Galatians 3:1-1 Live by Faith!

Galatians 3:1-1  You foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you?  Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.  I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?  Are you so foolish?  After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?  Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain?  So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?  So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.  Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.  Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”  So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.  For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”  Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”  The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”  He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

In the above focus we see Paul concerned about the Galatians interspersing the law with the freedom they have earned through their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.  He knows the law is a killer of the soul, for man’s strength to follow the law has been weakened by sin.  Man’s inner nature is one that is in rebellion to God’s full authority over their lives.  In the beginning they broke God’s one law, not to eat of the tree of knowledge.  Eve was deceived by Satan, then Adam.  Paul is now asking a rhetorical question of the Galatians.  You foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you?  Paul knows the answer:  Satan.  Satan is using people, probably mainly the Jews, to do his work to bring the believers under condemnation for no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.  Jesus did not come to condemn the world, to point out people’s sins, but to deliver them from sin and to place them in the land of freedom that is inherited by faith.  There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.  And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  (Romans 8:1-4)  The righteous requirement of the law must be fulfilled down to every jot and tittle.  However, man’s nature is not one of obedience to God; therefore, it is impossible for unrighteousness to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law.  Men and women will always fail in pleasing a holy, perfect God.  And Satan knows that eternal life will escape those who try to please God through their own efforts.  Eternity is righteous; no man or woman can abide there unless they are completely holy.  Satan despises God and desires to destroy God’s plan of salvation that comes only through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ.  Jesus was born out of the womb of Mary.  He came in the nature of weakened flesh, but the Spirit of God conceived the baby Jesus.  Mary was the vehicle of this miracle and holiness was on Jesus' head.  Jesus knew who his real father was as a young child.  When he was a twelve-year-old, He and his parents went to Jerusalem to attend the week-long Festival of the Passover.   After the festival in Jerusalem was over, Jesus chose not to go back to Nazareth with his parents at that time.  He stayed in Jerusalem, probably living and sleeping in the Temple.  Since Nazareth was a considerable distance from Jerusalem, it took a few days to walk back to Nazareth.  After one day the parents of Jesus realized Jesus was not with them.  They had assumed Jesus was somewhere in the crowd of Galileans who were walking back to their homes in the district of Galilee.  After discovering Jesus was not with them, they went back to Jerusalem to find him.  Instead of going directly to the temple area, they searched for Jesus in other places in Jerusalem for three days.  When they discovered Jesus in the Temple, they were relieved, but Jesus said to them, why were you searching other places for me, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?   God HAD called him to the temple at that young age.  He was not being disobedient to his parents, but obedient to his true father, God.  Jesus was obedient to God from the very beginning of his life, for we know Jesus did not sin but lived a perfect life.  Therefore, He was the Lamb of God, a lamb without blemish or imperfections, the perfect offering to eradicate sin from mankind.  God would accept Jesus’s sacrifice for an eternal payment for mankind’s rebellion to his authority.  God rescued men and women from their sins by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.  The devil realized this plan of redemption, which had been previously hidden from him in God’s heart, was now to be implemented by the baby Jesus.  The angel Gabriel had announced this Good News to Mary, even though Mary did not know the particulars of how her baby would bless all people on the face of the earth.

Paul is now wrestling with the Galatians about what the Good News entails.  It does not include the works of mankind to be right with God.  To include works as a way to know God would lead to failure, for man has not ever been able to please God through his own efforts or works.  The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.  All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.  (Psalm 14:2-3)  The scriptures clearly say that all people have gone astray, unto their own way, unwilling to seek God in a faithful manner or appreciate the Creator who made them.   Without the Spirit in men and women, their thoughts are foolish to God.  They do such things as worshipping gods made out of stone and wood, decorated by gold and sliver.  Men and women even worship and slavishly honor other humans who they believe are superiors to them in some area of life.  They will make shrines to them by plastering their walls with pictures of these people or purchasing every article with their names written on them.  Even in Christendom, carnal Christians elevate ministers and prophets above others who minister the word of God faithfully.  The Corinthians argued over who they thought were the best spiritual leaders: Paul, Peter, Apollos, or even Jesus.  Paul said that this fighting over who was the best spiritual leader revealed their immaturity and fleshliness.  God alone is to be elevated, worshipped, and honored.  Paul wishes for the Galatians to understand that the Good News is Christ alone.  No other man or woman or actions should be honored above the knowledge of knowing Christ through faith in his work on the cross.  This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.  The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.  (1 Corinthians 2:13-14)  Seeking God through the effort of good works is foolishness or elevating anything above God’s plan of salvation is spiritually devastating.  For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”  Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”  Paul knows the devil is planting ideas about knowing God that will destroy them.  He has planted the idea that following the law can elevate them in God’s eyes.  But only the faith of Abraham, which is his faith in God’s words, can make a person right with God.  Abraham believed in two things about God. First, God made all things out of nothing.  Only He can create something out of nothing.  He can make life where there is no life.  Secondly, He can raise the dead.  Abraham and Sarah were dead in the flesh, no descendant would come from Sarah’ womb.  The Gentile Galatians were alive to God because they had faith in God’s Word, which is Christ.  They had Abraham’s faith: God creates something out of nothing and resurrects the dead.  Both of those things happened to the Galatians; they were dead to God because of their sins. God raised them, making something out of nothing.   

Paul tells the Galatians emphatically that their new life has come to them only through their faith in Jesus’ Christ, not their works or effort to know God. “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:19-21)  Christ’s work on the cross is magnificent, for it brought the possibility of life to all humanity.  All that was necessary was to believe in this work.  Through Christ and IN Christ, we will never die.  The penalty of sin has been paid,  No more death in our future but freedom from death.  Christ has sealed our souls for eternity.  Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.  He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.  (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)  The Galatians needed to understand that their new life comes directly to them because of faith, not because of works.  Works lead to bondage and constant condemnation, a position of never knowing that you are right with God.  But faith in Christ leads us to be bonded with God as a member of his household.  Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  (John 8:34-36)  If the Galatians fall back into the thought to be right with God demands a good-works effort, they will fall back into slavery and condemnation.  Paul is asking the Galatians did God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?  Did God give you his love for people and the joy in your heart through your own effort or was it his unmerited grace given to you?  Are the miracles that you see in your midst his work or your work?  Paul is asking them to reflect back to their old unredeemed life.  He wanted them to look at what God has done for them.  They are now connected with their families and other brethren in love, not in dispute and envy and argumentation.  He wants them to know the Good News of being right with God did not come from their effort, but it was a gift from God through the works of Jesus Christ on the cross.  Now the Spirit of God, the power of God is in them.  They love God and they love others.  Is this but an accident?  No, this is a purposeful work of God because of faith in God’s words.  Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.”  (Mark 12:29-31)  Our friends around this breakfast table, we must not try to enter into union with God based on our own good works or behaviors; that will never make us right with God.  Faith in Christ and his works makes us right with God.  We will bless all people if we hold that truth in our lives.  Others will be envious of our stability and happiness.  They will want what we live and express.  Truly our lives will bless all nations as God promised Abraham.  The fields are ripe for harvest.  Dear friends we do not live by the burden of the law.  If so our countenance will fail to reflect the light of the world: Jesus Christ.  However, if we live in his freedom by faith, people will see it in our faces, in our eyes, in the way we live.  They will desire to have the same Good News in their lives.  Let us be harvesters, portraying the Good News of Jesus as the light of the world.  Let him shine in you today!  Love, Dad and Mom   

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Galatians 2:11-21 Serve Humbly!

Galatians 2:11-21  When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.  For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles.  But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.  The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.  When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew.  How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?  We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.  So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.  “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin?  Absolutely not!  If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.  “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

In the above focus, we see Peter, a foundational apostle, the one who said by the Holy Spirit’s unction that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God, now wavering in his understanding that the uncircumcised Gentiles and the circumcised Jews are equal before God.  Paul was fully convinced that circumcision and following the law added nothing to being right with God.  He died to the idea that the law was necessary to know or please a righteous God, I died to the law so that I might live for God.  Every aspect of being right with God through his own works was crucified on the cross.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  I live by faith in the Son of God.  Peter understood this too, for he had seen the Gentile Cornelius and his household baptized in the Holy Spirit.  After the Jerusalem elders came to Antioch, Peter’s preference to eat only with the Jews bothered Paul a lot, for Peter was now making a distinction between the Jews from Jerusalem and the Greeks in Antioch.  The Jerusalem brethren believed that circumcision was a necessary step for all Christians who come to believe in Jesus as their Lord. Along with circumcision as a necessary act in being right with God, they also believed in the customs of the Jews as important to follow, such as following the Jewish hygiene procedures before and after eating a meal.  The Pharisees condemned Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands before eating.  The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.  (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders.  When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash.  And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.  (Mark 7:1-4)  Now out of fear of the Jewish brethren from Jerusalem who were law-bound, Peter and Barnabas chose to eat with them only and not with their Greek brethren.  Paul knew that both Peter and Barnabas knew that to be right with God, one must have faith only in Jesus’ work on the cross.  They knew Jesus alone purifies people, rids them of their sins and makes them right with God; no other work pleases a righteous, perfect God.  After Jesus the Christ had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.  (Hebrews 1:3)  This choice of Peter to sit only with the Jews at meal time was pure hypocrisy.  Peter’s hypocrisy was a dangerous leaven.  Paul had to address openly this hypocrisy, for it was leading other Jews in Antioch to make a distinction between the circumcised and the uncircumcised believers. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew.  How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?  Peter was living in freedom that Christ won for him by his work on the cross.  He was free from the shackles of the law.  Paul reminded him that Christ made him right with God, not the law. Then why would he shackle the Greeks with the law when he is living in the complete freedom that faith in Christ has earned for him.

This hypocrisy of pleasing God only through obedience to the law was very dangerous and would destroy the Good News in the Greek community. Paul knew the believing Greeks were not desiring to take on the likeness of Jews, but the likeness of Christ.  The Jewish customs and traditions were heavy burdens on people, so the Greeks were not seeking for these burdens to make their lives better.  They were seeking for a better way to be right with God.  The Greeks were heavily involved in serving many gods and in adopting the philosophies of learned men.  Paul's ministry was to both Jews and Greeks, who had very different ideas about life and about existence.  However, Paul preached only 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.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.  (1 Corinthians 1:23-25)  In today’s focus we see Paul concerned that the Jews are now trying to make the Greeks into law-abiding Jews.  This is an anathema to Paul.  This idea opposes the work of Christ on the cross and the freedom Jesus brings to people who trust in him.  Paul did not want the Jews to pursuade the Greeks to take on the burden of the law and the customs of the Jewish society.  If they attempt to do that they would lose out in their rightness with God that comes through faith.  They would lose their precious high priest who makes them eternally safe in God’s domain. Jesus came as a man to deal with the sins of mankind.  He alone makes us right with God and He alone is our high priest.  We have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.  Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.  (Hebrews 4:14-16)  If the law and works become a substitute for faith in Christ Jesus, then the high priest is no longer available to men and women.  The writer of Hebrews says, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.  Paul is telling Peter and Barnabas to hold onto Christ, profess his righteousness, not their own righteousness, for their righteousness will NEVER make them right with God.  In the above focus, we see Paul is very fearful that this deadly hypocrisy of the Jerusalem Jews will spread through the believers in Galatia.  If it spreads, their souls will die, for they will trust in their dead works and not in Jesus’ ever-living works, finalized on the cross.

Jesus the Christ was sent to the world out of Mary’s womb.  The Spirit of God established this holy seed in Mary.  Jesus came in the weakness of the flesh.  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)  Jesus completed the task that He had been commissioned to fulfill. He lived a sinless life even though He carried the weaknesses of the flesh.  He performed miracles and wonders that only God can do.  He paved the way to God for He did only the will of God.  He was filled with the Holy Spirit so He always had access to God’s directions.  Jesus made it possible to have the breath of life in the minds of Christians.  He breathed on the disciples and filled them with the Holy Spirit.  They would now have the words of God in their minds.  They would now be able to keep in step with the Holy Spirit.  They would be imbued with the fruit of the Spirit presented in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  This nature is what Paul was preaching to the Galatians.  He wanted both Greek and Jew to be fully filled with the love of God for all people.  He knew Law would separate people, not make them ONE IN CHRIST.  You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.  (Galatians 5:13-15)  Peter and Barnabas had been wrongly influenced by this idea that circumcision brings rightness with God.  They began to separate themselves from the uncircumcised by not eating with them.  Law always separates, but love serves one another humbly.  Jesus prayed to his Father, let them be one as we are one.  Now in Galatia we see circumcision was separating, not uniting in love.  Paul knows the grace of God: Jesus Christ, has been given to all mankind, everywhere and forever.  Paul desperately says to the Galatians, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!  But Christ did not die for nothing.  Jesus said to Nicodemus, You must be born again.’  (John 3:7)  Born again is a simple step, For 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.  (John 3:16)  Breakfast companions, do not let the insidious work of the devil enter your life; he would tell you that works contribute to your salvation.  No, your works will never earn you salvation--freedom forever, bought by the blood of Jesus.  The only true sign of your salvation is what Jesus told the Pharisees, believe in the one who spent three days in death and then was raised again by the Holy Spirit to new life.  You, dear friends have been raised to a born-again life through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  You have died and are raised again because you through faith IN Jesus Christ have a new life.  So, enjoy your freedom IN CHRIST.  Walk in him, talk in him, live in him!  He is your everything.  

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