Delve Into Luke-Acts & Paul's LettersSample

DAY 11 – GALATIANS II

After addressing the charges against himself, Paul proceeds to his main argument, which is that Gentiles who become followers of Jesus don’t need to be circumcised or keep other key provisions of the law. He begins by asking the Galatians about their own experience. He points out that God sent them the Holy Spirit before they were even considering Jewish religious observances. This should show them that God doesn’t really expect these things of them. 

Paul then makes two different appeals to the story of Abraham in the Scriptures. First he notes that Abraham, the source of spiritual blessings for both Jews and Gentiles, “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” This was 430 years before the law was given to Moses. God promised Abraham that “all nations,” meaning Gentiles like the Galatians, would be blessed through him. The implication is that “those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” The Galatians don’t need to rely on the law. 

Paul explains that he’s making his second appeal “figuratively,” using characters and events in Abraham’s story to represent spiritual realities. He observes that Abraham had two sons, but only one would “share in the inheritance.” This was Isaac, the son born in freedom, who symbolizes being justified by faith. Ishmael, the other son, who didn’t inherit anything, was born into slavery and represents “trying to be justified by the law.” If you really want to be included in the blessings that God promised to Abraham and his descendants, Paul tells the Galatians, “stand firm” in faith “and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery,” the law. 

In the midst of these arguments, Paul breaks off twice to appeal directly to the Galatians on the basis of his relationship with them (“I plead with you, brothers and sisters”; “You were running a good race”). He’s writing to people who once took care of him when he was ill. He cares about them deeply, and it grieves him to send them such a strongly-worded letter of correction.

Once he’s established that Gentile believers don’t need to be circumcised or follow the Jewish law, Paul has to address one more concern. If people don’t have the law to restrain them, what’s to keep them from running wild? He explains that the Holy Spirit will live inside each believer, giving them the power and the desire to live as God wishes. Instead of external restraint, there will be inner transformation. Paul concludes his main argument by describing what this transformation should look like. He describes the character qualities that make up the “fruit of the Spirit” in the lives of individual believers and how these qualities should be lived out in the community of Jesus followers.

Paul ends this letter, like some of his others, with a greeting in his own handwriting. This gives him the opportunity to repeat his main theme: “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.”

PRAYER: Thank You, Father, for setting us free in Christ. Enable me to walk by Your Spirit and bear fruit.