Christ in Galatians

Christ Connection - The Self-Gift of Christ

Paul introduces the letter with the gospel’s core: Christ gave Himself. This self-gift is the answer to every false gospel. Works cannot improve it. Obedience cannot supplement it. Law cannot be added to it. The Galatians are tempted to believe a gospel of Christ plus something. Paul will spend this entire letter reminding them: it is Christ alone. See also 2 Corinthians 4:6, where Paul connects this same work of deliverance to the light shining in human hearts through the…

Christ Connection - Liberty in Christ Jesus

Liberty belongs to those who are in Christ. This is not a human right, and it is not rebellion. It is the inheritance of the redeemed. Christ paid for it with His blood. He broke the chains of law and death. Those who trust in Him are free - not from consequences, but from condemnation; not from discipline, but from doubt; not from growth, but from the endless anxiety of being never enough.

Christ Connection - Faith Counted as Righteousness

Paul quotes Genesis 15:6: Abraham "believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." This is not Abraham’s obedience to a law - the law did not exist. This is pure faith in God’s promise. Paul holds this moment as the template for how the gospel works: you believe, and God counts it as righteousness. This is how you stand before God - not by your works, but by your faith in Christ (Romans 4:1-8, 3:21-26). This is the exchange at the heart of the gospel: Christ…

Christ Connection - God Sent Forth His Son

God did not send an angel. He sent His Son - the same Word who spoke creation into being, now made of a woman, made under the law . Christ took on flesh, assumed the human condition, placed Himself under the very law He gave at Sinai. He became what we are so that we might become what He is. “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Christ Connection - The Liberty Christ Offers

Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). There are two yokes. One is the yoke of the Law - infinite demands placed on finite capacity. The other is the yoke of Christ - a shared burden, carried together with one whose strength is infinite. The fi…

Christ Connection - The Law of Christ

What is the law of Christ? Love. "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:39). But now it wears Christ’s face. The law of Christ is written not on stone but lived in the Incarnation: Christ bearing our infirmities, carrying our sorrows, taking our sin upon Himself. Believers fulfill this law not by perfect obedience to rules but by bearing the weight of one another as He bore the weight of the world.