In this short letter, Paul outlines the bombshell truth that the gospel is the A to Z of the Christian life. It is not only the way to enter the kingdom; it is the way to live as part of the kingdom. It is the way Christ transforms people, churches and communities. We’re going to see Paul showing the young Christians in Galatia that their spiritual problem is not only caused by failing to live in obedience to God, but also by relying on obedience to him. We’re going to see him telling them that all they need—all they could ever need—is the gospel of God’s unmerited favor to them through Christ’s life, death and resurrection. We’re going to hear him solving their issues not through telling them to “be better Christians”, but by calling them to live out the implications of the gospel. We’re going to watch Paul challenge them, and us, with the simple truth that the gospel is not just the ABC of Christianity, but the A to Z—that Christians need the gospel just as much as non-Christians.

—Tim Keller

Source: Galatians for You by Tim Keller, copyright 2021 by The Good Book Company, used by kind permission.

Galatians sounds a clear call to the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It teaches that Jesus, and only Jesus, provides the way for us to be accepted by God and fully a member of his family. We are righteous through his righteousness. Any addition to Jesus as the basis for our standing before God is ultimately a deadly subtraction; to say we need more than Jesus to be justified before God is to lose everything. Beyond proclaiming to us the way we become members of God’s family, Galatians also provides guidance for how we can experience the ongoing freedom of being his children, the freedom that Christ has won for us. Even as Christianity must begin by faith in Jesus, so also must it continue in the same manner. Avoiding the dangers of slavery to either religion or irreligion, a Spirit-led trust in Jesus enables the believer to discover the joyful freedom of serving others in love.

—Geoff Ziegler

Source: Content taken from Galatians: A 12-Week Study by Geoff Ziegler ©2015. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Law reveals sin but does not remove it. The Law proves that we are all sinners by nature and directs us to Christ! We so often think that we become sinners when we commit some sinful act. But it is because we are already sinners that we commit the act. We lie because we are liars. We steal because we are thieves. We do not become liars when we utter the lie. The Law only proves we are liars.   

The Law too was given to drive us to Christ by showing us our need. The gospel tells us that Christ is the only One who can meet that need (see Galatians 3:23–4:11). Paul says the law was our “guardian” to shock us into a sense of our need of Christ so that we could be justified by faith in him (Galatians 3:24). God’s Law is not like the cruel and tyrannical schoolmaster of the past. His Law is not meant to always torment us. God’s Law is like the good teacher who trains children to find pleasure in doing the things they formerly detested.

The Law really has a place in leading us into a Christian experience. Did you ever see a woman trying to sew without a needle? She would never make anything with only a thread. This is like God’s dealing with us. He puts the needle of the Law first, for we sleep so soundly in our own sins that we need to be aroused by something sharp. Then when he has the needle of the Law squarely in our hearts, he pulls through it a lifelong thread of gospel love and peace and joy.

—Henrietta Mears

Source: This content is from What the Bible Is All About, written by Henrietta Mears. Copyright © 1953, 2011 by Gospel Light. Copyright assigned to Tyndale House Publishers, 2015. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Just as the earth does not generate rain and cannot of itself work to produce it, but receives it by the mere gift of God from above, so this heavenly righteousness is given us by God without our working for or deserving it. See, then, how much the earth is able by itself to do in getting showers of rain to make it fruitful; that much, and no more, are we able to do by our own strength and works in winning this heavenly and eternal righteousness. We shall never be able to attain it unless God himself bestows it on us, imputing it to us by his gift beyond words…

Anyone who strays from Christian righteousness must fall into the righteousness of the law; in other words, when people lose Christ, they slip back into reliance on their own works.

—Martin Luther

Source: Content taken from Galatians by Martin Luther ©1998. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

This is also the point of Galatians: Galatians exists for grace! That’s why Paul writes this letter: he wants to see grace unleashed on a desperate situation.

More importantly, God wants to unleash grace. That’s why the church needs not only Galatians but all of Paul’s letters, each one of which begins and ends with grace. Indeed, this is why we have the Scriptures as a whole, both Old and New Testaments, because God desires to unleash his grace in our lives through his inspired Word, the Bible!

From Genesis to Revelation the Word of God is a treasure trove of grace. Golden coins of comfort, costly pearls of assurance, precious jewels of promise are all found in the pages of Scripture. In fact, everything that was written in the Bible was written for us, that “through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

Therefore, every time we make a mess of things, we must go back to grace by going back to the Word of God. When we blow it, we must not neglect Scripture. Instead of closing our Bible let’s open it, read it, look to it, dwell in it! Again, when we sin our tendency is to neglect or even hide, because the Word of God is indeed “living and active…discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). But nowhere else we will find the very things we need when we make a mess of things. There alone, in God’s Word, will we find a message of grace—the gospel. Part of what it means to go back to grace, then, is to go back to the Bible, where the message of grace can be found.

—Todd A. Wilson

Source: Content taken from Galatians: Gospel Rooted Living by Todd A. Wilson ©2013. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

I also have been encouraged to better understand the struggle which takes place between our old fleshly desires and the competing desires put in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:17). Though the flesh has been decisively defeated through our union with Christ in His death, our old fleshly desires still war against our new spiritual nature. We and those whom we counsel should not be surprised by this desire battle which rages in our hearts…Paul tells us, however, that the existence of a struggle is a strong indication that the Spirit is at work in you. The person who is lost is still under the dominion of the flesh and experiences no spiritual warfare.  Luther writes, “The wicked do not complain of the rebellion of their flesh or of any battle or conflict, for sin reigns mightily within them.” Though the unbeliever may experience pangs of conscience, he remains enslaved to the desires of the flesh and has no power to bear spiritual fruit.

—Jim Newheiser

Source: Newheiser, Jim. “The War Within: Galatians 5:16-18.” Biblical Counseling Coalition (March 20, 2013).