Audio Series: Galatians

What was Paul writing against in the epistle to the Galatians? Against the Torah? Against Legalism? Against Judaism? This teaching offers an introduction to the circumcision agenda of "Influencers" through a retelling of the conversion of King Izates, his mother Queen Helena, and the royal house of Adiabene.

Does Galatians 2 contain an alternate version of events at the Acts 15 Jerusalem Council. Many scholars think so, but a careful look at the story in the book of Acts suggests otherwise. After an absense of more than a decade, Paul journeys to jerusalem in the company of Barnabas and Titus with a collection for famine relief. 

Paul complains that "false brothers secretly brought in ... slipped in to spy out our freedom ... so that they might bring us into slavery" (Galatians 2:4). Who are these false brothers? In what sense are they false? In what sense had they been secretly brought in? What was the freedom in Messiah on which they were spying? These and more questions are answered as Paul brings Titus to a meeting with three top-ranking apostles to seek an endorsement for his gospel to the Gentiles.

Did Paul really rebuke Peter "to his face"? In Galatians 2:11-14, Paul recounts how Peter, on his visit to Antioch, separated from the God-fearing Gentile believers and incurred Paul's sound rebuke. Get the story behind the story. 

Paul says, "Through the Law I Died to the Law." What is that supposed to mean? Take a look at the mystical implications of Paul's death to the law as a death to relying on Jewish identity for salvation. 

Have you ever heard of faith versus works? The theological argument about whether God saves a person by grace alone or if a person's obedience and good works are a necessary part of the equation is old as the New Testament itself. This teaching offers a resolution of the classic faith-versus-works debate through exploring Paul's theology of justification for the circumcised and the uncircumcised. 

Order the book, Holy Epistle to the Galatians.

Has anyone ever warned you that you might be placing yourself under a curse by keeping the Torah? Paul says, "As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse" (Galatians 3:10). What's the "curse of the law" and how does it apply? 

What does it mean that Messiah has become a curse? Paul says, "Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the Torah by becoming a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). Paul reinvents a popular anti-Yeshua taunt derived from Deuteronomy 21:22-23 to argue that the Messiah's suffering and death releases those who rely upon him from the cruse of the Torah. 

"We were held captive under the law ... imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed ... but now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian" (Galatians 3:23-26). This difficult saying is understood to mean, "The Torah was only a guardian until faith in Messiah came, but now that the Messiah is here, we are no longer under the Torah's authority, therefore the Torah has been done away with." This teaching takes a look at Paul's analogy in which the Torah and Jewish status is compared to a paidagogos, a guardian-slave entrusted with the care and supervision of a child. 

The Spirit of Messiah cries out from within the inner being of the believer, "Abba! Father!" Both Jewish and Gentile believers have received the adoption as sons, not just sons of Abraham, but as the sons of God. In this teaching from Galatians, Paul warns the God-fearers not to be enslaved again by the pagan elementary principles of the world thorugh observing days, months, season, and years. 

Was Paul in disguise? Paul says, "I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some." Did he adopt hypocritical pretenses in order to win people with the Gospel, acting like Jew around Jews and like a Gentile around Gentiles? This teaching on Galatians 4:12-20 considers Paul's evangelism strategies and the real meaning behind 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.