Paul concludes the book of Galatians with practical applications.

1:1-5: Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.

How different this is from legalistic fellowships where people derive their sense of significance from measuring each other and comparing themselves with others. When we live by grace, we have no need for making such comparisons. Continue reading

5:1: For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Ask the Witnesses to tell you what this verse means to them. Odds are, they won’t have much to say. In contrast, I know an ex-Jehovah’s Witness whose life was transformed through this verse. Continue reading

In Galatians 4, Paul talks about Christian maturity. Who is the more mature Christian–the one who lives by rule-keeping or the one who walks by faith in what Christ has done for him and in what Christ will do in and through him? Continue reading

You can begin by recapping what Paul said in Galatians 2:19-20: “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

This describes the Christian life as a supernaturally transformed life—a life not based on law-keeping but based on identification in the death and resurrection of Christ.

He resumes this theme in Galatians 3 by discussing Christ’s crucifixion, law-keeping and faith. Continue reading