Living by the Spirit [Galatians 5:1-6 NLT]

1 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law. 2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 I'll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. 4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace. 5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What does the Apostle Paul tell God's children about themselves and warn them against? (v.1)
2) What does Paul tell legalists that they must do if they insist on keeping the law to become righteous? Why? (v.2-4)
3) What do those who live by the leading of the Holy Spirit wait for? Why? (v.5-6)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) Do you know of anyone who insists on earning their righteousness through "works of the flesh" (self-effort or legalism)? If so, what if anything are you doing to help them?

LIFE LESSONS
5) The Holy Spirit, working in and through the Word of God and other believers, is the only one who can enlighten those who insist on keeping "rules" to earn their righteousness.  

The Way of Faith (Galatians 3:10-14 NLT)

10 But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, "Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God's Book of the Law." 11 So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, "It is through faith that a righteous person has life." 12 This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, "It is through obeying the law that a person has life." 13 But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." 14 Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What do the Scriptures say about those who under the Law and depend upon their obedience to the law to be made right with God? (v.10)
2) If the Law does not make us right with God, what does? (v.11)
3) How does the "way of Faith" differ from the "way of the Law"? (v.12-13)
4) How and why do we receive the blessing promised to Abraham? (v.14)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
5) Are you in right relationship with God? 
6) How do you know that you are a child of God?

LIFE LESSONS
7) Faith in Jesus Christ is what puts believers in right relationship with God.
8) Obedience to the law can never justify a child of God.

Dead to the Law (Galatians 2:17-21)

17 But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! 18 Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. 19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law--I stopped trying to meet all its requirements--so that I might live for God. 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) How are we made right with God? (v.17a)
2) What does the Apostle Paul ask those who have sinned after being saved and what is his conclusion? (v.17b-17c)
3) What does Paul tell us that we are if we attempt to keep the law? Why? (v.18-19a) 
4) What happened when we tried to keep the law before we were justified by faith in God and how do we live the Christ life instead? Why? (v.19b)
5) What happened to our "old self"? (v.20a)
6) Who lives within every believer instead? (v.20b)
7) How are we to live the Christ life in these mortal bodies? (v.20c-d)
8) What does the apostle say about the "grace of God" and what makes Christ's death meaningless? (v.21)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
9) Are you dead to religious traditions (legalism) and alive to the leading of the Holy Spirit?

LIFE LESSONS
10) Christ kept the law perfectly, so that all who believe on Him would no longer have to.