Today’s passage: Galatians 5:16-24

Helpful thoughts:

• Inaction will never result in godliness.  Avoiding sin/Pursuing righteousness is accomplished by walking with the Spirit of God.
• It would not be loving for us to convince a person whose life is characterized by sins such as those listed in verses 19-21 that they already are saved because they “prayed that one time”.
• If the Spirit of God is in you, there will be progressive (At times, rapid) change from the works of the flesh to the fruits of the Spirit.  The flesh will be crucified.

Questions to consider:

1. How do you know that you are keeping in step with the Spirit of God?  What has God given us to guide us in this walk?
2. How does walking with the Spirit (or keeping in step with the Spirit) affect our passions and desires?  How does our thinking change our desires and then our actions?

Today’s passage: Galatians 5:7-15

Helpful thoughts:

• Because Paul saw fruit (It looked like everything was going well), he was confident that the people in the church would reject the false teaching.  And, his confidence was in the Lord, because God was the one who calls.
  • Again, just like yesterday we need to look at Romans 8:29-30.
  • If the people there had truly accepted God’s grace through faith in Christ, they would assuredly persevere in the faith because whom God calls, He justifies, and whom He justifies, He glorifies.
• There is a penalty to be paid for false teaching.  God doesn’t mess around with the misuse of Scripture and He doesn’t turn a blind eye to those who seek to lead His sheep astray.
• The pagan worship the Gentile Galatians were familiar with included castration for the priests.  Paul is now equating circumcision for salvation with a pagan practice.  Both the idea of castration and the comparison with paganism would have been direct rebukes to the Judaizers…Paul wasn’t messing around either.
• We have been freed to love.  Freedom from our condemnation under the law does not give us a license to sin.  It allows us to love and serve freely, not under obligation.

Questions to consider:

1. How does this passage help us to think about the idea of being saved because we prayed a prayer but then not loving and living for Christ?  Can a person say they are a Christian, never act like one, and be sure of Heaven?
2. If a person says they “Got saved” but doesn’t follow Christ, is it more loving to simply hope they go to Heaven or to present them with the Gospel and plead with them to repent like Paul is doing in this letter?
3. What would it look like to be lovingly assertive (Ephesians 4:15)?  How can passivity be selfish and hateful (1 Corinthians 5:1-5)?  Which method will bless the hearer if they listen?  Which method will hurt them?

Today’s passage: Galatians 5:1-6

Helpful thoughts:

• Christ death on the cross set us free.  To go back under the law would return us to our bondage and condemnation, the very things from which we were set free.
• If you believe obedience to the law is required for your salvation, you are not trusting in Christ.  You are not saved.  Law and grace cannot mix.
• To be severed from Christ and to have fallen from grace does not mean that a person lost their salvation.  It simply means that when a person seeking justification hears both the messages of law and grace, if that person chooses law, they have rejected grace.
  • Once a person is justified by His grace, God has committed to their glorification. (Romans 8:30)
• Christ fulfilled the law.  So if we are in Christ, it doesn’t matter how much of it we fulfilled.  Remember, we all fall short anyway!

Questions to consider:

1. If we try to follow one part of the law to get justification, what have we committed ourselves to?  What could be the only result of our effort to fulfill the law?
2. If we believe we now have to obey a law, what we forgotten about ourselves prior to the start of our attempt?  Is it right to say that Jesus died for all of our past sins and gave us a fresh start for a new attempt?  Did He merely unlock the door or did He guarantee our complete entry and acceptance?
3. Do you know someone who has been trying to get to God through their efforts?  How could you tell them about God’s grace?  How could you tell them about Jesus Christ and the Gospel?

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?