Summary Notes on Galatians

The churches in Galatia had started strong, but their enthusiasm for the Gospel didn't last. By the time Paul got to Rome, they had turned away to follow false teachers who convinced many that they could only be good Christians by becoming good Jews. The same problem addressed by the council at Jerusalem many years before continued to persist. Some Jewish Christians, probably former Pharisees like Paul himself, continued to insist that Gentile Christians must adopt Jewish customs, especially circumcision, even though the council had specifically ruled that there was no such requirement in the church.

The real controversy was between salvation by works, following the requirements of the law, and salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. Put another way, it was a contest between the flesh and the spirit. While not openly denying that Christ was God in the flesh, who died for our sins, the Judaizers were, in effect, claiming that Jesus wasn't a necessary part of the salvation at all. The only thing needed was to keep all of the requirements of the law. The problem was that this was an impossibility, and always had been. God had never intended that the law provide a path to salvation, only the awareness of sin. Human righteousness is never sufficient to satisfy God's requirements; only faith can do that.

Galatians is also a letter of contrasts, between the kinds of behaviors and attitudes typical of the world and the flesh, and the kinds expected of a Christian walking in the fruit of the Spirit. The world and the flesh, modeled after Satan, can only tear down and destroy; the Spirit builds up and creates. The flesh tends toward rebellion and indifference to others; the Spirit works through love, and brings unity between God and man.

Legalism did not die with the early church. Although the issue is no longer circumcision and Jewish dietary laws, some churches still emphasize that salvation must include a code of conduct, and cannot happen without baptism. Others teach that, once saved, we can't keep our salvation without maintaining a record of perfect behavior, unless we confess every single sin we commit after becoming a Christian. This view is that we might need to be saved over and over again, if we reach some tipping point of sinning and thus lose our salvation. Still other teachers insist that we must become super Christians by embarking on endless programs of self improvement, the idea being, apparently, that we must achieve sanctification by our own efforts, rather than by the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. While there is nothing wrong with learning better techniques for prayer, Scripture study, and Christian service, the more we rely on human teachers, the less we rely on the Holy Spirit as teacher. We are also more apt to be led into doctrinal error, as happened with the Galatians.

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