Galatians: The Perfect Summer Read

Writing for a blog during summer vacation... Ah, wouldn’t it be nice to have summer vacation! While I have several projects waiting in the wings (creating a Reformation timeline so that I can continue with my Luther’s Baggage novel, working on an iMovie of God’s calendar, and commenting on FFOZ’s excellent supplement to Isaiah’s Exalted Servant in the Great Isaiah Scroll), I came across the perfect setup for a series. FFOZ just published a book on Galatians, which is a series of sermons on the Messianic Jewish approach to this wonderful but "troublesome" book, written by Thomas Lancaster. Here is a quote from the back jacket: 

“Peter says that Paul’s letters contain things that are hard to understand which lawless people twist as they do the rest of the scriptures. 

Bible readers generally understand Galatians as Paul’s dissertation against the Torah and against Judaism. More than any other book of the New Testament, Galatians defines the line between Messianic Judaism and greater Christianity. Paul was a prodigy educated in the most elite schools of Pharisaism. He wrote and thought from that Jewish background, rendering several key passages of his work incomprehensible to readers unfamiliar with rabbinic literature. This collection of sermons on a messianic Jewish approach to Galatians opens Paul’s world and provides the historical Jewish context necessary to decipher the epistle.”

This book arrived in the mail at the same time my Church in Holland, Central Wesleyan, just announced this series:

While Central has been exposed to a lot of good teaching on the Jewish background to the Bible - hosting several series by Ray VanderLaan for example, the subjects in Galatians might still raise some questions. I will comment on the sermons each week with the help of this book. Perhaps you’ll see me at the beach with my feet in Lake Michigan, reading Galatians. The perfect summer read.