Free In Christ: A 6-Day DevotionalSample

No other book talks about how important it is that the gospel sits at the very center of the Christian’s life—not just something the non-Christian uses to attain salvation. Martin Luther says something in his commentary on Galatians that I think summarizes very well the point of the book: 

The truth of the gospel is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine wherein the knowledge of all godliness consists. Most necessary it is therefore that we should know this gospel well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.*

That’s a very Luther kind of thing to say, but that’s pretty much what the book of Galatians is about. When we get to Galatians 6, however, it seems like a set of detached statements, stand-alone proverbs, or simply a bunch of things Paul wanted to say. And I must admit that’s how I looked at it when I’ve preached on it before. But after further study, I now think chapter 6 hangs together admirably with the rest of the book, especially if I include the last verse of chapter 5, which many commentators—and I would agree with them—think should have been the first verse of chapter 6: “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” 

With this small change, the first part focuses on a heart condition that needs to be addressed at the behavioral level, and the last part gives attention to how that heart condition can be addressed by the gospel at the identity level. 

—Timothy J. Keller

*Martin Luther, A Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (London: James Clarke and Co., 1953), 101.