Inter-Varsity Press

CONTENTS

Welcome!
How to use this Bible Guide
Finding your way around this book
Has anyone got a map?
Routes through Galatians

1 Freedom and my story: Galatians 1 – 2

Getting the niceties over 1:1–5
Digging deeper: Making sense of Galatians
The message of freedom 1:6–10
Digging deeper: Paul’s conversion and life story
The truth about me 1:11–24
Agreeing the essentials 2:1–5
Stop and think: There’s a new world coming
(Digging deeper: What the rival missionaries taught
Co-operating in mission 2:6–10
When friends fall out 2:11–14
The heart of the matter 2:15–16
Stop and think: Justification by faith
Dying with Christ 2:17–21

2 Freedom and the Scriptures: Galatians 3 – 4

God keeping his promise 3:1–9
Digging deeper: Paul’s use of the Old Testamen
Christ breaks the curse 3:10–14
The promise and the seed 3:15–18
Putting the law in its place 3:19–25
Stop and think: The works of the law
One promised family 3:26–29
The Spirit of sonship 4:1–11
Paul’s heart on his sleeve 4:12–20
Two sons, two destinies 4:21–31

3 Freedom and the Spirit: Galatians 5 – 6

Christ sets us free 5:1–6
Don’t lose the plot 5:7–12
Stop and think: How can you tell when someone’s in God’s family?
Set free to serve 5:13–15
Digging deeper: Doctrine and experience
The role of the Spirit 5:16–21
The fruit of the Spirit 5:22–26
Stop and think: The story of Jesus in Paul’s theology
Looking out for each other 6:1–5
Sowing and reaping 6:6–10
Stop and think: Our identity in Christ
In the end it’s about the cross and the new creation 6:11–18

1. The community of faith
The essentials: 2:15–16
Focused on Jesus: 2:17–21
Fulfilling the law: 3:10–14
One family: 3:26–29
Worship in the Spirit: 4:1–11
Looking out for each other: 6:1–5

2. Paul the model pastor
Preaching the truth regardless: 1:11–24
Opposing error: 2:11–14
Showing his heart: 4:12–20
A passion for essentials: 6:11–18

3. Life in the Spirit
Faith and the Spirit: 3:1–5
The Spirit and the promise: 3:10–14
The Spirit of sonship: 4:1–11
The fruits of the Spirit: 5:22–26
The Spirit and mutual care: 6:1–5

4. Reading the Old Testament as Christians
Digging deeper: the use of the Old Testament
Christians and Abraham’s story: 3:1–9
The promise fulfilled: 3:10–14
Applying the story to our lives: 4:21–31
Fulfilling the heart of the law: 5:13–15

5. Who are the people of God?
Those with faith: 2:15–16
The seed of Abraham: 3:15–18
The promised single family: 3:26–29
Those set free to serve: 5:13–15
Those who care for each for each other: 6:1–5
A fulfilled Israel: 6:11–18

6. How do I live as a Christian?
Dying with Christ: 2:17–21
Putting my trust in God: 3:1–9
Set free by Jesus: 5:1–6
Serving God in the church and the world: 5:13–15
Walking in the Spirit: 5:22–26
Mutual love and care: 6:1–10
(see also the ‘Stop and think’ section on our identity in Christ, p. 131)

A number of times in this guide, I’ll make reference to what the Greek says as this can often enhance our understanding of Galatians.

The New Testament was written in Greek. Indeed, it is a form of Greek known as koine (the Greek word for ‘common’) because it was the language of the streets and the marketplace rather the language of great Greek literature.

All translators have to choose between a number of options when they pick a word in English with which to translate a word from the Greek.

These choices can reflect slightly different emphases.

In order for every reader to get the best out of the New Testament, I recommend a number of simple strategies:

• Use at least two translations regularly. The best English translations for regular use are the New International Version and the New Revised Standard Version.
• Get a study Bible. There are good ones for both the NIV and NRSV. A study Bible has detailed notes at the foot of each page explaining difficult parts of the text, often telling readers why the translators chose certain words in preference to others, as well as providing cross-references to other parts of Scripture.
• Have a commentary on each book of the New Testament that refers to the Greek text so that we don’t miss anything that could be enlightening.
• Learn Greek. It’s not as fanciful as it sounds. After all, many people learn languages to enhance their enjoyment of opera or classic Greek poetry, or simply to get more out of overseas holidays. Look out for a Interlinear New Testament to help you.

We can trust the translations of the Bible that we use. They are based on the best and most careful scholarship. There are just the odd moments where translators have to make a judgment call that will not be shared by all commentators. These probably apply to less than five per cent of the New Testament.

The good news of Jesus sets us free – but only if we don’t live our lives looking over our shoulders wondering what those around us think.

You can almost feel Paul trembling with indignation as he launches into his rebuke of the Galatian Christians. Having reminded them of the heart of the Christian message in his terse introduction, he expresses astonishment (6) that these believers should be straying from it.

Later he will suggest they’ve been bewitched (3:1), so amazing is it that they have wandered from the simple truth of the gospel.

Paul’s words tumble out as though his mind is racing faster than his lips’ ability to form the sounds his secretary is committing to parchment. He curses those who preach a different gospel and he pits himself against any who would do Christian work in order to gain the favour of people. It’s strong stuff. But what exactly is Paul’s complaint?

He establishes two key points in this section, both of which have a bearing on our freedom. The first is that there is only one gospel. The second is that the only approval that matters is God’s and that true freedom flows from following his call.

At this point Paul doesn’t outline the content of the teaching that is leading the Galatian believers astray. Later he tells us that it centred on the view that followers of Jesus must keep the Jewish law. In particular, Paul is challenging the teachers, who are insisting that if we are to be part of the people of God, we must be circumcised (if we’re a man), keep the Sabbath and follow the dietary regulations laid out in the Torah (see ‘Digging deeper’, p.80). Here it is sufficient for him to contrast this teaching with his gospel of grace (6).

He has harsh words for those who depart from the message as Paul has preached it: theirs is a ‘different gospel’ (6), ‘confusing’ (7), they ‘pervert the gospel of Christ’ (7), ‘let that one be accursed’ (8c, 9c, NRSV).

It’s clear that the teachers who were contradicting Paul claimed some pretty weighty authority for their actions – probably the approval, if not the mandate of, the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, especially James, the Lord’s brother. This is why Paul tells them firmly that whoever might preach it – even an angel from heaven (8) – they should not believe it.

How will they tell the true gospel from the false one? The clue is in the phrase ‘the grace of Christ’ (6). Paul’s gospel, the true gospel, centres on the grace of Jesus revealed in his death and resurrection, as Paul has already reminded us (1, 3–4). This gospel centres on God’s free gift of rescue from the present evil age, forgiveness of sins and peace with the Father (3–4). It is on this message and no other that our freedom rests.

And that freedom for Paul is crucially about freedom from religion with its never-ending duties and lists of ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’. The false teachers in Galatia, the rival missionaries, those who said effectively that you had to be Jewish to be a Christian see ‘Digging deeper’, p. 42), were laying on the Gentile converts in these small churches a burden Paul felt was intolerable, as well as being a denial of the gospel of Christ. One of the problems of religion is that it clutters people’s lives with rules and regulations. Religion hems people in and robs them of their freedom. ...