Today read Galatians 4:8-11 and compare to Romans 6:15-23. In both passages Paul uses the illustration of slavery in order to emphasize the freedom of those who are in Christ – but he is addressing two different problems in these passages.

Questions for reflection:

1. What are the different problems being addressed in Galatians 4 and Romans 6?
2. How is Paul’s argument similar in both? How is the outcome of his argument similar on both even though he’s addressing different problems?
3. Given these passages, what do you think Paul might mean by Christians having “freedom?” Freedom from what? Freedom for what?

Let’s take a closer look at the beginning of Chapter 4. Read verses 1 through 7 today.

Questions for reflection:

1. Connect Paul’s illustration of growing up and becoming a full heir. How does this relate to Paul’s arguments in Chapter 3?
2. How is religious legalism akin to childhood? How is living in Christ by faith akin to growing up and receiving an inheritance?

Today read Galatians Chapter 4.

Questions for reflection:

1. What seems to be the overall point Paul is making in this chapter as he follows up his theological arguments in Chapter 3?

2. Which illustrations resonate with you most from this chapter?

We are now approaching the end of Paul’s dense argument in Chapter 3, and in so doing he will return to his very first rhetorical question in this argument. Today we’ll compare to verses. Today take a closer look at Galatians 3:21-23 and compare it to Galatians 3:2-4.

Questions for reflection:

1. How are these two passages related?
2. What does Paul seem to mean by the terms “promise” and “life” and “righteousness” “your goal” in these passages? How are they similar?
3. Why do you think Paul might have started with this question about how they “received the spirit” (v2-4) and then circled back to that argument again (21-23)? What makes this argument so effective?

Paul has made a strong argument that righteousness has always been “by faith,” and he points to Abraham – the father of the Jewish faith – as proof, quoting Genesis 15:6, “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” In other words, observing the laws of the Torah was never what made Jews righteous it was always faith, therefore observing the laws of the Torah now (as either Jewish or Greek Christians) still won’t make you righteous.

At this point anyone (especially a Jew) might stop Paul and say, “Well then, what was the point of having the law?” The Jews have spent the better part of the last several hundred years being cursed for their disobedience to the law, and the better part of the last several generations trying to strictly adhere to it so they might be restored to their former prominence as the blessed people of God. Was all that for nothing?

Paul addresses this question. Today read Galatians 3:19-25 and compare to Romans 5:20-21 and 7:7-10.

Questions for reflection:

1. Based on these passages what seems to have been the purpose of the law of the Torah for the Jews?
2. How might these purposes have been related to grace?
3. How might these purposes have contributed to the coming promise of blessing given to Abraham?

Today we’ll focus in on Galatians 3:15-18 and Gen 12:1-7 and Gen 15:1-2. Read those passages together.

Questions for reflection:

1. What is Paul’s point about inheritance, the law, and the “promises?” What “promises” is he referring to?
2. How does Paul see these promises as the solution to the problem of Jewish and Gentile Christians being separated by ethnic and religious customs?

We’ve been following Paul’s letter to the Galatian Christians and his argument about how faith in Christ has fulfilled and replaced adherence to the law of the Torah. We’ll now read along as his argument reaches an initial conclusion.

Read Galatians 3:15-29.

Questions for reflection:

1. What seems to be the significance of the promise, or covenant, made with Abraham here?
2. What is “the seed” Paul is referring to?
3. What do you think Paul means by saying that the Jews were “held prisoner” by the law in v23?
4. How does all this lead naturally to the conclusion of ethnic and gender equality in v28?

Paul opens his argument in Galatians 3 with a strong rhetorical question to the believers: “I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?” So for Paul, even though he’ll make a very strong theological argument about how, like Abraham, we are justified by faith, the ultimate validation of their faith is that the Galatians have actually received the Holy Spirit.

This is a critically important point, because it indicates the genuine meaning of the word salvation. Today, we’ll start to trace back this theme of receiving the spirit of God. Read Acts 2 and Joel 2.

Questions for reflection:

1. What is happening in Acts 2 and how does it related to Joel 2?
2. Compare these to Galatians 3:1-5. What is the “goal” he speaks of?
3. Why do you think this question might seem more urgent to Paul than the theological argument he’ll make later?
4. How could this shift our perspective on “salvation”?

Yesterday we read quite a bit about how the law, or Torah, demonstrated the sinfulness of both the Jews and the Gentiles – the Gentiles for not having it, and the Jews for not being able to keep it. So, if the promised “blessing” of God is that God himself would be the reward of a new people descended from Abraham (Gen 12 and 15), then the law demonstrates that everyone is “cursed” because of sin.

For Paul the answer to this curse is “faith/faithfulness.”

Today we’ll read a key passage in Habakkuk that is quoted three times in the New Testament. First Read Habakkuk Chapters 1 & 2. Then compare it to Gal 3:11, Rom 1:17, and Heb 10:38.

Questions for reflection:

1. What is going in in Habakkuk? What is the context in which God says, “The righteous will live by faith [or faithfulness]” (Hab 2:4)?
2. How does this context of Habakkuk compare to the three passages in the NT where it is quoted? That is, what do they share in common?
3. We’ve talked about how the Hebrew mind didn’t make a distinction between “faith” and “faithfulness” the way Western Greek thinking does. How do these passages help you bring these concepts together?

Yesterday we read about the covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis 15. At it’s core, this promise was that God himself would be Abram’s “great reward” (Gen 15:1), a reward that is tied directly to Abram’s earlier calling and promise, that “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:3). This is the “gospel” that Paul quotes in Galatians 3:8

The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

This is the gospel as Paul understands it; that all the people and nations of the earth would be “blessed” (think Matthew 5:1-12) by the reward of God’s very presence. It’s this great age of peace and reconciliation that the Jewish prophets would speak of centuries later (we’ll get to that on Wednesday).

Other versions of the “gospel” that we have heard – for example, that Christ came to die for our sins and eradicate our guilt, or defeat God’s enemies, or make a way for us to live in eternity with God – are only one part of the gospel. The fuller gospel, the good news, is that God has made a promise to pour out the blessing of his very presence upon all the people of the earth, thereby reconciling the world to Himself, and bring about the long awaited peace, justice, and reconciliation that the world so desperately needs. This gospel extends far beyond the sin-guilt of the individual and infiltrates the familial, political, ethnic, cultural, and religious realms of humanity.

So, if this gospel promise goes all the way back to Abraham, what kept it from being implemented or announced all those centuries ago during the extended and difficult history of the Jewish people of the Old Testament?

Today read Leviticus 18:1-5 and Deuteronomy 27:9-26 alongside Galatians 3:10-14.

Questions for reflection:

1. What do you see as the purpose of the law from reading Leviticus and Deuteronomy? What are the key verses in those passages that are clues to the purpose of the law?
2. According to Paul in Gal 3:10-14 what does the law (or Torah) accomplish?
3. How do you think this purpose for the law (to be a curse) might contribute to the gospel of bringing God’s blessing to all the nations?