Letters to the Church

The Gift of the Spirit among the Galatians demonstrates they are the sons of God and the heirs of the Covenant promises . In his letter, Paul addresses believers who are considering adding circumcision to their faith in Jesus, and in chapters 3 and 4 of the Letter he presents a series of arguments demonstrating why doing so would be disastrous. Included in his arguments are several appeals to the Gift of the Spirit now possessed by the Galatians as evidence of their status as the sons of God and the heirs of Abraham.

Paul’s Letter to the Galatians begins with a stern warning. What some believers were contemplating amounted to replacing the true Gospel with a false one. To turn from the “ faith of Jesus Christ ” to circumcision and other “ works of the law ” as the basis for justification meant abandoning the Gospel preached by Paul and the other Apostles. And there is a lesson here for all followers of Jesus, a warning of the dangers posed by any deviation from the apostolic tradition.

After a curt introduction, Paul begins his Letter to the Galatians with a stern warning and rebuke. What some members of the congregation are contemplating constitutes replacing Jesus with a false messiah and a counterfeit gospel. To turn from the “ faith of Jesus Christ ” to circumcision and other “ works of the law ” as the basis of right standing before God leads inevitably to apostasy. Thus, the sternness of the Apostle’s language.

In his epistle to the Galatians , Paul states that he was commissioned as an Apostle by the same God who raised Jesus from the dead and “ delivered us FROM THIS EVIL AGE .” This statement anticipates his response in Chapters 1 and 2 to certain “ men from Jerusalem ” that were operating as if the old era with its types and shadows was still in effect for the people of God. These men were insisting that Gentile believers must get circumcised, and they were challenging Paul’s authority and credentials.

In his Letter to the Galatians , Paul chides believers for their desire “ to return to bondage under the weak and beggarly rudiments ” of the world, including calendrical observations and circumcision. Since they are no longer “minors” but full heirs who live in the AGE OF FULFILLMENT and have the Gift of the Spirit, resorting to outmoded rituals is tantamount to returning to a state of slavery.

In his  Letter to the Galatians , the Apostle Paul portrays the Mosaic Law as the “ pedagogue ” that supervised Israel “ until the seed came ,” and that “ seed ” is Jesus. In Greco-Roman society, the “ pedagogue ” was the slave with custodial and disciplinary authority over an underage child until he reached maturity, even though the custodian was often himself a slave. The child’s minority status and the custodian’s authority were temporary.