Galatians 1:1-24

Questions

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1) How do you think we can be institutionalized? “How are we set free, but don’t know how to live free?”

a) I think many times our life feels very much the same and so it is hard trying to break out of old habits and start new ones (diff between justification and sanctification)

2) Do we ever try to do anything to earn God’s grace or favor or to make sure we know God loves us?

a) I feel like God loves me more when I read or pray. He might be happier that we draw closer to Him but he loves us no more or less.

3) Can our past life be a trophy of God’s grace? In what way?

4) Read , what is Paul’s view on right teaching? How do you think this applies to our lives?

a) The Judizers were coming to Paul and thought Paul was making it too easy to become a Christian. Anything that is worth anything has to cost something. When we value something we want it to cost, either time, ability, effort, money. But the gospel is the exact opposite. In fact the gospel is the exact same way, only to a much greater extreme. The Judiazers were trying to reduce the gospel and say you can obtain it by keeping parts of the old law. Paul says, the gospel is too valuable for that, there is nothing you can do to earn God’s grace. In fact it is so valuable, only God himself can pay the price.

b) “After the opening greeting, Paul normally in his letters moves onwards to some prayer for the local church. He very often first finds some point on which he can commend them. Then he gradually introduces the real purpose of the letter, which is not always so pleasant to the recipients. All this was not only the normal construction of a first-century letter, but still is the typical pattern in many non-Western lands today. But on this occasion there is no easy and gradual transition to the subject: Paul is too deeply moved for that. ‘I marvel’, he begins (av): it is incomprehensible to Paul’s own nature that anyone should be capable of such conduct as the Galatians”[1]

5) v. 10 - How do you think we try to please people instead of God?

6) Why do you think Paul tells his conversion?

a) It shows God’s grace throughout.

i) v. 12, gospel made known by revelation of Jesus

ii) v. 15 God set him apart for the Gentiles in spite of his checkered past

iii) v. 23, 34 - Even with his checkered past people were willing to listen to him.

(1) Seeing Paul spending time with Christians would have been comparable to seeing Adolf Hitler attending synagogue.[2]

b) paper with black mark on it, what do you see, black mark. We notice the black mark that takes up such a small piece of the paper and yet we fail to recognize all the white space. We do this in our spiritual lives. When we pray, if you are like most people, you probably spend much more time asking for things than thanking for things. We need to be fully aware of God’s grace that has been infused in our lives.

7) What parts of your conversion highlight God’s grace?

8) Paul and Saul

[1] Cole, R. A. (1989). Galatians: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 9, p. 75). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

[2] Courson, J. (2003). Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (p. 1165). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.