CHAPTER ONE

Contents: The Gospel Paul preached, a revelation not tradition.

Characters: God, Christ, Paul, Peter, James.

Conclusion: The Gospel declared by the apostles was by revelation of Jesus Christ. It is a Gospel of pure grace, and any message that excludes grace or mingles legalism with grace as a means of salvation in under the curse of God and is to be shunned.

Key Word: Paul's gospel, v. 7.

Strong Verses: 4, 8.

Striking Facts: v. 4. The cross of the Lord Jesus was designed not only to separate us from the penalty of our sins, but to separate us from the power of them. Shall we who have been saved by His grace deny Him by plunging again into that from which His cross has forever delivered us?

CHAPTER TWO

Contents: Paul's journey to Jerusalem and His contest for the truth. Justification by faith in Christ without works.

Characters: Christ, Paul, Barnabas, Titus, Peter, James, Cephas, John.

Conclusion: The gospel of grace is one of justification by faith in Christ's finished work apart from deeds of the law. We do not get saved by our works, but we get saved and work. Those who put themselves under the law after seeking justification through Christ take the place of unjustified sinners seeking to be made righteous by law and works, whereas justification is wholly by faith and sanctification wholly Christ living out through our lives.

Key Word: Gospel of uncircumcision, v. 7.

Strong Verses: 16, 19, 20, 21.

Striking Facts: v. 20. The present aspect of our salvation is Christ living in us by His Holy Spirit. God does not ask us to live the Christian life, but wants us, by yieldedness to Him to let Christ live it in us.

CHAPTER THREE

Contents: Gift of Spirit by faith apart from law-works. Man under law-works is under the law curse. Christ bears the law curse that we might have the faith blessing. The true intent of the law.

Characters: God, Christ, Holy Spirit, Paul, Abraham.

Conclusion: The purpose of the law was to give to sin the character of transgression and prove man helpless to save himself not to save man. Man is therefore shut up to faith in the work of Christ our Mediator, as the only avenue of escape from the penalty of a broken law, for Christ has borne the curse of the law for us and we become the children of God through Him, not by any works of our own.

Key Word: Works and faith, v. 5.

Strong Verses: 3, 10, 11, 13, 21, 22, 24, 26.

Striking Facts: v. 13. What Christ suffered FROM men (the cross) was nothing to what He suffered FOR men. The CURSE of the law was more than the CROSS of human suffering. He bore that curse to the full as the divine Son of God, redeeming the believer, both from the curse and the dominion of the law. Law therefore can neither justify a sinner nor sanctify a believer.

CHAPTER FOUR

Contents: Believers full redemption from the law. Sonship through the Spirit. Dangers of lapsing into legality. Impossibility of mixing law and grace.

Characters: God, Christ, Holy Spirit, Paul, Abraham, Hagar, Isaac.

Conclusion: Law and grace are an impossible mixture, for salvation is wholly by faith in Christ and our sonship is immediately testified to in the heart by the incoming of the Holy Spirit, upon the basis of Christ's finished work as the full satisfaction of the law. Let us not, therefore, fall again in bondage to the legality of the law, which is merely an element of salvation to reveal to us the inveterate sinfulness of our nature and the impossibility of saving ourselves.

Key Word: Bondage and grace, vv. 3, 5.

Strong Verses: 4, 5, 6.

Striking Facts: v. 4. Jesus, who was truly God, for our sakes became man. He Who was Lord of all took upon Himself the state of subjection and the form of a servant. The one end of all this was to redeem those under the law. He, the perfect One, took what we deserve, that we, the sinners, might get what He deserved.

CHAPTER FIVE

Contents: Liberty of the believer in Christ, apart from the law. Conflict of flesh and the Spirit. Christian character the result of the Spirit's work not self-effort.

Characters: Christ, Holy Spirit, Paul.

Conclusion: Since we are justified only by faith in Christ Jesus, not by the righteousness of the law, let us not again stand in fear of and bondage to legal ordinances. While our salvation is settled by the work of Christ, the conflict of sin which still wars in the believer's members, may be settled by yieldedness to the Holy Spirit, Who is present in the believer to subdue the fleshly nature and to bear heavenly fruit through our lives.

Key Word: Liberty, vv. 1, 13. Flesh and Spirit, v. 16.

Strong Verses: 1, 6, 14, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24.

Striking Facts: v. 4. To "fall from grace" is to fall back on legal ordinances and mix law and grace. One who is fallen from grace is not a believer who has lost his salvation by failure to do good works (the popular Methodist explanation), but one who is doing good works and trusting in them as a means of salvation and sanctification.

CHAPTER SIX

Contents: The regenerated life as a brotherhood of believers.

Characters: Holy Spirit, God, Christ, Paul.

Conclusion: The new life in Christ Jesus is not simply one of being good, but of doing good. It manifests itself, not by taking a "more holy than thou" attitude, but by bearing the burdens of others and seizing every opportunity to help saints and save sinners.

Key Word: Well doing, v. 9.

Strong Verses: 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14.

Striking Facts: v. 14. The cross which connects us with God separates us from the world. Having died with Christ we should therefore be done with the world. Having risen with Christ, we are connected with God in a new life. We cannot glory in the benefits Christ's cross secures if we refuse the rejection which His cross involves.