For freedom Christ has set us free. Galatians 5:1 If it is true that we are forgiven freely by the grace of God through the death of Christ, and our entrance into heaven is already assured, and it does not depend on our works, what motivation is there to live an authentic Christian life? Suppose you are taking a maths class, and on the first day the teacher says, “I have some good news for you. The outcome of your final exam is already secure. Every one of you will pass this class with flying co...
Mar 24, 2025•3 min
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:14 In the book of Galatians, Paul has been telling us that we are no longer under the law. But here he tells us that we have to live a life of love that fulfills the law. That sounds confusing! Our freedom in Christ is the freedom of the Spirit. This is the freedom to live a life of love that fulfills the law— not as a means to acceptance with God, but as a fruit of acceptance with God. If this so...
Mar 23, 2025•3 min
You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law. Galatians 5:4 There will always be something in your flesh that says, “Just give me the rules. Tell me what I have to do.” It feels safer than the unlimited liability of love. Do you see that in yourself? Can you see how you could lose your freedom in Christ by returning to the law? Can you think of something you do that makes you feel more accepted by God? Salvation by quiet time: I feel more accepted by God because I have said...
Mar 22, 2025•3 min
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? Galatians 4:21 Why would anyone want to be under the law? Because there is a deep instinct within all of us that wants to limit our liability. That’s why we are sometimes more comfortable with law than we are with love. Think about the relationship you have with the company that issued your credit card. It is certainly not a relationship of love! You pay them what you owe. Sometimes you may get behind in your payments, an...
Mar 21, 2025•3 min
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Galatians 5:13 Can you see how it would be possible for you to lose your freedom by indulging the flesh? There is a sin in your life that you used to battle, but you suffered many defeats, and so now you have declared a truce. You have learned to live with it. You justify this in your mind because, after all, your sins are forgiven by Jesus and your destiny ...
Mar 20, 2025•2 min
So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4:7 This remarkable change has already happened in your life if you are a Christian believer. You were a slave. Now you are a son. The gospel sets you free. God has embraced you, in Christ, who died to redeem you. He has made you a new creation in Christ by the Spirit who lives within you. Grasping the gospel means believing that these things are true for you in Christ. Here is something very strange. Ther...
Mar 19, 2025•2 min
When we were children, [we] were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world... Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. Galatians 4:3, 8 A slave has no freedom. He does what he is commanded to do. The tragedy of the slave’s position is that his work never moves him to a better situation. His work cannot bring him freedom. This used to be your position before God. You owed a debt that you could not pay. You had not fulfilled the demands ...
Mar 18, 2025•2 min
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 2:20 Notice how the apostle Paul describes the Christian life. First, it is lived in the body. That means that you will always feel the pull of the flesh. You will always find yourself in conflict. You will find yourself lacking courage, losing heart, and lamenting your inconsistency. You will struggle with sickness, temptation, weakness, and eventually death. We live this life in ...
Mar 17, 2025•3 min
Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Galatians 3:2 This is a crucial question: How do you receive the Holy Spirit? How do you receive the new life that comes from above? Not by the law—the law cannot impart life—but by hearing with faith. This is the gospel. Those who believe the gospel receive the Spirit. There is no such thing as a Christian who does not have the Spirit. If you have forgiveness, then you have life. Why? Because both...
Mar 16, 2025•3 min
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. Galatians 3:23-24 When you see the impossibility of the life that God is calling you to live, then you will see your need of a Saviour. The law was put in charge to lead you to Christ. This is true not only on the day you came to faith, but all throughout the Christian life. Some Christia...
Mar 15, 2025•3 min
If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. Galatians 3:21 The law cannot give you life. Nothing you do for God can impart life. Your ministry cannot impart life. Your giving cannot impart life. Your spiritual disciplines cannot impart life. God’s law tells you what you have to do, but it cannot give you the power to do it. There is a story about Will Rogers, a famous American variety show performer and actor. During the Second World War, Rogers w...
Mar 14, 2025•2 min
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Galatians 2:20 There are two sides of the gospel—the death of Christ for you, and the life of Christ in you. In the first part of the verse, Paul says, “I have been crucified in Christ.” The Son of God loved you and gave Himself for you. This was a historical event. It happened in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. Jesus Christ died for your sins. In the second part of the verse, Paul says, “Christ... lives in me....
Mar 13, 2025•3 min
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 2:20 The gospel brings you into the power of a new life. Some people have a “spit and polish” view of the gospel: We all have our sins and our failures. None of us is perfect. So, we need a good wash, and that’s what Christ does for us. And when that happens, we scrub up pretty nice. But ...
Mar 12, 2025•3 min
If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more… But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousne...
Mar 11, 2025•3 min
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. Galatians 2:15-16 One word dominates this passage and it is the word justified. This is a legal word that belongs to the courtroom, where people are pronounced not guilty and cl...
Mar 10, 2025•3 min
To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law... that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law... that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 1 Corinthians 9:20-22 This is Paul’s principle of world mission. If we aren’t willing to do this, we will limit our minist...
Mar 09, 2025•2 min
He drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. Galatians 2:12 When Gentiles came to faith in Christ, the circumcision party went around the churches saying, “It’s great that you have come to faith in Jesus, but now, you need to adopt the distinctives that have been given to us.” These distinctives included circumcision, dietary laws, Old Testament festivals, etc. This group put pressure on Peter and Paul with very different results. What happened when they turned the heat up...
Mar 08, 2025•3 min
Before certain men came from James, [Peter] was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. Galatians 2:12 If you read the New Testament carefully, you will discover that there was a great struggle going on about the mission of the church. The apostles in Jerusalem were focused on evangelism among the Jews, and Paul had been commissioned by Christ to go to the Gentiles. The word Gentile means everybody who is not Jewish, so let...
Mar 07, 2025•3 min
When [Peter] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face… I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel. Galatians 2:11, 14 This was a critical moment in the life of the early church. Galatians 2 tells us the story of a clash between two giants of the early church—Peter and Paul. Modern commentators sometimes suggest that Paul and Peter preached a different message. They will say that Peter was more about works, and that Paul was more about grace. They go on to say that th...
Mar 06, 2025•3 min
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age. Galatians 1:3-4 Assuming that it is possible, how do you think a person comes into a living relationship with God? Some people think it all comes down to them—a decision. Others believe it all comes down to the church—following its teachings and rituals. But the Bible tells us something different. You cannot bring yourself into a living relationship with Go...
Mar 05, 2025•3 min
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. Galatians 1:8 The main problem addressed by the gospel is bigger than finding peace, building confidence, overcoming fear, or finding fulfilment. If our biggest problem was internal to us, then it might be possible for us to find an answer that came from a scientist, a psychologist, a theologian, a friend, or a spouse. But the problem addressed by the gospel is that o...
Mar 04, 2025•3 min
I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. Galatians 1:11 Today we are going to look at three possibilities—that the gospel came from Paul, from the church, or directly from Jesus Christ. 1. The gospel is not an invention If Paul had invented the gospel, then his teaching is simply an expression of his own thinking, and we have liberty to disagree with him. But Paul was an enemy of the gospel: “You have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I ...
Mar 03, 2025•3 min
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 2:20 As Christians, we believe Jesus died for our sins, but sometimes we are not sure He is able to deliver us from this present evil age. We are glad to be forgiven and grateful to know we are bound for heaven, but we feel that we need something more. And so, the search is on to find wha...
Mar 02, 2025•3 min
To the churches of Galatia. Galatians 1:2 At the beginning of the book of Galatians there is a summary of the gospel: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (1:3-4). Here we see two dimensions of the gospel: What Jesus did for us on the cross (gave Himself for our sins) and what Jesus does in us by the Spirit (delivers us from the present evil age). ...
Mar 01, 2025•3 min
“Who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16 Paul makes a remarkable statement here: “We have the mind of Christ” (2:16). If you are in Christ, you really can understand the Word of God, and that means you have access to the mind of Christ. In Christ, you are wise, but you will still make mistakes. This is important to remember because some Christians draw the wrong conclusion from this teaching. They feel that they have a ho...
Feb 28, 2025•3 min
‘We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 1 Corinthians 2:12 Here is a second thing to know about a life put together with God at the centre: “‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit” (2:9-10). God makes Himself known in two ways. The first is very public. God sent His So...
Feb 27, 2025•2 min
We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 1 Corinthians 2:7 God’s secret wisdom is a way of putting your life together with God at the center. This is what Jesus did. He did not ask, “What can I get out of this life on earth?” but, “What has the Father called me to do while I am here? How can I be a means of blessing others?” This will lead to a very different way of putting your life together. You will be thinking in the same way as Jesus did....
Feb 26, 2025•3 min
Among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age… But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 2:6-7 Paul speaks here of two kinds of wisdom—two ways of putting your life together: the wisdom of this age and God’s secret wisdom. It is important to grasp the difference so that we can choose which one to follow. The wisdom of this age is a way of putting your life together with yourself at the centre. You say, “What do I want to get out of life?” and ...
Feb 25, 2025•3 min
Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God. 1 Corinthians 1:30 The fourth dimension of your new identity in Christ is perhaps the most important of all: if you are in Christ, you are wise (though you will still make mistakes). Christ is our wisdom. Here is a simple definition of wisdom: the ability to put things together. In the Old Testament, we read about a man called Bezalel, who made the furniture for the tabernacle. The word used to describe his skill is sometimes translated wisdom (Ex....
Feb 24, 2025•3 min
But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30 We have seen that in Christ, you are clean (though you still sin) because Christ is your righteousness. You are free (though you still struggle) because Christ is your redemption. You are holy (though you still live in the world) because Christ is your holiness. Because these things are “in Christ,” that means that they are ours by faith. Faith is all a...
Feb 23, 2025•3 min
