Today’s passage: Galatians 4:21-31

Helpful thoughts:

• The way people have abused Scripture through allegory makes verse 24 hard to translate…but what Paul was doing was not allegory as it is understood today as much as he was using the OT narrative as an illustration.
• Paul makes this correlation:
  • Abraham’s attempt to make his own son of promise pertains to those who try to keep the law to earn their own salvation
    • Ishmael was not the son of the promise.  Those who try to fulfill the law on their own are not children of promise.  They are not saved.
  • God’s fulfilled promise of Isaac through Sarah pertains to those who receive salvation by grace through faith
    • Isaac was the son of promise.  Those who receive God’s gift by faith are children of promise.  They are saved.

Questions to consider:

1. Who is the author and the finisher of your salvation (Hebrews 12:2)?  Why should that give us more confidence in our salvation even if others might try to persuade us otherwise?
2. Why could it sometimes seem attractive to follow a sort of law instead of purely believing by faith?
3. How can your heart of thanksgiving toward God as a child of promise impact your day today?

Today’s passage: Galatians 4:12-20

Helpful thoughts:

• In this passage, Paul shifts from doctrinal instruction to personal pleading.
• “Become as I am” refers to Paul’s freedom in Christ.
• “I have become as you are” refers to Paul’s efforts to reach many different people for Christ.  See 1 Corinthians 9:20-22.
• It seems from this passage that Paul’s sickness (which was likely affecting his vision) brought him to Galatia.  The people would have been acting normally in that time to have prevented Paul from being in their presence.
  • Their selflessness and kindness to him was in stark contrast to the selfish manipulation that was taking place in the midst of these false teachers.  This bewildered Paul.
• The false teachers used flattery to pump up the people for their own personal gain.
• When Paul writes, “I am again in the anguish of childbirth” he is saying, it’s as if you have to be born again…again.  No one needs to be born again twice, this is why Paul is perplexed.

Questions to consider:

1. What can this passage teach us about the value and the priority of pageantry in ministry?  What makes a ministry biblical and honoring to God?
2. Why could flattery so easily take us off guard and affect our thinking?  When we are tempted to sin by flattery, what is revealed in our hearts?
3. How is Paul’s love for this church evidenced in this passage?  Thank God for the people who love you in Christ!  How can you show this kind of love to other brothers and sisters in Christ?

Today’s passage: Galatians 4:8-11

Helpful thoughts:

• Reminder: The Galatian church was in conflict on whether circumcision was required for salvation.
• Anything that we live for that isn’t God, is not a god. (Mind-blowing isn’t it?)
• The people had been redeemed from slavery and adopted as sons and daughters, but now (by requiring obedience to the law) acting like they preferred their slavery.  They had graduated and wanted to go back to school.
• If those in Galatia had perpetually accepted the requirements of the law as the means of salvation, it would be evidence of their lack of faith in the first place, or at best, it would guarantee the death of their church.  It wouldn’t necessarily mean people would stop participating, but the Gospel would no longer be preached.  A big group of people being religious does not make a church.

Questions to consider:

1. What are some things (Or, who are some people) that you may be allowing to rule your life instead of God?  What would it look like to repent, follow and worship Him alone?
2. Why do you think we forget that our former life was one of slavery? How do we forget that we are redeemed, adopted children and heirs of God?  When does the grass start to look greener in the world’s yard?
3. Who is the church?  What does the church believe?  How is it possible to go to church, to have “church”, to own a building with a sign that says, “church”  and not be the church?
4. Have you come to know God, or rather are you known by Him?  Have you put your faith in the finished and sufficient work of Jesus Christ on the cross?  Is Jesus you Lord and Savior?

Today’s passage: Galatians 4:1-7

Helpful thoughts:

• A person under the guardianship of the Law could never have achieved righteousness.  The things of this world could never bring us to God or make us His children.
• Christ’s righteous sacrifice also served as a redemption, a purchase price, buying us out of our slavery.
• A bond servant who was to be made an heir first had to be redeemed (The purchase of their freedom) and then adopted (Legally declared the child of one who is not their natural father).
• We are not natural children, we are adopted.  We cannot possess divinity like God the Son, so God sent the Spirit to dwell within us.
  • The Spirit serves as a seal (An official marker) that our inheritance is sure. (Ephesians 1:13-14)
  • The Spirit confirms in our hearts that we are the children of God. (Romans 8:16)
  • Using both “Abba” and “Father” conveys a relationship of endearment (Like a child saying “Daddy” or “Papa”) and respect.

Questions to consider:

1. Many of us might primarily think about what it means to be saved.  But what does it mean to be redeemed and adopted as a child of God?
2. What is this passage teach us about the role of the Holy Spirit?  What does He do?
3. How would remembering the permanent presence of the Spirit encourage us to live in such a way as to please our loving Father?

Today’s passage: Galatians 3:23-29

Helpful thoughts:

• “We” is referring to the Jewish people.
• The word translated as “guardian” is where we get the word pedagogue from. This tutor was a strict disciplinarian, keeping the pupil in strict order during their schooling years.
• In Christ, regardless of your ethnicity, gender, or economic background, you are considered a graduate, no longer under the tutor.  All followers of Jesus Christ are considered full grown, mature heirs of the Father according to the promise.

Questions to consider:

1. If we look at people differently and expect them to have a greater or lesser chance of becoming a Christian, what have we forgotten?
2. How can Abraham be your father even if you are a Gentile?
3. If in Christ, you have already graduated from the school of the Law, how should you view obedience and righteousness?  Why should we keep growing in righteousness?

Today’s passage: Galatians 3:19-22

Helpful thoughts:

• After having written on the superiority of the promise, Paul now writes about the inferiority of the law.
  • The law was given to show that man steps out of bounds.  Transgression = Stepping out of bounds.
  • The law was delivered through angels (Acts 7:53, Hebrews 2:2) and through Moses, but the promise comes from God Himself, and through God the Son.
  • The law did not give life, but made man aware of their bondage.  The promise sets free all those whose faith is in Jesus Christ.

Questions to consider:

1. Though we are seeing the inferiority of the law in this epistle, would it be right to say that the law was bad?  What great purpose did it serve?
2. How does the doctrine of the Trinity help make sense of verse 20?  If Christ is our mediator between God and man…and yet the promise does not require another intermediary?
3. What is the different between earning something and being given something?  Is the Law able to give eternal life?  How does God give us eternal life?

Today’s passage: Galatians 3:15-18

Helpful thoughts:

• This passage continues the thoughts from verse 14, “So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”
• If man’s covenants cannot be annulled or added to, God’s should be considered that much more irrevocable.
• Paul confirms that in Genesis 22:18, God was promising the blessing of the nations through Jesus Christ.
• The Law did not replace the promise of the coming Christ.  Nor did the Law the fulfill that promise. The Law and the promise were never meant to compete with each other.

Questions to consider:

1. How would the Israelites have confused the promise of Christ to Abraham and the promise of their existence as a nation including their Law?
2. If the Law was never intended to annul the promise of Christ, what was it’s purpose? (See Romans 3:20 and this helpful article)
3. How does the fact that these promises came from God make them sure?  Why are God’s promises bound to be fulfilled?

Today’s passage: Galatians 3:10-14

Helpful thoughts:

• The Jewish people in the Old Testament were not cursed for trying to follow the Law.  They were commanded to obey the Law.  But if they thought their salvation was going to come from their keeping of the Law (which no one could ever successfully accomplish) they were under the curse.
• “The righteous shall live by faith” is taken from Habakkuk 2:4.
• Jesus endured the curse of God from our failure to obey the Law.  Because of His sacrifice, we are no longer under the curse of the Law.
• Jesus fulfilled the promised blessing to Abraham that through his seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

Questions to consider:

1. Where does our righteousness come from?
2. Where does our eternal life come from?
3. How do these truths grow our affections toward Christ?

Today’s passage: Galatians 3:1-9

Helpful thoughts:

• Paul reminds the Galatians that their lives changed when they heard the true Gospel and believed.
  • When we repent and call on Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, our lives change.
  • When we base our salvation on successfully accomplishing works, we fail and are condemned.
• Legalism is believing you have to obey the Law in order to be saved.
  • Variations of legalism may include other rules (Especially new ones we make up!) that we place on others in order to accept them as believers.
• Abraham was saved by grace through faith before the Law was even written and before God commanded his circumcision.
• Jewish people who do not believe in the promise are not true sons of Abraham.  Jews and Gentiles who do believe by faith are.
  • Remember, no person has ever been brought into a saving relationship with God by any means other than faith.

Questions to consider:

1. If they had heard the Gospel and seen what God had done through it and through them, why would they doubt the authenticity of the message?  What caused the Galatians to think there could be more?
2. Once works get added into the requirements of salvation, what does our focus tend toward when we are instructing others?  Grace or works?
3. What is the sad irony of being a legalist?  Are legalists without err?  Have they perfectly kept whatever version of the law they have decided to follow?  Are we allowed to add to the Law?  Are they believing in the Gospel at all?

Today’s passage: Galatians 2:17-21

Helpful thoughts:

• The Jews called Gentiles “sinners” because they didn’t know or follow the Law.
• But, the Jews had the Law and failed to follow it!  Therefore, they knew they were sinners and they knew exactly why they were sinners.
• Paul’s argument:
  • If Christ successfully fulfilled the Law (Which He did) and
  • If the Jews and Gentiles who believe are now united together in Christ by faith (Which they are),
    • Then to say we still are required to follow the Law makes Jesus a false teacher and a promoter of sin and it makes His death on the cross worthless.
• Jesus’ death on the cross is the full payment of death that I deserve because of my sin.
  • So, when Jesus (Who by faith I have been united with) died in my place, I died.  My account already has been served a capital punishment and separation from God.
    • Dead people don’t follow the Law…or break it.
    • Dead people don’t suffer consequences.  They’re already dead.
    • Now, your life is not your life. It’s Jesus’ life.  It’s Jesus’ resurrection.

Questions to consider:

1. Why would requiring obedience to the Law negate the effects of Jesus’ death on the cross?
2. How does the idea of dying with Jesus and rising up with Him give you a better perspective on your sin as a believer?  Why should we fight against sin and pursue righteousness?
3. How does your identity in Christ change your desires and goals for life?  Whose life are we thinking about when we consider what we want to be when we “grow up”?