Jarvis Williams is associate professor of New Testament interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of numerous books, including Redemptive Kingdom Diversity: A Biblical Theology of the People of God.

Follow Dr. Williams on Twitter here. To purchase a copy of The Spirit, Ethics, and Eternal Life, click here.

Quotes

1. Because of God’s saving action in Christ, the Galatians had already both conquered the flesh’s power and the present evil age (Gal 1:1, 4, 15-16; 2:11-6:10), and they had already begun to participate in the renewal of creation and the hope of righteousness (Gal 5:5; 6:15). – pg. 7

2. Faith in Jesus Christ alone gives the Galatians the Spirit who transforms, fills, energizes, and empowers them to participate in eternal life now in the present evil age as they experience a liberated personal agency and ethical transformation because of God’s saving action in Christ (Gal 5:21). – pg. 13

3. Without the resurrection (Gal 1:1), the cross has no redemptive power in Paul’s soteriology in Galatians (cf. Gal 1:1, 4; 3:13-14 with 1 Corinthians 15:1-58), and those in Christ have no life in the Spirit without the resurrection (Gal 1:1; 3:14; 4:6; 5:25). – pg. 89

4. God’s Son redeemed those under the law as one who also lived under the law so that they would become heirs and no longer slaves (Gal 3:13-14; 4:4-7). – pg. 99

5. God invasively disrupted the present evil age via the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus to accomplish his vertical, horizontal, and cosmic saving action in Christ for Jews and Gentiles and for the world (Gal 1:1, 4; 3:13-14; 4:5-6). – pg. 113

6. God renders this verdict of “not guilty” on behalf of those who are united to Christ by faith because he count them righteous in Christ (cf. Gal 3:6-8). – pg. 136

7. If righteousness/justification comes by law, then Christ died in vain (Gal 2:21). – pg. 139

8. The Spirit is the emblem and signpost of faith throughout the present evil age because of God’s saving action for them in Christ (Gal 5:5). – pg. 147

9. God’s saving action in Christ grants deliverance to those justified by faith and gives Spirit-empowered personal agency and ethical transformation in Christ to be justified. – pg. 151

10. The Spirit produces fruit in those justified by faith in Christ because of God’s invasive disruption of the cosmos in Christ and because of his death for their sins to deliver Jews and Gentiles from the present evil age and from the curse of the law (Gal 1:4; 3:13-14; 4:6; 5:16-6:10). – pg. 173

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Evan Knies is an elder of North Hills Church in West Monroe, LA. He is husband of Lauren and father to Maesyn. He is a graduate of Boyce College and Southern Seminary.