When Paul was converted to Christianity, he was given the commission by Jesus to preach the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). To fulfill this calling, Paul journeyed to many areas of Asia Minor and Greece, including through the Roman province of Galatia in what is now Turkey. Within Galatia were a number of cities where Paul was able to teach the people and start new churches. Before he left the area to continue his journey, he was apparently confident that these new converts had eagerly accepted and thoroughly understood the central theme of his message; that the only path to justification with God was through faith in Jesus Christ as the Redeemer who died for our sins. 

Many of the Galatians were Gentiles. They had not been raised under the Jewish Law and probably did not have a thorough understanding of it. After Paul left Galatia, some Jewish Christians there began to undermine his teachings and confuse and mislead the Galatians, telling them there were additional requirements for justification—they must also follow Jewish Law, especially circumcision. When Paul heard of this, he was outraged and astounded. The letter to the Galatians is largely Paul’s attempt to re-educate the Galatians on the bedrock Christian belief of justification by faith.

To bolster his argument, he reminds them of the basis of his authority on this matter. He was set aside by God from his birth (Galatians 1:15); he received his knowledge by a direct revelation from Jesus Christ, not from the apostles (Galatians 1:12). Before his conversion he had been a zealous Jew, persecuting Christians at every opportunity, but his eyes had been opened to the truth. Paul tells the Galatians that he even called out Peter (Cephas) himself for being hypocritical in the way he treated the Gentile Christians at Antioch after the Jewish Christians had disapproved of Peter’s acceptance of them (Galatians 2:14).

Then, to get the Galatians quickly back on track, Paul clearly reiterates the central gospel message. In Galatians 2:16, he says: “…nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.” He goes on to say in Galatians 2:21: “…for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” He asks them if they received the holy spirit through the works of the Law or through faith. If they began their spiritual walk by the holy spirit, Paul asks, aghast, could they possibly believe they would become perfected (by works of the Law) in the flesh (Galatians 3:3)? 

After expressing his astonishment, Paul then seems to relent a little. He realizes he must start his explanation almost from the beginning with a history of the Abrahamic covenant. He painstakingly lays out the promise God made to Abraham, long before the Law was instituted, that “All the nations shall be blessed in you.” Abraham was justified and became a friend to God by faith alone, because he “believed God” (Galatians 3:6)—and this promise was a prediction that God would also justify the Gentiles by faith alone (Galatians 3:8). So why, Paul asks, was the Law added? To define our transgressions, to teach the Jews (and mankind) the need for a savior, “…a tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). Because no man except Jesus could keep the Law perfectly, it became a curse and a condemnation to the Jews. It enslaved those who tried to follow it. Christ freed them from that—why would they want to go back to it; or in the case of the Galatians, to participate in it? In Galatians 4:9, Paul says: “But now that you have come to know God…how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?”

In the next verses, he goes on to explain the two covenants represented by Abraham’s wife Sarah and her servant Hagar. Both had sons by Abraham, but Sarah’s son Isaac, representing Christ and through him the church, was the true heir of Abraham. Sarah was a picture of the covenant of blessing. Hagar’s son Ishmael, “son of the bondwoman,” represented the Law Covenant. Paul says in Galatians 5:1 that it was for this very reason—to liberate the Jews from the Law Covenant—that Christ “set us free.” He warns that going back to the requirements of the Law for justification will be of no benefit; worse, this practice will “sever” them from Christ (Galatians 5:4).

In the last two chapters of the book, Paul turns his attention to Christian character. He speaks of the great importance of love in serving one another in the church. He warns of the dangers of an argumentative attitude and the “deeds of the flesh.” He describes in detail the fruits of the spirit and admonishes us to live and walk by this spirit. He ends by reiterating once again that there is no importance in the acts of the Law, but that the church is a “new creation,” separate from the things of the past, and they must walk in a new way.

“So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith” (Galatians 6:10).

Christian Questions Podcast
Episode #1324: “What Is the New Creation?”
The profound results of God creating something never seen before
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