Galatians: A Letter About Freedom
Imagine you’re hanging out with your friends when someone comes along and tries to tell you that you need to change everything about yourself to fit in. They say you need to act differently, dress differently, and even believe differently. That’s kind of what happened to a group of early Christians in Galatia, and that’s what the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians is all about.
What’s the Big Deal?
The Christians in Galatia were being told that they needed to follow a bunch of strict rules and traditions, like getting circumcised, in order to be true followers of Jesus. But Paul knew this was wrong. He reminded them that the only thing that mattered was their faith in Jesus and the grace of God. He said that trying to earn God’s favour through works was like trying to build a house on sand – it wouldn’t last.
What Does This Mean for Us?
The message of Galatians is just as important for us today. It reminds us that we don’t need to do anything to earn God’s love and acceptance. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus. And because we are free from the burden of trying to earn our salvation, we are free to live a life of love and service to others.
Study Questions
- What are some of the rules and traditions that the Galatians were being told to follow?
- Why did Paul think it was important to write a letter to the Galatians?
- What does Paul mean when he says that we are saved by grace through faith?
- How does the message of Galatians apply to our lives today?
- What are some ways that we can live a life of love and service to others?
Challenge
Think about a time when you felt pressured to change who you are in order to fit in. How did you handle that situation? How can the message of Galatians help you deal with similar situations in the future? Remember, you are loved and accepted by God just as you are!
Galatians stands as an eloquent and vigorous apologetic for the essential New Testament truth that people are justified by faith in Jesus Christ—by nothing less and nothing more—and that they are sanctified not by legalistic works but by the obedience that comes from faith in God’s work for them.
The churches in Galatia were formed partly of converted Jews, and partly of Gentile converts, as was generally the case. St. Paul asserts his apostolic character and the doctrines he taught, that he might confirm the Galatian churches in the faith of Christ, especially with respect to the important point of justification by faith alone. Thus the subject is mainly the same as that which is discussed in the epistle to the Romans, that is, justification by faith alone. In this epistle, however, attention is particularly directed to the point, that men are justified by faith without the works of the law of Moses. Of the importance of the doctrines prominently set forth in this epistle, Luther thus speaks: “We have to fear as the greatest and nearest danger, lest Satan take from us this doctrine of faith, and bring into the church again the doctrine of works and of men’s traditions.
Matthew Henry
Wherefore it is very necessary that this doctrine be kept in continual practice and public exercise, both of reading and hearing. If this doctrine be lost, then is also the doctrine of truth, life and salvation, lost and gone.”
