Galatians

Stand Fast in the Liberty

Every other letter Paul wrote to a church opens with a thanksgiving. Galatians doesn’t. After a short greeting, Paul goes straight at it: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel” (1:6). Then he says it twice, so nobody misses it: if anyone preaches any other gospel, even an angel from heaven, “let him be accursed” (1:8–9).

What made Paul so angry? Teachers had come into the Galatian churches telling Gentile believers that faith in Christ was a good start, but to be truly right with God they also needed to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. It sounded reasonable, even devout. Paul saw it for what it was: a different gospel that would put free people back in chains. Martin Luther loved this short letter so much he said he was married to it. Its message is in one verse: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (5:1).

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Authorship & Setting

Paul names himself as the author, and almost no one, ancient or modern, has doubted it. He usually dictated his letters, but he wrote the end of this one himself: “Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand” (6:11). Some think the large letters point to poor eyesight, which might also explain why the Galatians would have plucked out their own eyes for him (4:15).

Galatia was a Roman province in what is now central Turkey. Scholars debate which churches Paul meant. Some think he wrote to the ethnic Galatians in the north of the province, sometime in the mid-50s AD. Many others believe he wrote to the churches he founded on his first missionary journey in the south: Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts 13–14). If so, Galatians may be Paul’s earliest surviving letter, written around AD 48–49, just before the Jerusalem council of Acts 15 settled the very question it addresses.

Either way, the issue is the same. The men troubling the Galatians, often called Judaizers, insisted Gentiles had to become Jews to be full members of God’s people. Paul answers in three movements: a personal defense of his gospel (chapters 1–2), a doctrinal argument from Scripture (chapters 3–4), and a practical picture of life in the Spirit (chapters 5–6).

Key Figures

• Paul — a former persecutor of the church who received his gospel “by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:12), not from any man.
• Peter (Cephas) — a pillar of the church whom Paul confronted publicly at Antioch for withdrawing from Gentile believers: “I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed” (2:11).
• James — the Lord’s brother and a leader in Jerusalem, who gave Paul the right hand of fellowship (1:19; 2:9).
• Barnabas — Paul’s partner, who was briefly “carried away” with Peter’s hypocrisy at Antioch (2:13).
• Titus — a Greek believer brought to Jerusalem as a test case. The apostles did not require him to be circumcised (2:3).
• Abraham — justified by faith centuries before the law was given, and the father of all who believe (3:6–9).
• Hagar and Sarah — the bondwoman and the freewoman, whose sons Paul uses as a picture of two covenants (4:21–31).

Greek Word Study

ἐλευθερία · eleutheria

“Liberty,” freedom. It is the theme word of the letter. Christ has set us free from the law as a way of being made right with God, and from sin’s slavery. But Paul guards it on both sides: freedom is not permission. “Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (5:13).

παιδαγωγός · paidagōgos

“Schoolmaster” (3:24). In a Roman household, this was a slave who looked after a boy until he came of age, walking him to school, watching his behavior, and correcting him. He was not the teacher and not the father. “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.”Once the son is grown, he no longer needs the guardian.

καρπός · karpos

“Fruit.” Notice that Paul writes “the fruit of the Spirit” (5:22), singular, not fruits. The works of the flesh are many and scattered. The fruit of the Spirit is one harvest, nine flavors of a single life, all growing together. Fruit is not manufactured. It grows from a living connection.

στίγματα · stigmata

“Marks,” the brands burned into a slave or soldier to show who he belonged to. “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus”(6:17). The false teachers wanted to boast in a mark on the Galatians’ flesh. Paul’s only marks were scars from beatings and stonings for Christ.

Eight-Movement Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

No Other Gospel (1:1–10)

Paul is an apostle “not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (1:1). He wastes no time. The Galatians are deserting the One who called them, for a gospel that is not really a gospel at all, preached by people who “would pervert the gospel of Christ” (1:7). Paul pronounces a curse on any messenger, including himself or an angel, who preaches something different. He isn’t trying to win a popularity contest: “for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (1:10).

MOVEMENT TWO

A Gospel Not From Man (1:11–2:10)

Paul proves his gospel came straight from God. He had been the most zealous persecutor of the church, until God, who had set him apart from his mother’s womb, revealed His Son in him. He didn’t run to Jerusalem for approval. He went to Arabia, then to Damascus. Three years later he spent fifteen days with Peter. Fourteen years after that, he went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus. The leaders there added nothing to his message, did not require Titus to be circumcised, and gave Paul and Barnabas “the right hands of fellowship”(2:9). They asked only that they remember the poor.

MOVEMENT THREE

Withstood to the Face (2:11–21)

At Antioch, Peter had been eating freely with Gentile believers, until men came from James. Then he withdrew, afraid of what the circumcision party would think, and the other Jewish believers followed. Paul confronted him in front of everyone. The issue was the gospel itself: “a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ” (2:16). Then comes one of the great verses of the New Testament: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (2:20). “For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (2:21).

MOVEMENT FOUR

O Foolish Galatians (3:1–14)

“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?”(3:1). Paul asks them one question: “Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (3:2). They knew the answer. “Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (3:3). Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness, so those who believe are his true children. The law, on the other hand, curses everyone who does not keep all of it. But “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree”(3:13), so that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles.

MOVEMENT FIVE

The Schoolmaster and the Sons (3:15–4:7)

God’s promise to Abraham came 430 years before the law, and the law cannot cancel it. “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions” (3:19), to show sin for what it is, until Christ came. The law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Now that faith has come, we are all children of God by faith. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (3:28). “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (4:4–5). “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son”(4:7).

MOVEMENT SIX

Why Go Back? (4:8–31)

Before they knew God, the Galatians were slaves to false gods. Why would they want to go back to “the weak and beggarly elements” (4:9), keeping days and months and seasons to earn favor? Paul reminds them how they once received him like an angel of God, despite the illness he had when he first preached to them. Now they treat him like an enemy for telling the truth. “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (4:19). Then he turns to Abraham’s two sons: one by a slave woman, born of the flesh, and one by the free woman, born by promise. “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all”(4:26). “Cast out the bondwoman and her son”(4:30).

MOVEMENT SEVEN

Stand Fast in Liberty (5:1–15)

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (5:1). If they let themselves be circumcised to be justified, Christ will profit them nothing. “Ye are fallen from grace” (5:4), Paul says, meaning they have stepped off grace as the ground they stand on. In Christ, circumcision means nothing either way: what counts is “faith which worketh by love”(5:6). “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump”(5:9). And freedom is not a license for the flesh: “by love serve one another” (5:13), because the whole law is fulfilled in loving your neighbor as yourself.

MOVEMENT EIGHT

Walk in the Spirit (5:16–6:18)

“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (5:16). Paul lists the works of the flesh, then the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law”(5:22–23). Restore a fallen brother in a spirit of meekness. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (6:2). “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (6:7). “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (6:9). Paul closes in his own large handwriting: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (6:14).

Christ Typology

The Seed of Abraham. God promised Abraham that in his seed all nations would be blessed. Paul points out something about the wording: “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ” (3:16). The promise was always headed toward one Descendant. Everyone who belongs to Christ becomes Abraham’s seed and an heir of the promise (3:29).

Isaac and Ishmael. Paul himself says, “Which things are an allegory” (4:24). Ishmael was born the ordinary way, when Abraham and Sarah tried to make God’s promise happen in their own strength. Isaac was born when it was humanly impossible, by God’s promise alone. Ishmael mocked Isaac, as those born of the flesh still persecute those born of the Spirit. Christ is the true Child of Promise, and in Him we are free sons, not slaves.

Hanged on a Tree. The law said, “he that is hanged is accursed of God” (Deuteronomy 21:23). To a first-century Jew, that verse made a crucified Messiah unthinkable. Paul turns it around: Jesus did hang on the tree, and He did bear the curse. It was our curse, the curse of the broken law, and He took it so we could receive the blessing.

The Seed of the Woman. God sent His Son “made of a woman” (4:4). The first promise of a Redeemer in the Bible was that the woman’s seed would crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). In the fulness of time, the promised Seed arrived, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under it.

The Heir Come of Age. Paul compares God’s people under the law to an heir who is still a child. Though he owns everything, he lives like a servant under guardians until the date his father has set (4:1–2). When Christ came, that date arrived. The Son came so that we could stop living as underage servants and cry, “Abba, Father” (4:6).

Personal Application

Guard the gospel. The danger in Galatia was not people denying Jesus. It was people adding to Him. Anytime someone says you need Jesus plus a ritual, plus a rule, plus a particular group’s approval, to be right with God, that is another gospel. It is still Jesus and nothing else.

Don’t go back to the yoke. Some believers who have been set free from heavy religious systems find themselves slipping back into the same patterns: earning, performing, fearing disapproval. Paul’s question still stands: having begun in the Spirit, are you trying to finish in the flesh? You were not saved by grace to be kept by works.

Crucified, and alive. “I am crucified with Christ” is not a call to try harder. It is a statement of fact. The old you was nailed to the cross with Him. The life you live now is His life in you, lived by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you. Say it personally, the way Paul did: for me.

Restore gently. When a brother or sister falls, the Spirit-filled response is not to expose, shame, or discard them. It is to restore them in meekness, knowing you could fall too. Bearing one another’s burdens is how we fulfill the law of Christ.

Don’t grow weary. Sowing and reaping are separated by time. Whatever you have been faithfully sowing, in your family, your work, your service to others, the harvest has a due season, and God sets it. Don’t quit in the gap between planting and harvest.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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