Religion and Theology

In his epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul reminded the Galatians that they will receive the Holy Spirit through faith and not by following the law (Cf. Galatians 3 1   3, The New Jerusalem Bible).

The Jews considered the Gentiles as sinners for never following the Laws of Moses.  However, St. Paul taught the Galatians that the Jews cannot be considered upright by simply following the law. The Apostle to the Gentiles said, as firmly rebuking the wrong belief by the Jews,  Would you say, then, that he who so lavishly sends the Spirit to you, and causes the miracles among you, is doing this through your practice of the Law or because you believed the message you heard Abraham, you remember, put his faith in God, and this was reckoned to him as uprightness... So it is people of faith who receive the same blessing as Abraham, the man of faith  (Galatians 3 5   6, 9, The New Jerusalem Bible).

The Galatians first received the Holy Spirit by believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They had not seen him, yet they believed in him and because of that faith, they have received the promise of God as written in the book of the Prophet Joel.

Abraham is considered as the father of faith. This is because he had put all his faith in God and he was blessed with a child named Isaac even at an old age. He was regarded as upright because of his strong faith in God. His faith in God made God to bless him and the entire nation. For this reason, it is through faith, that the gentiles received blessings which were promised to Abraham. St .Paul further taught them that those who depend on the law but do not follow it are accursed people but those who believe in Christ are absolved from this curse. Christ was crucified so that all those who follow the law may be absolved from the curse, once they put their faith in Christ. The law existed to act as a guide towards Jesus Christ but after Christ came and died for all the sinners, all those who had faith in Christ became the children of God.

Baptism makes all the believers, through faith, to become one body of Christ. Once a person receives baptism and has faith in Christ, he becomes communioned with the body of Christ which is the church. Thus, the believers are equal in Christ and are all the heirs of the blessings promised to Abraham.

St. Paul compared the lives of the Galatians to that of an heir. Though the heir may have a lot of property to inherit from his father, he is kept under the control of the father until he reaches a certain age.

Likewise, the Galatians were kept under the confines of the law until a time reached when Jesus was sent by God to redeem the sinners who were subjects of the law. After the Galatians received the Spirit through faith, they were released from the slavery and became God s sons and heirs. The laws that were followed by the Galatians before knowing God were enslaving and not in accordance with the will of God.

The Galatians, after having believed in Christ and received the Holy Spirit, started to turn back to the same laws that they abandoned. In particular, they observed the special seasons and periods as required by the law. Paul was very upset when the Galatians turned back to their old ways and thought that his efforts to preach before the Galatians had been wasted.

Paul remembered how he met the Galatians and preached to them. He had an eye illness but the Galatians received him well as though he was the Christ himself. However, his relationship with the Galatians seemed to worsen. In Galatians 416, he wonders  Then have I turned into your enemy simply by being truthful with you
The people who had no faith in Christ want the Galatians to cut their devotion in St. Paul. Paul was not happy with this. He used figurative language to explain to them the pain that he was going through to bring the Galatians back to the body of Christ. He furhter compared his pain to that of a woman who is giving birth.
Since the Galatians decided to be subjects of the law rather than have faith in Christ and become free people, he wondered whether they were really aware of what the law was saying. The allegory of Hagar, who was Sarah s Egyptian maiden, showed how the children of those born in slavery continue to live in slavery. The son of Hagar, who was called Ishmael, was born by way of nature while Sarah s son, who was called Isaac, was born through a promise made to Abraham by God.

Sarah had lived for many years without a child but Hagar gave birth to a son whose father was Abraham. St. Paul quoted the words in Isaiah 541 which encouraged the barren woman (Sarah) to shout in joy because her sons of the abandoned woman outnumbered those of the married one. Abraham was promised by God that his children will be very many and he will become the father of a great nation. Hagar represented the covenant that was given in Mount Sinai while Sarah represented Jerusalem which is a free state. The Galatians are like Isaac, the son of Sarah who was a free woman. The sons of the slaves, as the scripture says, should be driven away, never to inherit anything alongside the son of Sarah. Likewise, the Galatians are the children of a free woman.

It is indeed that through faith, man receives the holy spirit and becomes a child of God. The teachings of St. Paul are perfect evidence that it is not by the law that man receives the grace of God. It is through faith that man receives salvation and enters the Kingdom of the Lord.