Key Themes in Galatians

1. In his sin-bearing death, Christ is a substitute for all Christians, whom he brings into a new realm of freedom and life.	1:4; 2:20; 3:13
2. This gospel of Christ is for humanity, but there is no sense in which it has its origin in humanity: it comes only from God. Paul is himself an illustration of this: his conversion to Christ and his apostleship were not through human consultation but through the direct revelation of Christ.	1:1, 11–12, 15–20
3. The gospel is appropriated not by works of law but by faith, which is the route to justification.	2:16
4. To require circumcision and other Mosaic ceremonies such as dietary laws and Jewish holidays as a supplement to faith is to fall back from the realm of grace, faith, and freedom, and to come under the whole law and its curse, since comprehensive observance of the law is impossible.	2:12–14, 16; 3:10; 4:10; 5:3
5. OT Scripture itself testifies to the truth of justification by faith, both in the life of Abraham and in the prophecy of Habakkuk.	Gen. 15:6;Hab. 2:4
6. The Christian life has its source in the believer having died with Christ to sin, and thereby having renounced the flesh.	5:24; 6:14
7. The Spirit is the source of power and guidance in the Christian life, and the work of the Spirit produces love and faith.	5:6, 16, 18, 25
8. The Christian life consists not in pleasing people but in pleasing Christ our master and being willing to suffer persecution for the sake of his cross.	1:10; 6:12, 14