Questions

Read Luke 18:9-14.  Why would we identify with the Pharisee in this parable?  Why do we need to identify with the publican in order to walk by faith?

Why should we understand circumcision in this text as pointing beyond itself to their overarching confidence in the law?

How is Christ an advantage to us?

Do you think of legalism in the terms used in verse 4? Why do we seem to dismiss such a dire warning? What should our attitude be toward such warnings?

If this text is not teaching that we can lose our salvation, then how should we consider and apply its truths as believers?

What are some tangible ways that we should expect to see faith working through love as a church?

Questions

Do you think the Galatians realized that they were on the verge of abandoning the gospel for slavery?

At what point do good things become legalism? How should we be reminding ourselves of the truth of the gospel?

How does Galatians 5:1 stir your affections?

What does it mean to be free?

Do any legalistic tendencies come to mind which you need to deal with?

If you find yourself unmoved by truth what actions should you take? How would you advise a friend in this matter?

Questions

How does the allegory of the slave woman and the free woman demonstrate that God’s plan of redemption has always been by grace and never through the law?

Paul is contrasting slavery to the law and freedom under grace.  We need to work through several questions to examine our struggle between these two poles. (Questions taken from David Powlison’s Seeing with New Eyes.):

• What is your hope based upon? What hope are you working toward or building your life around?
• What do you think you need in this life in order to feel fulfilled or to have a sense of accomplishment?
• What do you trust? Do you functionally rest in the Lord? Do you find your sense of well-being in his presence and promises or something or someone else?
• What consumes you most? What do you think about most often or to what do you find yourself devoting the most time?

How does 4:21-31 build to the exhortation in 5:1?

What does our legalism communicate about the gospel?  What does legalistic obedience to the law communicate about the sufficiency of Christ?

Questions

What did it mean for the Galatians to “turn back”?  How did this reflect on their grasp of the gospel?  What are some ways we are tempted to turn back?  How should we see gospel progress in our lives?

Paul calls them to be as he is; how is he, being Jewish, reinforcing his argument?

Looking at v.13, how can we learn from Paul’s physical condition that we can apply to our own? How do you usually respond to sickness or weakness and how does it tend to affect your ministry to others?

What does vv. 17-18 inform us about our “turning back” and its relationship to our satisfaction in the gospel?

What does it mean for Christ to be formed in us? How is this a community project and how does v. 19 shape our responsibility to one another?

Questions

How should our heart respond to the gospel? In reality, how does your heart tend to respond?

What do you think of when you hear the word “gospel”?

How does the Apostle Paul explain that the Law can lead us to Christ?

According to the text what role does the law currently play for those in Christ?

Looking at vv. 27-29, how does the phrase “in Christ Jesus” transcend and transform our social categories? What does this mean for the church’s unity?

What is the significance of the familial nature of the church, that we are brothers in Christ?

Questions

What thoughts, circumstances, people, etcetera are keeping you from living a Gospel-centered life?  What steps, by God’s grace, can you take to bring about change?

How does living a holy life which is pleasing to God relate directly to our real focus on the gospel? Are there ways in which your “Christian living” takes precedence over your knowledge of the gospel? (i.e., are you legalistically trying to earn favor with God rather than pursue a real relationship with Him?)

John Stott:  “It is the law which turns ‘sin’ into ‘transgression,’ showing it up for what it is, a breach of the holy law of God. . .  It was intended to make plain the sinfulness of sin as a revolt against the will and authority of God.”  In light of this truth, what is the role of the law for you?  Should you live without an ongoing meditation on the law?

What happens to our worship, our walk with Christ, our humility before God, and our hatred of sin when we forget why we need Jesus?

How should we be rejoicing this week in the gift of Christ’s righteousness, by grace and through faith?

Questions

In what ways do Paul’s questions in vv. 2-6 interrogate your heart?

We are not saved by the works of the law.  However, in what ways do you find yourself trying to be perfected by the works of the flesh rather than God’s Spirit?

Why do we tend to want works to justify us?  When we do so, are we viewing our justification more in the eyes of other people or in the eyes of God?

Look at Luke 18.9-14.  Can you think of ways in which you tend to be like the Pharisee?

How does God’s grace and salvation by grace alone create humility in us?

In what ways do we tend to think that God favors us over others? How does this conflict with the only true gospel of Jesus Christ?

From “Legalism and Other Respectable Sins:”

Yet before God they [Paul the Pharisee and the immoral woman at the well] are both equally wretched and sinful apart from the cross.

How do we address this?  Not as mere individuals but as a church?  As the people of God called for his purpose and glory how do we together put this attitude to death?  What are some other good-looking respectable sins that we need to kill?

Questions

One of the biggest issues of the early church was the difficult relationship between Jews and Gentiles.  How has Paul demonstrated that the gospel overcomes the Jew/Gentile divide?

If both Peter and Barnabas were led astray into hypocrisy, what should we think of our own understanding?  What steps should this lead us to take as we battle hypocrisy in our lives?

Just as Peter feared the circumcision party, how do we fear people in ways that hinder our faithfulness as ambassadors of Christ?  How are such fears dealt with?

In what areas are we tempted to be hypocrites?  Can you think of precise ways in which your understanding of the gospel does not perfectly match up with your conduct?  How will you pursue a more consistent life in your conduct?

Questions

Paul has given a lot of personal testimony thus far. How is he using these points about his conversion, commission, and meeting with the Jerusalem apostles to support his overarching assertion that there is only one gospel?

What does Paul see at stake in the church in this dilemma over whether or not a person needed to be circumcised in order for his or her salvation to be complete? Why is this the case?

Why would Paul have been running in vain if the apostles did not accept Titus and acknowledge Paul’s mission to the Gentiles? Think about this in relation both to the previous question and Acts 1:8.

Why is Paul’s use of the term “false brothers,” in reference to those forcing Gentiles to be circumcised, appropriate?

Why is it so important to the Gospel and for the church that we not make distinctions based on class, ethnicity, or anything other outward issues? Why is this a struggle?

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:21-26).

Questions

Why is the “approval of man” so dangerous in relation to our role as ambassadors for Christ?

Where did Paul’s gospel originate? What about the situation in Galatia makes the origin of Paul’s gospel important? What encouragement do you draw from this origin?

Why is Paul’s testimony in vv13-24 important his argument regarding the origin of the gospel he is proclaiming?

According to Paul, he was set apart before he was born and called by God’s grace (v.15). How does God’s sovereignty in salvation speak to the message of the false teachers? (i.e., How does God’s gracious election and calling humble us from adding anything to the gospel?)

What things does the gospel teach us about being united together as believers in the church?