Category Archives: Bible Study

Galatians Bible Study, Pt. 32: Abraham’s Mother’s Day

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Class #32:  St. Paul was not reading into the historical account of Genesis, chapters 16-21, when he declared that the children of Hagar and Sarah teach us about two covenants: the law and the promise.  The Scriptures themselves bear witness to Jesus (John 5:39) that all who believe in Him receive forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43).

These Old Testament stories are not designed to teach simple morals (e.g. don’t make fun of others).  Instead, they show us believers, like ourselves, who struggle with life as they believe in the Savior.  Abraham and Sarah are beyond the age of child-bearing, but they know that God has promised a Savior-descendant.  The actions of Hagar and Ishmael reveal a disdain for the promise of God and rejection of the Savior.  Those who reject salvation by faith in the Savior are “cast out” of the Christian church.

Overhead: Galatians Class 32 Overhead
Handout: Galatians Bible Study Chapter 4 21 thru 31

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Galatians Bible Study, Pt. 31: The Messenger and the Message

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Class #31:  St. Paul came to the Galatians because of health problems(4:13).  Nevertheless, they welcomed him and received his message concerning salvation through faith in Christ alone.  Through the Gospel, St. Paul gave them a new birth unto salvation.  After some time had passed and in his absence, the Galatians have been wooed by false teachers so that they have now begun to trust in faith AND obedience to Jewish regulations.

In this quite emotional and personal appeal(4:12-20), St. Paul is troubled at how they could leave behind their freedom and chose to become enslaved again–this time by Judaic laws.  When they added works to their trust they had rejected both the gospel and their gospeler, St. Paul himself.

Overhead: Galatians Class 31 Overhead
Handout: Galatians Bible Study Chapter 4 8 thru 20

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Galatians Bible Study, Pt. 30: Not Knowing, Then Knowing

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Class #30:  Before the Galatians knew the one true God, they served, or rather were enslaved by idols.  They feared, loved, and trusted in something which wasn’t God.  Through St. Paul’s preaching of the Word and the efficacious work of the Holy Spirit, these pagans came to be saved through faith in the work of Christ, and not by obedience to any weak and miserable principles(laws).

In Galatians 4:8ff, St. Paul is shocked that the Galatians are leaving the freedom of the Gospel in order to be enslaved again.  This time they are beginning to trust in their obedience to the Mosaic law.

Overhead: Galatians Class 30 Overhead
Handouts: Galatians Bible Study Chapter 4 8 thru 20

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Galatians Bible Study, Pt. 29: The Holy Spirit Sent Into Our Hearts

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Class #29:  “God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts” (Galatians 4:6).  All who believe and are baptized have been given the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), so that they know they are saved through faith in Jesus Christ and thus call God their Father.  On account of our great weakness, it is of great comfort for the believer to know that the Holy Spirit lives in him (1 Cor 6:19).  “This happens without a visible form, namely, when through the spoken Word we receive fire and light, by which we are made new and different, and by which a new judgment, new sensations, and new drives arise in us.  This change and new judgment are not the work of human reason or power; they are the gift and accomplishment of the Holy Spirit, who comes with the preached Word, purifies our hearts by faith, and produces spiritual motivation in us” (Luther’s Works, volume 26, p.375).

“But the external signs, as I have said earlier, are these: to enjoy hearing about Christ; to teach, give thanks, praise, and confess Him, even at the cost of property and life; to do one’s duty according to one’s calling in a manly way, in faith and joy; not to take delight in sin; not to invade someone else’s calling but to serve one’s own; to help a needy brother, comfort the sorrowful, etc.  By these signs we are assured and confirmed a posteriori that we are in a state of grace” (Luther’s Works, v. 26, p.379).

Overhead: Galatians Class 29 Overhead
Handouts: Galatians Class 29 Handout

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Galatians Bible Study Pt. 28: The Child-Heir is Emancipated

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Class #28:   The child-heir owns everything, but until he reaches the time set by the Father, he isn’t any different from a slave.  The child-heir is under guardians and stewards until the age of majority.  This example applies to the Old Testament Jews who were placed under the law until the coming of the promised Savior, Jesus Christ.  Through faith in Christ and in our baptism, we have been emancipated. We have received all the rights of sonship!  “Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Gal 4:7).

Overhead: Galatians Class 28 Overhead
Handouts: Galatians Chapter Three 26 to Chapter Four 7

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Galatians Bible Study, Pt. 27: The Paidagogos Brings Us to Christ

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Class #27:   The purpose of the law was to reveal sin.  The purpose of the promise(gospel) was to give life.  The purpose of the law and the purpose of the gospel are not against each other.  The law prepares us to receive the gospel.

The law functioned like a παιδαγωγος (paidagogos, “tutor” NKJV, from Galatians 3:24 ) to bring us to Christ.  The paidagogos was a slave who accompanied a male minor age 7 to 17 to school and wherever he went.  By means of discipline and restraint, the paidagogos supervised the immature boy and guarded him until he came of age.  When the boy becomes a mature heir, the son is no longer under a paidagogos. Similarly, with the coming of Christ, “we are no longer under a tutor.”  Faith in Christ declares us to be righteous (justification) and brings new desires(Gal 4:6).  The believer is no longer being forced against his will by the prodding of the law.

Overhead: Galatians Class 27 Overhead
Handouts: Galatians Chapter Three 19 to Chapter Four 7

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Galatians Bible Study, Pt. 26: Moses’ Veil Removed

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Class #26:   When God Himself spoke the law to the Jews at Mt. Sinai, the people trembled with fear and ran away.  Their reaction showed that the law certainly didn’t justify or give life.  The people cried out to Moses for a mediator, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:19).  The sin-revealing-law announces wrath and condemnation which creates fear.  Without faith in the true mediator, Jesus Christ, the law would have resulted in death.

Later when Moses tried to speak to them, they ran away from him in fear because his face was glowing.  The Israelites were still unable to endure the full strength of the law.  The veil placed over Moses’ face so that the Israelites could stomach the law was a sign of their spiritual condition.  “Deceived by human wisdom, they did not see the true face of Moses. But only his veiled face…” (Apology, IV, 229).  With their watered-down law, they trusted in their outward and civil works, falsely thinking they had satisfied the law.

“When we are consoled by faith through hearing the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins, we receive the Holy Spirit, so that we can think rightly about God, fear him, and believe in him” (Ap. IV, 135).  Only through the coming of the promised Seed, Jesus Christ is the false opinion about the purpose of the law removed.  Without faith, we must run from the terrible wrath of God.  With sin forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ, we are able to love God—even approach him.  Though I am a poor miserable sinner who deserves punishment, I know that God loves me, has forgiven me, and is working out all things for my good.  “When a man turns to the Lord, the veil is removed” (2 Cor. 3:13-15).

Overhead: Galatians Class 26 Overhead
Handouts: Veil of Moses
Use page two of Galatians Chapter Three 15 to 25

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Galatians Bible Study, Pt. 25: The Law Increases Sin

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Class #25:  Sinful human reason wrongly assumes that God gave the law so that by keeping it people would become righteous and thus be saved.  When told that the law and the works of the law do not contribute to our salvation, the usual response is to assume an antinomian (against the law) position.  Slanderously they accuse St. Paul of abolishing the law and saying, “Let us do evil, that good may come” (Rom 3:8).  St. Paul’s answer is that the law “was added for the sake of transgressions” (Galatians 3:19).  This does not mean that the law’s purpose was to reduce sin, but the very opposite.  The giving of the law increased sin (Romans 5:20).  The law both exposed sin (Rom 3;20), and stirred up the sinful nature, which desires to do that which is forbidden (Rom 7:7ff).

The law was temporary and designed only to prepare for the promise of the Gospel.  The law lasted only until the Seed, Jesus Christ, came.  Jesus Christ forgives sin and frees from the requirements and curse of the law.

Overhead: Galatians Class 25 Overhead
Handouts: Use page two of Galatians Chapter Three 15 to 25

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Galatians Bible Study, Pt. 24: Gospel + Law = Law

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Class #24:  In Galatians 3:15-18, St. Paul uses the example of the unchangeability of a probated last will and testament to teach about the divine covenant which God made with Abraham and Christ (Genesis 3;15, Galatians 22:18).  The introduction of the law 430 years later cannot annul the promises made to Abraham and received through faith in the promise.  Furthermore, because the law is not of faith (Gal 3:12), you cannot add law, as a kind of codicil to a promise.  When you add any law to an inheritance of promise, “it is no longer of promise” (Gal 3:18).  Therefore, St. Paul concludes that it is by faith in the promise alone, without works of the law, that a person is saved.
If the law was neither an addition, nor an annulment of the gospel promise, then what is the purpose of the law?  St. Paul will answer that question when we resume our Bible Study in two weeks.

Overhead: Galatians Class 24 Overhead
Handouts: Galatians Chapter Three 15 to 25 and seed offspring descendant NKJV

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Galatians Bible Study, Pt. 23: In Christ, No Curse

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Class #23:  When St. Paul teaches “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Gal 3;13), he is uniting the fulfillment of the Law and the promise of the Gospel in one Person, Jesus.  Our Savior, who had led a perfect life of keeping the law, was made to be sin (2 Cor 5:21) and a curse, when the Lord “laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).  His purpose was that we might receive the blessing of Abraham and the promise of the Spirit by means of faith in the promised forgiveness.  “That is, the law condemns all men, but by undergoing the punishment of sin and becoming a sacrifice for us, the sinless Christ took away the right of the law to accuse and condemn those who believe in him, because he himself is their propitiation, for whose sake they are now accounted righteous” (Ap. IV 179).  Through faith in Christ, people are justified, as well as freed and liberated from the curse of the law.

Overhead: Galatians Class 23 Overhead
Handout: Lutheran Confessions Curse of the Law

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