A NEW CREATION

Galatians 6:11-18

What counts is a new creation!

Here Paul makes one final argument against those who are seeking to require the Christians of Galatia to keep certain customs of the Law, specifically circumcision. And it is the most persuasive one.

He simply says being circumcised or not being circumcised doesn’t really matter at all!

That’s because the only thing that really matters is whether one is being changed. A New Creation!

The Law of Moses, indeed any law or custom alone can never change a person’s heart and life. No human effort can produce a peaceful relationship with God. No amount of rule-keeping can provide a clean conscience before God.

Only Jesus can do these things for us.

This is why Paul says - May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

The only way we can ever be in a right relationship with God is through Jesus. By His death on the cross, Jesus took the penalty for our sins and only by trusting what He accomplished will we ever find confidence before God.

It is the persistent tendency of religion to substitute imperfect human effort at rule-keeping for the perfect work of Jesus on the cross! So the apostle Paul says if you must have a rule, take this one - A New Creation!

By faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection we have forgiveness for all our failures in keeping God's rules. We are born again and set upon a path that leads to becoming more and more like Jesus in heart and life. This is the rule for students of Jesus.

Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.

OPPPORTUNITIES

Galatians 6:10

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

What if opportunity knocked and nobody answered?

It happens all the time, because life is constantly presenting us with chances to do something good for someone and sometimes we fail to recognize them.

Students of Jesus learn to be aware of these occasions. Paying attention to the Teacher is how we develop the skill of seizing the moment.

We see in His life how this is accomplished. In fact, Jesus’ life is described in these words – He went about doing good!

Sometimes people approached Him and asked for His help. More often it was His insight into the situation at hand that led Him to do something good for someone. Jesus intentionally set about to be good to everyone He met.

Our Teacher shows His students how to take the focus from themselves in order to see the need of others in the moment.

The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are filled with stories of Jesus’ encounters with people. All kinds of different people in the normal day-to-day routine of His life!

For those who – like Jesus – are paying attention, opportunity constantly knocks at the door of our hearts. And like the Teacher, good students answer by thoughtful words and loving actions.

This is one very important way in which students become more like their Teacher. And like the Teacher, use their time on earth for good!

This passage of Scripture also provides a priority for our limited time and abilities. Our first concern must be for other students of Jesus, believers. But our love is broader in scope than this. It extends to all people...as we have opportunity!

ALL THE TIME

Galatians 6:7-9

A man reaps what he sows!

Paul isn’t talking about agriculture. He’s talking about life!

Yet as surely as a farmer can only harvest what he has planted, a person’s life can only yield the fruit of the seeds of thoughts and actions.

Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.

Students of the Teacher have a God-given destiny to become like Jesus. To achieve this destiny we must purposely sow the seeds of Jesus’ own attitudes and actions in our lives!

This is what being a student of Jesus is all about.

Allowing the Teacher to shape our character as we follow Him and listen to Him. Cooperating with the Holy Spirit as our hearts are changed, our character transformed!

The one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life!

On the other hand, ignoring the Spirit’s leading produces another kind of harvest - The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction!

Unlike agriculture which has distinct times of planting and reaping, life is a constant process of sowing and reaping. We are sowing every minute of every day by what we think, say and do. And if only imperceptibly at times, we are experiencing a personal harvest.

This is because our hearts – our lives - are the field into which seeds are constantly being planted. Every moment of every day! All the time!

Conscious of this reality, students of Jesus purposely seek to be led by the Teacher and guided by the Holy Spirit.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

YOU AND ME

Galatians 6:1-6

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Every student of Jesus feels certain responsibilities to every other student.

This is the law of Christ - the way of love.

It is Jesus’ law because it is how he lived His life. With a sense of responsibility for everyone else!

That’s how He lived from day-to-day! Reaching out to the poor, healing the sick, comforting the broken-hearted, freeing those ensnared by sin and bringing God’s message to everyone He met.

That’s also how He died! His death wasn’t the result of any wrongs He committed. Jesus died for the sins of everyone else!

Like Jesus, His students share each others burdens.

Yet Paul also says here:

Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load.

Are these two statements contradictory: Carry each other’s burdens. Each one carries his own load?

Apparently there are some burdens we can share and some we cannot. For each person must ultimately take responsibility for their own actions.

This is what Jesus did. While He helped others and died for others, He took full responsibility for His own relationship with the Father.

Likewise, students of Jesus can encourage one another and help one another, but one student of Jesus cannot be a good student for anyone else. Every student is individually responsible to become more like the Teacher.

Being a good student of Jesus is about YOU and ME!

SPIRITUAL LIFE

Galatians 5:16-26

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law… Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Students of Jesus live by the Spirit of God, not the letter of the Law. Living by the Spirit is a higher calling than rule-keeping. The Law cannot change hearts, but Jesus can!

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

This is an amazing statement! It is possible for students of Jesus to enter into a process that changes their hearts, their emotions and their desires to be more like Jesus!

Here’s a way of life no Law can offer: Jesus changes the heart and so changes the behavior!

The Law says – Change your behavior! Avoid the wrong and do the right! And we fail!

Jesus says – Let me change you! Then you will desire to avoid the wrong and do the right! And we find joy in the person we are becoming!

The Law merely informs a person about what is right and wrong. The Holy Spirit transforms a student of Jesus! Taking them beyond the requirements of rules into a life of freedom to actually become more and more like their Teacher!

The Teacher lives in His students representatively through the Holy Spirit. The classroom is always in session, because life is the classroom and the Teacher is always present.

What is the curriculum in the classroom of life?

Sounds like Jesus…

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

FALL FROM GRACE

Galatians 5:1-15

You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

It is somewhat ironic that Paul says one can fall from grace by trying to be right with God through rule-keeping. But the fact is, to ever be justified by keeping God’s rules would require one to keep all the rules perfectly, all the time!

However, everyone sins. Nobody is perfect. That’s why grace is needed in the first place!

In truth, if people could live perfectly sinless lives, they would have no need of the grace of God. They could earn their right standing before God through their own perfection!

Paul wants the Christians in Galatia to see the stark choice before them. They cannot choose part Grace and part Law. It is all one way or the other!

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.

How good one is or how bad is not the test when it comes to being accepted by God. Only one Person has ever been good enough to stand before God. His name is Jesus.

It is only by faith in Him that people can be right with God!

Of course, Paul is not saying behavior isn’t important. That it doesn’t matter how imperfectly we live! Students of Jesus are in the process of becoming more like their Teacher.

As we become more like Jesus our lives naturally change for the better and we become more pleasing to God. So Paul writes:

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

SARAH AND HAGAR

Galatians 4:21-31

These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants.

Paul uses the story of two Old Testament women to illustrate the choice before the Christians of Galatia. The choice is between two extremes. Legalism which leads to slavery or Grace which brings freedom!

God promised Abraham that through his descendants the world would be blessed. This promise was the future coming of Jesus who was born in the lineage of Abraham.

But Abraham, who was married to Sarah, grew to old age without ever having a son. Abraham mistakenly decided to have a son by one of the servants in his household. In due time, Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.

In the course of time, God kept his promise to Abraham. He and Sarah had a son named Isaac.

This resulted in confusion and contention in the household and Abraham sent Hagar and her son away. The child of the slave woman was not to share in the inheritance of the son God promised!

But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son."

The analogy is perfect. Hagar’s child represents human effort. Sarah’s child was God’s promise, a miracle child born in old age.

Those who taught the necessity of keeping the Law of Moses represented slavery to human effort in order to please God. While Paul’s message of Jesus represents the miracle promise of Jesus’ free gift of salvation.

In this figure, Paul is urging his converts to cast out the teaching of slavery and to continue living in the promise Jesus provides.

Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

TRANSFORMATION

Galatians 4:8-20

My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you…

Here we learn what Paul thinks is most important for every student of Jesus. To be transformed into the image of Jesus! Christ...formed in you!

Transformation into the likeness of Jesus! This is the goal of every student of the Teacher. To become more like Him in heart and life!

Here Paul calls the Christians in Galatia his dear children. For he labored to bring them into the new birth of faith in Jesus. They became students of Jesus and were on the way to becoming more like Jesus.

Sadly, this process is in danger of being interrupted by false teachers, who seek to enslave these students of Jesus with requirements of the Law of Moses.

You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

Paul’s work is in danger of being destroyed if the Christians of Galatia turn their focus away from inner spiritual transformation. If they become entangled in religious customs that have nothing to do with being a good student of Jesus!

We can imagine Paul’s concern. He is far from them. He isn’t sure what is going on - how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!

Paul does what he can. He writes this letter warning them to refuse the teaching of those who do not care about this truth - Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them.

Now as then, there is a persistent temptation for students of Jesus to think that customs and rituals are as important as spiritual formation. Falling for this leads to the dead-end of legalism, rather than the life-changing process of becoming more like Jesus which leads to eternal life.

INHERITANCE

Galatians 4:1-7

So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

The inheritance of God! This is everything God gives to those who are His sons and daughters. This includes forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit and eternal life in heaven some day!

One does not qualify for the inheritance by the keeping of the Law, but by faith in Jesus. Not because of human effort, but because of Jesus’ perfect life, sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection!

Only a son or daughter can inherit from the father. And only those who are sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father can claim a portion in the inheritance God gives?

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

It is by faith in Jesus one becomes a child of God. It is by the grace of God – a free gift – not by efforts in keeping the rules, as important as that may be. In fact, Paul compares a life lived under the Law with slavery.

And a slave cannot receive the Master’s inheritance!

So how do we know we are His children?

Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."

It is the gift of the Holy Spirit in our hearts that validates our claim to the inheritance God gives His children. The Spirit of Jesus is proof of our relationship with the Father. By this we know we are His children.

It is through the Holy Spirit living in us that we know we are forgiven and living in the Family of God. And it is the Holy Spirit who helps us in our preparation to live forever in the Family of God - our final inheritance in heaven.

With Jesus as our Teacher and the Holy Spirit as our Tutor, we become more like Jesus and prepare ourselves to live forever in God’s Family.

COVERED!

Galatians 3:26-29

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Paul uses familiar imagery here. Everyone knows clothes cover. Clothes also protect against the elements, cold and heat.

And certain clothes are needed for different occasions. What one wears to work in the field would not be suitable dress before a King.

What is the proper spiritual attire necessary to come before God and be pleasing to Him? There is only one answer – Jesus!

Anyone who comes to Jesus is covered! To be covered by Jesus means that nothing else is needed to be fully dressed before God. Without Jesus, even our best efforts at keeping God's commands leave our sins uncovered.

Paul is continuing to refute the idea that keeping parts of the Law of Moses could add anything to one’s standing before God. To be covered by Jesus’ life and death is the only way to be properly dressed before The King!

Paul reminds his readers of how they came to be clothed with Jesus. At the point their faith in Jesus led them to be baptized, they were clothed with Christ! Faith came alive and they became Sons of God by faith!

Their right standing with God did not come through any human effort. Believing is not a work. It is trusting in Jesus.

Being baptized is not a work. It is something to which one submits. In fact, it is a passive act, something that one allows another to do to him.

When faith leads one to submit to Jesus through the act of baptism in water, Jesus gives the Holy Spirit. Then with the help of the Holy Spirit a student of Jesus can actually become more like the Teacher in heart and life. It is being clothed with Jesus that matters.

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

THE PROMISE

Galatians 3:15-25

So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

Paul continues to marshal arguments against the teaching threatening the new churches he established in Galatia. Against the false teachers who were attempting to bind certain requirements of the Law of Moses upon students of Jesus!

He advances two arguments against keeping the Law of Moses:

1. The promise of salvation by faith in Jesus pre-dates the Law of Moses - The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

2. If salvation depends on keeping the law, then the promise shared with Abraham would be unnecessary - For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

Paul then proceeds to answer the question – Why then was the Law of Moses given?

It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come…Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

The Law cannot save from sin, because nobody can keep the Law perfectly. That’s why salvation must come through the grace of God. A promise of God, not a covenant of Law.

The coming of Jesus is the promise made to Abraham. Salvation then is by faith in Jesus, not by keeping the Law. Those teaching the necessity of keeping parts of the Law of Moses are mistaken.

But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

Students of Jesus are only and completely saved by faith in Jesus!

FAITH NOT WORKS

Galatians 3:1-14

After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

This is Paul’s question to those who may be tempted to live by the Law of Moses in order to have a right relationship with God. He reminds them that God – the Holy Spirit – came to live in their hearts by faith, not by law-keeping!

Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?

Law – even God’s Law – does not have the power to save anyone. Law only informs a person about what is right and wrong, it cannot transform a life. Nor can keeping rules make anyone right in the sight of God, for nobody can keep the law perfectly.

All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

God gave the Law of Moses to show what kind of life is required to please God. Of course, God knew man would not be able to keep these rules perfectly. Man’s failure was supposed to help him realize the need for something else.

That something else is the coming of Jesus, his perfect life and sacrificial death on our behalf.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." He redeemed us in order that…we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

It is only by faith in what Jesus has done for us that God declares us to be right before Him. And only the Holy Spirit living within can give power to change our hearts and live a life pleasing to God

Paul reminds every student of Jesus that becoming more like the Teacher requires Divine Help. Human effort alone will never do it.

Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

ONLY JESUS!

Galatians 2:11-21

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!

Jesus was Jewish. All of the apostles were also. In fact, most all of the first students of Jesus were too!

So who can blame some of the early Jewish Christians who wrongly believed that Gentile Christians should keep the traditions and customs of the Law of Moses as they actually continued to do?

Jewish festivals, circumcision and other customs continued to be valued and practiced by Jewish Christians. Becoming a student of Jesus didn’t change their cultural orientation overnight. And it was difficult for some to understand why Gentiles shouldn’t become more Jewish in their behavior.

But God sent Jesus to save everyone, including the majority of people in the world who are not Jewish, rather Gentile. And receiving the Good News of Jesus – becoming a student of Jesus – was never intended to be a conversion to Judaism.

Neither did Jesus intend to destroy the Law of Moses. How could He, when He is the fulfillment of the Law of Moses and all of the prophecies of the Old Testament. Jesus is the embodiment of Judaism’s promise to the world.

A promise given to Abraham years before Moses was even born. That through his descendents One would come who would bless all nations.

What we see in the Book of Galatians is a collision of cultures with a question hanging over it. Just what if any of the customs of Judaism will be required by Gentile when they become students of Jesus?

Paul’s answer is nothing is needed except faith in Jesus and willingness to follow His teaching. This was the truth for Jewish Christians and for Gentiles too. Only Jesus!

So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

PAUL'S AUTHORITY

Galatians 2:1-10

For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.

Paul continues to defend himself against those who were attacking him in order to discredit his message. These false teachers were requiring the Gentile Christians to be circumcised in order to be saved.

Paul wants them to know that even in Jerusalem; the church does not require Gentiles to be circumcised.

Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem…yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.

He tells of false brothers who tried to require Titus to be circumcised. Paul wants them to know how he stood against this - We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.

At issue in all of these details is whether a relationship with Jesus is sufficient for a person to be saved. By adding legalistic requirements, the false teachers are saying Jesus isn’t enough. It is Jesus, plus this or that!

Paul concludes by letting them know that the apostles in Jerusalem accepted him and his mission to the Gentiles. And they did not advise him to require circumcision as a part of the message of Jesus. That belonged to the custom of the Jews.

James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

PAUL'S DEFENSE

Galatians 1:10-24

I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

False teachers have come into the churches of Galatia after Paul left and undermined His teaching. Because of this, Paul is in the unenviable position of defending His credentials as an apostle in order to defend his message.

He doesn’t do this to promote himself, but rather to show that His teaching comes directly from Jesus. Whereas, these false teachers do not have the authority of an apostle as Paul does.

Paul’s concern is for the spiritual health of the churches he worked so hard to establish. He fears they will fall from the grace of God into a system of legalism being taught by others. He only presents his credentials to underscore the truth of what he taught these Christians, so they won't be led into error.

Paul’s defense of his authority as an apostle of Jesus indicates something of what these false teachers must have been saying about him.

But when God…was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was…

Apparently, these false teachers were saying that Paul does not speak for the other apostles, some of whom were still in the city of Jerusalem.

Perhaps they made the argument that the other apostles felt as they did, that the Gentile Christians should be circumcised and keep the law. And therefore, Paul was wrong not to require they keep the custom of the Law of Moses.

Paul, therefore, is forced to present his credentials as someone called by Jesus. And that his message to them was only what Jesus Himself had revealed to him.

While the apostles in Jerusalem are primarily seeking to teach Jews, Jesus has given Paul the special mission and revelation to the Gentiles.

NO GOOD NEWS!

Galatians 1:1-9

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel…

This letter from the apostle Paul to the churches in the province of Galatia addresses a grave problem. The persistent tendency to legalism!

Legalism is a religious term used to describe an attempt to be right with God based on how well one keeps His rules.

Of course, students of Jesus desire to refrain from conduct the Teacher has warned against. And they desire to do everything Jesus has taught them to do. But this effort to keep the rules is best understood as a grateful response to God's grace!

Being obedient to the teaching of Jesus sounds like a good thing to do, and it is! However, a person becomes legalistic when they begin to think their attempt to be obedient is what gives them good standing with God.

The problem with this system of religion is that nobody can be perfectly obedient. Everyone sins. And since everyone sins, nobody can claim a relationship with God because of their perfect obedience.

And more importantly, legalism destroys the Good News of Jesus. In fact, legalism is no good news at all. It replaces the free gift of God’s grace with faulty human effort. If our obedience could save us, why did Jesus come to die for us?

The only basis for a peaceful relationship with God is trust in Jesus. For Jesus is the Good News. And it is our faith in His perfect obedience to God and His death on the cross in our place that makes us right before God.

Paul is fighting legalism in this letter, because some false teachers were trying to enforce certain legal requirements of the Law of Moses on the Christians in Galatia.

Legalism is such a serious perversion of the Good News of Jesus Paul writes - …Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!

INTRODUCTION TO GALATIANS

The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to address a serious problem troubling the churches in the province of Galatia. The teaching of legalism!

Legalism implies one can only be in a right relationship with God based on human effort. Legalism stands in contradiction to the Good News Jesus brings to the world...

That only through Jesus can one come into relationship with God!

Paul worked very diligently to take the Good News of Jesus to the Gentiles. He was very successful in establishing many congregations.

However, there were some legalistic teachers who followed behind him upsetting the peace of these Christians.

These false teachers were Jewish Christians who tried to convince the Gentile Christians they needed to keep certain traditions of the Law of Moses.

One of the main ideas they taught was the necessity of circumcision. They went so far as to say that if the Gentiles weren’t circumcised they could not be saved.

Paul saw this for what it was. An attack on the sufficiency of Jesus!

For it is only by through the life and death of Jesus that anyone can be right before God. It is trust in the work of Jesus on our behalf that makes the story of Jesus such good news for us. Because our obedience will always fall far short of the perfection required to be in fellowship with God.

The entire letter of Galatians is Paul’s argument that Jesus is not only all we need to be saved, but any attempt to add other requirements is a repudiation of Jesus.

Galatians is a letter upholding salvation as the free gift of God. Our works cannot possibly justify us before God. Our sins outweigh our obedience on the scales of God's justice! Sins can only be forgiven by the grace God provides through Jesus' sacrifice for us.

Paul knows if these churches fall into the trap of legalism they will fall from this grace of God. But this letter is for students of Jesus in every age, for it is a basic tendency to try to be worthy of God’s gift by human effort. If this was sufficient, why then did Jesus come to die for us?