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In the second half of Galatians chapter five, verses 16-26, Paul is going to explain that we not only have the freedom to love, but the power to do so. It comes from the Spirit of God. But it requires a determination to live under the Spirit’s control, choosing to be led by Him and not by our old sin nature. It’s a choice we have to make each and every day. And when we choose to let the Holy Spirit have control of our lives, He produces His fruit through us. And that fruit is irreproducible any other way. Oh, don’t get me wrong, we can produce a lot of things with our life, but if we do it in the flesh, the byproduct of our efforts will look dramatically different. Like everything else in our lives as believers, fruitfulness is not based on our own efforts, but on our complete reliance upon God. The life of faith is a life lived according to God’s power, not ours.

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As we move into chapter five of Galatians, the first 15 verses will introduce us to the concept of our freedom in Christ and what that should mean when it comes to our relationships with those around us. Paul will tell us that we are “free to love”, which is also the title of this episode. We enjoy freedom from the law. We are no longer required to try and keep the law in order to earn a right standing with God. We are free from the rites, rituals and religious rule-keeping that marked the law. But our freedom has a purpose. It is to have an ulterior motive. Rather than having to obsess about our own spiritual standing before God, we are free to love and serve those around us. Rather than focusing on law-keeping, we can concentrate all our attention on love-giving. Our salvation has been secured. So, we can spend all our time putting the needs of others first.

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Today’s episode is called “Two Covenants,” and is based on Galatians chapter 4, verses 21-31. Paul is going to contrast the old and the new covenants, using two Old Testament characters: Hagar and Sarah, to illustrate their differences. This unique comparison, will provide us with a better understanding of how the original covenant was based on the Law, but the new covenant, which replaced it, is based on the finished work of Christ on the cross. But Hagar and Sarah, two women who both bore sons to the Jewish patriarch, Abraham, represent two dramatically different attempts to see God’s promise fulfilled. One was based on human effort and reasoning, while the other relied on the word of God. He would do what He promised in His time and according to His will. No help needed. No other options accepted.

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Today’s episode is called “Re-enslaved” and is based on Galatians chapter 4, verses 1-20. Here Paul will confront the Galatian believers about their inexplicable desire to return to their old status as slaves, when they had been set free by Jesus Christ. For Paul freedom was a major benefit of having placed his faith in Christ. He was freed from the law. He was free from the demands of having to try to keep the law in order to be made right with God. In fact, he told the believers in Rome, “But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit” (Romans 7:6). And Paul wants to know why the Galatians would willingly choose a life of slavery over freedom in Christ.

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I have titled today’s episode simply “Faith.” It’s based on verses 23-29 of Galatians chapter 3 and where Paul continues his discussion of faith versus works. But Paul is going to attempt to clear up what has become a somewhat confusing point regarding faith. Is faith just another form of works? In other words, is our salvation dependent upon our faith? Can we have too little faith? Is faith something we have to manufacture or muster up in order to be saved? All of these questions will be answered by what Paul has to say in these verses. And the bottom line will be that faith does not come from us, but from God. In fact, faith is a gift given to us from God in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ. Faith isn’t something we manufacture. It’s someone we receive.     

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In today’s episode, called the Promise and the Law, Paul will continue his juxtaposition of the obedience to the law and salvation by faith alone in Christ alone. In verses 15-22 of Galatians chapter 3, Paul will go out of his way to explain the purpose behind God’s giving of the law and how it relates to our faith in Jesus Christ. For generations, the Jews had understood the law of Moses to be the means by which they gained approval by God. Obedience brought blessing. Disobedience brought God’s curses. But they had failed to recognize that what God really wanted was a relationship with men. It was their sin that made that difficult. And no amount of law-keeping and rule-following seemed to help, because they always failed. But God’s solution for their problem came in the form of a promise: His own Son.   

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Today, in chapter 3 of Galatians, we’ll be covering verses 1-14. In these verses, Paul is going to dig deeper into the contrast between faith and works. He is going to hammer home his strong, unwavering assertion that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone, with nothing else whatsoever required. In fact, even after salvation, works do not suddenly become the barometer by which God measures our degree of faith. His love for us doesn’t waver based on the quality or quantity of our works. According to Paul, the righteous are not only saved by faith, they are to live by faith, trusting that God’s love for them has only one condition: Their ongoing faith and dependence upon the death of Christ and His righteousness.  

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Today, we will be in the second half of Galatians 2, looking at verses 11-21. In these verses we are going to see Paul take on his fellow apostle, Peter, and give him a spiritual broadside regarding his treatment of the Gentile believers in Galatia. The problem Paul had was that Peter’s actions had given credence to the false teaching of the Judaizers. His reluctance to eat with uncircumcised Gentiles was sending not only a bad message, but a wrong one. And Paul would have nothing to do with it. He could care less that Peter was one of the original disciples and a member of Jesus’ inner circle. What he had done was wrong and had contradicted the message of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone that Paul had so faithfully preached.

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This episode, based on Galatians 2, verses 1-10, in entitled, Preserving the Truth, and deals with Paul’s determination to protect and preserve the integrity of the Gospel message at all costs. Watering it down was not to be tolerated. Any attempt to add to it was not to be accepted. For Paul, the good news of Jesus Christ was not just one more way for men to be made right with God, it was the ONLY way. The truth regarding man’s sin and God solution for it are to be found only in Christ. Any other offer of salvation is false. Any other means of achieving a right standing with God is a lie. Jesus is not one of many options. He is the way, the truth and the life. And nobody comes to the Father except through Him.

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In today’s episode, we will be in Galatians 1, verses 11-24. I’ve titled this episode, Chosen By God, because Paul is going to go out of his way to defend not only his apostleship, but his message of salvation by grace, through faith in Christ alone. One of the things he was facing was the growing threat of false gospel messages confusing the believers in Galatia and leaving them wondering about the reality of their faith. Paul had a vested interest in the people who made up the churches in Galatia and was not going to stand by and watch them led astray by those who were preaching another gospel. God had chosen him to take the message of Good News to the Gentiles and he was not about to allow anyone or anything stand in his way.

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