Paul’s hardest letter—that the gospel of faith, not the Law, is how God’s people live in the age he has inaugurated.
Two long messages through Galatians 3–4 are the heart of this, preached in the fall of 2019. Around them: an early sermon on walking by the Spirit, a pair of posts on the καί of Galatians 6:16 and the vexed “Israel of God,” and the shift in how I read Paul that began with a single word.
Preaching Galatians 3
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Living in the New Way of Faith, Part 1: Perseverance and Promises (Galatians 3:1–22)Series pt. 1
Message · 2019
Galatians 3:1–22: why you must not turn back to the old way, and how to understand the covenants God made.
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Living in the New Way of Faith, Part 2: Privilege, Plea, and Promise (Galatians 3:23–4:31)Series pt. 2
Message · 2019
Galatians 3:23–4:31: embracing the new identity, the cost of turning back, and how the Law itself points to the promise.
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Walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16–26)
Sermon · 2003
Galatians 5:16–26: because the Spirit is the source of your salvation, walk by the Spirit—and the flesh loses.
Working the Text 4
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Gal 6:16, the Israel of God, and the Use of καί
Post · September 2006
The function of καί in Galatians 6:16, and what each option costs you on “the Israel of God.”
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Gal 6:16—Some Additional Thoughts
Post · September 2006
A follow-up, after finding the piece of evidence that made one reading more plausible than I’d allowed.
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Paradigm Shift—Paul’s Use of Σάρξ
Post · October 2006
The word that started a shift in how I read Paul—σάρξ as more than “the sinful nature.”
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Post · September 2024
Genesis 12:3 and Galatians 3:8: Paul says the gospel was preached to Abraham, and that widens what the gospel is.