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Objective

In this lesson, we’ll discover that we are no longer under the law but are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone.

Key Verse

Galatians 5:1: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Introduction

Galatians was probably the first letter that Paul wrote to a church, and it contains one of the most powerful explanations of salvation by grace in all of Scripture. This short but mighty letter addresses a crisis that threatened to destroy the very heart of the gospel message. False teachers had come into the Galatian churches, telling new believers that faith in Christ wasn’t enough—they also needed to follow Jewish law and customs to be truly saved.

Galatians is often compared to Romans because both letters deal with the fundamental themes of law and grace, faith and works. However, while Romans presents a systematic theological argument, Galatians reads more like an urgent battlefield dispatch. Paul writes with passion and urgency because the gospel itself was under attack. The freedom that Christ had won for these believers was in danger of being traded away for religious bondage.

Throughout this letter, Paul demonstrates both boldness and humility as he defends the gospel. He was bold enough to confront even the apostle Peter when he compromised the truth, yet humble enough to acknowledge that everything he accomplished was by God’s grace alone.

In this lesson, we’ll explore three main sections of Paul’s argument:

• The testimony of Paul’s life and calling (chapters 1-2)
• The contrast between law and grace (chapters 3-4)
• Living in the power of the Holy Spirit (chapters 5-6)

The Testimony of Paul’s Life and Calling

Paul begins his letter by establishing the divine source of his message. He wasn’t sharing his own opinions or human wisdom—he was delivering God’s truth about salvation. This was crucial because false teachers were undermining Paul’s authority to weaken his message.

The heart of the gospel appears right at the beginning of Paul’s letter:

Galatians 1:3-4: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.

Notice how Paul summarizes three great truths about our salvation in these verses. First, Jesus gave Himself willingly for us—His death wasn’t an accident or a tragedy, but a deliberate sacrifice. Second, His death rescues us from sin and the power of evil in this world. Third, all of this was God’s plan and purpose from the beginning. This is the gospel in a nutshell!

But Paul was deeply concerned because the Galatians were abandoning this simple, powerful message:

Galatians 1:6-7: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

Paul’s strong language here shows us how seriously we should take any attempt to add human works to God’s free gift of salvation. There is no “gospel plus”—only the gospel of grace through faith in Christ alone.

To defend his message, Paul explains that his authority came directly from God, not from human sources. He makes three important points about his calling: Paul was not called by men, Paul was not taught by men, and Paul was not confirmed by men. His gospel came through direct revelation from Jesus Christ.

(Notebook Moment: Paul had to defend the source of his message because false teachers were attacking his authority. How important is it for us today to know that our faith is based on God’s Word rather than human traditions or opinions?)

In chapter 2, Paul describes how he courageously confronted those who tried to mix law with grace. Even Peter, the leading apostle, had fallen into this error by treating Gentile believers differently from Jewish believers. But Paul was bold in defending the gospel of grace:

Galatians 2:14: When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?”

This confrontation led Paul to state one of the clearest summaries of salvation by grace in all of Scripture:

Galatians 2:16: Know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

Paul knew this truth wasn’t just theological theory—it had transformed his own life:

Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The Contrast Between Law and Grace

Paul was shocked that the Galatians had abandoned the truth so quickly. He uses strong language to shake them back to their senses:

Galatians 3:1: You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.

The apostle reminds them of their own experience. They had received the Holy Spirit when they believed the gospel, not when they performed religious works:

Galatians 3:2-3: I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?

To prove his point, Paul turns to Abraham, the father of faith. If anyone could have been saved by good works, it would have been Abraham. Yet Scripture clearly teaches that Abraham was justified by faith, not by works:

Galatians 3:6-7: So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.

This same argument appears in Romans 4, showing how consistently Paul taught this truth. Salvation has always been by faith, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Paul explains that the law wasn’t given to save us, but to show us our need for a Savior:

Galatians 3:21-22: Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

The law served as our teacher, showing us God’s standards and our failure to meet them:

Galatians 3:24-25: So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

(Notebook Moment: How has God’s law served as a “teacher” in your own life, showing you your need for Christ? What difference does it make to know that you’re no longer under law but under grace?)

Instead of being servants under law, we have become God’s adopted children through faith in Christ:

Galatians 4:4-7: But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Paul illustrates the incompatibility of law and grace through the story of Abraham’s two sons. Ishmael, born to the slave woman Hagar, represents the old covenant of law. Isaac, born to the free woman Sarah, represents the new covenant of grace. These two approaches to God cannot coexist:

Galatians 4:30-31: But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Living in the Power of the Holy Spirit

Paul’s final section begins with a powerful call to stand firm in the freedom Christ has won for us:

Galatians 5:1: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

But Paul knew that some people might misunderstand grace and think it gives them license to sin. So he explains how Christians should live—not by following external rules, but by walking in the power of the Holy Spirit:

Galatians 5:16: So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

When we live by the Spirit’s power, we are free from the bondage of trying to earn God’s favor through rule-keeping:

Galatians 5:18: But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The Spirit doesn’t just free us from sin’s penalty—He transforms our character from the inside out:

Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

In chapter 6, Paul gives practical guidance for living out our freedom in Christ. He shows how grace should affect our relationships with other believers. We should restore those who fall into sin with gentleness, bear one another’s burdens, take responsibility for our own actions, and treat everyone with grace and goodness.

Paul concludes with the principle that we reap what we sow:

Galatians 6:7-8: Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

(Notebook Moment: In what practical ways can you “sow to the Spirit” in your daily life? What would it look like to live out the fruit of the Spirit in your relationships, work, and service to God?)

Conclusion

Throughout the letter to the Galatians, we see Paul’s remarkable character as both a bold defender of truth and a humble servant of Christ. He demonstrated extraordinary courage when he confronted Peter, the leading apostle, about compromising the gospel. He showed unwavering conviction when he declared that even an angel from heaven would be cursed if he preached a different gospel. He displayed passionate love for the churches when he wrote with tears about their drift away from grace.

Yet for all his boldness, Paul remained deeply humble about his own achievements. He could have boasted about many things—his Jewish pedigree, his education under Gamaliel, his dramatic conversion experience, his church-planting success, his miraculous powers, or his special revelations from God. Instead, Paul chose to boast only in what Christ had accomplished through the cross:

Galatians 6:14: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Paul understood that everything he had achieved in ministry was by God’s grace alone. The same grace that saved him from his sins as a persecutor of the church was the grace that empowered him to become an apostle to the Gentiles. He never forgot that he was “the least of the apostles” and didn’t deserve to be called an apostle at all because he had persecuted God’s church. This humility kept him dependent on God’s strength rather than his own abilities.

This combination of boldness and humility should characterize every believer who has been set free by Christ’s grace. We must be bold in defending the truth of salvation by grace alone, especially in a world that constantly tries to add human works to God’s free gift. We must be willing to stand up for the gospel even when it costs us relationships or reputation, just as Paul stood up to Peter.

At the same time, we must remain humble about our own role in God’s kingdom. Everything we accomplish for Christ is by His grace, not our own merit. Our salvation, our spiritual gifts, our opportunities to serve, our victories over sin—all of these come from God’s undeserved favor toward us.

The message of Galatians is as relevant today as it was two thousand years ago. In every generation, people try to add something to the simple gospel of grace. Some add religious rituals, others add moral behavior, still others add spiritual experiences. But Paul’s message remains clear: we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, and we live the Christian life by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by human effort.

Stand firm in the freedom Christ has won for you. Don’t let anyone convince you that you need to add anything to what Jesus has already done. Live boldly for the truth, but live humbly in gratitude for God’s amazing grace. This is the life of freedom that Paul describes in Galatians—a life that brings glory to God and joy to our own hearts.

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