The author does not aim to defend Luther's and Calvin's reading of Galatians against modern biblical scholarship but to read and hear them in their own contexts. He grapples with major theological themes underlying their approach: law and gospel, active and passive righteousness, faith alone yet not alone, attribution of contraries between Christ and the justified saints, human love and God's love, Christ as gift and example, the creative power of God's word, union with Christ, the economic action of the Son, the role of Holy Spirit in the justified life, faith in Christ and the faith of Christ, the uses of the law, true identity as God's gift, flesh and Spirit, and radical discontinuity of the old existence and the re-creation of the new. Readers will learn from the Reformers how they apply a text or theological theme homiletically in a pastoral context and appreciate how their understanding of the gospel can spiritually nurture the life of faith.
