GROW PLAN
Nov. 24-30, 2025
Day One
Sent by God
Galatians may be the oldest book in the New Testament. The apostle Paul wrote to the churches he had helped start in the region of Galatia. He wrote the letter to help the church resist the Judaizers, who insisted that Gentile Christians had to adopt Jewish rules and customs when they became Christians. We know from Acts that the apostles and the church in Jerusalem decided that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and follow Jewish laws. Since Paul didn’t mention that ruling in this letter, he probably wrote this before the council had ruled. The Judaizers criticized Paul as well as the salvation-by-faith Gospel that he preached, so Paul noted in verse one that he was sent as an apostle not from men and not by men but from and by Jesus Christ and God the Father. These were his credentials. The Galatians could trust him. His Gospel came straight from Jesus. Paul had a unique encounter with the risen Lord. He received the Gospel and his commission as an apostle directly from Jesus Himself. That gave him credibility with other apostles and within the early churches. It’s why Paul’s letters were treated as scripture by the church, by the Apostle Peter (2 Peter 3:16) and why they have been preserved so that we have them today. There are many people today who like to discount Paul’s letters because they don’t match their own opinions, but we should treat them like the God-inspired scripture they are, as Peter and the Church did.
We tend to think of Paul’s letters as representing personal and spiritual challenges for us, but Paul usually starts by wishing “grace and peace” to the people to whom he writes. That’s because accepting these challenges, submitting to the Lord in all things, brings grace and peace to us. Pray about what the Lord will show you as you read Galatians.
Day Two
The Present Evil Age
Paul stated immediately that the Lord Jesus Christ “gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age.” The word that he used for evil denotes not just something that is wrong, but something that is genuinely wicked and in rebellion against God. It’s the word Jesus used when he said that from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries and other sins. (Matt. 15:19). The word is also occasionally used for something that harms us. We may think that the present evil age refers to the society in which we live, and it does. But it also refers to the state in which we live. Jesus saves us from the wickedness around us and the wickedness within us. He saves us from the evil age in which we live and the evil age that we have reached in ourselves. This is the foundation, the rock on which everything else is built. The core of the Gospel is that Jesus saves us. He rescues us from the situation we are in and from the situation we created. We do not save ourselves. Our salvation does not depend on anything we do. Paul wants the Galatians to remember that as they are told they must do certain things to follow Christ. We cannot be pulled away from the realization that our salvation was accomplished by Jesus, according to the will of God, and we give Him glory for ever and ever.
Praise Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit for what they have done for you. Give them the glory they deserve for rescuing you and bringing you to God.
Day Three
A Different Gospel
Paul got right to the point in verse 6. He was astonished by how rapidly they had deserted the one who called them by the grace of Christ. Who called them? God called them. Their adoption of a different gospel was not just a theological disagreement. They were deserting God. This is desertion in the military sense, a betrayal. When they started to follow another Gospel, they abandoned and betrayed the God who called them and gave them salvation. And they did this for a different gospel, which was no gospel at all. It was a completely different gospel because it depended on the actions of people to qualify for salvation. It was no gospel at all because it was not good news. This different gospel declared that you must adhere to the law of Moses to be saved. That probably made sense to men. After all, Jesus was Jewish and abided by these laws and customs, and we should strive to be like Him. And it makes sense to men that we have to do something to earn salvation. But what makes sense to men is unimportant. What matters is what God tells us. We cannot do anything to earn salvation. It is accomplished by Jesus and given to us when we have done nothing to deserve it. Consider the arrogance of assuming that what Jesus did on the cross was not enough, that I can do something to complete what He did. That it all depends on something else that I can do. That attitude fails to give God all the glory for what He has done. It reserves some of that glory for me, when I don’t deserve it and I am incapable of earning it.
Thinking that there is something I have to do to earn or maintain my salvation is a burden I can’t possibly carry. Jesus lifts that burden off of us and carries it Himself. Have you accepted the salvation He accomplished for you? If you haven’t or you’re not sure, speak to a group leader, elder or Pastor Chris as soon as you can.
Day Four
Accused of Pleasing Men
Paul noted that the Judaizers were throwing the Galatians into confusion and trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ. One of the accusations they had made against Paul was that he was trying to please men with the Gospel he preached. They said Paul was worried that if he called people into the complete commitment to following the Law as well as Christ, people would not have responded, so Paul watered down the truth to make it easier on people. Paul responded to that with intensity. He said that preaching any gospel other than the truth that he had preached to them deserved eternal condemnation, even if done by an angel. In his vehemence, he repeated the statement to stress it. He pushed the Galatians to consider whether he was then trying to please men or God. If it were true that Paul had downplayed the truth to win converts, he wouldn’t be fighting this different gospel so hard. He stated that if he were trying to please men, he would not be a servant of Christ. The Galatians would know the attacks Paul had suffered for Christ and know he wasn’t in it to please men.
There are plenty of people who will tell us what we want to hear. We have to be careful to compare anything we hear to the scriptures and to pray about it. Commit to growing closer to God by spending time with Him and ask Him to continually reveal His truth to you.
Day Five
A Revelation of the Gospel
The Gospel that Paul preached isn’t something that he made up. It isn’t something that man generated at all. It came directly from Jesus. The Judaizers may claim that their gospel had roots in Jewish tradition, heritage and culture, but human tradition and culture mean nothing and have no value. The only value is in the truth that God reveals and in following Him. Paul pointed out that he was doing well and advancing along in Judaism. He was a student of Gamaliel and had a fine career as a Pharisee ahead of him. He was totally committed and “extremely zealous,” so much so that he persecuted the church. There was really no reason for Paul to completely switch sides except that Jesus appeared to him and told him he was on the wrong side. Because he received his orders directly from Christ, he didn’t consult or confirm what he should do with men, he just followed what Jesus told him to do. When he was serving God through Judaism and when he started following Christ, Paul had been focused on serving God and not men.
Pray for the Lord to lead you in living a life that is focused on Him rather than pleasing others.
Day Six
Freedom in Christ
Paul told the Galatians about how he went to the apostles in Jerusalem and told them about how he had spread the Gospel to the Gentiles. He said he had to do this because some false brothers, the Judaizers, had come into the church “to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.” In this statement, we see the gravity of the issue between the real Gospel and a false Gospel. The genuine Gospel gives us freedom, freedom from sin and freedom from death. It also gives us freedom from having to earn or deserve our salvation. The Gospel tells us that our salvation is earned by Jesus and given to us freely even though we don’t deserve it. We live in the freedom of knowing that I don’t accomplish my salvation. It’s in Jesus’ hands. The false gospel spread by the Judaizers stated that what Jesus did was not enough, that we must complete our salvation by becoming Jewish and following the law. That was a return to slavery, of struggling to accomplish our own salvation, of having to wonder if I’ve been obedient enough to be saved. That false gospel is a return to the slavery of sin, wondering if my sins disqualify me from salvation. We should never reject the freedom that Jesus gives us. When we do, we disrespect the power and fullness of His work.
Do you sometimes wonder whether you’re really good enough to be saved? Enjoy the freedom of knowing that you are not, that you don’t have to be and that your salvation rests on Jesus and His work, not yours.