Small Group Resources

Below are Ten FREE small group bible study resources on Paul's Letter to the Galatians. Please feel free to download them and use them for personal study or small group use.

This study covers the book of Galatians, a letter written by Paul encouraging the Christians in Galatia to return to the freedom that is found in a right relationship with Jesus. He was calling them back to a life of grace where they could chose to truly live our their faith through love. Over the next six weeks you'll hopefully discover if your faith is firmly rooted and lived out in the right way. (Click the Image above to download) Enjoy!

People who care about nutrition often read the labels before buying packaged foods. Why? They’re on the lookout for additives and ingredients that may be hazardous to their health. In a similar way, Galatians warns against mixing legalism and human works into the simple gospel. It describes artificial spiritual additives and their toxic effects. This book offers a spiritual health check—a clear explanation of what is means to be saved by faith. (Click the Image above to download) Enjoy!

Jesus Christ is the centre piece of all biblical revelation. He is the hero in Galatians. His placement in justification is no different than that in sanctification. He is the object around which the church rotates. He is the promised seed of Abraham and His offspring are many and glorious. “In the days of the Reformation, this epistle had great influence on Martin Luther, and his lectures on it in 1531 are still preserved. He said of it: ‘The Epistle to the Galatians is my epistle. To it I am as it were in wedlock. It is my Katherine.’” (Martin Luther, Galatians, editor’s preface,). “The book of Galatians has been called the ‘Magna Carta of Christian Liberty’.” (Click the Image above to download) Enjoy!

Galatians was written to explain the freedom provided by Christ Jesus—a freedom that will satisfy. The writer of this letter is the apostle Paul, a convert from Judaism to Christianity. After his conversion he travelled from place to place preaching the gospel of the grace of God. Christ had set him free from bondage to sin and religious traditions. He was determined that others also should know the truth that would set them free. (Click the Image above to download) Enjoy!

When the Galatians fell away so quickly from the gospel of grace Paul had preached to them, they also made clear their disloyalty to Paul’s authority as an apostle. Therefore, Paul began the letter to the Galatians by spending two chapters defending that very issue. Only in chapter 3 did he begin to get to the heart of their error; namely, that these Galatians sought to be justified by the Mosaic Law. In contrast, Paul presented his argument that justification comes to people by faith in Jesus Christ, not by their works under the Law. (Click the Image above to download) Enjoy!

Paul’s underlying theme in Galatians is the grace of God, supplied through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice is the supreme example of godly love, and we, as imitators of Christ, need to reciprocate this love by the power of the Holy Spirit. Love as a fruit of the Spirit is radically different from the kind of love that our contemporary society idealises. The purpose of this study is to help us discover and experience more deeply the fruit of the Spirit of love as we battle against our sinful nature and imitate the love of Christ. (Click the Image above to download) Enjoy!

Paul’s mission to the Gentiles (non-Jews) in the regions of Galatia in Acts 13 to 15 was the start of a revolution. The Kingdom of God was no longer just for Jews! No matter who you were, no matter where you were from, you were invited to join the people of Israel’s Messiah, Jesus. The shock-waves were felt all the way to Jerusalem. Some of the Jewish Christians were unconvinced that unwashed, unclean, uncircumcised gentiles should truly be welcomed - at least until they cleaned up their act. They wanted to add Jewish ritual and law to the message Paul had been preaching in Galatia...so new “missionaries” were sent to add the bits of the message that Paul had left out. The question is, how will the Galatians react? How will they respond to being told there was something lacking in the message that saved them? Let’s find out. (Click the Image above to download) Enjoy!

Does God give us eternal life because of our work, or because of the work of Jesus? That question is at the heart of the book of Galatians. Paul, the author of Galatians, spent his early years studying and obeying the Old Testament Law. He was so zealous for the Law that he persecuted the early followers of Jesus. He believed that their faith in Jesus posed a threat to the way of life God had revealed to Moses. However, an encounter with the risen Jesus Christ changed the course of Paul’s life. After meeting Jesus, he was convinced that eternal life is a free gift, provided to those who simply believe in the work of God’s only Son. He spent his life preaching and writing that message. (Click the Image above to download) Enjoy!

It is very common in Christian circles to assume that “the gospel” is something just for non-Christians. We presume that the gospel is a set of basic “A-B-C” doctrines that Christians do not need to hear or study once they are converted. Rather, they should move beyond the gospel to more “advanced” doctrines. But the great declaration of the gospel of grace in Galatians was written to believers who did not see the implications of the gospel for life-issues confronting them. Paul solves the disunity and racial exclusivity not with a simple exhortation to “be better Christians.” but by calling them to live out the implications of the gospel. So Christians need the gospel as much as non-Christians do. Their problems come because they tend to lose and forget the gospel. They make progress only as they continually grasp and apply the gospel in deeper ways. (Click the Image above to download) Enjoy!

Then the real threat to the spread of the gospel in the region of Galatia arose as certain people infiltrated the new churches with a different message. "Paul omitted an important part of the gospel," they claimed. "You must also be circumcised and keep the law of Moses if you want to be saved" (see Acts 15:1). Their arguments were impressive and their religious zeal was undeniable. The Galatians were almost persuaded when Paul received word of what was happening. Quickly he dictated this letter and sent it to be read in each of the churches. He dictates this letter as an outpouring of a concerned evangelist and pastor over some tragic false teaching that was influencing the new converts to Christianity. It is not easy to be sure of where or when Paul wrote this letter but he reveals his heart and passion for the truth of the gospel and his care for God’s church. (Click the Image above to download) Enjoy!