Paul challenges the Galatian Christians to stop allowing controversial Torah observances to divide their church's congregation.
The Book of Galatians reminds the Church to embrace and follow the gospel message of the crucified Messiah. The requirement for non-Jewish Christians to become Torah observers and be circumcised or eat kosher misses the point. Jesus alone fulfills the laws of Torah and justifies believers.
Milestones
Purpose
Paul wrote the Book of Galatians to reaffirm the gospel message and to address the belief that non-Jewish Christians should follow the laws of Torah.
All Believers Justified
All believers are justified and belong to Jesus' covenant family because of their faith in Jesus and not because they obey the laws of Torah.
A Multi-Ethnic Family
The gospel message impacts who can be included in God's covenant family and what it means to live as a member of that multi-ethnic family.
Spirit Transformation
While the laws of Torah help people follow God's will, Jesus' transforming presence through the Spirit equips believers to obey Jesus' commands and love others.
Fruit of the Spirit
Through the Spirit, all believers may follow Jesus' way of life and become people of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."
When people trust in Jesus as Messiah and put their faith in Him, His life, death, and resurrection become theirs. They are new creations, free from the requirement to follow the laws of Torah.
They now join a new multi-ethnic covenant family of Jesus, thus fulfilling God's promise to Abraham. Because of Jesus and the Spirit, believers learn to love God and others.
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Ephesians
In the book of Ephesians, we learn how the gospel creates a new multi-ethnic, covenant family of God, and affects our story and how we live every day as a body of new humanity unified in love.
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Paul and His Letter to the Galatians
The Apostle Paul's earliest epistle in the New Testament is to the Galatians-- powerful, insightful, and foundational.
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