Eighth Week
Tuesday
July 31, 2012
(Gal 5:2 ESV) 2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
1. Is Paul saying that circumcision is a sin? (Gal 6:15)
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2. What does “Christ will be of no advantage to you” mean?
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3. How can insisting on something that is, at worst, morally neutral and, at best, God-honoring, make Christ of no advantage?
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(Gal 5:3 ESV) 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
4. Circumcision is only one command. Why would Paul say that accepting circumcision obligates someone to keep the whole law?
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5. What’s the problem with having to keep the whole law? Don’t we have to obey all of God’s commands?
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Wednesday
August 1, 2012
(Gal 5:4 ESV) 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.
6. What does “justified” mean in this context? It helps to know that “justified” (found in Gal 2:16-17; 3:8, 11, 24) has the same root as “righteousness” (which is sometimes translated “justice”) (found in Gal 2:21; 3:6, 21; 5:5). Therefore, to be justified is to become righteous. For example, compare —
(Gal 3:6 ESV) just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness“?
(Gal 3:8 ESV) And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
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7. It’s been often argued that “justify” speaks of our original salvation at the moment of baptism. Therefore, the argument is made, Paul is only speaking of becoming saved by faith, and once we’ve been justified, the rules for how we stay saved are different. Is that argument consistent with Paul’s teaching in Galatians?
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8. What does “severed from Christ” mean? Compare Gal 3:26-27.
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9. What does “fallen away from grace” mean?
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Thursday
August 2, 2012
(Gal 5:5 ESV) For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
10. What is “the hope of righteousness”?
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11. In English, “hope” can refer to something we want but have no realistic chance of receiving (“I hope someone dies and leaves me a fortune!”). Is this how Paul uses “hope”?
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12. What role does the Spirit play in our hope as Christians?
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Friday
August 3, 2012
(Gal 5:6 ESV) For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor circumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
13. If only faith working through love “counts for anything” (NIV: “has value”; NASB: “means anything”), what doesn’t count for anything?
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14. This seems to be the climax of all that Paul has said before. Is he serious?
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15. What is “faith”? (Gal 2:16; 2:20)
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16. What does it mean for faith to work through love?
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Saturday
August 4, 2012
(Gal 5:7 ESV) 7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
17. What is “the truth”? (Gal 2:5; 2:14)
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18. What does it mean to “obey” the truth?
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(Gal 5:8 ESV) 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
19. Who calls us?
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(Gal 5:9 ESV) 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
20. What is Paul’s point in this verse?
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(Gal 5:10 ESV) 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.
21. Who is “the one who is troubling you”?
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22. What is “the penalty” the troubler is at risk of bearing?
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(Gal 5:11 ESV) 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.
23. Why would preaching circumcision remove “the offense of the cross”? And why would that be a bad thing?
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(Gal 5:12 ESV) 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!
24. That seems harsh. Is Paul right to express such a sentiment?
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(Gal 5:13-14 ESV) 13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
25. It’s easy to see how someone could misunderstand grace and choose to sin in reliance on grace. Does the command “love your neighbor” prevent that outcome?
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26. What does “serve one another” add to “love”?
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(Gal 5:15 ESV) 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
27. What were the Galatians doing that could be called devouring each other?
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28. What does Paul mean by “consumed by one another”? Compare Eze 19:12; Luk 9:54.
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