Background

• Galatia settled by Celtic tribes

• Disturbing report - Itinerant preachers preaching the wrong message and swaying early believers

• Purpose of the Letter to Galatia - Defend Paul’s gospel of grace against people preaching about Mosaic laws

Critical Issues

• Judaizers - People that believed to be Christian you had to be Jewish first (follow Mosaic laws)

• Angry Letter - Paul uses a lot of hyperbolic language through anger

Themes: Paul Defends His Authority

• Attack of Rival Teachers

• Autobiography - He changed from a pharisee to a Christian

• Apostolic Authority - His authority does not come from the Apostles

• Gospel - All are relatively the same, including his

• Fallible Apostles - Peter refusing to eat with Gentile Christians

Themes: Grace and Law

• Preached - Justification by faith, not works

  • Works add nothing to our salvation

• God’s grace is for everyone

  • God’s grace is for more than the Jews

  • People do not have to follow Mosaic laws to be saved

  • “Spiritual descendants of Abraham” - Gentiles choosing to believe in God

• Time for the law is over, we live in a new age

  • There is no need to follow the law - because Jesus came, was crucified and gave forgiveness

• The new age is about freedom and spirit

  • People do not have to follow the law for a good life - The spirit leads to a good life