Gospel Freedom in Galatians
Background: What was the key issue in the early church? Race. Culture. Issues that are still with us today. The church at its inception on Pentecost was essentially 100% Jewish and the Apostles and the church in Jerusalem seemed content to keep it that way. Then God called a Pharisee named Saul to salvation and set him aside as an Apostle to the Gentiles. Over the next 30 years, the church became primarily Gentile with a Jewish minority, and many Jews fought it.
Galatians was Paul's first letter, written at the end of his first missionary journey when Gentiles began to come to Christ in droves. A group, sometimes called Judaizers and sometimes the circumcision party, opposed the inclusion of Gentiles in the church. If they were to be part of the church, they needed to become Jewish - follow the law and Jewish rituals. Paul fought them tooth and nail his entire ministry. The gospel was for the whole world.
Galatians is a powerful argument for a gospel free from the works of the law.
As often as time allows, the reader is encouraged to read the entire book - it will not take more than a few minutes. Each day we will work our way through the book passage by passage.
Today's Reading: Galatians 1-6 Focus Passage - Galatians 5:1-6
For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Take note! I, Paul, am telling you that if you get yourselves circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all. 3 Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to do the entire law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we eagerly await through the Spirit, by faith, the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.
Through the Bible Readings: Ezekiel 31-32, Hebrews 4:1–5:10, Psalm 119:173–176, Proverbs 27:22–23
If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings.
Devotional: Freed for Jesus
A man told me today, online, that he knew of churches that were leaving the Southern Baptist Convention because of our recent efforts to correct our long history of racism and segregation. Slavery was long ago, he said. Why focus on the past?
First of all, slavery may have been long ago, but racism and the mistreatment of minorities is an ever-present problem in American culture, even among American Christians. In Galatians 5:1, Paul says that for freedom, Christ made us free. The freedom he speaks of is from human rules and human divisions. We are freed from those human things that divide us to unite in the service of Christ who saves us.
The churches Paul had established were increasingly divided by human traditions and racial issues. Those of Jewish heritage disdained those of Gentile heritage, demanding they conform to their culture and heritage if they wanted to be part of the church.
Paul said, in no uncertain terms, that this was slavery, making those who had been set free by Christ slaves to human things. Seeking to bring human elements into justification, to be "justified by the law" was not just a difference of opinion, but it alienated us from Christ. Those who did this "fell from grace." That term has been used as a synonym for "losing salvation" but it is much more literal here. These people were falling from the lofty standing of those who were saved by God's grace to a lower place of enslavement to works. They did not lose their salvation, but their standing in the ways of God.
In Jesus Christ, Paul says, circumcision and uncircumcision do not matter at all. Faith working through love is what matters. Our human divisions over race, over culture, over preferences and politics, these things fade in Christ. We put our faith in him and love him and others, and our human differences fade into nothing.
Think about this. The things we divide over - race, sports, preferences, culture - will any of these matter in heaven? If they won't matter in heaven then they shouldn't be issues among the people of God here on earth. Christ must be all in all and the gospel our banner.
Father, may I be faithful in you in all things, and not leave behind the freedom you have given me to give excessive value to the things of the world.
Think and Pray:
Are you living in the freedom of Christ, or bound by human things?
Do you let human issues bind your heart and mind?
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