Day One

Welcome to our devotional deep-dive into the book of Galatians. Over the next 6 days as we journey through a chapter per day, we will be reminded of what Jesus has done, and what He’s saved us from. That is the passion of Paul in this letter! He wants to ensure that we will never forget the power of the cross that saved us, set us free and by the power of the Holy Spirit continue to walk in that freedom all the days of our lives. So, let’s jump into the key points of the book to begin.

The book of Galatians is understood to be the earliest New Testament writing, dated approximately 48AD. Contextually, Christianity after Jesus’ defeat over sin, his resurrection and his ascension to heaven, is still in its early years. Both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians (that is, anyone who wasn’t born Jewish) are still learning what it means, practically, to be redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus.

For the Jewish Christians, they’re learning that the Law written in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) was made complete in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul is writing this letter to the Galatians to address an issue at hand – there was still a belief amongst the Jewish Christians that circumcision was an expectation and requirement to be included in the people of God. The belief caused Jewish Christians to look to circumcision to bring a cleansing and an alignment that was no longer required, because of Jesus. Naturally, this caused confusion and contention with the Gentile Christians who didn’t hold the same belief.

Paul declares that he is not a ‘people pleaser’ (Galatians 1:10), this phrase, ‘people pleaser’ was important in Jewish texts as it was used about those who were risking the future of Israel by compromising on their adherence to the Torah by aligning their behaviour with the Gentiles, who were known for idolatry. Put yourself in the shoes of the Israelites, given that last time the Law was broken by the people of God, the whole population was exiled by both Assyria and Babylon. In this light, we can understand how hard it would have been for Jewish Christians to accept that they no longer required circumcision, or other ceremonies and practices as prescribed by the Torah.

The directness of Paul’s language is to remind the churches in Galatia that Jesus alone is our salvation, and to eradicate any false teaching and extra conditions to that fact; that what once would have separated us from God’s community (not being circumcised), no longer does.

In our journey through Galatians, we will see Paul paint the picture of the true Gospel: one of faith in the crucified Messiah, that is the beginning of Christianity, which produces a new, multi-ethnic family, that together we are welcomed in and transformed by the Spirit of God.

Prayer

Father God, thank You for the gift of Jesus. Thank You for sending Jesus to save us and restore us back to you. Thank you for giving us the gospel, your Word, to read, understand and live by in our lives. As we go into our day, help us to remember the true gospel, which is that we are saved by your grace and brought close to you by repentance. Amen.