The controversy over legalism separated Paul from his close friends, the Galatians. The Judaizers’ motives are now exposed. They are proselytizing the Galatians to separate… Read More »Galatians 4:12-20 – Paul’s Concern and Appeal to Remember Their Relationship
The remainder of chapter 4 can be divided into three literary units. Verses 8–11 are an exhortation in which Paul reminded his Galatian converts of… Read More »Galatians 4:8-11 – The Danger of Turning Back to Legalism
One of the tragedies of legalism is that it gives the appearance of spiritual maturity when, in reality, it leads the believer back into a… Read More »Galatians 4:1-7 – Sonship in Christ
In Roman society, when a youth became old enough to be considered an adult, he took off his children’s clothes and put on an adult’s… Read More »Galatians 3:26-29 – THE BELIEVER’S PRESENT POSITION
Generally, the last few verses of Galatians 3 would be broken into two sections with one section focusing on verses 19-25 and the purpose of… Read More »Galatians 3:19-25 – The Purpose of the Law
The Judaizers argued that since the law came after Abraham, then the law had priority over grace (salvation by faith alone). To refute this point,… Read More »Galatians 3:15-18 – Permanence of Faith
In this section, Paul quotes Habakkuk, “The righteous shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4; may also see “the just”). This statement is so important… Read More »Galatians 3:10-14 – Living by Faith
Here Paul concluded the opening historical section of his letter by stating clearly that justification was not secured by human works of any kind but… Read More »Galatians 3:6-9 – The Example of Abraham
The sixty verses that make up Galatians 3 and 4 are some of the strongest writing that Paul ever penned. But, after all, he was… Read More »Galatians 3:1-5 – Bewitching and foolishness
Verses 15-21 may represent the continuation of Paul’s confrontation with Peter, or it may represent a statement of the central point of his letter: that… Read More »Galatians 2:15-21 – Justified by Faith and the Powerlessness of the Law