Bible

Here in the Bible room today, we are continuing in our Getting Started Bible, as we begin reading the Book of Galatians. We will read these six chapters in two sessions, beginning today with Session 1, the summaries of chapters 1, 2, and 3.

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Galatians

Session 1

Introduction:

Writer: At the beginning of Chapter 1, the Apostle Paul identifies himself as the writer of this book.

Scope: This book is a letter Paul wrote to the churches which he had established during his first missionary trip through Galatia, an area located in Asia Minor, now the country of Turkey. Some issues, and controversies, had arisen which he felt compelled to address. The date of the letter is not certain, but it was possibly written during the late AD 40s to late AD 50s.

Chapter 1. Preacher

Greetings to the churches of Galatia from Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

• And the fellow believers who are here with me;
• May the grace and peace of God the Father, and our Lord, Jesus
• Christ be with all of you;
• I am very disappointed to learn that you are starting to abandon
• Your faith in Christ, and beginning to listen to those who are
• Causing trouble among you; What they are preaching is a
• Perversion of the true gospel, and is not gospel; If anyone
• Comes to you preaching anything other than the gospel which
• We preach, and which you have believed, you are to reject
• Them strongly; The gospel which I preach did not come to me
• From men, but it came to me directly from Christ;
• You have heard of my earlier years when I was persecuting
• Christians and trying to destroy the church; At that time, I
• Became very zealous in the knowledge of Judaism, more than
• Any of my fellow Jews; But God, in His grace, revealed Jesus to
• Me so that I would become a preacher of the gospel to the
• Gentiles; I did not seek to learn anything from the apostles in
• Jerusalem, but, instead, I stayed at Damascus for three years,
• After which I went to see Peter at Jerusalem, and there I also
• Met James, the brother of Jesus; I was there for fifteen days and
• Then went to Syria, and Cilicia, and then to the churches in
• Judea where they had never seen my face, but they had heard
• About me; Now, that same man who had been trying to destroy
• Them was preaching the gospel of Christ, and they were
• Thanking God for me.

Chapter 2. Freedom

After fourteen years I went back to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus:

• The Lord led me to go there and have private meetings with
• Some of the believers whom I believed I could trust, to tell
• Them of the gospel I was called to preach to the Gentiles; I
• Wanted them to believe what I was preaching, and Titus,
• The Greek, confirmed that he believed and would remain
• Uncircumcised; However, there were false teachers who had
• Been secretly following us, attempting to subvert our message
• Of freedom from bondage; But we would not yield to their
• Pressure tactics, not even for one hour;
• Those whom I had trusted, and thought they would support
• My message, were, at first, of very little help; But then they
• Began to see that the gospel I was preaching to the Gentiles was
• The same gospel Peter was preaching to the Jews; And when
• They saw how James, Peter, and John, leaders in the church,
• Believed me, they accepted me, along with Barnabas, to go to
• Gentiles, just as they would continue their ministry to the Jews;
• Their only stipulation was that we support the poor, which I
• Was already committed to do;
• However, when Peter came to Antioch, I was forced to
• Confront him directly over how he was treating the Gentiles;
• He was eating with them before James appeared, but after that,
• He did not want to be seen with them, fearing conflict with the
• Jews; They were calling him a hypocrite, and even Barnabas got
• Caught up in that; So, I asked Peter why he was compelling the
• Gentiles to live like the Jews, when we all agree, including the
• Jews, that we are not saved by observing the law, but only by
• Faith in Jesus Christ; For I have died to the law, and I have
• Been crucified with Christ, so that I now live only by faith in
• The Son of God who gave Himself for me.

Chapter 3. Crucified

Oh, Galatians! How could you be so foolish?

• I only want to know one thing: Did you receive the Spirit by
• Obeying the commands of the law, or by hearing of faith? You
• Are being so foolish! You began by accepting the Spirit, but
• Now you are trying to revert to your old ways; Do you think
• The One who sends the Spirit to perform all the miracles is
• Doing all of this by obeying the rules of the law, or is it by
• The faith you have heard and accepted?
• Abraham believed God, and for that he was declared to be
• Righteous before God; Only those who are living in
• Faith are the true children of Abraham; And this allowed all
• The nations who accept the faith of God, to be blessed the same
• As Abraham;
• Everyone who continues in living under the law is living under
• The curse of the law; But those who are living by faith are
• Those who are made right in the sight of God; Christ saved us
• From the curse of the law when He was crucified, for the
• Scripture says ‘everyone who is crucified is cursed;’ And
• Because He was crucified, the blessing of Abraham, and his
• Descendants, has been extended to the Gentiles through
• Christ; The law, which came four hundred and thirty years
• Later, would never cancel the covenant made with Abraham,
• And confirmed by God through Christ;  
• So, why do we have the law? It was given because of the sin
• That had overtaken the world, and the law would govern the
• Lives of God’s people until Christ came into the world; The law
• Did not work against God’s promise, but there was no law that
• Could give new life, and that could be done only through faith
• In Jesus Christ for all those who would believe; But the law
• Acted as a guard to keep those who would believe until faith
• Would come into the world; So, the law was our teacher,
• Leading us to our trust in Christ;
• Through faith in Christ, we are all children of God, and we are
• All equal, neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave or free, neither
• Male or female: everyone is the same in Christ; And everyone
• In Christ is an heir to the promise given to Abraham.

End of Session 1 of the book of Galatians.