Galatians 1:6–9: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 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. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (ESV)
Galatians is a letter written by Paul during the earlier part of his ministry after Christ had saved him in Acts 9 and Paul had begun his missionary journeys.
The Big Idea of Galatians
I have taught the big idea of Galatians in this way: Salvation Is by Faith Alone in Christ Alone Paul rebukes the Galatians for accepting or beginning to accept a perversion of the gospel. He argues that it would send them to hell rather than bring them to God. This is because their perverted gospel is based on their work plus Christ's rather than on faith in Christ alone apart from their work.
Paul is concerned that the Galatians understand that Paul isn't preaching his own version of the gospel but the one he received from Christ. He is also concerned that the Galatians not add their works to Christ's by getting circumcised, that they not desire to be under the law, and that they walk by the Spirit rather than indulging their flesh.
We do not struggle in the same way with circumcision in particular, but we do have a problem with adding our work to Christ. Resting in Christ's finished work by faith and then allowing the faith to work through love rather than for merit is a perennial (always present) issue we have today.
An Outline of Galatians
Chapter 1: The Gospel Is Not Man-Made
In chapter one, Paul emphasizes the fact that the gospel he preaches is not man-made. That is, the gospel that Paul spoke to them is not something that he came up with himself but that he received directly from Christ. Paul opens the letter by expressing astonishment at their desertion of God for a different gospel. He declares that any gospel other than the one preached by him is anathema or cursed. The gospel Paul gave to them is the same one that Christ gave to him. Paul reminds them of his conversion and the fact that his initial appointment did not come from any person but from God himself. Paul’s appointment as apostle is parallel to and not subordinate to any other apostle.
Chapter 2: Being Jewish Does not Save You
In the second chapter, Paul’s emphasis is on the fact that being Jewish does not save a person. This is most clearly shown in verses 15-16, where Paul reminds the Galatians that he and his companions are Jews, but he does not believe that they are justified by being a Jew and keeping the law. Instead, they are justified and saved because they have believed in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. To set up this point, Paul tells the story of when he called out Peter publicly for hypocrisy, reprimanding him for sitting apart from the Gentiles when the Jews were around but freely mingling with the Gentiles when they were not. Paul makes clear by the end of the chapter that Christ is not a servant of sin by saving them. Christ does not become like a sinner to save Paul. Instead, Christ makes Paul more like Christ. Paul’s point is that he died to the law so he could live to God. This is the only way that God’s grace and righteousness can be equally maintained. Righteousness is a gift from God. But it is not simply that God declares righteous someone who is not. He declares someone to be righteous because Christ died for their sins and covers them with his righteousness.
Chapters 3-4: Being in Christ Saves You
Paul’s main point in chapters 3-4 is that being in Christ is what saves a person. He makes this clearest at the end of chapter 3, where he tells the Galatians that to be Christ’s is to be Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise (3:29). In other words, you do not have to be ethnically descended from Abraham to receive the blessings that were promised to him. You can receive those blessings by belonging to Christ, who is the one through whom the blessings promised to Abraham will come. Paul rebukes the Galatians at the beginning of chapter three for believing that they could somehow be perfected by the flesh (3:3). The sons of Abraham are sons by faith (3:7). If they rely on the law, they will end up cursed (3:10). The law was a placeholder until Christ came. Now that Christ has come, our relationship with the law is fundamentally changed. Paul reminds the Galatians in chapter four that they have come to know and be known by God through Christ. Why would they want to turn back to the law? Those who teach that they should do not seek to do good to the Galatians, but harm (4:17). We do not have to be subject to the law, since we are united to Christ. Paul concludes with an analogy drawn from Sarah and Hagar, who represent the promise and the flesh, respectively. Sarah had a child according to promise. This means that the child that she had was the result of faith in God and not her own work. Hagar bore a child to Abraham by the flesh and not according to promise. To go back to the law is like what Abraham did with Hagar. It represents an attempt to force the fulfillment of promise in your own strength. It cannot and does not work. But those who trust in Christ are like children born to Sarah, that is, by faith in God’s provision and not by personal effort. Salvation is not attained by effort, but by faith in Christ.
Chapter 5: Lawless Salvation Does Not Mean Lawless Living
In chapter five, Paul emphasizes to the Galatians the importance of not accepting circumcision as an additional part of salvation. Instead of adding to Christ, it severs them from him (5:3). Paul reminds them that they were called to freedom and should not submit themselves again to a yoke of slavery. However, this freedom does not mean that the Galatians are free to live however they like. The goal of the law, loving your neighbor as yourself, remains the same (5:14). The way to avoid moral anarchy is not by threatening believers with damnation if they do not become Jews, but to teach them to walk by the Spirit by whom they began their life in Christ in the first place. This will produces all the fruit that leads to and comes from loving our neighbors as ourselves and will avoid all the consequences of not doing so.
Chapter 6: All Glory in Salvation Goes to God
Paul’s final words in Galatians remind his readers that personal pride has no place among believers. Rather, we should acknowledge sin among us and gently restore one another without condescension. The believer’s boast is not in himself but in the grace and mercy of God. Our goal is not to avoid persecution but to live for God. There is no place for boasting in ourselves and we should beware those who seek to make themselves look good. All the glory and credit goes to God. This has been Paul’s consistent focus with the Galatians, and they should trouble him about it no longer.
Benefits of Galatians
If there could only be one takeaway from Galatians, it is that we must add nothing to Christ’s work. Those who are saved are redeemed by Christ alone. No act that we do is appended to Christ’s work so that we are saved by Christ’s work plus ours. Like others have said before, the only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary. This is a great humiliation to many and an even greater relief to others. It is humbling because we like to think that we can or ought to do something for our salvation. Such a great gift as salvation seems too extravagant to be gotten for free. At the same time, the greatness, the immensity, of our salvation is such that it ought to be obvious that there is nothing we could do to achieve it for ourselves. We do better to believe that we contribute to the motion of a container ship by tossing a grain of sand against it than to believe that we can or should contribute anything to Christ’s effort. Christ’s work for us was more than a herculean task; it was a work that only God become man could accomplish for us.
This emphasis on our lack of any contribution to Christ’s work helps us to understand our faith. It is not a faith in what we do but a faith in what Christ has done and promises us now in the gospel. Our great need is to be in Christ by faith, to begin by the Spirit and press on toward walking by that same Spirit to love our neighbor as ourselves. We must hold to the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints and never allow it to be changed, reduced, or expanded beyond what Paul lays out in this letter. Christ’s work is enough, and the message Paul preached to the Galatians is the same message that we need to hear and understand today.