◄ Galatians 3 Devotional Commentary ►

Galatians 3:1

The Galatian Christians were being urged, by Jewish legalists, to add works of the Mosaic Law to Christ's finished work on the Cross as a necessary requirement for their salvation. Paul's divinely appointed apostleship was also being challenged, and for two whole chapters, Paul carefully defends both his apostolic calling and the gospel of grace which he received directly and by divine revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. 

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Galatians 3:2

Like so many today, the Galatian Christians were turning away from the liberating gospel of grace back to the enslaving bondage of the Law. It appeared to Paul that these believers, who had been saved by the work of the Holy Spirit within, had been placed under a magic spell or an evil influence. Indeed, he even used the word bewitched to describe the serious nature of their departure from their faith.

Like the unbeliever read more...

Galatians 3:3

In the first three chapters of his letter to the Galatians, Paul defends his own authority as the chosen apostle of God through whom much of the New Testament was given - because his apostleship, authority, and doctrine were being severely challenged by certain Jewish legalists.

In each of his letters, Paul emphasised the crucial importance of understanding that salvation is a free gift of God's grace which is received by faith read more...

Galatians 3:6

Throughout the whole of man's history, salvation has been by grace through faith in God's promised Word. Many men and women of faith are listed in Hebrews 11, as a cloud of witnesses who trusted God and held fast to His promised Word. All were credited with righteousness because of their faith. If salvation were not by grace through faith in God's Word of truth, not one of us could be saved; for we are all sinners under condemnation. But by God's grace we are read more...

Galatians 3:7

Just as Abraham was justified because he believed what God had said, so we too are declared righteous by faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. God's dealings with Abraham had nothing to do with what Abraham did but rested entirely on that fact that he believed the Word of God.

And God's dealings with the Galatian Christians is no different from God's dealings with the believers of today. Our righteousness has nothing to do with what we read more...

Galatians 3:9

A truth that was given in its embryonic form to Abraham, was opened up to the apostle Paul for our learning. This truth stated that all those who exercise faith in God through Jesus Christ our Lord (our Kinsman-Redeemer), are justified by grace through faith.

All who believe on Him are reconciled to God through the blood of Christ, having our sins washed clean away and being clothed in His righteousness, through time and into read more...

Galatians 3:10

Throughout the book of Galatians, the apostle Paul seeks to demonstrate that salvation by grace through faith in Christ is not only the first step in the Christian life, when a sinner is born from above, but that we are also to live our entire Christian life from that point forward, by grace through faith in Christ alone. We are not revert back to the unattainable works of the Law, which God designed as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.

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Galatians 3:11

There is only one way to be saved. We are justified, sanctified, and glorified in the sight of God one way: by grace through faith in Christ alone. No one can ever be justified in the sight of God through works of the Law, and yet many, having started their Christian life by grace through faith, then seek to continue their Christian walk by reverting back to legalism. They try to live by the law instead of living by grace alone through faith alone in Christ read more...

Galatians 3:12

We are justified by grace through faith and not by works of the Law. The principles of the Law tell us what we should do and what we should not do, if we want to be perfect before God. The Law can never make us righteous before Him, but it places us under His condemnation, for the Law is not based on faith in God but on good works that are impossible for fallen man to achieve.

The Law is not based on gracious faith but on its own read more...

Galatians 3:13

The Law of God is perfect, but the penalty for breaking any part of God's Law, however insignificant in our own eyes, is death; eternal separation from God. The curse of the Law is death and there is nothing that we can do to lift that curse or to pay the redemption price for our sin. The penalty for our sin is death, and this is a death-penalty that we justly deserve.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory and perfection read more...

Galatians 3:16

The unconditional covenant promise that was made to Abraham was the same promise that was made to Christ. Jesus Christ was the Seed to Whom this Abrahamic promise was made: "Now to Abraham and his Seed (the Lord Jesus Christ) were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy Seed, which is Christ."

Abraham was saved by grace through faith, and God credited it to him as read more...

Galatians 3:19

The Law was given to Moses through God's angelic agents, 430 years after the Lord had made His covenant with Abraham, promising blessing and redemption through his Seed. The Law was not given to annul, supplement, or alter this unconditional Abrahamic promise and so the question arose among many Jewish believers in the early Church: "Why was the Law given, what was the purpose of the Law, and did it alter the terms of the Abrahamic promise?"

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Galatians 3:21

The Law set out the perfect standard by which man could attain righteousness in the eyes of God. But because God's ideal standard was unreachable, it exposed man's sinfulness and showed that man could never be righteous in the eyes of God. The Law was simply a temporary measure until the coming of Christ. The eternal God and perfect Man did not come to abolish or abrogate the Law but to fulfil it, which He did on behalf of all who believe on Him, by faith. Paul read more...

Galatians 3:22

The God of the universe and Creator of the world, made man in His Own image and likeness to have dominion over His creation and to rule the beautiful world that He spoke into being. But man sinned and the god of this age, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, took dominion of the earth from Adam, set up his own anti-God kingdom, and enslaved humanity in sin and death.

Following this terrible sin of Adam who was the federal head of the human race, read more...

Galatians 3:24

Law and grace stand in complete contrast with each other. The principles behind law and grace are in stark opposition with one another.

The Law requires an impossible standard of perfection which keeps fallen man estranged from a righteous God and has placed all humanity under a curse. Grace has often been described as God's riches at Christ's expense, for under grace we do not receive what we justly deserve and yet, by grace read more...

Galatians 3:25

The Law was given to Israel to help them recognise their need of a Saviour. The Law causes us to see that we are sinners and in desperate need of a Redeemer. The Law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, for only in Him is there forgiveness of sins, and only in Him can the free gift of eternal life be realised.

But sadly today, as in the days of the apostle Paul, there are many that consider that we should still be under the read more...

Galatians 3:26

There is a false teaching that all members of the human race are children of God and that all men are universal sons of the Almighty. This is not only dangerous but unscriptural, for only the regenerate are made children of God; only those that are saved by grace through faith in Christ are given the right to become sons of God: "Even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of human parentage but of the Spirit of God," by grace, read more...

Galatians 3:27

When we were saved by grace through faith in the death, burial, and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, we were positioned in Him and identified with Him. We were clothed with Christ, placed into the Body of Christ, and made One with Him. Paul calls this being 'baptised into Christ'. By faith, we became One with Christ and identified with Him, such that His righteousness became our righteousness and His resurrected life became our eternal life. His heavenly read more...

Galatians 3:28

Just as Abraham was justified by grace through trusting the Word of the Lord, so we too are justified by grace through faith in Christ Jesus, the living, incarnate Word of God. The Law that was given to Israel through Moses caused an instant and bitter division to be set up between Jew and Gentile; and that same Law drew significant differences between male and female and between the free-man and the bond-slave.

However, in this read more...

Galatians 3:29

Religious legalists who could not reconcile the liberty we have through faith in Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, started to infiltrate the early Christian Church. They opposed Paul's teachings and successfully convinced many Galatian Christians to revert to Judaism and incorporate many Jewish rites, rituals, and religious practices, into their Christian worship.

They did not understand that in so doing, they were placing men and read more...