did not wait for God
to fulfil His promise, and so he had a son by Hagar.
b) Hagar was a slave. She represents the Covenant of law, given at Mount Sinai.
c) Ishmael, her son, was born of purely human action, and as a slave. His spiritual
children are the Jews, who likewise depend on human effort in keeping the law,
and so are in bondage, enslaved.
d) The earthly Jerusalem is the headquarters of the Jewish religion.
3. So the story of Isaac and Ishmael tells us that Christians do not in any way rely on the
law to bring them the blessings that God promised to Abraham's offspring. They
simply rely on God to be as good as His word, as Abraham did.
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Memory verse
Galatians 4:6, "And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our
hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!”
Teachers’ Notes
1. People like to guess what Paul's sickness was. All we can say is that:
a) It was troublesome enough to keep Paul from travelling on, and to stay in
Galatia (where he preached the Gospel, so apparently it was not too serious).
b) His condition was a trial to other people. This suggests there was something
unpleasant involved, perhaps an infectious discharge.
c) The Galatians would have given Paul their own eyes, if that were possible.
This suggests strongly that the condition involved Paul's eyes. It could have
been a severe conjunctivitis; an inflammation of the eyelids.
There is no particular reason to connect it to Paul's "thorn in the flesh" (2
Corinthians 12:7), though it is a possibility.
2. The "heavenly Jerusalem" is the Church. Just as the earthly Jerusalem with its
temple is the headquarters of the Jewish religion, so the headquarters of the
Church is heaven, where Christ is, with all the Christians that have gone there
before us. When the old fallen creation is replaced by a creation redeemed, the
New Jerusalem will also replace the old Jerusalem (Revelation 21:1-2).
Freedom – Galatians 5
Lesson 7
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A. Free! – Galatians 5:1
Free from what?
1. Free from the CONDEMNATION of sin – Romans 8:1-2.
As Christians, if we fail to live up to the requirements of the law, we no longer need to
feel condemned, either by God, by the law, or by ourselves. Our sins, including the
ones we commit after conversion, were fully atoned for by Jesus' sacrifice. Therefore
the law can no longer condemn us, and thereby separate us from God's love and grace.
2. Free from the POWER of sin – Romans 6:14.
We no longer need to be controlled by sin, for when we give over control to the Spirit,
we do not sin.
B. Cut off from Grace – Galatians 5:2-12
1. Circumcision is symbolic of the law.
To say circumcision is necessary to be approved by God is no better than saying one
has to obey the whole law (verse 3), because either way Jesus' sacrifice is declared to
be insufficient.
Illustration: A wealthy and generous man invites some friends to a sumptuous
banquet, laid on especially for them. He tells them: "I am making sure you will have a
wonderful time; you will be able to eat and drink anything your heart desires. I am
doing this to show you how much I value your friendship, and to enjoy your
fellowship. So please come as you are, and allow me to entertain you".
But some envious person wants to spoil the party. He calls the guests beforehand and
says: "Your host may sound very generous, but you will be well advised to give him
some money when you walk in, to help him with the expenses. Also, I hear there is not
enough food for everybody, so bring some sandwiches". If the guests believe him and
do as he says, how do you think the host will feel about that?
2. Whoever believes that lie is cut off from God's grace (verse 4). That grace can only
reach us when we receive it in faith, trusting Him. If we think we have to do
something to be worthy of it, we close the channel.
3. Our hope is for righteousness, and the secret is to trust the Spirit to achieve it in us.
We can never do it in our own strength.
4. This trust, or faith, is produced in us because we know Jesus' love, and love Him in
return (verse 6b).
5. Circumcision and law-keeping have nothing to do with this (verse 6a).
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6. Legalism, even the smallest part of it, amounts to saying that Jesus died for nothing
(verse 11). Trying to add anything to the value of His sacrifice shows we do not
believe it was good enough.
7. Therefore we must resist even the slightest trace of it, because if we do not, it will
spread through the Church like a bad infection. (verse 9).
8. Summary: the whole Christian life is a matter of receiving by faith what God has
promised. We have seen this is true for justification (lesson 3B); it is also true for
sanctification: the process of making us holy. To be holy is to be fit for the presence of
God, and for His service. God will make us righteous and holy when we trust Him for
it. We can never make ourselves holy, or deserving of holiness.
C. Free, not to follow our fleshly impulses, but to follow the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:13-18
1. The flesh is that part of us that feels attracted to sin that wants to give in to the devil.
2. The freedom of the Christian is not freedom to go back to sin, but to love and serve
each other (verse 13).
3. When we love our neighbour, we actually fulfil the law anyhow! (verse 14).
4. The freedom of the Christian is not to follow the flesh, but to follow the Spirit instead.
Illustration: A man has become a hopeless alcoholic. He has lost his job, and his
marriage is breaking up. He is admitted to a treatment centre, where he receives good
counsel and excellent, loving care. After a while the director of the centre calls him in
and says: "You have improved so much that I feel you can safely be discharged. You
are free to go".
Does he mean: free to go back to the bottle? Of course not. He means: free from the
compulsion to drink. Free to build a new life.
5. It is impossible to follow the impulses of the Spirit and the impulses of the flesh at the
same time. Trying to do that paralyses us (verse 17).
6. If we are led by the flesh, we still live in the realm of law and condemnation. But if
we are led by the Spirit, we escape them (verse 18).
7. Summary: a man has only two choices.
By nature he follows the flesh, living to satisfy his own impulses, which are corrupted
by sin. He cannot help himself; he is a slave to the flesh and to sin (Romans 7:18).
His only escape from this bondage is to place his trust in God. God's Spirit will
empower him to live a life of holiness, and of love towards his fellow-man (Romans
8:3-4).
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D. The effects of the flesh and the Spirit – Galatians 5:19-25
1. If we let the flesh have its way, the results will be:
a) Sexual sin (verse 19):
i) Intercourse outside of marriage.
ii) "Impurity". The Greek word is "porneia", the root of the word
"pornography".
iii) Debauchery: giving in to uninhibited lust.
b) False religions and occult practices. What these have in common is that they
promise access to spiritual realities and powers other than the one true God, and
through ways other than the one Mediator between God and man, the Man
Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5.
Note that the flesh even corrupts man's true longing for God! Most people
pursuing these false religions and occult practices do it because they are
sincerely hungry for God. We must acknowledge that, and encourage them to
explore the Christian faith to satisfy their search for spiritual reality.
c) Impulses and practices that injure other people, such as:
i) Harbouring resentments.
ii) Quarrelling.
iii) Criticism of others, especially behind their backs.
iv) Causing disunity.
v) Begrudging others their success.
Note that this type of sin is mentioned in the same breath as sexual immorality
and drunkenness. The latter two are usually not tolerated in the church, nor
should they be.
But then should we not treat the sins in the "anger" category as equally serious?
Some New Testament versions add "murder" to this list (after "envy", verse 21).
This word really sums up the nature of all these destructive sins, as Jesus points
out in Matthew 5:21-22.
d) Drunkenness, orgies, etc. These are the sins where the flesh is given free reign.
The end-result of yielding to the flesh is obvious moral squalor.
2. A solemn warning: people who practice these sins will be excluded from heaven; from
the Kingdom of God. The fact that at one time in the past they indicated their decision
for Christ will not save them (verse 21).
Note: This warning is for people who practise these sins habitually, as if there were
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nothing the matter with it. Paul is not thinking of Christians who stumble but whose
Christian commitment is otherwise sincere, and who repent of their sin.
3. If we let the Spirit have His way, the result will be love, peace, joy, etc., (verses 22-
23a).
4. Notice these wonderful things are FRUIT. They are found in us not because we try to
produce them, but because they are the natural result of the working of Christ's Spirit
in us. Jesus explains this great spiritual secret in John 15:1-8.
5. When fruit is produced in us, we do not have to worry about the law (verse 23b).
6. This life of the Spirit is our new life. It is the true Christian life. The Cross was the
end, not only of the penalty for living in the flesh, but of the life in the flesh itself
(verse 24).
7. Conclusion: We have received eternal life from the Spirit. Now let that life become the
power whereby we live from day to day! (verse 26).
Memory verse
Galatians 5:5, “By faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which
we hope”.
Teachers’ Notes
1. "Fallen away from grace" (Galatians 5:4); "Those who practise these things will not
inherit the Kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:21). These verses have caused anxiety in
sincere believers. To them it opens the possibility that they may not go to heaven
when they fall into sin, and they have not repented of it at the moment of death.
They also know how often their thoughts (even if not their deeds) are sinful, and
they fear that this indicates that they are not Christ's at all.
Such fear can be relieved.
It is true that we are saved by faith, and that faith without works is dead (James
2:26). In other words, faith brings down God's power to save us, and this power is
bound to become apparent in our works. Therefore if our works show no evidence
of faith, that faith is dead. It clearly is not a saving faith.
However, the very fact that we are concerned about our sinful state shows that God
is at work in us. It shows we are on God's side. We can now dismiss our fear of
condemnation by simply remembering that Jesus died to take it away (Romans
8:1).
Condemnation was removed – let us not bring it back!
We can remind ourselves that our salvation does not depend on our faithfulness, but
on God's. As it says in 2 Timothy 2:13: "If we are faithless, He will remain
faithful". True, in the verse just before it says: "If we disown Him, He will also
disown us". This speaks of an outright rejection of the Lord on our part, which
certainly is not the case with a Christian who is concerned with God's judgment of
him.
2. "Faith working through love" (Galatians 5:5, R.S.V.). When talking about faith, and
about the fact that we cannot obtain God's blessings without it, it helps to remember
that our faith in God is based on His love. He proved His love by sending Jesus to
save us. When that fact is alive in us, how can we help but have faith in Him?
Conclusion – Galatians 6
Lesson 8
A. Church Discipline – Galatians 6:1-5
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1. Occasionally, some believers fall into sin.
2. When that happens, our aim must be to restore the person back into fellowship with
God, and with the Church.
3. We must deal with him gently – not with harshness and condemnation. Let us be
aware that we ourselves can be tempted to sin in a moment of weakness (verse 1).
4. So, when a brother has sinned, let us stand by him. He is still one of us, so let us
support and help him. That is obeying the law of Christ, the royal law: "You shall love
your neighbour as yourself" (verse 2). (About the royal law – also see Galatians 5:14
and James 2:8.)
5. Let us not criticize our fellow-church members, but instead look at our own
performance.
6. Let us not make the mistake of measuring ourselves by the weaknesses of others, so as
to look better in our own eyes (verses 3-4).
7. We are going to be judged on our own performance; not in comparison with others
(verse 5).
B. Supporting full-time workers – Galatians 6:6
Christian congregations need to look after the material needs of their full-time teachers.
(This subject is more fully dealt with in 1 Corinthians .9:1-14.)
C. Perseverance pays off! – Galatians 6:7-10
1. It is true that we are restored to fellowship with God not by our efforts, but by grace
alone.
2. But that does not mean that it makes no difference how we live!
3. We are still going to reap the reward for our actions (verse 7).
4. If we make it a habit to give in to the flesh, the result will be moral corruption and ruin
(verse 8a).
Illustration: Go back to lesson 7, C4 – the story of the recovered alcoholic. This man
received treatment that enabled him to start a new life. Without that help he would
have drunk himself to death. But the man still had to accept the help and to co-operate
with the treatment. While in the Centre he could probably have smuggled in alcohol,
and certainly after discharge he had the choice to go back to drinking. No matter how
good the help offered to him was, if he had not decided to receive it, it would not have
done him any good.
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5. But if we make it a habit to give in to the love of God, working in us through the Holy
Spirit, the result will be eternal life. Eternal life is the quality of life that citizens of the
Kingdom have. It shares in Jesus' resurrection life: free from sin and no longer subject
to corruption and death (verse 8b).
Therefore let us not be discouraged, but persevere in doing right, for at the proper time
we will see the rewards (verse 9).
Conclusion: This passage clearly shows what part the believer must play in his
redemption. The power to escape from sin does not lie in us. It comes from God alone,
and we must trust God to provide it. And He does! That is the meaning of salvation by
faith.
This process of us trusting, and God providing, is the heart of the Christian life.
Christian growth means learning to do this more and more. If at any time we stop
trusting God and drawing on His grace, we are in trouble. We can never learn so much
about the Christian faith that we can do it on our own, not having to lean on God so
much. The moment we stop relying on God we are automatically back to the life of the
flesh. There is no neutral middle ground where we can quietly go our own way. Either
we sow to the Spirit, or we sow to the flesh.
D. Summary of Galatians – Galatians 6:11-18
(This part was hand-written by Paul himself. Up to this point he had been dictating to a
secretary, whose handwriting was apparently smaller than Paul's – verse 1.)
1. The false teachers were not interested in the spiritual welfare of the Galatians – all
they wanted was to impress the Judaizer, the law-party, by having the Galatian
believers circumcised. That way they avoided trouble with the legalists (verses 12-13).
2. Their insincerity was shown by the fact that they themselves did not even abide by the
rules of the law!
3. But Paul could never again want to impress people, or act out of fear of persecution.
That was the old Paul, who had died with Jesus (verse 14).
4. What counts now is the new life in Jesus. Being circumcised or not, has nothing to do
with that (verse 14).
5. Paul ends with a blessing on "the Israel of God" (verse 16). (By this he means the true
believers: the spiritual descendants of Abraham – Galatians 3:9, 29.) Notice how
gracious he is in his farewell! These people had treated him very badly, and given him
great heartache. But, in the end, God's love in Paul was stronger than his exasperation.
The Galatians were perhaps rejecting him, but he did not reject them in return. That
was the fruit of the Spirit in Paul!
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Memory Verse
Galatians 6:8, "He who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he
who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life”.
Teachers’ Notes
Church Discipline – Galatians 6:1-5
Our first and greatest purpose in church discipline is not to punish a sinner, nor to make
a public example of him, but to restore him to fellowship with God and with the other
believers – especially the ones he has sinned against.
Jesus Himself said this very clearly in the parable of the shepherd who left his
ninety-nine sheep in order to find the one that had gone astray, and bring it back safely
(Matthew 18:10-14), and again in Matthew 18:15, where the purpose of confronting a
sinner is to win him back.
Excommunication is a last resort, after everything else has failed (Matthew 18:17). Even
then, our hope is still that he will come to his senses, repent, and so still be saved (1
Corinthians 5:4-5). In fact, the man mentioned in this passage was eventually received
back into the church (2 Corinthians 2:5, 11).G