As we come here to the close of Galatians 6, we continue to see Paul's tone shifting a little bit again, don't we? He is very concerned with their Holy living. And this seems interesting because Paul's tone has been harsh, yet he's telling people to help people with their transgressions with a spirit of gentleness. Paul said anything but a spirit of gentleness earlier on, but notice what the distinction is.

We land here at the end of chapter five, and it's starting to feel like maybe that the tone is starting to shift a little bit. There's a little bit more maybe friendliness to the exhortation. Maybe that's not the right word. But you can see here where Paul is really encouraging them to continue to live by faith and live their lives in a particular way. He is encouraging them not to gratify the desires flesh.

As we find ourselves in chapter five, we see that Paul has not given up his feisty tone, here has he? He does start off here reminding us that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. In other words, Jesus died to set you free from this yoke of slavery, this yoke of the law. It was so that you wouldn't have to do things like circumcision or follow the law to feel as though you had to earn your salvation that Christ died for you.

Every time I come to this passage, one of the first thoughts I have is, I wonder how being told that they are the children of Hagar went over with the Judaizers. I'm guessing that wasn't very popular at all because what is Paul doing here? He is telling these people who are desiring the law to be what determines whether or not they're in the faith that they are basically Ishmael, they are not Isaac, and that those who trust simply by faith are Isaac. They are the children of the promise.

As we come to our passage from today, we see this continuing theme of Paul's here in the letter to the Galatians. This is one main idea, right? He is upset that they have accepted the teaching of the Judaizers regarding circumcision, that they have accepted this idea. Faith in Christ is good, but you need to have the sign of the Old Covenant, circumcision, in order to be a part of the Christian body, in order to be a Christian, or to come to God.

So, we see here Paul's continuing argument about how we are united to Christ, how we are sons and daughters of God, and so therefore we are heirs of eternal life, regardless if we are Gentile or Jew, whether we are man or woman, whether we are slaves or free, all those distinctions that we have seen that the world values, we see all of those come together in Christ. All of those are brought together because we have been made whole in Him.

This passage is really good news for us, those people who are not of the Hebrew persuasion. Paul is making his case here that in Christ, we are all Abraham's offspring. It's not by blood, it's by faith in Christ. And that's good news. That's why we have hope. That is why we know that we have salvation. Now, Paul is talking here. He says in verse 18, For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by the promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

So, Paul is continuing to speak out against this idea that faith and works are mixed together. Remember, we're addressing the claims of the Judaismizers. They are the people who are saying, Yes, faith in Christ is good, but you have to mix in the works of the law, specifically the ritual act of circumcision. You have to be circumcised. Now we can understand why this would be a problem as Paul was trying to reach out to Gentile believers.

It's easy for us to read this part of Galatians and pass over, I guess, for lack of a better word, the aggression with which Paul is coming after the church in Galatia here. It's easy for us to see the word foolish as maybe being silly or something, but there is a lot of impact behind these words. I heard a pastor once say, We have to hear this as Paul saying, You stupid Galatians, what are you doing? Who has bewitched you? Who has fooled you? There is a great, great concern that Paul has here, and he is really driving home his point.

Paul continues to get deeper into the heart of the matter here, doesn't he? His big point here is we see the heading from our ESV text, Justified by Faith, tells us what he believes the crux of the issue is here. He believes that we are justified for faith. This is what he is telling us. Now, what does he mean to be justified? To be justified means to be declared righteous.

So, we are getting into the heart of the matter here, aren't we? The big issue that is happening in Galatia is that they are mixing the Gospel of God's grace with the requirement of circumcision for those Greeks who would not have been circumcised on the eighth day, like the Hebrew people. Now, for us, we don't think much about this because it isn't a part of our culture. But imagine being Paul, going to the Greek people, to the Gentile people, and telling them that they need to have faith and trust in Christ, and they come to faith and trust in Christ, and then he tells them what that they have to do this thing.

So, in this passage today, we see the story of Paul, and we get a good understanding of how his conversion went down. Well, not really an understanding of how his conversion went down so much and what happened afterwards. Now, we know some of this from our time in the Book of Acts, but we see here that Paul is telling this story for a very particular reason.

Here we land in the Book of Galatians. You’ve got to love the way the first few verses start out and then the transition that happens. We see here this great statement by Paul, Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present and the evil age according to the will of our God and Father to deliver glory forever and ever. Amen.