Rediscovering The Power of God's Word: A Journey Through Galatians

There's something profoundly transformative about sitting with Scripture and letting it wash over us without agenda or hurry. In our fast-paced world of podcasts, quick devotionals, and bite-sized spiritual content, we've perhaps lost something precious that the early church understood instinctively: the power of simply hearing God's Word read aloud.
The Privilege We Often Overlook
Consider for a moment the extraordinary privilege we possess. We hold in our hands—or on our devices—a complete canon of Scripture. Sixty-six books, carefully preserved, translated into our language, accessible at any moment. This is a reality that would have been unimaginable to the early Christians.
When Paul wrote his letter to the churches in Galatia, those believers received exactly that: one letter. They didn't have study Bibles with cross-references, commentary notes, or multiple translations to compare. They had Paul's words on parchment, copied by hand, circulated among the congregations. Someone who could read would stand before the gathered church and read it aloud while the community listened.
The early church was largely illiterate, reflecting the broader Roman society where only about 10% could read and write. Education wasn't a right; it was a commodity purchased by the wealthy, the powerful, and the noble. Yet God's Word reached hearts and transformed lives through the simple act of hearing.
Today, Christians in some parts of the world would give almost anything for a single Bible. Meanwhile, many of us have multiple copies gathering dust on our shelves. This isn't meant to induce guilt, but rather to recenter our perspective. To whom much is given, much is required.
The Gospel Under Attack
Paul's letter to the Galatians crackles with urgency from its opening lines. After a brief greeting, he wastes no time: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel."
The issue at stake wasn't peripheral. It was the gospel itself—the very heart of Christian faith. False teachers had infiltrated the Galatian churches, insisting that faith in Christ wasn't enough. They demanded adherence to Jewish law, particularly circumcision, as necessary for salvation. They were adding human requirements to God's grace.
Paul's response is fierce and uncompromising. He declares that anyone preaching a gospel contrary to the one he preached should be "accursed"—and he says it twice for emphasis. This isn't the language of minor theological disagreement. This is a battle for the soul of Christianity.
The question then, as now, is fundamental: Are we saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, or must we add our own works, our own righteousness, our own religious performance to complete what Christ has done?
The Testimony of Transformation
Paul grounds his authority not in human credentials but in divine encounter. He recounts his former life as a zealous persecutor of the church, advancing in Judaism beyond his peers, violently trying to destroy the very faith he would later proclaim. Then God intervened.
"When he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his Son to me," Paul writes, everything changed. His transformation wasn't the result of human teaching or gradual enlightenment. It came through revelation of Jesus Christ.
This is the pattern of genuine conversion. We don't drift into Christianity through cultural osmosis or intellectual assent to propositions. We are arrested by grace, confronted by the risen Christ, brought from death to life by the power of God's Spirit working through His Word.
Freedom in Christ
One of the most powerful declarations in Galatians comes in chapter two: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
This is the Christian life in microcosm. We die to ourselves—our self-righteousness, our self-sufficiency, our attempts to earn God's favor. In that death, we find true life as Christ lives in and through us. We live by faith in the One who loved us enough to die for us.
Paul asks the Galatians pointed questions: "Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" The absurdity of their position becomes clear. If salvation begins with God's gracious work, why would we think our sanctification depends on our fleshly effort?
The law served its purpose as a guardian until Christ came, but now that faith has come, we are no longer under that guardian. In Christ Jesus, we are all sons of God through faith. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female—we are all one in Christ.
Walking by the Spirit
Freedom in Christ isn't license for the flesh. Paul makes this crystal clear: "For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."
The contrast between works of the flesh and fruit of the Spirit remains as relevant today as when Paul wrote it. Sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, dissensions, envy—these characterize life according to the flesh. Those who persist in such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control—these mark those who belong to Christ Jesus and have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
The call is simple yet profound: "If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit."
The Practical Outworking
Christian freedom expresses itself in community. We bear one another's burdens. We restore those caught in transgression with gentleness. We share good things with those who teach us. We do good to everyone, especially to those in the household of faith.
And we remember this sobering truth: "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." Those who sow to the flesh reap corruption; those who sow to the Spirit reap eternal life.
Boasting Only in the Cross
Paul concludes his letter with a powerful declaration: "Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."
Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. What matters is being a new creation. This is the rule by which we walk: not religious performance, not cultural identity, not human achievement—but the transforming power of the gospel that makes us new.
As we encounter this ancient letter afresh, may we hear it with the same urgency the Galatian churches did. May we treasure the gospel of grace. May we walk in the freedom Christ has won for us. And may we boast in nothing except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.