Monday 12 October 2026
Galatians 4:22-24, 26-27, 31 – 5:1. Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever – Ps 112(113):1-7. Luke 11:29-32.
Transformative freedom of the Spirit of Jesus
In Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, we see the deep historical connection between the Jewish and Christian faiths. In his original covenant with Abraham, God had promised to the patriarch a people, a land, and also that the whole world would receive a blessing through Abraham’s people. Seeing this blessing as Jesus, Paul reflects on the contrast between slavery to sin (and Mosaic Law which could not, of itself, change people’s nature) and the transformative freedom of the Spirit of Jesus, by likening them to the difference between Ishmael, born of the maidservant Hagar, and Isaac, born to Sarah, the freeborn wife of Abraham. For Paul, the Law was a necessary mid-step between the faith of Abraham and faith in Jesus; necessary to teach morality, but also necessary to demonstrate the inability of humanity to change without the direct intervention of the Holy Spirit in people’s hearts.
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