Joyce Meyer - Galatians

Author: Paul

Date: AD 5357

Audience: Christians in the province of Galatia

The books of Romans and Galatians are closely linked in content, and both were written by the apostle Paul. In Romans, Paul opens to us the fullness of the gospel of grace, and in Galatians, he defends that gospel because it has come under attack by people seeking to draw the early Christian believers back into legalism. Paul probably wrote both letters from Corinth while he was ministering there.

We can see that Paul was passionate about ministering the gospel as much as he possibly could. While he was in one place teaching, he was thinking about and ministering to churches in other cities through writing letters to them. Paul worked hard toward his goal of seeing people saved by grace through faith and presenting everyone fully mature in Christ (Col. 1:2829), and he frequently mentions how often he prayed for the believers in every city.

Paul emphasizes in both Romans and Galatians that not only are we justified by faith, but we must learn to live by faith as well. I like to say that we should not reserve our faith only for times of trouble when we need Gods help, nor merely for our initial salvation, but we should learn over time as the Holy Spirit teaches us to do everything we do by faith. We are to continually abide in Christ and rely on Him to help us at all times and in all things. Paul even goes so far as to say that whatever is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14:23).

Paul had been to Galatia two times and hoped to go again, but the Holy Spirit sent him elsewhere. When he first went to Galatia, the people there were idol worshippers, but by Gods grace Paul was able to bring many of them to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through preaching. We can see from this example that when people are led by the Holy Spirit, they dont always get to do what they want to do or what they think is best, but they submit to the Spirits leading. Paul tried on several occasions to go to certain places to preach the gospel, but he said that the Holy Spirit prevented him and sent him somewhere he had not planned to go (Acts 16:610). Freedom to follow the Holy Spirit in our daily lives is exactly what Paul is trying to remind the Galatians that they are free to do, and in order to be free we must not submit to legalisma set of rules and regulations about how everything involving our relationship with God must be done.

Under the Old Covenant, the Israelites lived under the law. It seems there was a rule about almost everything they had to do, and they were proud of their ability to keep the rules. However, the problem was that no one could keep them all. Therefore no one could ever be justified before God through the law. But Paul announced that God had provided a solution: He sent His Son to pay for the sin of mankind, and by grace though faith in Jesus, the perfect Son of God, salvation is available to all who will believe in Him and put their trust in Him.

Salvation is a free gift, but many people found that truth difficult to believe. Even if they accepted Christ, they tried to add some of the old laws to their faith, so in essence their so-called faith became no faith at all. We live by one or by the otherfaith or the lawbut mixing the two does not work. Paul says in Galatians that he died to the law in order to live to Christ (Gal. 2:19). When Jesus died on the cross He said, It is finished (John 19:30), meaning He had fulfilled the law, and now Gods children could be free from the ceremonial rules and regulations they had once been required to perform.

Sometimes when people enthusiastically receive Christ, they go through times of severe testing shortly afterward. This was the case with the Galatians, as certain men began telling them they had to submit to the Law of Moses and that they must be circumcised, as the Jews had been, in order to have a covenant relationship with God. The Jews believed and taught that Gentiles had to become Jewish before they could become Christians. In short, their gospel was Jesus plus the Law of Moses. The truth is, we need Jesus only, not Jesus plus something else, in order to be saved.

Satan always comes and attempts to steal our faith in a variety of ways. That is certainly easier for him to do with new believers who havent had time to become rooted and grounded in their faith. But Paul encourages people throughout his writings to stand firm in the truth they have learned and not to fall back into the bondage from which they have been delivered.

The Book of Galatians has had a profound effect on many people, including some prominent Christians we read about and learn from. Martin Luther, the father of the Reformation, was one, and another was John Bunyan, the famous Puritan preacher and author of The Pilgrims Progress. Many scholars consider Galatians to be the Magna Carta of Christian Liberty, according to sermoncentral.com.