The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters.
Summary: As we wrap up our journey through Paul’s letter to the Galatians, it is worth taking a moment to consider where we have been and what we have learned.
As Paul brings his thoughts to a close, he leaves us to ponder many things. His letter begins and ends with grace from God. Then, he dives into the meaning of the true gospel.
Paul tells us how he came to know the gospel and gives us a detailed explanation of how he verified the truth of the gospel. Along the way, his understanding of the gospel was tested against the leadership in Jerusalem, and Paul was proven correct.
He takes great pains to explain the relationship between God’s laws and faith in God. This is the most critical part of his letter. The gospel Paul shares does not depend on our ability to keep the law but on Christ’s ability to keep the law. Our part is to rely on Jesus Christ.
As he winds up his discussion about the law, he turns to a brief description of life in the Spirit. This part of the letter is a shining gemstone. Paul reveals the contrast between the darkness of life in the flesh and the brilliance of living in the Spirit.
He concludes with an explanation of God’s grace: that we are a new Creation spiritually by the grace of God through Jesus Christ.
So what have we learned?
One thing I have learned from studying Paul’s letter is that I can “see” the Bible in an entirely new way.
Jesus is the centerpiece of the Bible and all of human history. Everything revolves around him. Traditionally, I have looked at the Old Testament as ending with Malachi and the New Testament beginning with Matthew. But what if I’ve been wrong?
What if the New Testament doesn’t actually begin until we get to Acts of the Apostles?
Everything Jesus did and taught was in the context of the Old Testament laws. There are very few exceptions. For example, Mark 7:19 includes this parenthetical statement — “In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.” But people didn’t realize the importance of Jesus’ statement until Peter saw his vision of the sheet in Acts 10. Everything else Jesus did was in keeping with the law.
Moving the dividing line between the old and new testaments helps me put Jesus’ words into a framework that makes more sense. Paul’s discussion of law and grace is more understandable this way, too. We live in an amazing time in history. How much more amazing can it be if we fully embrace Paul’s teachings about the grace of God?
Application: Find one “takeaway” from the study of Galatians.
Food for Thought: What have you learned from Paul’s letter to the Galatians?
So your question encouraged me to go back and look through my notes. We have been studying Galatians since the end of Nov last year. A lot has happened since Nov of last year. I can see an alignment of our meditations with events and moments of defining faith.
What have you learned from Paul’s letter to the Galatians?
I learned, but I think fortified is a better word here, the deeper message of God’s love and grace through Christ, and the love that Christ expressed to us, in His words, His life, and His death, through the grace of God, and in His resurrection. I learned a lot about myself and how I conducted my life before starting Galatians and after. I gave a lot to Christ, and He took it and redefined it, redeemed it. I also learned how to more effectively communicate God’s love to others. I will have to say that prior I had missed a lot of what Paul was saying. I have a more profound respect for the message of Christ that Paul relayed. Also, I can now see how my initial faith in Christ many years ago was in fact a seed. So, I don’t feel embarrassed to say that I can now look at my walk with both gratitude for growth and a hope for better things.
The grace of God is more than something He gives to us, it is who He is. More than an expression of good will, it is His Good Will. As we learned through Abraham, God continually reaches out to us, ultimately sending His Son to free us from sin, and to give us the love that He created us from and for. Through Christ, and in faith, we are awakened spiritually to Him, and are not only able to receive love but to give love.
Making Christ the center of everything in our lives. Let go of “the law” for justification and be justified through Christ. Then the Holy Spirit can help us walk in a righteous way before God.
Keeping open communication with the Holy Spirit. Seeing our spiritual selves. Seeing the Spirit in our lives.
Once we were slaves to sin, now we are free in Christ. Not as wandering souls, but as Children of God. Becoming like Christ, learning that there is a difference between religion and obedience.
Knowing that pleasing God comes in a heart that seeks His Spirit, listens, and obeys, out of love and devotion to Him.
We must seek the truth, ask for the whole truth, and accept the truth that the Spirit gives us. We must also seek not to contaminate the truth with our own reasoning or self-serving desire. We must seek to be united in truth.
We must help each other. We are a family through Christ.
Through Christ, we are given the ability to turn from the flesh. As the old self dies within us, and the new self grows, we shed the acts of the flesh, and the fruit of the Spirit forms and grows.
The world will not understand any of this, and will in fact hate us for it. Just as the law exposes sin, love exposes hate. The law doesn’t have the power to redeem sin, only punish it. Love has the power to redeem.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 3:11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Galatians 4:4-7 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Thank you, Chris.
I really like your word “fortified!” We can read something, but to understand it in depth requires a deep dive into the thoughts behind the words.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I find them inspiring! 🙂
What have you learned from Paul’s letter to the Galatians?
God forms, shapes, prepares and empowers His instruments to effectively minister, present His message to mankind. We are each uniquely equipped by God to confidently present His message as led.
Paul had been prepared from birth to be the one person to proclaim God’s word, in the epistle to the Galatians.
He had been born into a powerful Jewish family, received the best education in Jewish Law, become a Pharisee of the Pharisee,
Acts 23:6.
He had been selected, given authority to arrest and punish those who worshipped Jesus Christ, which he accepted with zeal.
He was stopped, humbled by God, Acts 9:1-19. And in Galatians 1:11–20, Paul reveals details as he emphasizes that he received the gospel from Jesus directly and not from the other apostles.
Jesus clarified Paul’s ministry that God looks at the heart, while the Law exists to condemn people.
Paul was fully equipped to help, assist these early churches, primarily to address the concern of whether or not they were subject to the Mosaic law, or freed from the law to live in Grace by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Thank you, Ron!
When you write “God looks at the heart, while the Law exists to condemn people,” you sum up Paul’s message well.
It has been quite a journey, hasn’t it?! 🙂
Our driver has taken us on quite a journey. Thank you Jeff!
Ron
🙂