Galatians 3 – Devotional & Commentary0

Devotional Questions:

Galatians 3:1-5

• Apostle Paul asks some rhetorical questions here expressing his frustration that though the Galatians were clearly saved, and given other spiritual blessings, through the “Spirit”—i.e., it was entirely the work of God through grace—they are now trying to live out the Christian life by “human effort.”  (Note: the words “human effort” here should not be misunderstood to refer to any kind of human effort at all.  E.g., Apostle Paul says in chapter 6:9-10, “^?Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ^? Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”  These, and many other words of exhortation in the Bible fully assume that we are expected to exert effort to obey them.  In this context, however, Paul is talking about “human effort” to attain what has already been given to believers through the work of Christ, namely, our salvation.)   Similarly, Christians who understand that their own salvation was purely by the grace of God nonetheless can become very performance-oriented in the conduct of their Christian lives.  In other words, they start out with grace, but end up in legalism.  What human tendencies lead people to become this way?
• Reflect on the words: “trying to attain your goal by human effort.”  What paradigm shift needs to occur in my relationship with God, if I am very accustomed to being a goal-oriented person who attains desired goals through my efforts?  Are there some ways in which I am importing this self-effort-driven goal orientation to my Christian life?

Galatians 3:10-14

• Verse 10 says that a person who relies on observing the law is under a curse.  In what ways is this true to my experience?  Describe the last time I felt myself under a curse or condemnation because I tried to earn my merits before God or others.
• Reflect on the fact that Christ became a “curse for us.”  What profound truth about the cross does this reveal?
• The word “redeemed” used in v. 14 is the word used to describe the emancipation of a slave.  What parallels can be drawn between the heart of a slave toward his master and the heart of a legalistic worshipper toward God?

Additional Questions:

Galatians 3:15-25

• Apostle Paul makes the point that the Mosaic Law was given after God gave the covenantal promise to Abraham.  How does that fact clear up the misconception that obedience to God’s law is a prerequisite to becoming His people?  If obedience to the laws is not a prerequisite, then what is the purpose of obeying the commands or laws of God?
• This passage unapologetically presents the superiority of salvation by grace over salvation by good works.  Why would the doctrine of unmerited grace be so scandalous and difficult to accept for the hearers of Paul?  What is my reaction to this news of unconditional justification?

Galatians 3:26-29

• Reflect on what this passage says about my eternal security.
• Reflect on how God’s grace redefines human relationships, and the categories by which man distinguishes himself from others.  To what extent have I embraced this uniquely Christian understanding of humanity, and my own identity vis-à-vis others?

Galatians 3:6-9

• Reflect on the words: “All nations will be blessed through you.” How does this radically change my identity, and how I see my relationship to the people of the world?

Galatians 3:22

• Am I in agreement with Paul’s assertion that the “Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin?”  How is my agreement or disagreement to this verse manifested in my life?
• What does God have in mind for us to do in response to this indictment?

Commentary:

vv.2-3 “Using rhetorical questions, Paul shows how illogical it is for the Galatians to seek a fuller Christian life through observance of the law. Did God give them the Spirit and work miracles in their midst (v.5) because they observed the law? No, it was the result of their hearing the gospel and believing it. Receive the Spirit refers to the new covenant work of the Holy Spirit that comes after saving faith, at the beginning of the Christian life, to sanctify and to empower the believer in life and various kinds of ministry. Paul knew this experience was so real for the Galatians that they would remember it.”[1]

vv.4-5 “Paul emphasizes as he did in verse 2 that the Spirit has been given freely to the Galatians through God’s initiative and not by anything they have done.  The idea that God’s action must be somehow prompted by Torah observance is presented as self-evidently ridiculous, since the Galatians had already experienced these evidences of God’s working long before the rival false preachers arrived on the scene with their gospel of circumcision. […] The force, then, of Gal 3:1-5 is to call the Galatians to reflect back on their own initial experience of coming to faith and on their continuing experience of living in the power of the Spirit.  Such experiences, Paul contends, should prove beyond all question that they need no fleshly marker to certify the authenticity of their conversion.”[2]

vv.6-7 “The passage […] focuses attention on a point in the story of Abraham prior to his circumcision where he is said to be accounted righteous—i.e., in right covenant relationship with God.  For that reason, Gen 15:6 provides Paul with crucial hermeneutical leverage against the false teachers, who have almost certainly drawn the attention of the Galatians to Genesis 17, in which Abraham receives and obeys the commandment to circumcise himself.  By zeroing in instead on Gen 15:6, Paul, in effect, says, ‘No, the story of Abraham is not fundamentally about circumcision and obeying the Law; it is about trusting God’s promise.’ […] The amazing fact is that God looks at us in our hopelessly lost condition and simply credits us with righteousness based on our trust in His promise that we are now made righteous.  In that sense, we are receiving what Abraham received.”[3]

vv.8-9 “[…] Paul treats this statement as something that Scripture said to Abraham.  Scripture, personified here as a speaking character in Paul’s retelling of the story, is said to have spoken prophetically, actually ‘foreseeing’ long ago that God ‘is justifying the Gentiles on the basis of faith’ and therefore pre-preaching the gospel to Abraham. […] The meaning of ‘gospel’ is articulated in terms of a blessing to Gentiles in or through Abraham.  The blessing pronounced on Abraham filters down, or out, to the whole world. […] The blessing of Abraham is ultimately intended for the whole world (not just for Jews), and Abraham’s true children are those whose identity is rooted in trusting God’s promise.”[4]

“When we speak of ‘faith’ as a central theme of this letter, however, we must observe carefully how Paul actually uses this concept.  The meaning here is ‘trust’.  Abraham is a paradigm of faith because he trusted in God’s promise.  Abraham’s faith was not a matter of believing a list of propositions or a system of doctrines about God; rather, it was a matter of primal trust in the bare, direct promise of God to bless him and to give him many descendants.  Abraham heard God’s word and trusted it.  That is the picture of faith that Paul evokes in Gal 3:6-9.  This sort of trust is the model for the trust that the Galatians also demonstrate when they believed Paul’s proclamation of the good news of the gospel, God’s blessing upon them as Gentiles outside the Law, by sheer grace.  Faith is not a matter of mustering a heroic capacity to believe the odd or the miraculous; it is simply a matter of receiving gratefully a gift that God has chosen to give us, completely without regard to our deserving.  It is a matter of reliance on the Word of God as the one truth upon which we stake our lives.”[5]

vv.10-12 “Those who are said to be under a curse are not ‘those who do the Law,’ but rather ‘those whose identity is derived from works of Law.’  […] Thus, when Paul warns the Galatians that those whose identity is grounded in the law are under a curse, he is in effect saying to them, ‘If you affiliate yourself with those who place their hope in obeying the law, you are joining a losing team.”[6]

vv.13-25 “Verses 13 and 14 outline the second alternative—to gain eternal life (blessing given to Abraham) through Jesus Christ by faith.  The curse pronounced by the Law has been broken by Christ’s death.  Paul’s verb ‘redeemed’ is the word used to describe the emancipation of a slave.  This language introduces a metaphor to which Paul will return repeatedly: Life under the Law is a form of slavery (4:1-11, 21-5:1).”[7]

“Apostle Paul quotes Deuteronomy 21:23 ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’  Every criminal sentenced to death under the Mosaic legislation and executed, usually by stoning, was then fixed to a stake or ‘hanged on a tree’ as a symbol of his divine rejection.  The quotation does not mean that a man is cursed by God because he is hanged, but that death by hanging was the outward sign in Israel of a man who was thus cursed.  Therefore the fact that Jesus died hanging on a tree remained for Jews an insurmountable obstacle to faith, until they saw that the curse he bore was for them.”[8]

v.22 “This is a declaration that we do not want to hear and would like to refuse to acknowledge.  We find it very difficult to confess the words, ‘I am a prisoner of this vice, this addiction, this sin…’  We want to avoid this concession because we oftentimes want to maintain our image of seeming to appear free, being in control of our lives, and most of all, standing tall and dignified.  Ironically, even this desire to keep up such an image is enslaving in itself and many are bound by its chains.  Instead, we need to accept the reality of our bondage to sin and seek after God’s solution to this matter.”[9]

“This reading of this passage highlights the preeminence of ‘the faithfulness of Jesus Christ,’ manifested in His trusting obedience to God in going to the cross and taking up our sins.  Thus, we must recognize that the key which ultimately emancipates us from the enslaving power of sin is not in our own faithfulness but rather, in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.”[10]

v.28 “[…] he teaches that old divisions and wrongful attitudes of superiority and inferiority are abolished, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. He does not take away the distinction between men and women but says they are ‘united,’ joined together in ‘one’ body, the church. The verse teaches unity within diversity but not sameness.”[11]

[2] Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 253.

[3] Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 255.

[4] Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 256.

[5] Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 275.

[6] Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 258-59.

[7] Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 260.

[8] John R.W.Stott, “The Message of Galatians,” The Bible Speaks Today Series, (Downers Grove, IL:Inter-Varsity Press, 1988) 81.

[9] John R.W.Stott, “The Message of Galatians,” The Bible Speaks Today Series, (Downers Grove, IL:Inter-Varsity Press, 1988) 91.

[10] Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 269.

[11] ESV Study Bible, Notes for Galatians (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008) 2251.