Sunday School Lesson for May 22, 2022 - Freedom, Love, and Faith: Printed Text: Galatians 5:1-15 NLT; Background Scripture: Galatians 5:1-15 NLT Devotional Reading: Galatians 5:1-15 NLT

 

Unit 3: Liberating Letters

Key Verse:

Galatians 5:14 NLT

 

14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

 

You are deeply loved. Demonstrate that in your actions toward others.

 

 

What you need to know

 

 

Romans 3:19 NLT

 

19 Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. 

Paul is nothing, if not consistent. Regarding the law of Moses, Paul made sure everyone understood his message. The law was a mirror to all of mankind (saved and unsaved).

 

 

Romans 3:20 NLT

 

20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

 

So then, the law of Moses cannot save. Additionally, the law cannot keep. If righteousness does not come by the law, then righteousness cannot be maintained by the law. Many make the mistake of believing that once you are saved, you can now, by the Spirit, keep the law. But to what end? If the law does not make one right, what’s the point?

 

 

Romans 3:21-22 NLT

 

21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses[i] and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

 

No righteousness can only come by faith in Christ Jesus. It’s that same faith that keeps you safely sealed in the eternal Kingdom of God. After all, faith is the substance of things not seen, the evidence of our hope. Our hope is in Christ alone.

 

 

Romans 3:23 NLT

 

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

 

After all, all of us have sinned. And we will continue to sin. We all fall short of God’s standard. Why? Because the law of Moses was never the standard. Nor will it ever be.

 

 

 

The Lesson

Galatians 5:1 NLT

1 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.

 

So whether Paul is addressing the church at Rome or whether he is addressing the young church at Galatia, he is consistent in his warning not to return to servitude under the law of Moses. We must not. Whom the Lord has set free by the shedding of His own blood is now free indeed. We sometimes act as though Christ did not die on the cross. He gave His life for us!

 

 

Galatians 5:2 NLT

 

2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. 

So then, that law thing. Stop it. Stop looking in the rearview mirror. Put the law behind you. No one can drive forward, looking back. Those who would return to the law of Moses nullify the sacrifice of Christ on their own behalf.

Galatians 5:3 NLT

3 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses.

Righteousness could never be attained by the law. It was impossible, even for Moses. Paul only speaks to the incapacity of the law to save. Sadly, many believe that they can keep the law once saved. But, the law is only a mirror. It’s as if they seek to prove to God that now that they are saved, they will be perfect. Perfection is not attainable. The law continues to preach that to us. To this day.

Galatians 5:4 NLT

4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.

Fearfully, Paul implores his readers to repent (re-return to + pent=the highest place), lest they fall away from grace. Beloved, it is by grace that we are saved. Grace alone. We must not allow our attention to be diverted from grace by the law. It is a death sentence. It is a return to slavery. It’s not about sin,... but it is.

Galatians 5:5-6 NLT

5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

So then, we wait for the manifestation of the righteousness that we have received by faith. If we wait for it, we wait in faith, with the eager expectation that what God has promised, He is able to perform. Beloved, this is not about not sinning. It’s about walking by faith. Oh, wait! And faith operates by love.

Galatians 5:7 NLT

7 You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth?

So then, pursuit of the law of Moses diverges from the path of truth. Paul sets forth a choice: the law… or faith? You can’t have both. Choose wisely.

Galatians 5:8 NLT

8 It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom.

Be reminded. God is not confused. He gave the law until the truth could be revealed. Now that truth has been revealed in the person of Christ, God has turned His attention to Christ. When Peter offered to build three tabernacles on Mt. Tabor, he reasoned that it made sense to build an edifice in honor of Moses (the law), one for Elijah (the Prophets and the Writings), and a final one for Jesus (Grace). God answered from Heaven, “This is My Beloved Son. He ye Him!” In essence, God declared Jesus greater than the law and the prophets. Much greater.

Galatians 5:9 NLT

9 This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough!

In every possible way, Paul expresses his point. A return to the law is poison to the soul. It ruins one’s ability to thrive in the ‘Christian’ experience. A little leaven leavens the entire batch of dough, rendering it worthless.

Galatians 5:10 NLT

10 I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you.

I love the way Paul writes. He always ministers mercy. He encourages his listeners by easing them off the hook. He effectively offers them a blind eye, telling them that he, too, is making a choice. He chooses to believe the best about them and for them, declaring them righteous in spite of their failings, trusting that God will indeed be merciful on their behalf. However, he thoroughly condemns those who would lead one of God’s chosen astray. They may as well tie a millstone around their own necks.

Galatians 5:11 NLT

11 Dear brothers and sisters,[a] if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised—as some say I do—why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended.

Paul continues to argue his case by pointing out that the Judaizers are lying about him, telling people that Paul himself is guilty of preaching circumcision. Nothing could be further from the truth, as evidenced by the fact that he is being physically assaulted by those very same Judaizers at every turn. Obviously, Paul wasn’t preaching circumcision. He was preaching Christ.

Galatians 5:12 NLT

12 I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.

No, Paul is not offering an olive branch to those who opposed him. In so doing, he draws a sharp distinction between his position in Christ and their position outside of Christ. It is a vast space that cannot be spanned by human effort. They are lost. Paul wishes that they would experience temporal torment on par with the curse that they preached and made themselves subject to by adhering to the law of Moses.

Galatians 5:13 NLT

13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. 

Finally, Paul mentions sin. As in, ‘sin’, the behavior, and the penalty thereof, from which we are being saved. Notice that Paul properly acknowledges our sinful nature. Beloved, we are born in sin and shaped in iniquity. We are, then, trapped in these sinful bodies until Christ is revealed in us when this ‘old man’ is finally laid to rest or separated from us by God, when we are rewarded with our new spiritual bodies in Eternity. Beloved, we are followers of Christ. Let us be about the business of following him, not succumbing to our sinful nature. Sins will come. Rest assured that for the believer, Christ has already forgiven them. Once, only once for all time. Let us use our freedom then, to serve one another in love. By this, men will know that we are Christ’s disciples, and… children of God… by faith in Christ and his finished work on the cross.

Galatians 5:14 NLT

14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.

So now, Paul seeks a response. Having been reassured that God’s love for them is pure and unextinguishable, defined by the very definition of grace; God’s undeserved and unmerited favor, what does God expect from them? Love. God expects them to love their neighbor, whoever that is, as they love themselves. Beloved, this is our calling. We are to stop with the fearful looking toward judgment because we missed it here or there because love…covers a multitude of sins. God has demonstrated His great love for us. He gave us His Son. Let us then follow Christ’s example, not by dying for him (works), but by living for him (grace), motivated by love in everything that we do.

Galatians 5:15 NLT

15 But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.

Beloved, love intends no harm. Let us love one another, building one another up in the faith. Let us encourage one another in this faith as we anticipate the Lord’s soon return…by faith.

Selah,

wb

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Sunday School Lesson for May 15, 2022 - Freedom and the Law: Printed Text: Galatians 3:18-29 NLT; Background Scripture: Galatians 3 NLT Devotional Reading: Galatians 3:18-29 NLT

 

Unit 3: Liberating Letters

Key Verse:

Galatians 3:29 NLT

 

29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children[a] of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.

 

Fini…!

 

 

What you need to know

 

 

Galatians 1:1 NLT

 

1 This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead.

Fun Fact: The Book of Galatians is one of the first two books written in the New Testament, with the other being The Book of James, according to most theologians. It was written to the Church at Galatia, which is near present-day Turkey. It was written to a group of Christians who were being poisoned, either from within or without, by a false interpretation of the gospel. Paul is writing to the Chuch at Galatia in order to reassert his apostolic authority and to clear up their misunderstanding of the Gospel of Christ. 

 

 

Galatians 1:8-10 NLT

8 Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed. 10 Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.

 

The reason Paul asserted himself in his greeting was because of the seriousness of the matter at hand. Paul’s gospel message seemingly had no requirement of obedience to the structured religious practices previously observed by the followers of Judaism. In many people’s minds, that was inconceivable. That is still the case today. Subsequently, these Judaizers taught that now that these gentile Galatians had believed in Christ, they needed to adhere to the Mosaic law in order to fulfill God’s requirement of righteousness. 

Paul understood this to be poisonous to the grace that God offered to those who had received salvation by faith alone. Like Jesus, Paul understood that the leaven of legalism would spoil the entire loaf. Beloved, God’s gift lies outside of our finite understanding, and that’s okay. God asks us to trust Him. He no longer requires a sacrifice. Christ paid it all.

 

 

Galatians 3:1 & 5 NLT

1 Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross.

5 I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.

Paul had to change the minds of the Galatians. Human nature automatically defaults to a works-based religious model, where righteousness has to be maintained by doing something to be something. It’s still a problem in the Church today. Paul needed to make clear, the distinction between the law and grace. The law brings death. Grace brings life.

 

 

The Lesson

Genesis 15:4-6 NLT

4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” 5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

Galatians 3:17-18 NLT

17 This is what I am trying to say: The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise. 18 For if the inheritance could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise.

Here, Paul makes a distinction between the law and grace. Grace came as a result of a promise. The law was given to document an agreement between God and His chosen people that would allay God’s wrath until the promise made to Abraham would be fulfilled in Christ.

Galatians 3:19 NLT

19 Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people.

Beloved, the law acted as a mirror. It displayed to us what was evident to all of Heaven, that mankind was marred by sin. Made imperfect in such a way that disqualified all of humanity from eternal peace. But, the law also served as a telescope. With the sacrificial system that God placed alongside the spiritual and civil law given by Moses, God pointed to a future time when the promise to Abraham would be fulfilled. Forgiveness attained by sacrifice was only temporary. Righteousness was only implied through sacrifice but never given. Additionally, the law required a mediator; Moses. Moses was God’s chosen mediator between God and the people of Israel. God’s requirement for holiness was so absolute that He could not speak directly to the people. Moses acted as God’s mediator. In fact, Moses was even one step removed from that position, in that Aaron, his brother, actually spoke for Him officially, as Moses had an apparent speech impediment.

Galatians 3:20 NLT

20 Now a mediator is helpful if more than one party must reach an agreement. But God, who is one, did not use a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham.

But God had spoken to Abraham directly, not requiring a mediator. God spoke to Abraham directly on many occasions. In fact, not only did God speak to Abraham, but He elevated Abraham in the sight of all of Heaven and earth, changing his name from Abram to Abraham, thus signifying that His Spirit (Hawm = Breath of God) would not be separable from the man Abraham. The promise God made to Abraham had eternity written in it. Just as He does for believers today, God sealed His promise to Abraham by the Holy Ghost. 

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 NKJV

21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, 22 who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

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Galatians 3:21-22 NLT

21 Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises?[l] Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. 22 But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.

So, as we have said before, righteousness was never a product of keeping the law of Moses. The very presence of the sacrificial system placed within the commandment demonstrated that nothing man could do would achieve right standing with God. Additionally, as previously stated, sacrifice only allayed God’s wrath until the appearance of Christ and His subsequent death, burial, and resurrection. Righteousness is only available through faith in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:23-25 NLT

23 Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed.

24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. 25 And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.

 

So then, what was the purpose of the law? God used the law to set boundaries for His people. Cultural boundaries. God shaped a people who had been slaves for four hundred and thirty years. As slaves, they had been regarded as less than human by their captors. God had to chase the smell of slavery off of them. He did that by the law. God fashioned for Himself, a peculiar people, a people set apart by the culture that He imparted to them by the law of Moses. As such, the law served as a guardian until the promise of Christ could be attained by faith. Beloved. we church folk act like we do because the influence of the Word of God changes our behavior. The Word transforms us through the renewing of our minds. Or, at least, that’s what’s supposed to happen, if we will let it. Things I used to do, I don’t do no more. The Word of God is responsible for that change in my behavior.

 

 

Galatians 3:26-27 NLT

 

26 For you are all children[m] of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.

 

For now, we are all God’s children, adopted into His eternal family through faith in Jesus Christ. We are now able to walk in the inheritance that God promised Abraham. And what is the greatest of the gifts that God has set aside for us as our inheritance? Relationship. Intimacy with God, face-to-face, into-me-see relationship that brings me into a place where, in humility, I can experience the Presence, the Majesty, and ultimately, the Love of God through Christ Jesus.

 

 

Galatians 3:28 NLT

 

28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile,[o] slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And so now, God makes no distinctions. He makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile. Though God set apart a people for Himself, now in Christ, their Jewishness afforded them no special privileges over the people they had formerly regarded as dogs.

In addition, God no longer makes a distinction between slaves and free. There is no third world in God’s eyes. There’s only one world. Jesus died for all, regardless of nationality or ethnicity. And, unlike those who would lay hold to their claim of manifest destiny as a right to behave as lords over people groups that they subjugated and, in some cases, exterminated. There are no big ‘I’s or little ‘you’s in God’s Kingdom. We need to stop trying to make it so.

Finally, there is neither male nor female in God’s eyes. Sadly, the church has missed the point in this regard too. There remains a strain of patriarchism in the Church that misplaces men to a pedestal of imagined higher standing in the eyes of the Lord. Read that again, slowly. Somehow, much of the church still struggles with the revelation that God brought forth in the second chapter of the Book of Acts, where Peter recognized, under the unction of the Holy Spirit, just what was happening in the pandemonium that occurred on that wonderful day of Pentecost. Peter proclaimed that the day had come when, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel, “your sons and daughters would prophesy”. Peter signified that there was a place for women, as equals, in ministry. In Peter's day, many understood this truth. Today many churches operate with that same understanding, despite opposition from the old patriarchal system, another form of legalism that Paul is warning of in this very letter.

I’ll go further. Paul clearly tells us in the verse above that, in Christ, there is no recognition of gender. I’m here to tell you that God doesn’t judge by our outward appearance. God judges the heart. Paul’s use of the word neither, a disjunctive participle, disconnects gender from what God sees when He sets His gaze on us through Christ’s shed blood. I’m here to tell you that our brothers and sisters who identify as LGBTQ are not to be regarded as less than, or other. God sees our hearts, Beloved. All of our hearts. There is room at the cross, the very entrance to glory, for all, including those who identify as members of the LGBTQ community. Jesus confirmed this in a conversation with the Sadducees when He said the following:

Matthew 22:29-30 NLT

29 Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. 30 For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven.

Beloved, God is not asking us to pull down our pants so that He can see what we are. We are fearfully and wonderful made. He knows that. He loves us…all.

Psalm 139:14 NKJV

14 

I will praise You, for [a]I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Marvelous are Your works,

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Galatians 3:29 NLT

29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children[p] of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.

So then, nothing disqualifies us from God’s abiding love. We are his children, all of us who have believed. We can walk in love because we have experienced His great love. There is no greater love. Let us walk in it. Let me close with one last passage from the twenty-second chapter of the Book of Matthew:

Matthew 22:26-40 NLT

36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’[e] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[f] 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Beloved, these two commandments sum up the entirety of the requirement of God for each of us. We are to love God wholeheartedly and love our neighbors, all of them, as we love ourselves. Let us be found striving to achieve those lofty goals when Christ returns for us.

 

Selah,

wb

 

Galatians 2:20-21 NLT

 

20 My old self has been crucified with Christ.[e] It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

 

1 Corinthians 11:1 NLT

 

1 And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.