Bible Survey: Galatians
The theme of Galatians is that salvation is by grace through faith, and not by works. False teachers had followed Paul into Galatia and told the Gentile believers that trusting Christ was not enough, and that they must also be circumcised and keep the law. Paul's answer is the key verse: But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed (Galatians 1:8).
Nearly every one of Paul's letters opens by thanking God for the people he is writing to. This one does not: I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel (Galatians 1:6). Faith plus works is another gospel, whether it came from the Judaizers of Paul's day or comes from a cult today. Joseph Smith claimed an angel gave him his message, and Paul had already said what to do with an angel's other gospel.
The word legalist gets thrown at Christians who simply hold biblical standards, but that is not what it means. A legalist teaches that we are saved, or kept, by keeping the law. Nor does being fallen from grace mean a preacher caught in sin. In Galatians it means turning away from grace to the law.
Abraham was saved the same way we are. He believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness (Galatians 3:6). Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage (Galatians 5:1).
That liberty is no license to sin. Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts (Galatians 5:24). Paul would glory in nothing save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world (Galatians 6:14). A man who is dead to the world is not easily offended.
Next in the series: Ephesians.
Taught by Brother James Barker in Sunday School at Naples Independent Baptist Church, March 21, 2021. Watch the lesson.
