10. Galatians
10. Galatians
CONTENTS
In a concise greeting, Paul insists on his status as an apostle sent by God and reminds his correspondents that Christ gave himself to deliver us from "the present evil age” (Gal. 1:1-5). He expresses astonishment that the Galatians are deserting the gospel, a step he vehemently opposes (1:6-10). He insists that his gospel was given him by revelation from Christ and relates his persecuting activities and his few contacts with the earlier apostles to show that his gospel could not have derived from mere reliance on what they said (1:11-2:5). He points to a division of labor, with Peter at work as apostle to the Jews, while he was the apostle to the Gentiles, apparently with the implication that Gentiles would not be required to keep the Mosaic law (2:6-10). When later Peter withdrew from table fellowship with Gentile Christians, Paul took issue with him and pointed out that even Jews were not saved by works of the law but by faith in Christ (2:11-16). Sinners who are justified in Christ have died to the law and live "by faith in the Son of God” (2:17-21).
In an emotional appeal, Paul reminds the Galatians that the Spirit was given to them not on account of their observance of the law but on account of their faith in Christ (Gal. 3:1-5). Abraham was an example of faith (3:6-9), whereas the law brings a curse on sinners that Christ has borne for them (3:10-14). The law cannot replace the covenant God made with Abraham 430 years earlier; the law was given until the coming of Christ (3:15-25). The primacy of faith means that in our approach to God all human distinctions are removed; there is one great family of God (3:26-29). Christ’s redeeming work has brought believers into the place of sons, not slaves, in that family (4:1-7).
In their observance of the law the Galatians were going back into the kind of slavery from which they had been rescued, and Paul pleads again that they not persist in rejecting his teaching (Gal. 4:8-20). He reminds them from the ancient Scripture that Abraham had a son by Hagar (a slave woman) and one by Sarah (who was free).
These, he insists, represent two covenants. By submitting to the law’s requirements, the Galatians are going back to the old covenant, though they are really children of the free woman (4:21-31). They should live in the freedom that Christ has won for them and not undergo the circumcision that means bondage (5:1-12). Paul contrasts life in the Spirit with that in the flesh (5:13-26), which leads to instruction about right living (6:1-10). Paul takes up the pen himself to close with an impassioned reminder that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters—but God’s new creation does (6:11-18).