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 3:19-26
Why, then, was the law given? It was added for the sake of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise was made would come. The law was put into effect through angels by means of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator is not just for one person alone, but God is one. 21 Is the law therefore contrary to God’s promises? Absolutely not! For if the law had been granted with the ability to give life, then righteousness would certainly be on the basis of the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin’s power, so that the promise might be given on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe. 23 Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. 24 The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. 25 But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus.
Through the Bible Readings: Ezekiel 15-16, 2 Timothy 2, Psalm 119:117–120, Proverbs 27:1–3
If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings.
Devotional: Imprisoned by the Law
Paul uses two vivid figures of speech here to describe the Jewish. Once we understand them, it is amazing that some would still want to live according to those laws and hold them up as a means of grace. The law is not evil, Paul said, but it exposed our evil and revealed our need for Christ. It reveals the character of God and his righteousness but also exposes our total inability to follow the law and to gain the favor of God. That is why we need Jesus. Why would we seek to "do our best" and live by a law that only proves our inability to earn God's favor?
The first figure used is that of a prison. In verse 22, Paul speaks of being imprisoned under sin's power, because of what was revealed in the law. The law told us to love God with all our hearts, but we never will and never can do that. Our failure incarcerates us in the prison of God's judgment. It exposes us to the perfect standard, the glory of God, against which we all fall short.
The second figure of speech here is a difficult one because there is no equivalent in our culture to the "pedagogue" of ancient cultures. He was not a "schoolmaster" or a simple "guardian." English translators struggle to find a word to describe the Greek word "paidogogos." He was a servant who was given authority over a family's son to discipline him, to guard him against the evils of society, to teach him manners and proper behavior. He would take him to school (he was not the teacher) and see that he learned his lessons. He was a companion, a guide, and an overseer until the boy reached maturity.
The law was our paidogogos, which disciplined us, guided us, restrained us, and oversaw our lives until Christ came. The law could tell us what God wanted and could convict us of our wrongdoing. There is one thing the law could never do. It can tell us that idolatry is wrong. It can warn us to honor our parents and not to lie or steal or commit adultery. What is cannot do is deal with our inevitable failures.
When Jesus Christ came he not only freed us from the prison of sin but released us from the paidogogos of the law. It could chide us but couldn't save us. Only Jesus, by his death and resurrection, could redeem us. This was the source of Paul's bewilderment and frustration. Why would the "circumcision party" return to prison and to a paidogogos who couldn't save them? Jesus had freed them to walk a new life of power and they were returning to the life they'd had without him. Why would they do that?
Father, thank you for the freedom we have in Christ. Help me to walk in his freedom and not to return to the things that enslaved me.
Think and Pray:
Are you walking in the freedom of Christ or seeking to please God by the flesh and by following the law?
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