Galatians Chapter 3

Small Group Discussion Guide: Galatians 3 — Living by Faith, Not by Law
Based on a sermon by Tim Bach preached 8/16

Welcome and opening prayer 
Begin by inviting everyone to settle and take a breath, then pray aloud something like this: Father, we come to You not because we have earned a place at this table, but because You have opened the way through Your Son. Quiet the voices that tell us we must perform for Your approval. Open our eyes to see the promise You made long before we ever tried to keep a rule. Let Your Spirit teach us tonight, and let us leave more free than we came. In Jesus' name, amen.

Scripture readings
Read Galatians 3 in four sections, using four different readers so the chapter is heard in different voices.
First, verses 1 through 9, where Paul asks the Galatians whether they received the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith, and points back to Abraham, who believed God and was counted righteous.
Second, verses 10 through 14, where Paul explains that the law brings a curse on those who fail to keep it, and that Christ redeemed us by becoming a curse for us on the tree, so that the blessing of Abraham and the promised Spirit might come to the Gentiles. T
hird, verses 15 through 22, where Paul argues that God's promise to Abraham came 430 years before the law, so the law cannot annul the promise; the law was added because of transgressions and served to shut everything up under sin.
Fourth, verses 23 through 29, where the law is described as a guardian or tutor until Christ came, and where Paul declares that all who are baptized into Christ are clothed with Him, that there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, and that if we belong to Christ we are Abraham's offspring and heirs according to the promise. After the readings, allow thirty seconds of silence before discussion.

Discussion topic 1 
Beginning by faith and continuing by faith, 10 minutes. In verse 3 Paul asks whether, having begun by the Spirit, they are now trying to be perfected by the flesh. Ask the group where they see that pattern in their own lives, receiving grace freely at the start and then quietly shifting into performance. Ask what specific behaviors or habits become the measuring stick, whether attendance, giving, devotional consistency, or reputation. Ask why the shift from faith to effort feels so natural and even so spiritual.

Discussion topic 2 
Abraham and the promise that came first, 10 minutes. Paul insists the promise predates the law by centuries. Ask why it matters so much to Paul that grace was the original plan rather than a later rescue. Ask what changes in how we read the Old Testament if the promise, not the commandments, is the spine of the story. Ask how someone in the group would explain to a skeptical friend that the law was never intended to save.

Discussion topic 3 
Christ becoming the curse, 8 minutes. Verse 13 says Christ redeemed us by becoming a curse for us. Ask the group to sit with the weight of that exchange and to say plainly what they were redeemed from. Ask whether they more often live as people rescued or as people still on probation. Ask what it looks like practically to stop paying a debt that has already been settled.

Discussion topic 4
The guardian and the family, 10 minutes. The law is called a guardian until Christ came. Ask what good the guardian did and what it could never do. Then turn to verse 28 and the claim that in Christ the old dividing lines lose their power. Ask which dividing lines still function in our circles, whether by background, income, politics, family history, or church tenure. Ask what one concrete practice would make this group look more like the family Paul describes than like a group of people who happen to sit near each other.

Follow-up exercise 
Give each person a notecard. On one side, ask them to write the specific rule, standard, or expectation they most often use to measure whether God is pleased with them this week. On the other side, ask them to write the sentence from Galatians 3 that most directly answers it, whether verse 3, verse 13, verse 26, or verse 29. For the coming week, invite them to keep the card where they will see it daily, and each time they catch themselves reaching for the front side, to read the back side aloud. Ask them to also do one small act that a person who is already fully accepted would do and that a person still earning acceptance would not, such as resting without guilt, apologizing first, giving without keeping score, or welcoming someone they have quietly kept at a distance. Ask them to come next week ready to name in one sentence what they wrote and what happened.

Closing prayer 
Invite the group to hold their cards while you pray: Lord Jesus, You did not leave us under the curse, and You do not ask us to finish in the flesh what Your Spirit began. Thank You for the promise that came before the law and outlasts our failures. Free us this week from the scorekeeping that exhausts us and separates us from each other. Make us one family, clothed in You, heirs of everything You have promised. Send us out as people who are already loved. Amen.