Discussion Questions

Week of: October 18, 2026 // Sermon Text: Galatians 3:15-29

Sermon Overview

The Law can't save you, but it can prepare you for the promise that anyone in Christ is a son.

(1) The Law Can't Save You (vv. 15-18)

(2) ...but it can prepare you for the promise (vv. 19-25)

(3) ...that anyone in Christ is a son (vv. 26-29)

Prepare

Before diving into the Digging Deeper questions, your group could take 5-10 minutes to prime deeper discussion as follows.

1. Read the passage

2. As a group, explain the passage in your own words

3. As a group, briefly recount the sermon outline

4. Open time to ask questions for understanding the passage or sermon

5. Pray for God’s help through the Holy Spirit to guide the discussion

Digging Deeper

The Law Can't Save You (vv. 15-18)

1. Why can’t the Law and the Promise coexist as ways to start a relationship with God? Or, in other words, why can’t you both achieve your way to God through obedience and receive your way to God through believing in Jesus?

2. You could never keep the law well enough to earn a right standing with God (justification). Justification comes by receiving God’s promise. Why is this really good news? How can you rest in this good news in the week ahead?

...but it can prepare you for the promise (vv. 19-25)

3. Josh preached that the law helps us see that certain things we do are not just bad but sinful. The purpose of the law is to help us see our need for a savior. If you’re a Christian, what was something you had to repent of when you first began following Jesus?

4. When we see things in ourselves, it can be tempting to diminish their importance, calling them shortcomings, challenges, struggles, or labels like that. However, the law shows us what God calls sin. How has God been convicting you in the recent past? What’s a sin you’ve confessed in the last year?

...that anyone in Christ is a son (vv. 26-29)

5. Being a son of God means getting an inheritance. Sons of God will inherit the blessing that God promises. How can you have more peace and joy in the days ahead by remembering that you are receiving an inheritance from God?

6. Josh preached, “We are one in Christ Jesus. One. Before we are any of the other things that distinguish us, we are Christians.” How might this change the way you come to Gospel Community? To Sunday service?

Prayer

Sermon Overview

Continue by faith in Christ alone, who secured our blessing by becoming our curse.

I. Remember how you began (vv. 1-5)

II. Read how Abraham was blessed (vv. 6-9)

III. Rely on Christ, who became our curse to secure our blessing (vv. 10-14)

Prepare

Before diving into the Digging Deeper questions, your group could take 5-10 minutes to prime deeper discussion as follows.

1. Read the passage

2. As a group, explain the passage in your own words

3. As a group, briefly recount the sermon outline

4. Open time to ask questions for understanding the passage or sermon

5. Pray for God’s help through the Holy Spirit to guide the discussion

Digging Deeper

The entire passage is about not only beginning the Christian life well (by trusting in Jesus alone) but also continuing and ending well. What stage of the Christian life are you in? How has it been going? How can the good news of Jesus continue to help you? How can our Gospel Community help?

Remember how you began (vv 1-5)

1. Christians begin a saving relationship with God through grace, but sometimes we are tempted to then pivot and rely on works to stay in God’s favor. But in the words of a famous hymn, “O, to grace, how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be.” Are you aware of any areas where you have needed to rely on God’s grace, instead of your own efforts, in the last week?

2. Paul was concerned that the Galatians remember the truth of the gospel, because he saw evidence that they were forgetting the truth. What steps can you take to remember the truths of the gospel in the week ahead? What steps can you take to remind fellow believers?

3. Brett preached that the Holy Spirit gives us a hunger for God and His Word, stirs our conscience to convict us of sin, grants us a new ability to obey God, and provides us a new sense of God’s love for us. Have you seen the Holy Spirit working in any of these areas in your life recently? Could you share an example to encourage others?

Read how Abraham was blessed (vv. 6-9)

4. Verse 9 says, “So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” How did Abraham demonstrate his faith, his belief in God’s promises? How have you demonstrated your faith, your belief in God’s promises?

Rely on Christ, who secured our blessing by becoming our curse (vv. 10-14)

5. Brett preached, “Relying on the law, relying on obedience [to receive God’s blessing], brings not blessing but curse.” Trying to rely on obedience to receive God’s blessing brings the curses of perfectionism, anxiety, discouragement, or pride. Have you experienced any of these curses? How can you rely on Christ instead to experience blessing?

Prayer

Discussion Questions

Week of: October 4, 2026 // Sermon Text: Galatians 2:11-21

Sermon Overview

Having been justified by faith, live by faith.

I. Why the gospel can be trusted: all the apostles are accountable to it (vv. 11-14)

II. What it is: right standing with God through faith alone (vv. 15-16)

III. Two arguments for it:

A. Justification by works violates the law, which leads us to life in Christ (vv. 17-20)

B. Justification by works violates the gospel, which operates according to grace (v. 21)

Prepare

Before diving into the Digging Deeper questions, your group could take 5-10 minutes to prime deeper discussion as follows.

Read the passage

As a group, explain the passage in your own words

As a group, briefly recount the sermon outline

Open time to ask questions for understanding the passage or sermon

Pray for God’s help through the Holy Spirit to guide the discussion

Digging Deeper

Why the gospel can be trusted: all the apostles are accountable to it (vv 11-14)

1. The gospel is not just for unbelievers to start a relationship with God, but it’s news that Christians are to live “in step with” (2:14). For example, Paul addresses Peter’s racial pride and cowardice by saying that he was not living in line with the truth of the gospel. If you’re a Christian, talk about how your life is “in step with the truth of the gospel” and how it isn’t.

2. How can we make the same mistake Peter did by focusing on non-essentials? How can we fail to “eat” with other Christians?

What it is: right standing with God through faith alone (vv. 15-16)

3. Justified means we no longer are under God’s condemnation. Are there any areas of your life right now where you feel condemned? If so, how can you rest in the fact that God has justified you?

Justification by works violates the law, which leads us to life in Christ (vv. 17-20)

4. Verse 20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Have you recently seen any evidence of this new life, living by faith in the Son of God, in yourself or in another believer? Could you share that evidence as a way to encourage others?

Justification by works violates the gospel, which operates according to grace (v. 21)

5. Brett preached, “When we nullify grace, we assign it a value of zero. That’s what we do when we seek right standing with God, even in part, through our obedience.” Have you been tempted lately to try to merit God’s favor or His love? Do you realize that, if you do that, you are nullifying God’s grace?

6. Brett also preached, “Your heart has muscle memory… It snaps back every day to living as though righteousness is something you don’t receive but have to achieve.” Are there any ways where you could train the muscles of your heart to rely on grace each day?

Prayer