GALATIANS

GALATIANS

GALATIANS

The churches Paul founded in the Roman province of Galatia (Acts 13–14) were invaded by false teachers like those Paul had refuted in the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15). We call these people “Judaizers” because they tried to bring Christians into bondage to the law of Moses.

Paul wrote this letter to magnify God’s grace in salvation and to explain the freedom of God’s people because of that grace (Gal. 5:1). It opens with a personal affirmation (chaps. 1–2) as Paul explains how God delivered him from bondage through faith in Jesus Christ. He then gives a doctrinal explanation and shows the relationship between law and grace (chaps. 3–4). He closes with a practical application that tells you how to enjoy grace and freedom in your daily life (chaps. 5–6).

Christian freedom is the liberty to become all that you can in Jesus Christ; it is not the license to do whatever you please. The worst bondage you can experience is living for yourself and yielding to the desires of the old nature (Rom. 6). “We have freedom to do good or evil,” wrote St. Francis de Sales, “yet to make choice of evil, is not to use, but to abuse our freedom.” Christ did not free us to be our own; He freed us to be His and His alone.

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