Intro to Galatians
May 2, 2008About Galatians :: written around A.D. 48
Galatians contains, in summary form, an overview of the Apostle Paul’s teaching. The Apostle Paul at one time took joy in persecuting/murdering Christians. When Christ took a hold of his life everything changed. He is credited with authoring nearly half of the New Testament and later said, “For me to live, is Christ. And to die, is gain.”
You can read his testimony here.
Galatians was known as Martin Luther’s favorite book of the Bible. He was even known to refer to it as his “wife”. In fact his Commentary on Galatians was widely read and helped many people to see what the gospel of Jesus was really all about.
Interestingly there is a lot of debate over exactly who the Galatians were. At the time of it’s writing Galatia could have referred to two different places.
The book was written to call complacent believers away from legalism to faith. It’s thrust is that we are saved not by what we can do to please God, because we can’t, but rather because of what He has done for us.
[...] (click here to read the “Intro to Galatians”) 6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News 7 but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. [...]
[...] (click here to read the “Intro to Galatians”) 11 Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the gospel message I preach is not based on mere human reasoning. 12 I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.[a] 13 You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it. 14 I was far ahead of my fellow Jews in my zeal for the traditions of my ancestors. [...]
[...] (click here to read the “Intro to Galatians”) 1 Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too. 2 I went there because God revealed to me that I should go. While I was there I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing. 3 And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.[a] 4 Even that question came up only because of some so-called Christians there—false ones, really[b]—who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations. 5 But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you. [...]
[...] (click here to read the “Intro to Galatians”) 11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. 12When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. 13 As a result, other Jewish Christians followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? [...]
[...] (click here to read the “Intro to Galatians”) 23 Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. 24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. 25 And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian. [...]