Galatians

One sentence holds this whole letter together, and Paul borrows it from Habakkuk: the righteous will live by his faith. The notes open there.

Part I of Church & Kingdom takes the whole of Galatians in one sitting, in four movements, in the order the notes set them: The Problem, The Plan, The Premise, and The Pursuit.

Paul writes to churches he started himself, and he opens by saying he is amazed they are leaving so quickly for a different gospel. The plan sits in chapter 1, in a sentence about grace and peace from a God who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age. The premise runs through chapters 2 and 3, where a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ, and where Paul asks a church that began by the Spirit why it is now being perfected by the flesh.

The pursuit closes the letter. Chapter 5 sets the deeds of the flesh beside the fruit of the Spirit. Chapter 6 asks the ones who are spiritual to restore a person gently, to carry one another's burdens, and to examine their own work before measuring it against anybody else's.

Read Galatians straight through this week if you can. It is six chapters and it will not take long. The notes read from the NASB95, with one verse in the NIV84.