**N.B. This is a transcript of my complete chapter on Galatians taken from "Sixty-Six Books - An Overview of the Bible Book by Book"


GALATIANS - THE BOOK OF FREEDOM FROM THE MOSAIC LAW 

 Galatians has been called, “the Magna Carta of spiritual emancipation” for many it reads like a written charter of Christian liberty. It is without doubt the most condensed and powerful argument ever expressed in relation to understanding the freedom believers have gained in Christ. 

  Author 

  Twice the author of Galatians identifies himself as Paul (Gal. 

1:1, 5:2). Tradition and church history both support that view. 

 Recipients 

  The early chapters of Acts record that the Christian church was birthed in Jerusalem, and in the beginning consisted almost entirely of Jews. As the disciples moved out to other areas, large numbers of non-Jews came to believe as part of an everexpanding church. With Jews and Gentiles in the same church, difficulties soon arose. Many of the Christians of Jewish background in Jerusalem were still very Jewish in their outlook and looked upon Christianity as a sort of improved Judaism. As Jews many had been happy to see a few Gentiles become converts to Judaism from time to time, but they were not pleased at what they now saw happening in the church. They did not think it right that people of other cultures and nationalities could enter the community of God's people without any thought for Jewish laws relating to food, cleansing and even circumcision While Paul was in Antioch, a group of Jews came from Jerusalem and taught the Gentile Christians that they were now required to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses They argued cleverly that even mature Christians such as Peter and Barnabas should stop eating with the Gentiles in case they broke Jewish food laws (Galatians 2:12-13). Peter and Paul tried to explain how God had shown him that he blesses Jews and Gentiles alike and that satisfied some. (Acts 11:1-18). However, many were not fully convinced, and when Paul returned to Syrian Antioch after his first missionary journey, trouble broke out again. 

 Paul, who had been as strictly a religious Jew as any of them before his conversion, yet he saw that the teaching of these Jewish legalists was contrary to the Christian gospel. His upfront public rebuke of their position enabled Peter and Barnabas to gain confidence and resume their fellowship with the Gentiles (Galatians 2:11; Galatians 2:14; Acts 15:6-12). 

 Soon after Paul corrected the trouble at Antioch, he heard that the Jewish legalists had again spread their teaching to the recently established churches in Galatia. He was angry at them for upsetting these young Christians, and shocked that the Christians there had believed them (Galatians 1:6; Galatians 3:1). In response he sent off this sharply worded letter known to us as Galatians. 

 Message 

  The subject of Galatians is liberty, freedom from the Mosaic Law. The message is the gospel is given by the grace of God, and justification by faith is from God, confirmed by the apostles, and proven by living Christian experience as well as by the enlightenment of Scripture. Believers should stand against the slavery of trying to keep the Jewish Laws and should use their new understanding of freedom to live a life of love. 

 Structure 

  Galatians is in the form of an ancient letter with one significant exception. Paul omitted the thanksgiving. By so doing, he is subtly saying, I do not want you to think I am thankful to God for those who would move away from the Gospel.  

I.              1:1-2:21 The gospel he explained is the only gospel 

II.            3:1-4:31 Law-keeping has no place in the gospel 

III.          5:1-6:18 The fruits of Christian liberty 

Purpose 

 In this letter Paul asserts that Christians are saved by faith and live by faith. They are not saved by the law of Moses, nor are they governed by it; yet at the same time they are not to live unruly immoral lives. They are under the direction of the indwelling Spirit of God. Paul wrote primarily to refute the Judaizers and to keep the Galatians from requiring circumcised of new converts. To do that he had to defend his authority. Galatians was written to distinguish the difference between Judaism and Christianity and set forth grace in contrast to the Law and faith in contrast to works. 

 Summary: 

 Paul wrote to the Galatians insisting that since the gospel of justification by faith apart from the law is directly from God and in accordance with the Old Testament Scriptures, they should stand in the freedom from the Law and not be circumcised. As a saving and sanctifying principle, religious law keeping as a means of salvation and faith were mutually exclusive