Galatians 2:1-10 Choose Freedom!

Galatians 2:1-10  Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas.  I took Titus along also.  I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.  I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.  Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.  This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.  We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.  As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message.  On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised.  For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles.  James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me.  They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.  All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.

Paul is telling the Galatians that the gospel he ministered to them came directly from the Lord Jesus who intervened in his life on the road to Damascus.  After Jesus called him to be an apostle to the Greeks, Paul did not consult with any other apostles or leadership in the church.  Instead he went into Arabia to learn what is meant by being a follower of Jesus Christ.  In Arabia he learned about THE WAY to be right with God through faith IN Jesus Christ.  This truth of the way to be right with God was relayed directly from Jesus Christ.  Paul an inveterate enemy of Jesus, knew only a few general tenets of this apostate religion.  He understood Christians were fanatics about believing in this man, Jesus the Nazarene, as the promised Messiah to the Jews.  These Christians also believe that Jesus was raised from the dead.  Of course, Paul, known as Saul at the time, thought of them as being lunatics, for no one can escape the grave.  Consequently, when Jesus called him on the road to Damascus to be an apostle to the Greeks, he was quite ignorant about what Christianity entailed.  In Arabia Jesus revealed himself as the Messiah of the Jews through opening up the Pentateuch and the prophets' reference to him.  Paul as a rabbi believed fervently in the scriptures.  Jesus opened Paul’s eyes and unstopped his ears to the reality that Jesus was, and is, the Messiah of the Jewish people and also the Lord of all people on earth.  This same biblical course had earlier been taught to the two men on the road to Emmaus.  They were confused about the things they had seen and heard the last few days in Jerusalem.  They knew Jesus had been murdered by the Romans on a cross, but they had also heard the confusing message that Jesus had been resurrected.  Jesus, joined them on their travel to Emmaus and opened up their understanding of what they recently experienced in Jerusalem through a review of the Old Testament, teaching them that what they saw with their own eyes and what they heard about the resurrection were as the scriptures foretold.  Now we hear Paul tell the Galatians of his reeducation.  Jesus revealed to Paul that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no one will be right with God until he or she puts faith in Jesus Christ as his or her savior.  Salvation from death comes only through faith in Jesus Christ.  Paul spent three years away from Jerusalem, teaching and ministering what he heard from the voice of God.  After that time, Paul went to Jerusalem to see if what he heard from Jesus was the true gospel.  He found that what he heard from Jesus through revelation was the same gospel the leaders were teaching.  However, since the Spirit of God is alive and active in Christians, Paul was receiving even deeper revelations about the salvation plan.  He was readily preaching grace, the gift of salvation to all who believe in the works of Jesus Christ.  He understood well that Jesus broke the hold of death on all people.  Jesus was the gate through which people could escape the consequence of sin, which is death.  Paul would tolerate no addition to Jesus being the only way out of the power of sin.  As a rabbi he knew well the 613 commandments in the Pentateuch that would supposedly lead people to God if they were were completely obedient to the law.  He was well versed in the law, well ahead of other rabbis his own age.  He was a teacher of the law; therefore, his hatred burned strongly against these apostate Christians who have abandoned the law as the necessary step to be right with God.  Now, after fourteen years he reconnects with the church leaders to verify that what he is teaching to the Gentiles is THE WAY to be right with God.  The church leaders put their stamp of approval on Paul’s ministry to the Greek world: the right hand of fellowship.

 Paul was very fearful about the inroad of teaching people to be circumcised to know God.  For Paul, to accept circumcision as a verification of being right with God would contaminate the purity of the gospel.  Therefore, he did not give in to the teaching of accepting circumcision as a necessary step to be a Christian.  He knew the requirements of the law would follow if people accepted the teaching of circumcision.  Paul taught strongly that the faith of Abraham made people right with God; any other belief would make them an enemy to God, for they would be discounting the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  Faith in Christ alone brings righteousness.  Faith in the words of God brought righteousness to Abraham, not the law. It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.  For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath.  (Romans 4:13-15)  Paul understood well, if the people went back into the law as a necessary step of being right with God, they would receive the wrath of God for no one has ever been able to fully satisfy the law by the way they lived.  Any variation to completely following the law will bring eternal judgement.  Only faith in Christ escapes the judgment of death on a person’s soul.  The dependency on the law to be right with God will close the gate to eternal life.  So Paul fervently attacked the Galatians' inclination that the addition of circumcision is a better way to be assured that they are right with God, but Paul says, it will lead them to destruction.  Paul is adamant about the salvation plan of God.  To be reconciled to God, people must accept God’s gift to them when they were buried in sin, enemies to a righteous and holy God.  The blood of Jesus was spilled for his enemies so that they might be right with God, curtailing the wrath of God on them.  God, through the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus the Christ, on the cross, has made us friends of God, children of the Most High.  We have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!  For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!  Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.  (Romans 5:9-11)  Paul wanted no interference from any other gospel than Christ alone.  He had heard this truth from Jesus Christ.  He had been blinded on the road to Damascus, so his eyes could be open to a better truth than dependence upon law as a way to be made right with God.  He was worried by the Galatians accepting circumcision as being part of the truth of knowing God.  He did not want their freedom IN CHRIST to be hampered.  If they accepted the law as a gate to eternal life, they would once again become slaves to sin and death.  THE WAY to eternal life, to escape the blanket of death on all people comes only through faith in Jesus Christ.  He is the only gate to freedom, to the ascension of the soul to God.  On the cross, we died with Jesus, our sins were nailed to the cross.  Now in the resurrected Christ, we too are resurrected with him to an eternal life. If we died with Christ, we will also live with him.  (Romans 6:8)  Paul could not believe that some were still teaching circumcision to those who have been set free to eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.  This pernicious belief would destroy the work of the cross and make Jesus’ death irrelevant in being right with God. But the real truth of knowing Christ is that people have have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.  (Romans 6:17-18)  The power of sin has been broken, the gate: Jesus Christ, has punctured a hole in the blanket of death, a sentence on all men and women. Therefore, Paul is encouraging the Galatians to put away the law that smothers them under the sentence of death.  Instead, choose freedom in the one who won the victory over sin and death.

The temptation to go back to the old covenant, the law, is alway present with men and women.  In the arrogance of humans, we want a say in our redemption.  As in the garden, did God really say we should not eat of that tree.  Of course Adam and Eve chose their self-will rather than believe in God’s words as absolute, irrefutable. The law is attractive to the self-willed nature of humans.  We just tell God, point the way and we will follow it in our own strength.  But THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE are all wrapped up in Jesus.  He is the gift of God, not one earned but just a gift of God. God tells the Hebrews that He has a gift for them and that they should put away their old law of works.  I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.  No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord, ’because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.  For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”  (Hebrews 8:10-12)  This new covenant is not just for the Hebrews, it is for all mankind.  It is God’s gift to all people who trust in God’s words, as Abraham did.  And who is THE WORD?  Jesus is the Word and all things were created by him and through him.  So the new covenant is wrapped in and through the Word.  Trust in him and the Word will be planted in your heart.  The more you trust him the deeper your roots in him will grow; Know the Lord is the theme of the New Covenant.  Fall in love with Christ.  “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31)  Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)  Jesus makes salvation very simple: my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”  (John 6:40)  The new covenant with mankind is fulfilled with those words: everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him will have eternal life.  Not maybe have new life, but HAVE new life.  Paul did not learn the way to God by the advice of others, even from the apostles who walked with Christ for three years, who heard all of Jesus’ teaching and saw all of his miracles.  Paul learned the salvation message from Jesus' own lips, for he was now an apostle for the whole world, not just the Jews.  He needed to know the gospel of salvation from the Origin of life itself.  So Paul is beseeching the Galatians, hang on to Jesus only, for HE IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE.  Everything else is no gospel at all.  Know the truth, for the truth will set you free.  

Galatians 1:10-21 Let Your Light Shine!

Galatians 1:10-21  Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God?  Or am I trying to please people?  If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.  I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin.  I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.  For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.  I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.  But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being.  I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia.  Later I returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days.  I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother.  I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie.   Then I went to Syria and Cilicia.  I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”  And they praised God because of me.

The believers in Galatia were jeopardizing their salvation by adding on works to be right with God.  Some people, probably Jews, were telling them that to be acceptable to a righteous God, they must be circumcised to indicate a separation from a sinful world. Of course, circumcision has its companion and that is the Law and its regulations.  Law was creeping into the soundness of God’s plan of salvation for people to be right with God. God’s plan of redemption is the work of Jesus on the cross.  The cross and the blood of Jesus cleanses mankind from sin through faith in him.  No other work or animal sacrifice was required by God to be right with him.  Salvation was a gift of God given to men and women freely, without any other deeds required by him.  Salvation came through faith in the works of Jesus, not the works of men and women.  The father of faith was Abraham, for he accepted the irrevocable words of God.  Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.  (Romans 4:3)  What God speaks is true and cannot be altered.  God promised Abraham a son coming from Sarah’s dead womb.  Abraham believed God’s word was irrefutable, unchangeable, and cannot be questioned.  THIS IS FAITH!  What God says, He does.  Abraham did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.  This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”  The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.  He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.  (Romans 4:20-25)  No other work but faith in God’s plan is needed to create new life.  God's plan of redemption from sin was in the heart of God from the beginning of time.  He made humans in his likeness, in his freedom and nature of freewill.  With this attribute of freewill, mankind was always in danger of altering God’s will for him. In Genesis we see the devil entering the picture of existence.  He is an enemy to God’s unalterable word.  He knew what God says will be done.  He also knew that Adam and Eve were made in God’s image, with freewill.  So he comes to Eve to exploit her freewill nature.  He is crafty and knowledgeable, so he uses words that might entice Eve to exercise her freewill in eating forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.  “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  (Genesis 3:4-5)  Eve knew she was doing wrong when she partook of the tree, but not understanding completely that God’s words are permanent, unalterable.  The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” (Genesis 3:2-3)  Because of her waywardness to God’s words, Adam and Eve were removed from from the Garden.  They would no longer exist forever, they would die outside of the Garden in a harsh world.   Paul in this letter to the Galatians is wrestling with the believers about them not wishing to follow God’s perfect plan of salvation, instead, desiring to place works in this redemptive plan of God.  Of course, he knew the origin of this deception was the scheme of the devil.  The devil knows God’s words cannot be messed with--death always follows.

Men and women often skew the plan of God by adding tidbits of the law within it.  But Paul is adamant about the plan of God, for he received it directly from Jesus.  Jesus told him the truth of the cross.  In Christ, believers are dead with Christ and are raised with Christ from death to a new life.  However, adding the ideas of others to God’s perfect plan of salvation will bring damnation, not a born again life.  Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste!  Do not touch!”?  These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.  (Colossians 2:20-22)   The Galatians were inserting circumcision as a necessary addition to the Good News. But this addition has only death in it, not a new life. The devil told Eve if you come up with your own plan, you will be like God.  But that is a huge deception, for there is only one God whose words must be obeyed.  He is not just an authority figure, He is God.  He created everything through Jesus Christ, known as the Word, the unchanging, unstoppable Word of God.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)   What the Word says, will come into reality.  Paul knows that only the Word, Jesus Christ, can restore the Galatians to God.  The plan of God through the Word WILL HAPPEN, it is irrevocable.  “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.  There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.  For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.  I know that his command leads to eternal life.  So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”  (John 12:47-50)  Jesus spoke only the unalterable words of God, and what He says will not be changed in any way.  If God says Jesus is THE WAY to eternal life, then He IS THE WAY; Jesus is the only way to be right with God.  For Christians that should bring us great joy, for the word of God is written in stone; it will not be changed or erased.  But for the unredeemed it brings sorrow.  God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  (John 3:16-18)  God’s words cannot be altered, for they will stand unchanged: whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  However, whoever does not believe stands condemned.  The believers receive eternal life with God; the unbelievers receive eternal judgment.  God’s words are irrevocable so they will be done.

In the Old Testament we see the results of disobeying or obeying God’s words.  King Saul ran across the reality of God’s unaltered words when he failed to carry out his instructions about the Amalekites.  He was to destroy everything they owned.  He was to kill all of them, not allowing even a baby to escape his sword.  Saul failed to carry out this command. Saul as Eve used his own God-given freedom to save some of the better animals to sacrifice to God, and he also saved the life of the Amalekites’ king.  But, because he disobeyed God’s eternal word and substituted his own ideas about what he should do with the King and the better animals, God judged him harshly.  “Tell me,” Samuel said. “Does the Lord really want sacrifices and offerings?  No!  He doesn't want your sacrifices.  He wants you to obey him.  Rebelling against God or disobeying him because you are proud is just as bad as worshiping idols or asking them for advice.  You refused to do what God told you, so God has decided that you can no longer be king.”  (1 Samuel 15:22-23)  In Saul’s mind he was doing the right thing.  Samuel tells Saul, your arrogance in disobeying God's word cost you your kingdom.  Saul thought he was dealing with just an authority.  You can disobey an authority, but he was dealing with God. You cannot disobey God and get away with it.  In the Old Testament we see the children of Israel dealt with harshly.  Finally they were dispersed from Canaan, living in other lands as slaves.  They thought they could live in Canaan based on their free wills and not in obedience to God’s demands on their lives.  They did not consistently take care of the poor, the disabled, the destitute, the orphans, and the widows.  They were cold-hearted to the needy.  However, God’s commands were unchangeable.  They were unwilling to have the goodness and justice of God in their society.  As King Saul found out, there are consequences for not following God’s commands.  Judgment will always follow when freewill trumps God’s words.  Moses could not enter into the Promised Land because he struck a rock, the presence of God that was always with them as THE ROCK.  He struck the rock out of anger rather that speak to it for the water it contained.  He was angry with the people so he did what his freewill could, strike the rock out of anger.  However, God demanded Moses to follow exactly his instructions.  Jesus said He always did what God told him to do.  Because Moses disobeyed, he was not holy, but because Jesus always obeyed the irrevocable word of God, He was completely holy.  Noah found favor with God because he obeyed God in building an ark exactly as God demanded.   I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it.  Everything on earth will perish.  But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.  Noah did everything just as God commanded him.  (Genesis 6:17-18 & 22)   He and his family were saved from destruction.  He knew by faith God’s words are inalterable. They must be followed exactly.  We around this breakfast table have taken God’s words seriously.  We are saved because we believe IN THE WORD: Jesus Christ.  Through the Word all things were created and through him, light came into existence.  Jesus said He is the light of the world. We are lights too because we reflect his light.  Paul was struggling with the Galatians because their lights were being dimmed because of adding works to God’s salvation plan.  Good works to know God will kill the light.  Knowing God comes only through believing the irrefutable plan of God. Paul was astonished that the Galatians were deserting God’s irrevocable Plan of salvation, substituting their own ideas about salvation.  Paul tells them the truth; their plans are really no gospel at all.  Dear friends, do not add anything to the perfect grace of God.  What God has done through his son, Jesus, is enough: perfect!  Jesus said on the cross, IT IS FINISHED.  Love, Dad and Mom   

Galatians 1:1-9 Walk in Peace and Grace!

Galatians 1:1-9  Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the brothers and sisters with me, Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever.  Amen.  I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all.  Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!  As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

As we move into the letter to the Galatians, we see the issue of circumcision come to the forefront.  This demand that believers should be circumcised is a lethal distortion from from the grace of God freely given to all people who believe in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and in his resurrection.  The prophet Jeremiah announced this new covenant with men and women. This covenant is not based on the efforts of men and women to win favor with God.  It is God’s gift to mankind, based on his mercy and grace.  “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.  No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”  (Jeremiah 31:33-34)  On the road to Damascus, God chose Paul to spread this Good News to the Gentiles.  But everywhere he went with this message of God’s grace and mercy, the followers of Judaism wanted circumcision to accompany the Good News.  Paul was strongly opposed to any addition to the freedom Christ’s salvation brings to people.  Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!  The plan of God to redeem people should not be altered in any way.  Later on in chapter one we understand why Paul was so adamant about what he was teaching to the Gentiles.  I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin.  I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.  (Galatians 1:11-12)  Christ himself revealed what was planned in the heart of God from the beginning of time: to restore men and women back to him through the works of Jesus Christ, his Son.  Paul begins this letter to the Galatians with what God desires for them in their lives, grace and peace.  Without Christ in their lives, they are lost in the darkness of Galatia, bound for eternal judgement.  Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever.  (Galatians 1:3-5) This theme of the world being dark and sinful is seen throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Jesus called his generation wicked and adulterous.  John the Baptist referred to the religious leaders of the Jews as vipers. The prophets constantly warned the Israelites about impending judgment by the hand of God because of their adulterous and wicked affairs.  This wickedness of mankind has been evident ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, so a Savior, a Redeemer, was needed to rescue men and women from their sinful state.  At Jesus’ crucifixion we see the culmination of God’s plan to rescue people from their sinfulness and restore them to himself.  Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”  A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.  When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.  (John 19:28-30)  

What is finished?  The story of redemption is finished.  The reason for Jesus’ existence is finished.  A perfect man had to be sacrificed for the restoration to God of all mankind, for evil had penetrated the hearts of men and women.  Nothing could wipe away this eternal stain of rebellion to God’s authority other than a payment of perfection for imperfection.  Jesus came to pay that price.  He was the Lamb of God, sacrificed as a ransom price to deliver mankind out of the pit of slavery to the devil.  To illustrate this remarkable deliverance from slavery to Satan and his demons, God pushed the Israelites into slavery in Egypt.  He told Abraham, the man of faith in God’s goodness and faithfulness, that his descendants would experience slavery.  In Egypt the Israelites were slaves under the power of Pharaoh, Beelzebul, the prince of demons.  God used the death of lambs to deliver the Israelites out of the hands of Pharaoh.  The blood of the lambs sprayed over the front doorposts of the Israelites' houses paid the ransom price for the deliverance of those in the household.  The lambs' blood announced that slavery was ended; it is finished.  The Israelites were free of the yoke of slavery to Pharaoh.  THE LAMB OF GOD slain for the sins of mankind made freedom possible for all men and women who would put their trust in Jesus’ work on the cross.  Jesus said, “ It is finished!"  The design of God for the deliverance of mankind from slavery to sin was completely implemented.  Isaiah expressed this design well in chapter 52 and 53.  He prophesied of Jesus’ coming to restore men and women to God. — (paraphrased with additions)  Many were amazed when they saw God’s servant.  He was highly exalted by God.  But his face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human.  From his appearance, you would scarcely know He was a man.  However, He startled many nations.  Kings stood speechless in his presence.  They saw what they had not been told. --- My servant grew up in God’s presence like a tender green shoot, (in Joseph and Mary’s house).  He grew up healthy and strong, filled with wisdom, with God’s favor on him.   He was a root in dry ground, with freedom to grow in the knowledge about his Father, God.  His appearance was ordinary--nothing beautiful or majestic about him.  Nothing in his appearance caused people to be attracted to him.  (Only John the Baptist recognized who he really was and he needed a sign to alert him about this man Jesus, for Jesus was just an ordinary man in the midst of the crowd.)  (Later on Paul needs a dramatic event to recognize Jesus as at the Messiah.)  Jesus was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with the deepest grief.  He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.  Like one from whom people hide their faces.  He was despised, and we held him in low esteem.  He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.  (Isaiah 53:3-5)  Like one from whom people hidetheir faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.  He was despised and the world did not care that he was rejected by them.  Yet it was our weaknesses he carried, our sorrows weighted him down.  He wept over his people as he entered Jerusalem in his last days on earth.  He wept over their impending sorrow when Jerusalem would be ravished by the Roman army. He cried at Lazarus’ tomb, knowing the futility of humans and their finite lives.  We thought Jesus’ troubles were a punishment from God because of his own sins!  However, He was pierced for our sins of rebellion.  He was beaten for our sins, so we could go unpunished by God for our rebellion against him and his authority.  He took our punishment so that we could go without punishment.  He was crushed by God as a replacement for our wicked deeds.  He was whipped, so we could be healed; his back was lacerated for our healing.  Through Jesus’ suffering, God healed us of ALL our sins without us experiencing punishment for our own sins.  He took our place at the end of the whip.  All deserved the woodshed of discipline for all have all gone astray from God’s holiness.  But the woodshed was made for Christ and not for us—He alone experienced the place of judgment, the cross.  He became cursed because of our sins.  The Lord laid on Jesus the sins of all mankind; ill-treated for us, ridiculed for us, manhandled for us.  He as the Lamb of God would be slaughtered.  Even though Jesus knew He would be slaughtered, He did not defend his right to be left alone. Unjustly condemned He was led to the cross.  No one cared that He would die young without descendants to carry on his name.  He would disappear as if He never lived.  His footprint in life would be carried away by the sands of the time.  In midstream in his life, Jesus would be taken to the grave.  He had done no wrong.  He never deceived anyone.  No guile was in him, but He died as a criminal.   

It was God’s plan to crush him for the salvation of mankind.  God desired to cause him immense grief, even though He did no wrong, only good. The Son of Man was the perfect sacrifice to pay for the sins of a wayward people.  Only a perfect human could transition the imperfect to wholeness in God’s sight.  Because of his sacrifice for the sins of many, He will have MANY descendants with his name written on them.  In the heavenly domain Jesus will enjoy the presence of his brothers and sisters who were bought by his blood, the LAMB OF GOD.  The Galatians were retreating from this blessed message of the Good News.  Paul understood well how much danger they were putting themselves in if they failed to trust in the work of God that was planned from the beginning of time.  I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all.  Jesus is the beginning and the end.  He is the wordof God and in him everything was created.  The plan of God revolved completely about Jesus as the Lamb of God.  Salvation comes only through him; restoration to God comes only through him.  Our breakfast companions seek Jesus alone for your peace and comfort in life.  He alone will lead you out of your discomforts in life into God’ peace.  The world is dark and very difficult to understand.  All societies on earth use a variety of means to find peace and meaning in life.  They use special techniques and exercises to find peace.  They try to meditate deeply on good things, so they might find a few minutes of rest for their souls.  And many in every society try to solve their anxiety and their fears by drugs of all kinds, of spirits of all kinds.  All of these methods to understand and cope with the issues of life are tried by many in every society.  But as Paul starts out in this letter to the Galatians, peace starts and ends in the grace of GOD. Your works, your thinking, your ways to cope will not bring what you desire, peace with God and peace with your fellow man.  Only God can give you that through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  Jesus said, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.   (John 14:27) Therefore, turn your life and heart over to God.  You will know as Jesus said, IT IS FINISHED.  The work for eternal life with God is finished.  Now what is left for each of us is to believe in his work and not our own.  Love, Dad and Mom           

Mini were made and they couldn't understand what was being written so God gave them up for his own purposesMini were made and they couldn't understand what was being written so God gave them up for his own purposes 

1 Corinthians 16:1-24 Stand Firm!

1 Corinthians 16:1-24  Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do.  On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.  Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem.  If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me.  After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you—for I will be going through Macedonia.  Perhaps I will stay with you for a while, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go.  For I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.  But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me. When Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the work of the Lord, just as I am.  No one, then, should treat him with contempt.  Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me.  I am expecting him along with the brothers.  Now about our brother Apollos: I strongly urged him to go to you with the brothers.  He was quite unwilling to go now, but he will go when he has the opportunity.  Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.  Do everything in love.  You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the Lord’s people.  I urge you, brothers and sisters, to submit to such people and to everyone who joins in the work and labors at it.  I was glad when Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you.  For they refreshed my spirit and yours also.  Such men deserve recognition.  The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings.  Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.  All the brothers and sisters here send you greetings.  Greet one another with a holy kiss.  I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. If anyone does not love the Lord, let that person be cursed!   Come, Lord!  The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.  My love to all of you in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

In the above focus, we see Paul reminding the Corinth Christians to carry out their promise to help the struggling church in Jerusalem.  The believers in Jerusalem were experiencing a famine because of a drought in their area.  In Paul’s ministry giving to the poor was always an integral part of the Good News.  The church elders in Jerusalem reminded Paul that giving to the poor and disadvantaged should accompany his ministry.  All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.  (Galatians 2:10)  Of course Jesus stressed giving to the poor when talking to a young man who wanted to be one of his followers.  Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”   (Matthew 19:21)  Giving to the disadvantaged in the church or the community should be a vital part of the church’s ministry.  In the Old Testament this theme of giving to the disadvantaged, the poor, the widowed, and the orphans was often a part of prophecies given by holy men to the Israelites.  Their failure to heed their prophets’ words of caring for the vulnerable often caused God to bring horrible judgment upon them.  John the Baptist was very harsh with the Jews about their self-indulgent nature.  He called the crowd vipers and warned them of the coming judgment of God.  The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.  “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.  John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”  (Luke 3:9-11)  The early believers in following Christ, organized their church around caring for the poor and disadvantaged.  All the believers were one in heart and mind.  No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.  And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them.  (Acts 4:32-34)  Commensurate to the church’s ministry of the resurrection was their focus on the poor and disadvantaged in their community of believers.  Paul establishes this idea about the necessity of giving to the poor by asking the churches he founded to give to the poor in Jerusalem.  Paul is writing to a church that is quite self-indulgent and fleshly to give to others who they do not even know.  In everything, many of the Corinthians fought Paul’s leadership.  Because of this rigid partisan nature of theirs, he was afraid they might not receive Timothy well when he enters their community to teach.  When Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the work of the Lord, just as I am.  No one, then, should treat him with contempt.  Paul understands well the Corinthians' squabbling over leadership issues; he has felt their barbs many times about his own leadership rights with them.  Therefore, he concludes his statement about Timothy by saying, Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me.  Maybe we might say, in one piece.

Probably cardinal in Paul’s concluding remarks in this letter to the Corinthians is Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.  Do everything in love.  Paul clearly understands the believers in Corinth.  He spent almost two years with them on his second missionary trip and later he will spend a few more months with them on his third missionary trip.  His love for them is great, but they are a troubled church with many fleshly and self-indulgent people within their midst.  Their church gatherings were rather chaotic, lacking the self-control and patience that is needed when many people are gathered together in worship.  Paul tells them that Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.  (1 Corinthians 14:40)  He instructed them on how to conduct an orderly worship service.  Their fleshly desire to be important and heard caused them to put themselves forward before others in the assembly.  Their attitude of their own self-importance bothered Paul, for it did not reflect the servanthood necessary in following Christ.  Jesus said a true servant of the Master does what he is told without highlighting his own needs of recognition.  When you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’  (Luke 17:10)  We might assume that the squabbling and chaos in the Corinthian church was due to a spirit of putting their needs before others.  Such an attitude is lethal to the welfare and longevity of any church. Therefore, Paul tells them to Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.  Do everything in love.  The deceitfulness of the flesh within a community of believers can destroy the unity within a church.  The devil is alway present in any community, trying to gain a foothold to destroy the work of God. Consequently, to combat this intrusive nature of the devil, Christians should seek to display richly the fruit of the Spirit.  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  (Galatians 5:21-22)  Fighting and disorder within the church is the opposite of the Spirit’s nature.  Paul tells the Corinthian believers to do everything in love.  The opposite of God’s spirit leads to death.  The writer of Hebrews says, See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.  We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.  As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart.  (Hebrews 3:12-15)  A fleshly, self-indulgent attitude will harden the hearts.Paul often had to be very harsh with the Corinthian believers because they were too tolerate of sin in their midst.

Paul admonishes the Corinthian believers to be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.  They have to be on guard of spirits and actions that are not conducive to a healthy church: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions  and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  (Galatians 5:19-21) These spirits tolerated within the church are destructive; they tear apart the fabric of the church which is unity.  Paul in his letters to the Corinthians addressed many of these aberrant ideas and actions within the Corinth church.  Paul loves these Corinth Christians; they are a testimony to his missionary effort.  He desires that they will survive in a Gentile world in a vigorous and powerful way.  They are the face of Christ, a light in a dark world of heathenism.   In the Old Testament Joshua brought the Israelites into Canaan, people of the law, a light within a dark world of idol worshippers.  He tells the Israelites, Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”  (Joshua 1:9). The Israelites had many enemies in Canaan, but they were not to back down, but to go in faith, expressing the power of a holy God.  In Corinth, the name of Jesus invaded the land of the Greeks.  Jesus had freed the believers from the control and power of the devil.  Jesus was the gate to eternal life.  He came in the flesh to ransom many from their slavery to the devil.  Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.  (Hebrews 2:14-15)  Paul wanted a healthy church to abide in Corinth.  He wanted to free many Greeks from the author of sin and death.  Paul understood well that the Corinthians must operate in love, the love for God and the love for their neighbor.  To really love God, people must submit to his control, his purposes for their lives.  And to really know God, people must love their neighbor as themselves.  Freedom from sin and death comes through God, who is love.  Jesus expressed well God’s love by giving himself as a sacrifice for the sins of all people, freeing them from the Prince of the air: the controller of the flesh, the devil.  Friends around this breakfast table, we are the product of God’s love; we possess eternal life within us.  The Corinthian church was the product of God’s love.  We should always be cognizant that we have an enemy who desires to destroy us, the devil.  He desires death for us not life.  We end our time in 1 Corinthians with the same admonition to you as Paul declared to the Corinthians.  The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.  Our love to all of you in Christ Jesus.  Amen.   

1 Corinthians 15: 33-58 Come from the Four Winds!

1 Corinthians 15: 33-58  But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised?  With what kind of body will they come?”  How foolish!  What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.  When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.  But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.  Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.  There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.  The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.  So will it be with the resurrection of the dead.  The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.  If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.   So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.  The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven.  As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.  And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.  I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”  “Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?”  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Paul in the above focus is explaining to the Corinthian Christians that the passage to eternal life comes through the planting of the perishable seed. The perishable seed is the death of the body.  Christians lie in death with the hope of Christ to change them from the perishableness of Adam to the imperishableness of Jesus Christ.  The life-spirit of Adam will cease, but the LIFE-GIVING Spirit of Jesus Christ will exist forever.  No more death for those who are found IN Jesus.  Death has been swallowed up in victory.  Death is a necessary step in this transformation from the physical life to the spiritual life.  The Spirit of God raised Jesus from the grave and we too will rise from the grave, following Jesus, the first-born from death to life.  Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?  When God created, all things were created after their own kind.  “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.  And God saw that it was good.  (Genesis 1:11-12)  Everything came from the breath of God.  Humans were created in a uniqueness of their own.  When the breath of life entered Adam, he became exalted to the point that he could converse with the Lord directly.  His life existed uncontaminated by sin.  But in the fall of man, Adam lost his innocence and purity.  Sin became a part of Adam’s existence.  Cain, his seed, murdered Abel in a fit of jealousy.  This contamination by sin seeped down through Adam’s descendants.  Therefore a new and different life would be needed to restore mankind to God.  A new creation to start a new Salvation would be created by faith in the works of Jesus (the new son of man).  Jesus’s life reveals that faith in him and the work of the cross will restore humans to a righteous God.  The darkness of sin would be done away with through the cross of Jesus.  This darkness of sin in mankind causes death.  However, Jesus paid the ransom price to deliver men and women from its darkness of death.  Jesus paid the ransom price demanded by God to free people from death to everlasting life.  On the cross Jesus paid the purification price for sin; then he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.  (Hebrews 1:3)  Jesus cried out on the cross, it is finished, the will of God has been satisfied.  When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.  (John 19:30)  The will of God because of his great love for humans had Jesus face death under the most humbling and torturous way.  Jesus paid a heavy price to ransom mankind from death, but he said in the Garden of Gethsemane, Not my will but yours be done Father.  The enduring love of God for men and women never left the heart of God.  Even when his precious Children of Israel chose other gods in the wilderness, He loved them.  Yes, He disciplined them, but out of his great love for them.  A parent disciplines their children out of love, so did God.

Paul points out to the Corinthians, God gives all things a living body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. Mankind came from the seed of Adam, different from all others that God made.  No other flesh was the same as Adam’s.  Adam’s creation was considered very good by God.  Even though Adam sinned, God wanted what He created to live in peace and under his authority.  God sent  many messengers to Adam’s descendants to lead men and women away from sin.  Jeremiah, a prophet, hears God’s involvement in his own creation.  The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;  I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”  (Jeremiah 1:4-5)  As we see in Jeremiah’s beginning, God is involved with the creation of humans, even before they are in the womb.  For Jeremiah and other men of God, He sends them on a rescue message to his beloved, the Jews.  In the New Testament, we see Paul beseeching both Gentiles and Jews to come back to God by accepting the Good News of Jesus paying for their sins.  The prophets in the Old Testament were crying out incessantly, come back to God.  Paul is preaching the same in the New Testament.  But the rebellion of men and women to the authority of God in their lives is very strong. As the blessed Israelites, people choose not to love God or obey him.  But this rebellious nature to God’s love and his authority led to eternal death.  God reveals to Ezekiel a valley of dead bones, piled high everywhere in this valley.  God takes him around the valley to look at this horrible scene of dead men and women, now their bones are so dry that they are without flesh.  In our world, every landscape is full of dead bones.  People walk over these dead bones in every country without realizing they are underneath them.  But God knows where they are, not one of them has passed from the living without God knowing.  Just as Jeremiah was known before he was formed, also the dead are known by God when they pass from the scene of the living.  God asked Ezekiel to speak over these bones of forgotten people.  Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!  This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.  (Ezekiel 37:4-5)  God will someday speak over these dead bones with a trumpet call and they will arise to life.  And a nation will be born in one day.  Some to eternal life with God and others to eternal destruction.  But in every land and at all times there were good people as Cornelius who tried to do good to all people.  At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment.  He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.  (Acts 10:1-2)  Cornelius lived up to the light given him, but Peter showed him eternal life that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit verified their acceptance of this Good News, and all in Cornelius’ house were baptized in the Holy Spirit.  God is just and He will do what is necessary for those who live a good life like Cornelius’.  However, the gate to eternal life is Jesus, let God be God; He saves to the uttermost.  The bones Ezekiel saw reveal so clearly that man is made of dust.  The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven.  As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.  And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.  All men everywhere must put off the man of dust and put on the spiritual man which comes only through the body and image of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The Holy Spirit is illustrated in the scriptures through the image of the wind.  On Pentecost Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent WIND came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  This Holy Spirit revives men from the dead, raises them to new life from the grave.   Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’”  So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.  (Ezekiel 37:9-10)  Paul tells his beloved Corinthians that this same hope that is found in Ezekiel will be their experience after death. Their dead bones will rise again to new life.    Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.   We all will be changed in a twinkling of an eye.  We will rise new-beings and the angels of the Lord will gather the elect to the side of the Lord.  And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.  (Matthew 24:31)  Our breakfast companions who gather around this breakfast table in anticipation of that great day, be joyful for your names are written down in the book of life.  God knows each of you, not one of you escapes his attention.  He formed you in the wombs of your mothers.  He knows your intentions and He knows your love for him.  He is a just and a loving God; He will come to your aid when you call him for He knows your beginning from the end.  There are vicissitudes in life, hardships and struggles; He understands your frustrations for He was in the flesh as you are in the flesh.  However, we need not stand and gawk in heaven for his return for He WILL RETURN!  The angel said at Jesus’ ascension, “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky?  This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”  (Acts 1:11)  HE WILL RETURN!  In the meantime, exercise the power of God in your life.  Testify of your redemption, let all the captives of sin know that their release from their burdens of sin will come through power of God by believing in the redeemer, Jesus Christ.  Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you!  As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”  And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  (John 20:21)  Children of the Lord, having received the Spirit, go forth through the power of God in your life.  Testify with all the saints of God that Jesus is your Redeemer!  

1 Corinthians 15:12-33 Don't Sneer at Miracles!

1 Corinthians 15:12-33  But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead.  But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.  If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.  But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.  But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.  Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.  For he “has put everything under his feet.”  Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.  When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.  Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead?  If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord.  If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained?  If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. ”Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.  ”Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.

 

In the above focus, Paul addresses that some people in the church of Corinth hold the idea that there is no resurrection of the dead.  He asserts that if Christ is not raised from the dead, their faith in Jesus Christ and his salvation work on the cross is dead. If there is no resurrection of believers from the grave, their faith in Christ is useless.  For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.  In Paul’s view, this mistaken idea of no resurrection propagated by some in the Greek church of Corinth destroys the Good News.  If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.  The Good News' essential tenant is that Christ's work on the cross and his subsequent resurrection is THE WAY to eternal life with God.  Jesus Christ's resurrection reveals clearly that there is a new and eternal life awaiting those whose faith rests in Jesus’ work on the cross. If what these Greek Christians believed was actually true, then Christians are of all people most to be pitied.  Of course only a small contingent of the Greek church held this proposition that there is no resurrection.  This idea of no resurrection emanated from the Greek culture.  A prevalent view of many Greeks at that time is that death brings the dead’s spirits under the control of a Greek God, Hades. Hades is a place where the shades of the dead live, a place not very well defined in the Greek culture.  The living are to keep the memory of these shades alive by placing food and gifts on their graves.  In some ways, the memory of them keeps them in existence.  This Greek idea of the afterlife seeped into the Corinth church.  Of course, probably only a few of the Gentile members in the Corinth church held this aberration to the Good News.  Paul asserts such an idea attacks the basic foundation of Christianity.  Some maybe thought a resurrection of these wandering shades might come to fruition if the living created a baptism for them.  Maybe then they would escape the control of Hades, rescuing them by this substitutionary baptism.  If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?   But Paul is very clear about who is in control of all things, the living and the dead.  Christ has put everything under God's feet.   Not under any Greek God or any other spirit.  Eternal life is accessible to all people, even the worst of sinners or the most wayward soul who has ever lived.  Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.  But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.  (1 Timothy 1:15-16)  Because of God’s great patience, the dead who are found in Jesus will be raised to new life.  They are the born-again people who have been prepared by God through the work of the cross to receive eternal life with him.  THE DEAD WILL BE RAISED FOR SURE!

Paul’s life was  literally sacrificed, placed on the altar to do God’s will: to spread the Good News to the whole world.  If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained?  If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.  Why should he face the hardships of a Christian missionary if the dead are not raised.  Why should he face stoning, beatings with rods and whips, and the dangers of persecution by the hands of the Gentiles and the Jews if there is no hope of eternal life.  Why should he not live as others: eat, drink, and be merry.   If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.  However, Paul’s hope in the resurrection and in the new life God had given him was so strong that he would not stop spreading the Good News in every community he visited.  He believed life itself rested in Jesus.  Jesus alone was the mystery of God and in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  Paul’s transformational experience on the road to Damascus had changed his view of Jesus Christ.  Jesus was no longer just a man to him; he was God and all power rested in him.  So Paul went from Gentile city to Gentile city in Asia and Europe, preaching the Good News.  He discovers in Corinth that some were preaching that there is no resurrection, holding ideas about death that spawned from their culture.  Paul knew this leaven would destroy the church of the living God.  This idea of no resurrection clearly reveals their rebellious nature to God’s control over their lives.  Rather than God’s plan for righteousness and perfection, they were promoting an alternate path to God and to the kingdom of heaven.  Such an idea was so wrong, so destructive to the church that Paul was weeding out this tare.  Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.  The carnal flesh will never know God; Paul is telling these people who hold onto this carnal view of the afterlife to come to their senses.  This is not what Christ taught.  He told his disciples that He would die and be raised to life after three days.  When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.  (Matthew 17:22-23)  If Jesus Christ believed in the resurrection, then why are these supposed Christians preaching an alternate way to God?  Jesus knew the born-again life would never die.  When the new life begins in Jesus Christ through faith in his works, it does not linger in death, but has the life of Christ through the works of the Holy Spirit embedded in their new life.  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.  Do you believe this?”  (John 11:25-26)  The resurrection is Christ himself; a perpetuation of life comes through the resurrection.  In death, time stops, but God never stops; his life is evident in death, for He is always present with people, in death or life.  What Jesus said is true, even though they die, whoever believes in me will never die.  The Greeks sneered at this idea that there will be a physical resurrection; they could not believe such a thing was possible, but Jesus spent some time with those who loved him after his resurrection.  He wanted them to touch him, to look at his scars on his hands and feet, to place their hands in his pierced side.  He asked them to feed him fish, just as He ate before his death.  Jesus wanted his beloved to understand that the resurrection was real and that He was the first fruit of this resurrection and that they too will follow this journey, from death to eternal life.  The Greeks who were embedded in serving mystical gods and spirits could not conceive of such a thing as resurrection.  Paul in Athens talked to them about their shrine to the unknown god, telling them that this unknown god is the real God, not made by precious metals or jewels to worship.  God was the God of eternal life, the God of the resurrection, and the God who will eventually judge all people’s lives.  “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.  In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.  For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.  He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”  When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered.  (Acts 17:29-32)  In their philosophical pride, they sneered at such talk as the resurrection.

What they could not accept or believe is that there is but one God, the Creator of everything that is, in heaven and on the earth.  For them there were many gods who controlled the existence of mankind.  The nature of these gods were closely alined to the flesh; they had the attributes of mankind: anger, bitterness, envy, biases, affections, hatred, carelessness, and other, good and bad traits.  But Paul was preaching the one God who controls all of life and to know this God, one must be born-again in the name of Jesus CHRIST.  The God he introduced to the Greeks was holy, righteous, full of love, mercy, and grace for all people everywhere.  His God was kind and patient toward all people.  He wanted to be their everlasting Father in his eternal family.  Paul’s  God would even forgive the sneering Greeks and the rebellious Jews.  God came to the world through the person of Jesus Christ.  He came to a sick and dying world through Jesus Christ.  He came to humans.  All of them needed restoration to their Creator; they needed a doctor who could heal their souls.  Jesus ministers to the outcast, the lonely, the poor, the rebellious, the tax collectors and in essence for a sick humanity.  God wants ALL people to be saved and to COME to a knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.  (1 Timothy 2:3-6)  Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion prayed, “Your will be done Father, not my will.  I will pay the ransom price for the sins of ALL MANKIND.  Whosever believes IN ME AND MY WORKS WILL BE SAVED."  Paul preached this message of Christ with unmatched fervor.  He was willing to give his life to God, whether in death or life. So from his lips, the Jews and Gentiles alike heard the Good News.  For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  (1 Corinthians 1:21-24)  The Greeks felt they were too sophisticated to believe Paul’s ministry about the resurrection.  What did Paul know compared to their many gods, for them Paul was a mere man propagating something absurd.  But Jesus' resurrection was real;  Paul found that to be true on the road to Damascus when Jesus stopped him in his tracks, causing him to go blind.  He had seen the light of the RESURRECTED ONE.  No one could convince him after that experience that Jesus was not resurrected.  Friends around this breakfast table, we know that most of you believe strongly in the resurrected life.  You wear the garments of the new-born, and you will never die, for Jesus the One you trust is the resurrection.  Hold fast to that hope, let the light of Christ shine through your life.  Let the love of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God be your testimony in everything you say or do, for HE IS RISEN, INDEED.  HE IS RISEN IN YOU!  Love, Dad and Mom