Galatians

PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT – GALATIA

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OVERVIEW – The “promise of the Spirit” is part of the “blessing of Abraham” promised to the nations, and those who receive it become the “children of Abraham.” 

In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul referred to the “promise of the Spirit,” which he identified with the “blessing of Abraham.” Jesus came under the “curse” of the Law to redeem believers from it, so that, the “blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

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REDEEMED AND ADOPTED

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The Law was an interim stage with a termination point. Christian believers are no longer “under the Law,” instead, they are “in Christ” – Galatians 4:1-7.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul points out that if Christians adopt the rite of circumcision, they will regress to that which is rudimentary, and to an earlier stage in Salvation History. The adoption of a Torah-compliant lifestyle means a return to a minority status and the reintroduction of social divisions.

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PAUL’S MAIN DISPUTE AT GALATIA

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SYNOPSIS – Paul presents the points of agreement and disagreement with his opponents at Galatia – Galatians 2:15-21.

In the first two chapters of his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul explains how he received his gospel for the Gentiles by divine revelation, a commission confirmed by the leaders of the Jerusalem church. He also details how certain “false brethren had slinked in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus” in an earlier but similar controversy at the church in Antioch of Syria – (Galatians2:1-5).

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RESCUED FROM THIS EVIL AGE

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Paul anchored all that God has done in the past Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which inaugurated the messianic age – Galatians 1:1-5.

In Galatians, Paul declared that his apostleship came from the same God who raised Jesus from the dead, the one who gave his life to “deliver us from this evil age.” This anticipated the defense of his apostolic calling and his disagreement with certain Jewish believers who were operating as if the old era was still in effect.

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WHY, THEN, THE LAW?

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OVERVIEW – If a man is not justified from the works of the Law, what was the purpose of the Torah given through Moses at Mount Sinai? – Galatians 3:19. 

In his Letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul declared that we are set right with God from the “faith of Jesus Christ,” and not “from the works of the Law.” But if keeping the “works of the Law” does not justify us before God, logically, this raises the question:  Why, then, the Law? What was the purpose of the Torah? Paul answered this question in the third chapter of his letter.

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